Davidi Kitai is not a household name in the poker world, but perhaps he should be. On Wednesday morning, Kitai captured his second career World Series of Poker bracelet, winning Event #19: $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em.
Kitai is no stranger to success. Not only was this not the first time he was fitted for a WSOP gold bracelet, but he is just one of five people to win what is known as the poker “Triple Crown,” which consists of a WSOP bracelet, a World Poker Tour (WPT) victory, and a European Poker Tour (EPT) title. His Triple Crown is not without a little controversy, though. Kitai’s first WSOP bracelet came in 2008 when he won the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. He then completed the Triple Crown last April when he emerged victorious in the 2012 EPT Berlin Main Event. In between is where the controversy lies.
In February 2011, Kitai won the WPT Celebrity Invitational at the L.A. Poker Classic, the second leg of his Triple Crown. That event, though, was not open to the public (hence “invitational”) and many believe it should not be counted as part of the Triple Crown. For whatever reason, it is counted more often than not, so Kitai joins Gavin Griffin, Jake Cody, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, and Roland de Wolfe as the only people to win WSOP, WPT, and EPT titles.
As for his latest conquest, Kitai ranked second in chips of the 16 players that entered the final day of action. He had a sizeable chip lead heading into the final table, holding 879,000 chips, compared to 618,000 for Cary Katz, the next closest player. It was a daunting final table, featuring three other bracelet winners: Dario Minieri, Eugene Katchalov, and the aforementioned Triple Crown winner, Bertrand Grospellier.
Kitai went right to work, eliminating Chris Johnson in 9th place and quickly built an even more substantial lead. Early on, the 1.2 million chips to which his stack grew were almost as many as the other seven players had combined. From there, the dominance continued until Kitai went into heads-up play against Katz with 1.98 million to 945,000 chip lead.
Katz made a game of it, taking the lead from Kitai during the one-on-one match, ending Kitai’s final table wire-to-wire bid. Kitai grabbed the lead back though, and after grabbing a few more chips from his opponent, he ended it on the 90th hand of the final table. The two raised and re-raised each other pre-flop until Katz made enough of a bet to be all-in and Kitai quickly called. The hands: Kitai with pocket Jacks and Katz with pocket Kings. Kitai was way behind, but not for long as a Jack hit the flop. The turn and river were of no use to Katz and Davidi Kitai had his second World Series of Poker bracelet.
2013 World Series of Poker Event #19: $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Davidi Kitai – $224,560
2. Cary Katz – $138,794
3. Vincent Bartello – $103,628
4. Dimitar Danchev – $77,893
5. Eugene Katchalov – $58,912
6. Kristina Holst – $44,844
7. Bertrand Grospellier – $34,341
8. Dario Minieri – $26,468
9. Chris Johnson – $20,520
