Mizrachi, Rast Head Towards $50K Poker Players Championship History

If winning the Poker Players Championship cements your place in World Series of Poker history, what about winning it three times? Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Brian Rast have opportunities to do just that this week. Both are through the Day 4 of the $50,000 buy-in mixed game event, with Mizrachi leading the final two tables.

12 players will return to play down to a final table on Monday and Day 4’s session will be live streamed on Twitch. The final table will play to a winner on PokerGO on Tuesday.

While Mizrachi holds the chip lead, Rast returns below the chip average. The pair are the only players to win multiple Poker Players Championship titles and have dominated the event since the start of the decade. Mizrachi won in 2010 and 2012, while Rast was victorious in 2011 and 2016.

John Hennigan has dominated $10,000 Championships during this year’s World Series of Poker. Hennigan final tabled the NL 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship and then won the H.O.R.S.E. Championship for his fifth WSOP bracelet.

“Johnny World” isn’t the only multiple bracelet winner still in contention. Greg Mueller, Chris Vitch, and Shaun Deeb each have two WSOP bracelets on their resumes, while three-time winner Benny Glaser is also through to Day 4. Single bracelet winners Mike Leah and Aaron Katz have also advanced.

Dan Smith and Jean-Robert Bellande are two of the bigger names still alive in the Poker Players Championship, but are both still looking for their first WSOP wins. Smith returns near the chip average, with Bellande coming back as the short stack. The biggest name has been saved for last though.

Ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey is in contention for his first Poker Players Championship title and will return to Day 4 with a top-five stack. Ivey has been absent from the WSOP for the last few years and a PPC win would put an exclamation point on an already exciting return.

A complete list of the Day 4 seating chart, along with player chip counts, is provided below:

Table 1

1. Chris Vitch – 1,160,000
2. Aaron Katz – 2,480,000
3. Phil Ivey – 2,146,000
4. Dan Smith – 1,816,000
5. Jean-Robert Bellande – 213,000
6. John Hennigan – 1,458,000

Table 2

1. Mike Leah – 3,139,000
2. Shaun Deeb – 533,000
3. Michael Mizrachi – 4,232,000
4. Brian Rast – 1,164,000
5. Benny Glaser – 1,967,000
6. Greg Mueller – 1,439,000

The remaining Poker Players Championship payouts are also listed below:

1. $1,239,126
2. $765,837
3. $521,782
4. $364,197
5. $260,578
6. $191,234
7. $144,049
8. $144,049
9. $111,447
10. $111,447
11. $88,627
12. $88,627

Watch Day 4 of the $50K Poker Players Championship on Twitch starting at 6 PM ET and subscribe to PokerGO for more World Series of Poker action. A complete PokerGO streaming schedule can be found here. Twitch will also broadcast WSOP streams throughout the summer and that streaming schedule can be found here.