 Belgian pro Davidi Kitai gave his country its first ever EPT champion tonight, winning EPT Berlin for €712,000 . Kitai, 32, from Brussels, won the event after beating fellow EPT regular Andrew Chen heads-up.
For Kitai, it was his second EPT final – he came third at EPT Barcelona in Season 5 for €455,000. Chen, 24, from Toronto now has three finals to his name - he finished third at EPT Prague in Season 5 for €257,000, fifth at the Season 6 EPT Grand Final for €400,000 and has now picked up €613,000 for his runner-up finish here in Germany. Ironically, Kitai and Chen shared a cab to EPT Berlin after landing at the airport at the same time.
Kitai is the only Belgian who has won both a WSOP bracelet and a WPT title, and with his EPT victory has now achieved poker’s elusive “Triple Crown”. Today was the third time that a Belgian has reached the heads-up stage of an EPT Main Event.
He said: “It’s amazing to win! I’m feeling great. I didn’t expect to beat that field and it was a very tough final table. I’m going to celebrate with all my friends in Belgium, and in France, and we’re going to celebrate in Monte Carlo for sure.” Both Kitai and Chen are competing in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final Main Event which starts next Wednesday.
PokerStars player Andrew Chen has been playing EPTs since Season 5 and his €613,000 runner-up finish in Berlin brings his total live tournament winnings to nearly $3 million. He is also a highly successful online pro with results that include second place in the PokerStars.com Sunday Million and third place in the PokerStars Turbo Championship of Online Poker $200 no-limit event in January.
A total of 745 players from 51 countries competed in EPT Berlin, creating a total prize pool of [gren]€3,725,000[/green]. 112 places were paid.
In other EPT Berlin side events, Swedish pro Rifat Palevic won the €2,000 no-limit side event. Canadian Michael Watson won the €5,000 no-limit Turbo event for €70,300, while Czech pro Ondrej Vinklarek, who is currently leading the race to be EPT Player of the Year, scored another 225 Award points by finishing third for €26,600. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Chris Moorman were still battling it out for the €231,000 first prize in the €10,000 High Roller as the Main Event ended.
The Main Event final was filmed for TV and broadcast live on PokerStars.tv.
Final standings:
1, Davidi Kitai, Belgium, €712,000
2, Andrew Chen, Canada, PokerStars player, €613,000
3, Andre Morath, Germany , PokerStars qualifier, €290,000
4, Mario Puccini, Germany , PokerStars qualifier, €220,000
5, Bahadir Kilickeser, Germany, €172,000
6, César García, Spain , PokerStars player, €133,000
7, Marc Wright, UK , €97,000
8, Pratyush Buddiga, USA , €72,000
The next and final stop for EPT Season 8 is the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final. This flagship Festival of Poker is running from April 23 to May 1, 2012 at Le Sporting Casino in Monaco and kicks off with the €100k Super High Roller on Monday.
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