A stacked final table with a brother vs. brother confrontation was the likely catalyst for the 15% ratings boost ESPN’s 2010 World Series of Poker coverage garnered for the season’s opening episode. The action revolved around the $50k buy-in Players Championship, one of the most coveted tournament titles in poker.

The big story at the final were the Mizrachi brothers, Robert (32) and Michael (29), squaring off against one another. But poker fans were also treated with appearances by some of the best high-stakes cash games like Daniel Alaei and David Oppenheim, as well as poker superstar John Juanda. Rounding out the final table were David ‘Bakes’ Baker, one of the up-and-coming poker players on the tournament scene; Vladimir Schemelev, the Russian businessman who came out of nowhere to make four Championship final tables in 2010 (perhaps Schemelev is one of the anonymous Russian high-stakes online pros); and another young poker pro Michael Thuritz.

In the end it was Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi who won the title –defeating Schemelev heads-up—and the $1.559 million first-place prize-money. Some other themes for the tournament were the great play of David Oppenheim and Michael Thuritz getting absolutely cold-decked TWICE!

Next week’s episode will feature the Tournament of Champions, and the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Annie Duke and TJ Cloutier.

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Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, 2010 WSOP, Daniel Alaei, David Oppenheim, David ‘Bakes’ Baker, ESPN, John Juanda, Michael Thuritz, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Vladimir Schemelev, World Series of Poker coverage, World Series of Poker on ESPN

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 at 4:29 pm and is filed under WSOP News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.