Michael Mizrachi (pictured) is #8 on poker’s all-time money list, according to the Hendon Mob, and launched a first-of-its-kind online dealer training academy this week that is available at MizrachiDealerAcademy.com. The three-time bracelet winner sat down with PocketFives to gab about the incident involving fake tournament chips at Borgata, the concept of a shot clock in poker, and launching his online academy.

PocketFives: Thanks for joining us. What are your thoughts about the incident involving fake poker chips in a live tournament at Borgata?

Michael Mizrachi: It’s crazy for something like that to happen. It’s really sad to see. Thank god for Borgata catching it. That’s one of my favorite casinos actually. Hopefully people will learn a lesson from it. They should be hard on anyone who cheated.

PocketFives: How would you allocate the prize pool given the tournament was canceled when 27 players remained?

Michael Mizrachi: We would come up with something like playing it out or doing a chip count deal. I would personally want to play it out, but I’d want to make it fair for everyone else. It’s a tough decision, but in poker, there’s always one winner and one champion, so the right thing to do would be to play it out.

PocketFives: Another hot topic of conversation in the poker world is the introduction of a shot clock. Are you in favor of it?

Michael Mizrachi: I’m in favor of it. I hate it when people take five minutes to act. If you’re a great player, you want to see as many hands as possible. The more hands you get, the more of an advantage a professional poker player has. Maybe you should have a time bank, but that’s all you need in a tournament. If you’re a professional player, you already know what you’re doing when it’s your turn to act, so not acting quickly is just wasting time. It’s like when I used to play chess, I played speed chess. If you think you’re a better player, you want a shot clock. You can see more hands and play more pots.

PocketFives: Several arguments against a shot clock include having players from multiple countries who don’t speak English as their first language trying to learn a new rule and people potentially taking the full length of the shot clock to act on every decision. How would you respond?

Michael Mizrachi: People come from other countries, but hopefully they’ll eventually play with a shot clock around the globe and so everyone will be used to it. People are playing hands, so I don’t think the language barrier has much of anything to do with the shot clock. It would be ridiculous for every player to take the entire minute to act. I don’t think any player needs more than one minute, either. Some tables are playing 20 hands an hour and some are playing 40. I want to see as many hands as possible. I know taking a long time and picking up tells are part of the game, but there has to be a limit.

PocketFives: Congrats on launching your online dealer academy, MizrachiDealerAcademy.com. How much does it cost and what’s involved?

Michael Mizrachi: Thanks. It officially launched this week. Most great poker players start off as dealers like I did. Being a dealer is a high-paying job. Just like you can do school online, you can do this in your home and watch as many videos as you have time for. Anything you need, you can contact us. It’s $800, so it’s cheap, and it’s the first online certified dealer school in America.

We’re the first school ever to give diplomas for dealer training online. Taking our course gives you the basics about dealing poker like techniques, how to calculate pot limits, how to handle customers, how to take rake and jackpot, and the essentials you need to work in a poker room. Once someone becomes certified, they still have to get a license in an individual state, but a diploma shows you have been trained by a professional and it’s hard to get a job without one.

I should also point out that the site is available on mobile devices, tablets, and regular computers. It takes a lot of time and effort to travel to a school, so this helps us reach people in all areas.

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