The final table is set for the World Poker Tour’s latest stop at the Mazagan Beach and Golf Resort in Casablanca, Morocco, with poker Triple Crown winner Davidi Kitai sitting atop the final six for today’s action.
25 players returned from the original 146 player field for Friday’s Day Three play with an impressive array of contenders for this latest WPT championship. Clement Beauvois was at the head of the ladder when play began yesterday, but such names as Guillaume Darcourt, World Series of Poker sensation Gaelle Baumann, French poker legend Bruno Fitoussi and Kitai arranged behind him. Baumann actually got off to a great start in one of the first hands, doubling up through Sergei Vasilyev to get some much needed ammunition for the day’s play.
With the stacks very deep, the 25 combatants settled in for what would be a long day of poker. Also on the minds of the players was the fact that seven of them would hit the rail with nothing to show for their efforts; only 18 of the remaining players would pull down the minimum cash of $7216, providing a sense of drama for those still in the event.
Former WPT National Series winner Bruno Lopes was able to get the first knockout of the day, dropping Eric Botella from the tournament barely forty minutes into play. Fabrice Soulier made some moves early on also, getting Jeremy Nock and Kitai to drop their hands on a 10-9-2 board with an all-in move. Meanwhile, Baumann would come up short of the money (at the hands of Vasilyev) while Nock knocked off Nicolas Dervaux as the bubble approached.
Kitai would be responsible for ending the drama of who would actually get some cash for their efforts in Morocco. Victor Choupeaux moved all in from the button and found Kitai in the big blind willing to look him up. Choupeaux’s miniscule A-3 was way behind the A-K of Kitai and, after an uneventful board, Kitai took down the pot (and the chip lead at 550K) and Choupeaux headed for the exits.
With the popping of the money bubble, the play loosened up quite a bit. Kitai continued to extend his lead by dumping David Chekroun in 18th place and moved close to the million chip mark in rivering two pair against Mbarek Saadi. When he eliminated Bruno Louy in fifteenth place, Kitai rocketed over the million chip plateau.
Soulier had perhaps the worst knockout of all the players on Friday. Down to a short stack, he moved all in against Frederic Brunet. Brunet would only look at one card, which was an Ace, before making the call against Soulier. Soulier would put up the “computer hand,” Q-7, while Brunet turned up his second card – also an Ace – for the utterly dominant pair of rockets. No help would come for Soulier, who picked a bad moment to make a move, and he was out of the tournament in 12th place.
Lopes would be the unofficial final table “bubble boy” as he was first crippled by Paul Tedeschi and then eliminated by Kitai. With ten players left, there were only four more eliminations to be made before the official final table would be determined.
The players made rapid work of that decision, with Sebastien Compte, Charles Harvey and Darcourt dropping out in tenth through eighth places, respectively. With only one more elimination to go, it came when Tedeschi pushed his remaining stack in with an A-10, only to see Beauvois wake up with A-Q and make the call. No surprises would come over the span of the board, dropping Tedeschi out in seventh place and setting the final six for today’s final table:
1. Davidi Kitai, 1.94 million
2. Clement Beauvois, 668,000
3. Giacomo Fundaro, 644,000
4. Jeremy Nock, 405,000
5. Bruno Fitoussi, 392,000
6. Frederic Brunet, 316,000
Although he has a monster lead, Kitai should tread carefully. Fitoussi and Brunet, although on the short stacks, have the skills to make a run at him should they get some chips. Beauvois has hovered around the top of the leaderboard throughout the tournament and Fundaro and Nock didn’t make it to the final table on their looks alone.
By late this afternoon, perhaps early evening, the latest champion will be crowned at the WPT Mazagan. The victor will earn the right to have his name engraved on the WPT Champions’ Cup, get a seat to next year’s WPT Championship and take down the $168,207 first place prize.
