WSOP 2013 Main Event November Niner Amir Lehavot
Amir Lehavot is no stranger to the World Series of Poker. At 38 years of age, the American professional poker player has cashed in 11 WSOP events over the years, including a 226th in-the-money finish in the 2009 WSOP Main Event. He also wrangled in a gold bracelet in the 2011 WSOP Pot Limit Holdem Championship worth $573,546, adding to his career total of $1,543,116 in live tournament winnings.
The second highest chip leader of the final table, Lehavot is one of only two players in this year’s November Nine to have a gold bracelet on his mantle. The chip leader, JC Tran, has two WSOP bracelets, and is the only player more decorated and experienced than Amir.
Although he now resides in Weston, Florida, Lehavot was born in Israel, having moved to the United States at the age of sixteen, where he attended the University of Texas and earned a degree in engineering. He then spent a few years in California, working in the technology industry in San Francisco. In 2004, he decided to take an extended vacation, traveling around the USA. It was during that time that he discovered his calling within the game of poker.
He began racking up live tournament cashes in 2007 around California, just small-time cashes over the first two years, all in the low 4-digit range. In 2009, his cashes grew to 5-figures, $12,500 for a 39th place finish in the Bay 101 Shooting Star WPT NL Holdem Championship, and his first WSOP cash of $32,963 in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Lehavot continued to land in live event bubbles throughout 2010, and in 2011 snagged his second largest paycheck to date, winning $421,680 for a deep 4th place finish in the LA Poker Classic WPT Spotlight NL Holdem Championship. Just three months later, Amir’s most acclaimed victory occurred when he routed a field of 249 in the $10k buy-in WSOP Pot Limit Holdem Championship of the 2011 WSOP, claiming his first WSOP bracelet and his largest career cash of $573,456. Remarkably enough, that was the very first Pot Limit event Amir Lehavot had ever attempted, besting such prolific pros as Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Nenad Medic and Robert Mizrachi.
As proficient as Amir Lehavot has been in land-based casinos, his online poker prowess is equally impressive. The American poker pro has won over $1.5 million playing online poker and runs his own internet poker training site, Pokerwit.com. As it sits, Lehvaot is guaranteed to win a minimum of $733,224 should he be the first eliminated from the 2013 WSOP November Nine, or as much as $8,359,531 for a WSOP Championship victory. He currently sits in the second best position with 29,700,000 chips, approximately 8 million behind the leader, JC Tran.
The 2013 WSOP Main Event November Nine has shaped up as follows, listed by chip stacks:
- JC Tran –38,000,000
- Amir Lehavot –29,700,000
- Marc-Etienne McLaughlin – 26,525,000
- Jay Farber – 25,975,000
- Ryan Riess – 25,875,000
- Sylvain Loosli – 19,600,000
- Michiel Brummelhuis – 11,275,000
- Mark Newhouse – 7,350,000
- David Benefield – 6,375,000
And finally, the calculated payouts for the 2013 WSOP Main Event November Nine will be as follows:
- 1st place: $8,359,531
- 2nd place: $5,173,170
- 3rd place: $3,727,023
- 4th place: $2,791,983
- 5th place: $2,106,526
- 6th place: $1,600,792
- 7th place: $1,225,224
- 8th place: $944,593
- 9th place: $733,224
Amir Lehavot’s blend of engineering & poker journeys is intriguing but recounting tourney placements gets repetitive. Curious for strategic insights!