Last month, Full Tilt Poker pro and Deepstacks Live instructor Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi made waves by reaching the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. The November Nine birth marked the culmination of a historic 2010 WSOP for “The Grinder,” who recorded three final tables, one bracelet in the $50,000 Player’s Championship, and now stands to bank nearly $9 million should he win poker’s most prestigious tournament. This week, the hottest player in poker joins the PocketFives.com Podcast.

Mizrachi is fresh off entering the second event of the ongoing Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS), a $256 Pot Limit Omaha High-Low Rush Knockout. On the fast-paced Rush Poker format, Mizrachi told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “It was just an unbelievable feeling. It was a rush because everything was going so fast. You’re getting so many hands. I was just playing fairly tight and you don’t have to be patient in Rush Poker; you just get hand after hand after hand. It was pretty cool and more of a Turbo tournament, so you have to get lucky.”

In November, Mizrachi and the members of the third November Nine will gather at the Rio’s Penn and Teller Theater in Las Vegas to play down to a winner. Mizrachi explained his mindset headed into the 2010 WSOP back in May: “Before I got to the World Series, I felt like I was going to come in strong because I took such a long break from poker tournaments. I was mainly focused on my family and hanging out in South Florida. I thought I’d have a great start and it was exciting that the $50K was one of the first events. I was going to be well prepared and was playing a lot of Eight Game online.”

Over the next three months, Mizrachi will host three clinics for Deepstacks Live, whose roster of pros also includes Mike Matusow and PocketFives.com blogger Tristan Cre8ive Wade. “I’ll try to help [participants] out with their poker games and get to that advanced level of a poker mind,” Mizrachi forecasted. “Hopefully, they can get in my mind, pick my brain, and I’ll help them out as much as possible. It’s going to take a lot of time, but you can definitely sign up for my class and I’ll do the best I can to train you guys. I promise you that you’ll get the best training you’ve ever had.”

Last month, many watched as “The Grinder” took down the Player’s Championship in a tournament televised on ESPN. Along the way, he busted his brother, Robert, from the feature table in fifth place. How did it feel to send a member of his own family out the door? “I had mixed emotions. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t think it would happen in the $50,000 buy-in event. We both took it well and it turned out to be a win-win situation. He finished fifth and I finished first. I wouldn’t mind if it had went the other way. We’re always rooting for each other.”

Mizrachi hails from Florida, which loosened up its live poker restrictions for tournaments and cash games on July 1st. What effect has Mizrachi seen so far? He told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “I think it’s going to pick up during the wintertime. A lot of people will be traveling to Florida when it’s cold up north. Right now, it’s been unbelievable. I’ve seen $25/$50 PLO games, $50/$100 PLO games… and a lot of great $5/$10 No Limit Hold’em games.” The World Poker Tour will hold an event at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida in late April.

The bubble session to determine the November Nine in July was a marathon. In fact, the last elimination took nearly six hours of real time, leaving some to wonder if the final 10 should be split into two five-handed tables instead of one 10-handed group. Mizrachi weighed in: “I like it better when it’s 10-handed. It’s almost like a satellite with nine winners and one loser. It was a lot of hours and we lost two or two-and-a-half levels, but what can you do? I like the way everything went and I can’t complain; I made it.”

Check out the rest of this week’s PocketFives.com Online Poker Podcast with Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.