WSOP History Made Twice Over Weekend

The next time someone tries to deny that poker is a game of skill, tell them about Shiina Okamoto and Michael Mizrachi.

Over the weekend, the two exceptional players each made history at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, repeating previous success in unprecedented ways that should remind observers of how luck can only carry a competitor so far in poker.

Mizrachi, long known as “The Grinder,” won the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship (PPC) on Saturday, earning a $1.33 million payout and his seventh career gold bracelet. The historical aspect: Mizrachi prevailed in this particular high-stakes mixed-game tournament for the fourth time in 16 years, having won the same event in 2010, 2012, and 2018.

Given the quality of the fields and the skill required to win in a tournament featuring nine different games, conversations quickly bubbled up surrounding the 44-year-old Mizrachi’s status among the greats ever to play poker.

But Mizrachi’s achievement was perhaps only the second most remarkable of the weekend. That’s because on Sunday, Okamoto won the $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em Ladies Championship … for the second year in a row … after finishing as the runner-up the year prior.

Yes, against fields in excess of 1,200 women each year, Japan’s Okamoto finished in the top two three years in a row, with two bracelet wins.

Three six-figure scores

This year’s Ladies Championship event featured a record 1,368 players, and Okamoto pocketed a career-high $184,094 for her win. She has three tournament cashes in excess of $100,000 to her name — all in this event over these past three years.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though, for Okamoto, as at one point during the final table she doubled up Russia’s Sonia Shashikhina, who set a masterful trap against a bluffing Okamoto:

In the end, Okamoto outdueled Heather Alcorn — who finished second for $122,654 — to capture the bracelet.

“I really believed I was going to win,” Okamoto told PokerNews through a translator after the victory. “I didn’t feel rushed like I needed to force it. I just focused on doing what I needed to do properly.”

As one might expect given the type of event it was, Mizrachi had a more star-studded final table to contend with in pursuit of his fourth PPC title. Among the final seven were the likes Bryn Kenney, Esther Taylor, Joao Vieira, and Ben Lamb.

Taylor finished in third place, the deepest run ever by a woman in the PPC. She earned a $595,136 payout.

Kenney, the all-time leader in live poker tournament earnings with more than $75 million to his name, took second place and earned $887,542.

The final hand came in limit 2-7 triple draw, with Mizrachi talking Kenney into drawing a card when Kenney would have won the hand otherwise.

Mizrachi has two World Poker Tour titles to go with his seven bracelets, and has now surpassed $19 million in career winnings.