Is Mustapha Kanit Real?

It can’t be that easy to slip under the radar when you are barely out of your teens, already a poker multi-millionaire online, and holding the same status in the world of casino tournament play. Mustapha Kanit seemed to manage it, at least for a while, popping up as the subject of a 2+2 thread entitled ‘Is Mustapha Kanit real?’

AADYNASTY, the author of the original post, can be forgiven for his apparent disbelief at the young Italian’s results over the past year or two – they have been phenomenal to say the least, with huge wins in the SCOOP 10k – worth $1.3 million+ under his online pseudonym ‘Lasagnaaammm’ and popping out of the virtual felt to snag another $1 million dollar win in the Monaco High-Roller.

The thread itself descended into rather ridiculous ‘he’s a lucky so-and-so’ –type posts, with others pretty much wasting their time defending Kanit’s obvious talent. However, to balance the books, let’s take a look at just how good the young Italian has been running in detail.

In the beginning

Going back to 2011, his second year as a ‘live’ pro, and we find the sensation-to-be Kanit hitting it big-time with a well-earned 1st place in an IPT event in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Snagging €200,000 ($276,000) tends to bring you some attention from fellow players, especially when it doubles the earnings of your rookie year. The sign of something positive to come usually, although it often takes much longer for your typical pro to make the leap from contender to prince. As the first of many victories, it obviously bypassed many ‘poker fans’ – it would be 6 years and millions of dollars later before the ‘Is he real?’ question would surface!

Online wizard

Kanit’s primary online moniker – ‘Lasagnaaammm’ on PokerStars – shot to prominence when he lifted almost $¼ million for 4th place in the $10K. Almost exactly 2 years ago to the day, he again doubled his earnings in one fell swoop. A superb accomplishment to do this both online and in the live poker worlds, but for Mustapha it was just the beginning of a remarkable run.

Within 6 months, the online wizard would be regularly picking up such prizes, and for anyone still thinking it was a case of ‘running hot’ by the Italian poker prodigy, consider the probability of cashing over 1100 times in 4 years? That would be a machine-like production line of poker cash-outs, and Kanit’s play is anything but machine-like.

He has a hyper-aggressive approach to the game – no doubt one of the reasons that ‘lucky’ appears next to his names on forums – but as anyone who has played the game knows, such aggression places opponents in extremely difficult situations more often – then mistakes start to appear, and the fearlessness of youth is always willing to pounce on frailty.

No fear - only respect!

This modern-day approach to poker, where the young aggressively try to ‘feed off the old’, thankfully doesn’t cross over into Mustapha’s personality. Playing live, he is rarely without a genuinely friendly smile – and in interviews he comes across as a warm, thoughtful and respectful individual. When his results started to be counted in the millions of $, it would be easy for the young man to go off the rails, but Kanit’s philosophy was simply to keep playing and enjoying the game, learning from the painful defeats and staying grounded after the massive wins.

Was his response when asked in a PokerNews interview about his status as ‘the best tournament player in the world’.

Out of the Crowd

Speaking of 2015, and the ‘Is Mustapha Kanit real?’ question, his results have been astonishing, catapulting him out of the pack of young and successful players into the poker stratosphere. As AADYNASTY pointed out on his ‘disbelieving’ 2+2 thread.

Check out these scores in the past year:

• 3rd in a WCOOP 10k for $400k
• 1st in Sunday 500: $65k
• 2nd in Sunday 109 rebuy: $46,000$
• 2 more WCOOP cashes for over $440,000
• Ships FTOPS Main Event: $239,000
• Ships SCOOP 2K Turbo: $376,000
• Ships Scoop 10k/hardest online MTT: $1.3 million
• Ships 50,000 live buy-in: $1 million
• Ships 10k EPT Barcelona: $864,000

Check them out indeed! That’s an awful lot of money, but apparently Kanit’s motivation doesn’t come from the impressive (by anyone’s standards) cash-outs. They may have jumped him into what could be an almost permanent 1st place in Italy’s all-time money-winners list, but they are not the driving force.

Money and Motivation

Was his response to Pokernews this year, shortly after lifting the Super High Roller event in Monte Carlo for $1m, the SCOOP Main Event for $1.3m, and in the FTOPS Main Event (for a measly $239,000!)

Online/Offline

The balance between the virtual poker world and the green felt of the real-life casino has proven extremely difficult for the majority of players over the years. Excelling in both takes an enormous amount of talent, a lot of time and a natural understanding of the games’ differences, but if push came to shove the Italian – who moved from his homeland Italy, firstly to Malta and then to London “it's a perfect location. Poker is legal and the players are protected by the law” – admits he would choose the virtual felt.

Said Kanit in a PokerNews interview - although this would spell good news for a lot of the opposition on the various tours, it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

His 1st place at last month’s Barcelona $10K High Roller – netting him close to $850,000 – will doubtlessly provide the motivation for a new ‘golden’ run for the 24-year old. Although he has played all over the world, his main home and friends are in Europe and the EPT has now become a profitable and happy hunting-ground for Kanit.

To finally answer the introductory question, ‘Is Mustapha Kanit real?’ the answer is a resounding yes! He’s real; he’s really, REALLY good…and because of his ‘dual nationality’ of both online and real-life poker, there is really no hiding place from the Italian sensation!