When it comes to European professional poker players, few have been as consistent and solid as Davidi Kitai. The Belgian has dominated poker events all over the world for the best part of a decade, which has established Kitai as one of the world’s best.
Undoubtedly the strongest piece of evidence that backs Kitai’s poker prowess is the fact that he is one of just five players to have the won game’s illustrious, but unofficial ‘triple crown’. That is, Kitai has won a WSOP Gold Bracelet (in fact, he’s won three of them), a World Poker Tour (WPT) title and a European Poker Tour (EPT) title.
That is an accolade that the majority of the most notable poker players – think Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson and the like – have not been able to achieve thus far. However, it only took Kitai just under four years to take out the distinguished poker hat trick, having won his first WSOP Gold Bracelet in June 2008 and his EPT title in April 2012. He won his WPT title, an invitational event, in February 2011.
While his triple crown achievement alone is enough to argue that Kitai is one of the best players to ever grace a professional poker table, that case is further strengthened by his other solid achievements in his professional career.
As previously mentioned, Kitai has won three WSOP Gold Bracelets to date. He also has six WSOP final table finishes and 23 in-the-money finishes to his name. While those numbers may be a bit on the low side when compared with some other players – again think Hellmuth and Ivey – Kitai is likely in the early stages of his poker career.
The Belgian has gone in the money at every single WSOP since 2007, and at just 34 years of age, Kitai could see even more final table finishes and Gold Bracelets should that trend continue. As if his WSOP achievements were not enough, Kitai’s poker resume also includes two final table finishes at both the WPT and the EPT, as well as a total of nine in-the-money finishes in the latter series.
Kitai has also shown a talent for high roller events, having performed well in numerous such tournaments over the past few years. Cases in point, he made the final tables in both the High Roller and Super High Roller events in the 2014 Asia Championship of Poker, winning over US$510,000 in one week.
He also finished in third place at last year’s High Roller 8 Max event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, and took out second spot at the WSOP Europe High Roller event in Berlin in October. All of which have helped contribute to Kitai’s US$6.6 million in total live poker tournament earnings, an amount that will likely keep increasing as Kitai keeps establishing himself as one of poker’s top European players.
