The Smart Money: Michael Mizrachi an unlikely Cinderella story at World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker is known for Cinderella stories, rags-to-riches tales of unknowns becoming millionaires with the turn of a card.

And not surprisingly, this year's WSOP, whose seven-week Las Vegas summer run ended in mid-July, features its own Cinderella Man - with a curious wrinkle. This time, the magic didn't happen for some anonymous Joe, but rather for a fairly well-known poker pro.

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, who was named player of the year in 2006 by one poker publication and once won more than $3.5 million in a 12-month stretch, has been battered financially by the real estate bust and faced an IRS tax lien just as this year's WSOP opened in May.

Mizrachi's story will begin to be told Tuesday as ESPN begins airing new episodes of the 2010 WSOP starting with the Poker Players Championship, a $50,000 buy-in tournament that attracted an all-star field.

Spoiler alert: Some results of televised events follow.

The Grinder - a nickname Mizrachi earned for his methodical style of play - took a huge step toward improving his financial picture by winning the Players Championship, a $1.56 million payday and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

With a huge buy-in and featuring a challenging, mixed-game format of eight poker variants, the tournament attracted 116 mostly elite players including 56 bracelet winners.

In a WSOP oddity, Mizrachi, the married father of three, was joined at the Players Championship final table by his brother, Robert, also a poker pro, who finished fifth. As it turned out, it was Michael who took Robert's last chips.

The Players Championship was just the beginning of a turnaround for Michael Mizrachi, who admitted he had a rugged 2009, both at the tables and away from them.

"Before the World Series started, those stories about the IRS came out, and that's what I used to motivate myself," said Mizrachi, who insists he was unaware that his taxes were under scrutiny until news reports surfaced. "Before that, I had slowed down my poker a little, just playing in private games in South Florida. . . . I was trying to spend more time with my family."

After his gold bracelet win, Mizrachi, 29, went on to enjoy four more World Series cashes and made three more final tables, including the most important one. He's part of the celebrated November Nine, the final table of the WSOP Main Event that reconvenes in November for the No-Limit Hold'em world championship. Mizrachi is the best known of the nine finalists who survived a field of 7,319 players, each paying $10,000 to enter.

This is the third straight year that the Main Event has been suspended when the final table is set in the summer and resumes in November to give ESPN's broadcast of the concluding episode more immediacy. The championship will be decided live at the Rio casino on Nov. 6 and 8, and the finale will be aired on Nov. 9.

Mizrachi, who lives in Miramar, Fla., said his money problems were caused, in part, by investment properties in Florida and Nevada, two places hit hardest in the struggling real estate market. He said he bought as prices were peaking and when it was clear the properties would never recover, he let them slip into foreclosure.

Mizrachi downplays how bad his money problems had gotten, saying "people thought I was broke, but I wasn't really broke."

Regardless how bleak Mizrachi's financial picture was three months ago, it's considerably brighter now. In addition to the $1.56 million he earned in the Players Championship, he pocketed another $125,000 in three other WSOP tournaments, and his Main Event final table appearance guarantees a minimum of another $811,823, with the possibility of much more.

Mizrachi sits seventh overall in chips and should this Cinderella Man eventually wear the crown, it will be worth about $8.94 million. You can follow Mizrachi in the walk-up to the final table on Twitter at @thegrinder44.

Four score. Not only were Michael and Robert Mizrachi together at the Players Championship final table, but four Mizrachi brothers cashed in the Main Event. The top 747 players, about 10 percent of the field, collected money. In addition to Michael Mizrachi making the final table, Robert Mizrachi was No. 116 (earning $57,102); Danny Mizrachi was No. 345 ($36,463), and Eric Mizrachi was No. 718 ($19,263).