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The least and most surprising World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion ever is arguably the same person.
Confused? You won’t be in a bit. Poker’s most prestigious annual event, with the purpose of crowning a 2026 world champion, kicks off today at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Michael Mizrachi, the newest Poker Hall of Famer, won this $10,000 buy-in tournament last summer for $10,000,000.
“The Grinder’s” win brought some excitement around the poker community, but it wasn’t a huge surprise like some past champs. Mizrachi didn’t come out of nowhere before winning the Main Event. He wasn’t an accountant who won a cheap online satellite to enter the tournament or some random amateur low-stakes cash game player.
The Most and Least Surprising WSOP Main Event Champ Ever?
Mizrachi, like Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Stu Ungar, was already a superstar before he won the Main Event. Brunson, who won it in 1976 and 1977, was among the most feared players in the 1970s. Chan is a 10-time bracelet winner and nearly won the Main Event three years in a row. Ungar won it twice in the 1980s when he was arguably the best poker player in the world.
But Ungar, as strange as it may seem, also has a strong a case for being the most improbable WSOP Main Event champion ever. “Stuey” won it again in 1997, 16 years after his back-to-back run in 1980 and 1981. He was still only 43 years old at the time, young enough for most to dominate the game for years to come.
Ungar, however, wasn’t the same player he was in 1981. Due to drug and alcohol addiction and some personal issues, he was years past his prime. No one gave him a shot at the 1997 World Series of Poker, and he needed help coming up with the $10,000 buy-in.
For a few days, some way, the old Stuey showed up at Binion’s, outclassing the best players in the world like he did for years in his 20s and 30s. Gabe Kaplan, Ungar’s friend and a commentator for ESPN poker at the time, asked him a question in the postgame interview that was more important than poker.
“In 1980 and 1981, you won the championship. But you weren’t smart after that. Your life didn’t go 100% in the right course. Now, you’re older, you’re wiser, you’re 43 years old. Do you think you’re gonna do things differently now?” Kaplan asked the three-time WSOP Main Event champion.
“Well, I hope so, Gabe,” a hesitant Ungar responded. “I’ve neglected my kid. I’ve done a lot of stupid things.”
Ungar won $1 million after defeating John Strzemp heads-up for the bracelet, a win that earned Ungar “The Comeback Kid” nickname. That was his last tournament cash. The poker and gin rummy legend was found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room just 16 months later. An autopsy showed traces of drugs in his system, but not enough to have been the cause of death. His death was determined to have been the result of a heart condition.
Who Else Has a Case?
If Ungar wasn’t the most improbable champion ever, the award likely goes to some of the 2000s winners. Chris Moneymaker was an amateur poker player working as an accountant when he became one of the first recreational players to win the Main Event in 2003 for $2.5 million, a victory that helped spark a massive poker boom.
Joe Cada was in his early 20s when he won it in 2009, and Jamie Gold shocked the world when he took down the record largest field at the time — 8,773 entries — for $12 million in 2006. But Jerry Yang, arguably, has an even greater case as the most improbable champ.
Yang ran red hot during the 2007 Main Event, sucking out numerous times and winning many coolers. He won the tournament for $8,250,000, but only had about $10,000 in prior live tournament cashes. In the 19 years since his surprising championship run, Yang’s racked up barely $300,000 in cashes and doesn’t play poker much these days.
Other improbable winners include Greg Merson, a skilled pro, who became World Champion in 2012 just months after starting his journey to sobriety. Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 winner, was one of only a couple amateurs at the time to have won poker’s most prestigious tournament.
Who will win the 2026 WSOP Main Event? Will it be another legend like Mizrachi? Or, will it be another Jerry Yang? We’ll find that out on Aug. 5.
VOTE: Who is the Most Improbable Champion?
