Who is Davidi Kitai?
In the summer of 2014, with the action down to two tables in event 15 of the WSOP, one man was quietly gathering chips at an alarming rate. Sat across from him, was PHil hellmuth, the most decorated player in WSOP history, loudly doing the opposite. Belgian born Davidi Kitai, already had two WSOP bracelets to his name, along with a WPT and an EPT title, making him one of the five people in history to hold the live poker triple crown. Just as he has been doing his whole career, he sat there, politely torturing a player who had wrongly guessed himself to be the best player at the table. Phil Hellmuth blended ignorance with arrogance effortlessly as he remarked, “Crazy Frenchman is going to cost me my 14th bracelet” before adding, ”Of course he’s never won a tournament.” Davidi ended up winning this tournement. It wasn’t the first one and it won’t be the last one.
It remains an amazing fact that Davidi Kitai isn’t more widely spoken of as one of the great players in the game today. His career results, in addition to some of the plays he has made at televised final tables, are truly exceptional. He went on to crush the final table of event 15, winning his third WSOP bracelet in the process.
Playing The Game
In a world where highly aggressive play has been reaping benefits for years, it is perhaps easy to forget how much value there is in playing a balanced style. While Kitai can 4 bet light with the best of them if the situation requires it, he is also very comfortable making complicated post flop decisions and picking off river bluffs. At a recent final table he called down river bluffs with Q high twice in the space of a couple of hours, and was correct both times. Kitai speaks, and plays, with confidence when it comes to live tells. All too often when a pro player is commentating and claims “Kitai has the best hand but has to fold here,” he makes an amazing call, which is a clear indicator of where Kitai stands among his fellow professionals. He also now plays the high roller circuit, which is sure to boost his career earnings greatly in the next few years. They already stand at $6 million, with $2.5 million of that coming in 2014.
Davidi Kitai talking with Pokernews about live tells
The Future
Curently, Davidi Kitai is ranked 6th in the Global Poker Index, and has expressed his desire to claim the number 1 spot, at least for a short while. He also claims that the GPI has fuelled his desire to play more High Roller tournaments and keep his focus sharper than ever before. Without doubt, Davidi Kitai is not only a prolific poker player from Belgium, but could easily emerge as the greatest ever European player in years to come. When he cashes in a tournament, he makes the final table 38% of the time. When he makes the final table, he wins the tournament 39% of the time. He is a very special talent, and seems to grow in ability, if not renown, every year.
Read more: Davidi Kitai on Hendon Mob and GPI
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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