PROFILE
Name: Amir Lehavot
Age: 38
Birthplace: Israel
Current Hometown: Weston, FL
One of the odds-on choices to take down the 2013 World Series of Poker Championship Event come this fall is Amir Lehavot. He will begin play as part of the “November Nine” with a very healthy 29.7 million in chips, good for the second place slot behind J. C. Tran’s 38 million stack. He will be in the Five Seat when play begins and there are a lot of chips around him; along with Tran (who will be in the big blind when Lehavot is on the button), Lehavot will look to his right and see Ryan Riess (25.875 million) and to his left Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (26.525 million).
While he isn’t a household name to American poker fans, Lehavot has built a very impressive live tournament career. The owner of a WSOP bracelet for his win in 2011 in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship, Lehavot has notched 12 WSOP cashes (counting his “November Nine” appearance) and has over $1.5 million in career earnings. The $733,224 he has already banked from his WSOP Championship Event final table run is his largest tournament cash ever but, with the chip stack he has, Lehavot has to be looking at taking home the big prize of over $8 million and his second WSOP bracelet.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day 1(C): 39,550
Day 2(C): 201,200
Day 3: 679,000
Day 4: 1,783,000
Day 5: 2,655,000
Day 6: 7,385,000
KEY HAND
Lehavot has been hovering around the upper reaches of the leaderboard since Day 3, but it was a hand on Day 6 that catapulted him into contention for poker’s greatest honor.
After opening the action pre-flop against Rep Porter and Anton Morgenstern, only Porter would come along after a 10♦ 2♠ 4♠ flop. A 10♣ slowed both Lehavot and Porter down, both checking, and a 9♠ completed what was a very dangerous board. Lehavot value-bet for 400K and, after Porter called the bet, Lehavot unveiled A♥ A♦ that was surprisingly good enough to take the pot. Lehavot continued to be one of the most aggressive players through the remainder of Day 6 and into Day 7, building his massive stack that he hopes will carry him to the World Championship.