Davidi Kitai Wins WSOP $2,000 buy-in
Pot-Limit Hold'em championship

"Kitai becomes the first WSOP gold bracelet ever from the nation of Belgium."

LAS VEGAS, NV – The 2008 $2,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em champion is Davidi Kitai. He is a 28-year-old economic analyst from Brussels, Belgium. Kitai was born in Antwerp, Belgium.

Kitai works for a banking institution in Belgium and deals with macroeconomic investment issues.

Kitai becomes the first WSOP gold bracelet ever from the nation of Belgium.

Belgium becomes the ninth nation to produce a gold bracelet winner at this year’s WSOP. This list now includes Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia, and the United States.

Kitai was cheered on by his father, who sat in the audience. He also had about a dozen or so fans and fellow poker players from the Benalux region in his cheering section.

Kitai won $244,583 for first place. This was also his first WSOP gold bracelet victory.

The second-place finisher was tournament circuit regular, Chris Bell, from Raleigh, NC.

The heads-up match between Kitai and Bell was the longest to date at this year’s WSOP. It clocked in at nearly five hours and went 186 hands. By contrast, the first seven players were knocked out in a relatively quick 3.5 hour span and included only 101 hands.

Chris Bell dominated much of the final table play. He knocked out five of the first seven players.

The Kitai-Bell duel included ten chip-lead changes.

Kitai was second in chips after Day One of play.

The $2,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em championship (Event #38) attracted 605 entries, creating a prize pool totaling $1,101,100. The top 63 finishers collected prize money.

Attendance at this year’s event increased slightly over 2007. Last year, there were 599 entries for this same event.

Pot-Limit Hold’em was not introduced as part of the WSOP schedule until 1992. Past winners of WSOP gold bracelets in Pot-Limit Hold’em include – John Bonetti, T.J. Cloutier, Jay Heimowitz, Phil Hellmuth, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Daniel Negreanu, Layne Flack, Steve Zolotow, Mickey Appleman, and Johnny Chan.

Oddly enough, no player has ever won two gold bracelets in Pot-Limit Hold’em. It is one of the few games in WSOP history with no multiple winners.

This is the third of three Pot-Limit Hold’em events on the 2008 WSOP schedule. Previous winners Nenad Medic (Event #1) and David Singer (Event #3) both entered this event, but did not cash.

The tournament was played over three consecutive days. The final table was played on the ESPN main stage. This was the only final table scheduled on this day.

Last year’s champion Greg Hopkins did not enter this tournament. This brings the current streak to 38 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

The final table included players from five different countries. Nations represented included Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, and the United States.

The third-place finisher was Keith E. Greer, Jr. – from Ft. Worth, TX. He staged quite a huge comeback in this tournament. On the fourth hand of play, after starting out with 4,000 in chips, Greer lost an all-in hand just three minutes after the tournament began. He was left with just 225 in chips and was prepared to make an early exit. Amazingly, Greer not only recovered and regained chips, he made it all the way to the final table. His faith and persistence in the event paid off to the tune of $94,694 in prize money.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Lee Watkinson finished in fifth place. This was is his fourth time to cash at the 2008 World Series. Watkinson also made it all the way to the Main Event final table last year, finishing eighth.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Robert Cheung finished sixth.

Pakistani-born poker pro Ayaz Mahmood cashed for the 16th time in his career at the WSOP, by taking seventh-place in this event.

High-stakes cash game player Ben Roberts, from London, England finished in eighth place. Roberts finished sixth in the 1998 WSOP Main Event.

English actor Michael Greco finished ninth. Greco was a regular cast member on a popular British soap opera called “East Enders” which ran from 1998 through 2002.

Michael Binger took 11th place. Binger now has 11 cashes since the start of the 2007 WSOP.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Ted Lawson (30th)

Through Event #38, only two players have made three final table appearances – Jacobo Fernandez and David Benyamine. Sixteen players have made two WSOP final table appearances. This list includes – Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, Alex Bolotin, Scott Clements, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Fu Wong, Greg Jamison, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Daniel Negreanu, David Singer, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, and Tim West.

Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia is the only player at this year’s WSOP who has cashed seven times – just one off the all-time record mark. Evdakov is positioned to break the record set for “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by five players -- Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth (2006), Richard Tatalovich (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight.

Winner Davidi Kitai is officially listed as being from Brussels, Belgium. Through the conclusion of Event #38 at this year’s World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:

10 – Nevada
6 – California
4 – New York
2 – Canada
2 – Germany
2 – Italy
2 – Missouri
1 – Belgium
1 – Denmark
1 – France
1 – Holland
1 – Maryland
1 – Michigan
1 – Pennsylvania
1 – Russia
1 – South Carolina
1 – Wisconsin

The Event #38 winner Davidi Kitai is to be classified as an amateur, since he plays poker part-time and has a full-time occupation. Accordingly, the “Pro-Am” gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads:

Professionals – 30 wins
Amateurs -- 6 wins
Semi-Pros -- 2 wins

Michael Binger was the chip leader at the End of Day One for this event. He cashed. Hence, through Event #38, the End of Day One chip leaders have gone on to cash 75 percent of the time -- 27 of 36 occasions (the chip leader was not applicable on two events). Ten of these same 36 chip leaders (28 percent) made it to the final table. Only one chip leader went on to win the event. That lone wire-to-wire winner was Vanessa Selbst in Event #19.

Jan Von Halle was the chip leader at the start of this final table. He ended up as the fourth-place finisher. Through Event #38, sixteen of 36 chip leaders at the start of the final table (44 percent) went on to win the event. Twenty-two of 36 chip leaders (61 percent) went on to finish in the top three spots. Two events did not have a chip leader (Heads-Up and Shootout tournaments).

It should be noted that the Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” rankings will now include points accrued from the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship.

The Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” standings currently shows Jacobo Fernandez as the current leader, with David Benyamine close behind. Here are the top five ranked players:

1. Jacobo Fernandez – 222 points
2. David Benyamine – 220 points
3. Barry Greenstein – 185 points
4. Erick Lindgren – 185 points
5. Daniel Negreanu – 170 points

For a complete “Player of the Year” points list, see:

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/players/2008.asp?sort=poypts

David Benyamine is now the leader on the 2008 prize money list, having won the most money at the WSOP, to date. His accrued winnings total $941,651.

by Nolan Dalla