Poker Player Financial Trouble

Poker players are sharp and are usually financially savvy, but sometimes table smarts don’t extend to street smarts. Michael Mizrachi, who has nearly $7 million in poker career winnings, is an example of that. He owes $340,000 in back taxes and is facing foreclosure on two homes.

Mizrachi is facing a $339,711 lien by the Internal Revenue Service and a Hollywood condo he owned with his brother was foreclosed recently and sold in an online auction Wednesday. His home in Miramar, Florida, was foreclosed in March. It will be up for sale next week, according to court records.

For his part, Mizrachi says he fired his accountant and plans to hire someone he can trust.

“They were doing a bad job,” he told reporters.

While Mizrachi is considered one of the great poker players – he was named CardPlayer Magazine’s 2006 Player of the Year – he admits he’s not as smart when it comes to the handling of his personal fortune. The condo in Hollywood, for example, was an investment property he and his brother rented out.

“But people weren’t paying their rent and we were advised that the best thing to do was foreclosure,” he said. “Obviously, I’m a better poker player than a businessman, but I’m getting better.”

Like many industries, poker is an ebb and flow proposition and Mizrachi hasn’t had a winning year in a few years now. He says he mostly stays home with his three children, ages 2 to 5.

Pro poker player Marc Levy, a friend of Mizrachi’s who has seen other poker player struggle periodically, said that professional poker players are essentially running a small business and they have to learn how to manage overhead and expenses.

“If you’re in a $10,000 event every other week, that’s $240,000 just for buy-in, not to mention all your expenses,” he said. “There are plenty of guys I know who do well playing poker but still go through their money. (But) all it takes is one win and you’re back on top again.”