The Georgian amateur has been crushing all before him this week, cruising to victory in both the $1,100 NLH Freezeout and $1,100 PLO Bounty for a combined €49,680. Now he’s gone and bagged the big one, too.
This is a guy who only had nine live tournament cashes until a couple of weeks ago and only two in the last six years.
It’s also been a relatively quiet event, possibly after Matt Savage gave advanced warning to both Will Kassouf and Martin Kabrhel.
Action Recap
Seven players returned to the playing hall for the final day’s action, with only Sweden’s Tobias Garp missing from the final table line-up after he was knocked out at the end of the previous day.
Ignacio Sole was the first player of the day to face elimination, getting his A♦ K♦ all-in against James Mahone’s A♠ J♥.
The board ran out J♦ 6♣ 3♦ 5♣ A♥ and the best hand lost.
With six left in, the official six-man final table was declared, leaving us expecting a change in pace and a flurry of action.
Instead what we got was a full 39 hands without an elimination until Uladzimir Zhyharau bowed out. The Belarussian began the day as chip leader but failed to get any momentum going.
Next to leave was Nikolai Zhadanov, only three hands later. Pocket nines against Mahone’s queen-ten didn’t work when a ten came on the flop.
Elena Litviniuk started the day with dreams about becoming only the third woman in WPT history to have her name etched on the Mike Sexton Champions Cup. But the young Russian had started off with the smallest stack and was out in fourth place when her aces got cracked by Rafal Chmura.
Three-handed play lasted a long 81 hands with no player prepared to take any extreme risks with the top-heavy prize fund.
The tension broke when Chmura and Kitsbabahvili faced a flop of J♥ 7♠ 4♠ with the Georgian moving all-in. Chmura shrugged and snapped it off with A♥ A♣ while his opponent flipped over 5♥ 6♥ for the straight draw.
The 10♥ didn’t switch the advantage but it did give Kitsbabahvili a flush draw which came in on the river with the 2♥.
Heads-up play began with Kitsbabahvili wielding a stack of 24 million while Mahone prepared to fight with 14.5 million.
It looked like it could have been a great match but over the 22 hands played all we saw was Kitsbabahvili extending his advantage.
The final hand was Kitsbabahvili racing his A♠ 7♠ against Mahone’s 5♦ 5♣. The board ran out J♦ 7♣ 6♣ 2♥ Q♦ to give the Georgian his first career title and Mahone $255,000 for his runner up performance.
Kitsbabahvili’s $401,100 winner’s prize included a $10,400 entry into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
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WPT Cyprus Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Ilia Kitsbabahvili | Georgia | $401,100* |
| 2nd | James Mahone | England | $255,000 |
| 3rd | Rafal Chmura | Slovakia | $190,000 |
| 4th | Elena Litviniuk | Russia | $142,000 |
| 5th | Nikolai Zhadanov | Russia | $107,000 |
| 6th | Uladzimir Zhyharau | Belarus | $82,000 |
| 7th | Ignacio Sole | Spain | $63,000 |
| 8th | Tobias Garp | Sweden | $49,000 |
