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Monday, June 23, 2008
2008 WSOP Day 25: Score one for Belgium
By Sarah Polson
Belgium is finally in the World Series of Poker history books after Davidi Kitai, from Brussels, rose to the top of a 605-person playing field to win the 2008 WSOP $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event on Sunday.
This makes Belgium the ninth nation to produce a gold bracelet winner at this year's World Series of Poker. Along with Belgium, winners have come from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia and the United States.
In tandem with Kitai's bracelet win on Sunday, a few other events played down to a final table or got started, as poker players from all over the world make their attempt to join that list of winners.
Event 38
As the final table took off on Sunday, it looked like it was going to be a quick day for players. The first seven players were knocked out in three and a half hours, in the first 101 hands of play.
Then it took nearly five hours for the final two players to wrap up the game as Kitai battled with tournament regular Chris Bell, who had been playing a monster final table, taking out five of the seven other players himself before heads-up began.
The two players swapped the chip lead back and forth 10 times before Kitai finally got the upper hand.
On the final hand, Bell raised the pot from the button and Kitai bet enough to put Bell all-in. Bell made the call and showed A
J to Kitai's A
Q.
The board came 7
63T
4, and Kitai had the win. He straps on a shiny new bracelet and pockets more than $240,000 for the win.
The final-table results were:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Davidi Kitai | $244,583 |
| 2nd | Chris Bell | $155,805 |
| 3rd | Keith Greer | $94,694 |
| 4th | Jan Von Halle | $77,077 |
| 5th | Lee Watkinson | $63,313 |
| 6th | Robert Cheung | $50,100 |
| 7th | Ayaz Mahmood | $39,089 |
| 8th | Ben Roberts | $30,830 |
| 9th | Michele Greco | $22,572 |
Some other familiar names who made it into the money in this event include Michael Binger, who just missed the final table in 11th place, plus Clonie Gowen, Marco Traniello, Vanessa Rousso and Roy Winston.
To see how the event played out, visit the Event 38 live updates, and check out what Kitai had to say about his win in his post-game interview.
Event 39
Another $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event is nearly in the books after two days of play. The event started out with 2,720 players on Saturday and after two days of play, the final nine will return to battle for the bracelet and bragging rights today.
The players coming to the table are:
| Name | Chip Count |
| Thom Werthmann | $1,600,000 |
| Thanh Dat Tran | $1,255,000 |
| Curtis Early | $1,225,000 |
| David Woo | $1,090,000 |
| Matt Wood | $675,000 |
| Habib Khanis | $645,000 |
| Eric Beren | $640,000 |
| Jim Paras | $535,000 |
| Michael Glasser | $495,000 |
Barry Greenstein was one of the few big-name pros who cashed in this event along with Kenna James, David Plastik, Nicholas Binger and others.
PokerListings' own Martin Derbyshire set aside his notebook and camera for a while as well to partake in this event. Poker fans can read about his journey into the money as well in his blog.
Play will resume at 2 p.m. and so will the PokerListings live coverage.
Event 40
Two more events got their start on Sunday, the first being the 2-7 Triple-Draw Lowball (Limit) event. It drew 238 players to create a $547,400 prize pool.
After one day of play, the field is down to 30, with only the top 24 making it into the money.
Among those still in the running to make some money are Raymond Davis, Greg Raymer, Robert Mizrachi, Chau Giang, John Phan, David Sklansky, Ralph Perry and Billy Baxter.
They will return to the Amazon Room at the Rio today at 2 p.m. to resume play. Check out the action in the Event 40 live updates.
Event 41
The second event to get its start on Sunday, the $1,500 Mixed Hold'em event, drew in 731 players when it started at 5 p.m. That field is already down to just 98 players who will return today to battle for a piece of the $998,815 prize pool.
Some of the players in the running include David Plastik, David Levi, Lou Esposito, Nick Binger, Rolf Slotboom and others.
The top 72 players will get paid in this event, and today's action will bring the playing field down to the top nine players. The cards will be back in the air again at 3 p.m. with live coverage from PokerListings.com.
Event 42
Only one event is scheduled to get started today at the 2008 WSOP and that the $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em World Championship.
For this event, players must be at least 50 years old. This special event tends to draw in a big field; last year 1,882 players showed up, and Ernest Bennett was the lucky winner of the $348,423 first-place prize.
The action gets started at noon and you won't want to miss any of the goodies being produced in the Live Tournaments section, such as daily videos, player interviews, live updates and more.
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