Davidi Kitai Scoops a Massive $726,839 Prize

Belgian superstar Davidi Kitai banked one of the biggest scores of his long and illustrious career earlier this week. Kitai is better known for his live poker skills but showed he’s no slouch in the online poker arena either. He took on some of the world’s best players in a $10,300 buy-in event and won it for $726,839!

The Belgian tops his country’s all-time money list with $10,150,182 in earnings. Winning three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and the coveted Triple Crown helped Kitai’s impressive total.

This latest six-figure score Kitai secured is larger than two of his bracelet victories! He won so much because 581-players bought into the $10,300 High Rollers Week Main Event at GGPoker last Sunday. They whittled down to the final table of nine, which took place this week.

Kitai Second In Chips at the Start of the Final Table

New Zealand’s David Yan was the chip leader going into the final table, with Kitai in second-place. The other seven players read like a who’s who of the online poke world, as you’d expect from such a prestigious tournament.

Sergei Denisov was the first of the nine finalists to crash out. Everyone folded to Swedish legend Niklas Astedt in the small blind and he raised all-in. Denisov called off his stack with As-Kc and lost the Astedt’s dominated Ac-2h thanks to a deuce on the turn.

Eight-place was settled soon after Denisov’s demise and Aleks Ponakovs was the player eliminated. Ponakovs bowed out when he jammed eight big blinds into the middle with As-6s. Eelis Parssinen called with Kd-Jc from the big blind and won when the board ran Qh-Tc-7h-Ah-4c.

The final seven became six with the exit of Aleksi Barkov. Barkvo started the final table as the short stack but fought valiantly to climb the payouts. His exit hand saw him raise all-in from the button for five big blinds with Ah-Qc. Unfortunately for Barkov, Mike Watson woke up in the big blind with As-Kh. Barkov didn’t catch up and headed to the showers.

Kitai saw his stack dwindle, but he doubled through Parssinen to keep tabs on the leaders.

Bizarre Play Sends Astedt Home; Kitai Climbs the Payout Ladder

Astedt is one of the best tournament poker players to have ever received cards. One of his plays raised a few eyebrows. He open-shoved 35 big blinds from the cutoff with 6s-6h. Parssinen called all-in for 25 big blinds with 9d-9s, which held.

Kitai got his hands on the rest of Astedt’s stack with Ac-Qs versus the Swede’s 7s-7d.

Start-of-the-day chip leader Yan busted in fifth at the hands of Watson. It was a coinflip with ace-king that sent Yan to the rail. The New Zealander got his stack in with 4s-4h against Watson’s Ah-Kh. A king on the flop of the Jh-Kd-Ts-9h-As board spelt disaster for Yan. The $341,187 he collected will go some way to ease the pain.

Watson gave his chip stack a boost by claiming the chips and tournament life of Andrii Novak. Watson min-raised on the button before snapping off the six big blind shove from Novak. Novak turned over 7h-7d but Watson held Kd-Kc. Novak was drawing dead by the turn and Watson made quads for good measure.

Heads-Up Set; Almost $125,000 Difference in Payouts

Heads-up was set when Parssinen sent Watson to the sidelines. The sevens Watson beat to bust Novak came back to haunt him. Parssinen min-raise to 2,000,000 with As-Js, Watson jammed 15,000,000 chips in with 7h-7s and Parssinen called. There was a chance of a split pot because the first four cards of the Kc-4c-Tc-Ac-Th board were clubs, but it didn’t happen and Watson crashed out.

Kitai trailed Parssinen 16,031,630 to 42,058,470 chips. The Belgian doubled with Kh-Ts versus Kd-9d and never looked back.

The final hand took place at the 600,000/1,200,000/150,000a level. Parssinen committed his 15,000,000 chips with Ac-2s and Kitai called with Ah-8c. Both players flopped an ace, but there were no deuces on the turn or river, which busted Parsinnen.

Parssinen collected $602,066 for his runner-up finish, leaving Kitai to scoop $726,839 and the title of champion.

$10,300 Super MILLION$ Main Event Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	David Kitai	Belgium	$726,839
2	Eelis Parssinen	Finland	$602,066
3	Mike Watson	Canada	$498,713
4	Andrii Novak	Ukraine	$413,101
5	David Yan	New Zealand	$342,187
6	Niklas Astedt	Sweden	$283,445
7	Aleskei Barkov	Russia	$234,787
8	Aleks Ponakovs	Latvia	$194,482
9	Sergi Denisov	Russia	$161,097

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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