In a tragic story, a poker hopeful on his way to the World Series of Poker passed away from an apparent heart attack. According to reports, Paul “Smalls” Kitsos (55), started feeling ill just 20 minutes into his flight from New York to San Francisco and called for the flight attendant. When Ken Pace got to Mr. Kitsos, he said Kitsos was, “sweating profusely and breathing heavily.” Just 30 minutes later, with the flight on its way back to New York a doctor on board the plane pronounced Paul Kitsos dead.

Kitsos was extremely overweight which likely played a role in his sudden death. Over the past 5 years Kitsos has been a fairly regular face on the poker tournament circuit, with almost $400,000 in career winnings, including cashing in both the 2006 and 2008 WSOP Main Event. His biggest win came in the 2008 Borgata Summer Poker Open where he made the final table finishing in 5th place, and pocketing $103,500.

Kitsos was the owner of a clothing company aimed at plus-sized women and is survived by his wife Stella, and son Nicholas whom he texted just before take-off, “Daddy misses you already.”

Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, Paul Kitsos, Paul Kitsos dead, Paul “Smalls” Kitsos, World Series of Poker

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.