Avitan, 34, is almost certainly the only player at this season's final table who has already cashed in a side event. After finishing Day 1b on just 34,000, Avitan slipped across the room to enter a $300 turbo side event - and finished second for $13,500. Avitan took up poker six years ago on a Caribbean cruise and, although he only played three live tournaments so far, he has already had reasonable results. In June, he finished seventh in a WPT Barcelona side event for € 4,300 and he also came sixth in a $500 WPT Cyprus side event in September.
The Israeli realtor came to Prague with his friend Ran Azor who was runner-up at the WPT Championship in April for nearly $1.5 million. Azor has now gone home and Avitan's wife Karen is back in Israel caring for the couple's 11-month-old twins Noam and Shani. The lack of supporters on the rail has clearly had little negative effect on Avitan's game however and he described reaching the final as a "dream come true".
