Davidi Kitai (born 28 September 1979) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

professional

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player who won the

2008 World Series of Poker The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30th, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All ...

$2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event for $244,583, becoming the first Belgian to win a

WSOP bracelet The World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP. Even if the victory occurred before 197 ...

. He also has won 2 other

bracelets A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a wikt:supportive, supportive function to hold other items of ...

and has an EPT title and a WPT title, along with numerous other big scores and titles. In February 2011, Kitai won his second big title in the WPT Celebrity Invitational event, earning $100,000. At the 2012

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Tex ...

in Berlin, Kitai won his first EPT title earning €712,000 in the €5,000 Main Event. In the heads-up phase Kitai was trailing Andrew Chen but his infamous hero all-in call with K♣5♣ on a 2♣Q♣8♡-4♠-5♢ board gave him a considerable lead over Chen as he went on to win the match. He became one of only five players to win poker's

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Trip ...

, joining

Gavin Griffin Gavin Griffin (born August 28, 1981 in Darien, Illinois) is an American professional poker player. He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Starting as an internet poker player he successfully made the transition to live pok ...

Bertrand Grospellier Bertrand Grospellier (; born 8 February 1981 in Melun), also known as ElkY , is a French poker player and former '' StarCraft: Brood War'' and ''Warcraft III'' esports player. He has won a World Poker Tour (WPT), a World Series of Poker (WSOP) ...

Jake Cody Jake Cody (born 4 July 1988) is a professional poker player from Rochdale, England, United Kingdom. He entered the European tournament scene in 2010 with major wins at the European Poker Tour event in Deauville in January where he won €857,00 ...

, and

Roland De Wolfe Roland De Wolfe is an English professional poker player and a former writer for the poker magazine ''Inside Edge''. After winning first prize in an event at the 2004 Gutshot Poker Festival, De Wolfe went on to cash in the $1,000 No Limit even ...

. Poker's

consists of winning a

as well as main event titles on the WPT and EPT. There was some debate on the legitimacy of his

achievement since his WPT win was the Celebrity Invitational event, thus not being an open event and arguments that this charity event had a weakened field. Although he had to beat 482 players to win it, including almost every famous pro poker player. But the WPT eventually officially stated that they recognise the Invitational as an official WPT main event. Kitai won his second

bracelet A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a wikt:supportive, supportive function to hold other items of ...

at the

2013 World Series of Poker The 2013 World Series of Poker was the 44th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada between May 29 – July 15, 2013. There was 62 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Li ...

in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event, defeating

Cary Katz Cary Steven Katz (born January 29, 1970) is an American businessman and poker player. Career Katz graduated from University of Georgia with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration. In 1999, he founded the College Loan Corporation, where ...

heads-up and earning $224,560. His third

came in the $3,000 6-Max Event of the

2014 WSOP The 2014 World Series of Poker is the 45th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). It was held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Paradise, Nevada, USA, between May 27 – July 14, 2014. There were 65 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 ...

, where he had to get past Gordon Vayo heads-up to complete his WSOP hattrick while bagging $508,640. Kitai won the 25K Super High Roller of the PartyPoker Millions Barcelona 2018 for €700,000. And in November 2020 Kitai won the Super MILLION$ $10,300 Main Event on GGPoker for $726,839, defeating a final table with other top players like Niklas Åstedt, David Yan, Mike Watson, Aleks Ponakovs and Eelis Parssinen. On January 7 of 2015, Kitai was ranked #2 on the

Global poker index The Global Poker Index (GPI) is a leaderboard index that ranks over 450,000 live tournament poker players in the world. The GPI poker rankings are updated on a weekly basis. Players’ performances are assessed by their finishing positions in pok ...

, which ranks the top live tournament players in the world Davidi Kitai's GPI profile
/ref> His total live tournament winnings exceed the magical $10,000,000 mark.

World Series of Poker bracelets

Online Poker

Although he mainly plays live tournaments, Kitai has some impressive online scores as well. He plays under the screen name “''legrouzin''” on PokerStars, where he won hundreds of thousands of dollars in MTT cashes. In November 2020, he took down the $10,300 Super MILLION$ Main Event for $726,839 on Natural8-GGNetwork.

Personal life

It was Davidi Kitai's childhood dream to become a professional footballer player. He played on an amateur level for low-tier clubs in Belgium until he was 20. He then graduated in Economics and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 22. Later on, he tried to open a running online and retail store in Brussels, Belgium, unsuccessfully.

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitai, Davidi Belgian poker players 1979 births Living people World Series of Poker bracelet winners World Poker Tour winners European Poker Tour winners