Davidi Kitai won Event 19, a $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event, at the 2013 World Series of Poker early Wednesday morning besting Cary Katz heads-up. The 33-year-old Belgium-based professional is best known for being one of just a handful of players to complete poker’s triple crown by earning a WSOP gold bracelet as well as WPT and EPT titles.
With that achievement already under his belt, he added to his WSOP legend by becoming a two-time gold bracelet champion and pocketing $224,560 in the process. Kitai won his first gold bracelet in 2008 also in a pot-limit hold’em event, and in the years since he’s earned 15 additional WSOP cashes as well as his WPT and EPT titles.
As good a player as Kitai has proved he is, he had some help Wednesday when the short stack Katz got his remaining chips all-in pre-flop holding playing card: Ksplaying card: Kc against Kitai’s playing card: Jdplaying card: Jc. A jack on the flop spelled the end for Katz and Kitai disappeared into his rail’s arms.
Event 19 marked the highest buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em event on this year’s WSOP schedule. The $5,000 buy-in event drew 195 players and generated a $916,500 prize pool. The top 27 finishers made the money and notables who earned a payday included Amit Makhija (27th), Jason Mercier (22nd), John Hennigan (15th), and Dan Kelly, who posted his fifth cash of the summer with his 12th place showing.
The final table featured four gold bracelet winners, two of which were in the elite group of Triple Crown winners. In addition to Kitai, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (7th) also looked to add a second bracelet to go with his crown. Eugene Katchalov (5th) and Dario Minieri (8th) were also looking to add to their bracelet collections, but came up short.
The final table also featured Circuit Main Event winner Chris Johnson (9th), Big One for One Drop participant Katz and PCA Main Event winner Dimitar Danchev (4th). Kristina Holt (6th) was the lone female at the final table and the third woman to make a final table this summer, joining Julie Schneider and Mailisa Zapata.
Here are the final table results from the $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Event 19:
1st: Davidi Kitai – $224,560
2nd: Cary Katz – $138,794
3rd: Vincent Bartello – $103,628
4th: Dimitar Danchev – $77,893
5th: Eugene Katchalov – $58,912
6th: Kristina Holt – $44,844
7th: Bertrand Grospellier – $34,341
8th: Dario Minieri – $26,468
9th: Chris Johnson – $20,520
