Event #66: $50,000 Poker Players Championship is considered to be the holy grail among the top-flight players in poker, a nine-game mix tournament featuring the toughest of the tough.
This year there were 107 entries looking to bag the coveted Chip Reese Memorial trophy, named after the legend who first won the event back in 2006. At that time, it was the $50k H.O.R.S.E. and in 2010 it changed to the 9-game mix PPC, won by Mizrachi.
Two-time winner Dan “Jungleman” Cates was the first to bust on day 1 and was followed by Mizrachi’s nearest rival, fellow three-time winner Brian Rast.
En route to the final table we saw Phil Hellmuth KO Daniel Negreanu and then turn Poker Brat, while Mike “The Mouth” Matusow made it through the money bubble, eventually falling in 12th spot for $108,445.
By day 5 we were down to the final seven, Mizrachi well out front in the chip counts while Esther Taylor had become only the second-ever woman to cash and final table the most prestigious tournament of the summer.
Two-time bracelet winner fell first at the final table, missing his low draw to depart in 7th spot for a $175,096 cash. He was followed to the rail by Albert Daher, who found himself very short and racing for his life in a hand of NLH…
Daher: K♦ J♥
Mizrachi: 6♥ 6♦
Flop: 5♦ 9♥ Q♣
Turn: 3♠
River: 7♥
Portugal’s Joao Vieira had designs on a 5th bracelet but it wasn’t to be, losing several key hands and eventually falling to Mizrachi’s aces up in Stud.
That left four contenders, with Mizrachi holding more chips than the other three – Bryn Kenney, Esther Taylor and Andrew Yeh combined. Taylor and Yeh headed in opposite directions, Mizrachi again playing executioner as Yeh’s stack went in.
What followed was the Bryn Kenney survival show, the all-time leading moneywinner doubling three times at the hands of Taylor. Unfortunately for Taylor, her deep run would end in third when she lost out to Kenney in a hand of NL 2-7 Single Draw.
Heads-up saw Mizrachi with almost 30million chips against Kenney’s 2million and it proved too big a mountain to climb, and when the end came it was PPC title number 4 for “The Grinder”…
History made! @TheGrinder44 wins Event 66: $50,000 Poker Players Championship for $1,331,322 — becoming the first player ever to win the same WSOP event four times! #WSOP2025 pic.twitter.com/A5d9jF8DlR
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 29, 2025
Final table results
1 | Michael Mizrachi | USA | $1,331,322 |
2 | Bryn Kenney | USA | $887,542 |
3 | Esther Taylor | USA | $595,136 |
4 | Andrew Yeh | USA | $413,740 |
5 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | $298,614 |
6 | Albert Daher | Lebanon | $224,077 |
7 | Ben Lamb | USA | $175,096 |
For Mizrachi it was not only a record 4th PPC title but also a 7th WSOP gold bracelet.
“I probably played better than the last three I won,” Mizrachi explained in his post-victory interview. “Everything went my way this tournament. I was always at the top of the leaderboard, never really got short, and probably played my best overall.”
