Home / Poker News June 2008 / Kitai survives 5-hour slugfest with Bell, takes gold in $2,000 PL Holdem event
Kitai survives 5-hour slugfest with Bell, takes gold in $2,000 PL Holdem event
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2008-06-23 15:31
Despite having started the final table off the chip-count pace, Davidi Kitai from Belgium prevailed at a table full of very solid poker professionals. Kitai himself went into the battle with two previous WSOP cashes under his belt: a fresh 147th place in one of the $1,500 NL Holdem events, and a 404th place in last year’s Big Dance. Some of the other guys around the table though, were much better stacked in such achievements.
Going into final, Jan von Hall from Hamburg, Germany held a solid chip-lead, with 485,000 chips, followed by Lee Watkinson from Cheney, Washington with 357,000 and Robert Cheung from Vancouver, with 352,000.
Michael Greco, who entered the final day hostilities on a stack of 120,000 chips was the first one to go. He picked up a pair of Kings, and went all-in against Chris Bell’s rockets on a board which brought a pair of tens but failed to improve either of the starting hands involved.
Ben Roberts was the next to bust out, after the valiant performance of doubling up his short-stack. His pocket sevens ran into Roberts Cheung’s K,J and bled to death on the turn (which brought another J).
Ayaz Mahmood took a few early hits which depleted his stack of 314,000 to less than 100k. He pushed it all in on a J,9 against Chris Bell’s Q,4 as the flop came 3,J,Q putting an end to Mahmood’s stack and with it to his tournament life.
Robert Cheung got felted next, followed by Lee Watkinson who had been dominating the action up to that point.
Jan von Halle was sent to the rail by Bell, who swept Keith Greer out too in third place. The heads-up started with Bell holding a pretty solid lead on Kitai, up until hand #240. That hand would spell doom not only for his chip lead, but to his chances of ever turning things around as well. The final hand saw Bell’s A,J going up against Kitai’s A,Q. As the board brought only blanks, Kitai took his first gold bracelet and the $244,546 first prize, after an exhausting battle that lasted a full 5 hours.
