Davidi Kitai Leads The Final Six at WPT Mazagan

The WPT Champions Club member and Triple Crown Winner, Davidi Kitai, ran as hot as lava today. The man was a poker powerhouse. Playing patiently for most of this tournament, Kitai slowly grinded his stack into one of the most impressive in the room and then…just like that…the man changed gears and went off like a rocket. When he found cards he hurt people. When he had no cards, he hurt people. Kitai was unstoppable and will return for tomorrows final table with 50% of the chips in play. Can anyone stop him from winning his second WPT Main Event title? We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, sit back and relax as we take you through the Day Three recap and figure out how the hell we managed to get from 25-players down to our final table of six.

The Day Three Recap

The first level of the day was 15. It started with a Gaelle Baumann double up and ended with a Gaelle Baumann elimination. In one of the first hands of the day Baumann found pocket nines to double through the sevens of Sergei Vasilyev, but he would have his revenge; finding pockets kings at the same time a 12BB stacked Baumann moved all-in with pocket sevens.

Sandwiched in between that action, like pickles and beef, were the eliminations of Eric Botella, Paul Labiche and Nicolas Dervaux. Bruno Lopes, Mbarek Saadi and Jeremy Nock rubbing fatter stacks as a consequence.

The first level of the day also saw Achiles Voltolina put his name forward as a potential candidate for success. Voltolina didn’t mess around and decided to choose the chip leader as the focus of his attention. By the time the level had ended a significant portion of the chip leaders stack was sitting in front of Voltolina.

21-players ended the level and despite the attention of Voltolina, Beauvois retained the chip lead with 436,000 chips.

Two players were squeezed out during the 16th level. The PMU Team Pro Jean Philippe Rohr was eliminated by Sebastien Compte 66<88 and Leonard Truche was eliminated by Jeremy Nock JJ<AK. The Truche elimination pushed Nock over the half a million mark and he became our chip leader.

Our former chip leader, Clement Beauvois, doubled up Paul Tedeschi to drop to the 400,000-mark and Guillaume Darcourt escaped elimination by the skin of his teeth when his pocket nines out flopped the pocket aces of Omar Karib. The level ended with 19-players and it was time to play the bubble during Level 17.

The bubble was neither too slow nor too fast. When it came it was the name of Victor Choupeaux who was on everybody’s lips, and at the end of everybody’s fingertips. He shoved from the button with ace-three and was called by Davidi Kitai holding ace-king. The elimination saw Kitai overtake Nock as the chip leader after Nock lost a big pot to Guillaume Darcourt to take him down to 390,000 chips.

After that elimination Kitai went from strength to strength and he was also responsible for the elimination of the 18th place finisher David Chekroun. The pair got it in on a [Qc] [6d] [4s] flop with Kitai holding middle set and Chekroun holding top pair with a king kicker. Kitai was getting close to one million chips and was in danger of running away with it.

While Kitai was building his huge sandcastle type structure, Fabrice Soulier was just getting started at the other end, a double up through Bruno "Koolshen" Lopes handing him a stack of 60,000 chips.

At the end of the level there were 17-players remaining, David Kitai was the chip leader and it looked like we were going to be here all night.

Level 18 saw Mbarek Saadi, Omar Karib, Bruno Louy and Achiles Voltolina all leave the tournament. Saadi had one of those insane moments that some players have from time to time. It was a simple enough hand. Saadi limped like he had been doing all tournament, Bruno Lopes raised to isolate and Saadi moved all-in for 33BB with just [Kd] [Jh]! Lopes called with [As] [Qs] and the net result was a tiny stack for Saadi. That tiny stack was reduced to zero in a hand with Sergei Vasilyev not long after. Davidi Kitai eliminated Bruno Louy and Omar Karib, while Charles Harvey’s pocket queens destroyed the ace-nine of the once vaulted Achiles Voltolina.

12-players ended the level and Kitai was the chip leader with 1,115,000 chips.

Two players eliminated in Level 19, and both excellent players in there own right. Fabrice Soulier was eliminated in a blind battle against Frederic Brunet. Soulier was the short stack when he shoved with [Qx] [7x] in the small blind. Brunet looked at one card and called. It was, of course, an ace and when he turned the second card over it was another ace: Soulier out in 12th. Then Brunet caused a lot of damage to Lopes that left him as one of the short stacks. He later shoved with [Kc] [Jc] and was called by the pocket jacks of Paul Tedeschi. Lopes hit a king on the flop, but the case jack on the river sent him packing in 11th.

The level ended with 10-players remaining and Davidi Kitai in the lead with 1,300,000, over twice as many chips as Clement Beauvois in second place.

Another level and another two players bite the dust. Sebastien Compte started the level as the short stack and so it should come as no surprise that he was the first player eliminated. Compte moved all-in over a Clement Beauvois open holding [5h] [5s] and Beauvois made the call holding [Ah] [Th], the ace on the flop sending Compte to the rail.

Every major final table usually has a rock and it seemed that this table’s rock would be Charles Harvey. We are not sure if he was card dead or just tight in general but there was no way Harvey was going to leave without a fight…or so we thought. In a three way single raised pot Harvey c-bet on a flop of [7s] [4s] [4c] only to be put all-in by Giacomo Fundaro from the big blind. Harvey eventually called the shove with just pocket treys and Fundaro was holding ace-seven.

"I just didn’t believe him," said Harvey.

It’s ok Charles nobody else did either. The level ended with eight players remaining and Kitai still the overwhelming chip leader.

There was just a single elimination in Level 21 and it was the WPT Champions Club member Guillaume Darcourt. The pink haired Frenchman found himself rooted to the bottom of the chip counts after a series of losses, before his final hand of the day. He open shoved with pocket eights and Bruno Fitoussi called with ace-jack. A jack on the flop eliminating Darcourt and secured Fitoussi’s spot at the final table.

Level 21 ended with seven players in the hunt and Kitai running away with the thing.

Two main talking points in the final level of play. Frederic Brunet doubles through Clement Beauvois T9>AQ in a hand that gave Jeremy Nock a migraine or twelve (Nock forced to also fold ace-queen). Brunet securing his place at the final table. That left Paul Tedeschi as far and away the shortest stack. He moved it into the middle on the strength of ace-ten and Clement Beauvois brought down the hammer with ace-queen. The talented Tedeschi out in seventh and our final table was set in stone.

Final Standings

1. Davidi Kitai – 1,940,000
2. Clement Beauvois – 668,000
3. Giacomo Fundaro – 644,000
4. Jeremy Nock – 405,000
5. Bruno Fitoussi – 392,000
6. Frederic Brunet – 316,000

If you want to view the wonderful photographs from today then click here.

If you would like to listen to our interview with the chip leader Davidi Kitai then click here.

We return at 13:00 (WET) for the final table of WPT Mazagan where you can either follow the live updates or listen to the Voice of Poker Jesse May, who will be providing commentary on our live stream.