It took a long Day 3 and an unscheduled Day 4 to crown Robert Mizrachi with his fifth WSOP gold bracelet in the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship — a feat accomplished by only 37 other players, including his brother Michael Mizrachi.
The unscheduled day came after Wednesday's Day 3 play stretched late into the night after 11 players sat down for a shot at the final table. Among them were Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey — setting up the potential for a star-laden finale — but their early busts left Mizrachi with the opportunity to seize the spotlight for himself.
'I'm playing my best game right now'
“It feels great,” Mizrachi said in the post-win media scrum. “I’m playing my best game right now, probably better than ever.”
Mizrachi needed to channel his best game into one of the hardest tournaments of the summer, battling against final table foes in the form of mixed-game crushers David Bach, Ben Lamb, and Ryutaro Suzuki. Six-handed play lasted over four hours on Wednesday night, including a volatile round of Pot-Limit 2-7 Triple Draw that busted the game wide open before the last three eliminations of the night.
The tumultuous draw round sent Bach from near the top of the counts to the bottom in Wednesday's Hand of the Day, setting up his fifth-place finish after Richard Bai bowed out ahead in sixth. Lamb held on for a bit longer and secured another pay jump before he left the stage as the final elimination on Day 3.
The final three players eventually called it a night and returned on Thursday afternoon.
All business on Day 4
Game selection is everything in the Dealer’s Choice — especially against the best in the world — but the normally strategy-heavy endgame loosened up when the remaining players allowed everyone else in the room to get in on selecting the next round in the late levels of Day 3.
Returning on Day 4, the vibe was “business” according to Mizrachi. The final three players found some common ground on game selection and Mizrachi was happy with the day’s choices. He prefers pot limit, especially with a chip lead, as it allows him to control the pot against an opponent with fewer chips.
“[The opponent] can’t really put pressure on you preflop, so you can see more flops and control everything post flop. It’s the most skilled structure, as opposed to no limit where he can just go all in any hand. It becomes higher variance. I wanted to keep it lower variance.”
The strategy worked and Mizrachi barely ceded any ground on his way to a fifth WSOP bracelet. He plans to play more while things are going well — "It's my year," he said.
“It just feels good to be back. I just want to focus and be there for my family and hopefully things will happen.”
