Yes, finally, what seemed the inevitable result once the players were reduced to four handed has come to fruition.

The talented Frenchman David Benyamine has become the latest big name pro to take down a bracelet, his first victory at the WSOP.

Here's how he won.

Divine David (Ba)-Gets The Bracelet!!

Benyamine entered the heads up with a 3 to 1 chip advantage and with his aggressive style, he relentlessly ground his opponent, Greg Jamison down until Jamison was being set all-in every hand.

It would have taken a miracle for Jamison to recover at this point, but he made a good fist of winning his all-ins, surviving four or five times, before Benyamine finally hammered the last nail into his coffin.

Holding T T Q 3, Benyamine set Jamison all-in and he called with Q K 6 2 for his tournament life.

The flop was an astounding J T 9, giving Jamison the nut straight but Benyamine a set. Needing to boat up to take it down, David did just that, hitting a J on the turn to leave Jamison drawing dead on the 3 river.

Benyamine held his arms aloft, a big smile breaking out across the Frenchman's face as he secured his first bracelet and soaked up the wild applause of the delighted rail.

Greg Jamison picked up $331,350 for his efforts, falling just short of the bracelet, but David Benyamin is the $10,000 Omaha/8 World Championship Champion, collecting $535,687 for this win and of course adding himself to the select roster of WSOP bracelet winners!

Click here for a full interview with the man of the moment.

We send our congratulations to David Benyamine for an immense performance and an immense result.

 

Mike Matusow has been on the ropes for a while, and although he's been battling valiantly, his tournament life has finally breathed its last, to the disappointment of much of the onlooking rail.

Here's how that came to be.

The Mouth Muzzled (OUT - 5th)

Mike Matusow was down to $290,000 in chips, which with the blinds at $25,000 $50,000 meant he was always going to struggle, barring a quick double.

He went for the throat with A Q 6 3, against the A K 7 6 of Greg Jamison, but a board of Kc A 8 was quite bad news for him, meaning he was just drawing to just the low.

Looking for baby cards the J on the turn, and counterfeiting 8 river, left Jamison to scoop the pot up meaning Mike Matusow is OUT, eliminated in 4th place, winning $138.062, finishing just short of picking up his second bracelet in the 2008 WSOP.

Ta-ta Toto (OUT - 4th)

Toto Leonidas was the next player to bust as we close in on the bracelet, all-in in the big blind, Benyamine hit a King high flush to send him to the rail and leave the players three handed.

Toto Leonidas is OUT, eliminated in 3rd place, winning $171,197.

Fade To Gray (OUT - 3rd)

Gray again was short and again it was Benyamine who dealt the fatal blow hitting two jacks with his J-T-T-9 against the unfortunate Gray's A-2-3-Q.

A 2 came on the turn to give Gray a shot at halving the pot, but Benyamine faded a baby card on the river to leave Gray's hopes and ambitions of winning a bracelet here in tatters.

Jason Gray is OUT, eliminated in 3rd spot, winning $209,855.

Since three handed Benyamine has been piling on the pressure, marrying his aggressive play with hitting more than his fair share of cards and it looks increasingly likely the French player will take down the bracelet as he enters the heads up with a mighty chip lead, with roughly $3 million to Greg Jamison's $1 million.

Can Benyamine do it and continue the 'Year Of The Pro'?

 

The last hour has seen an eruption of action as the blind to average stack size ratio closes in. It's been a volcano of activity and the crowd of onlookers are loving the action as lava and magma in the form of chips flies all over the place.

Here's the low-down.

Catch-a-lot Katchalov

Down to a mere $70,000 in chips, Eugene Katchalov has miraculously managed to survive three all-in confrontations.

First he doubled up off Mike Matusow, his 7-2-3-4 besting Mike's A-2-T-K as he picked up a full house with no low dealt out. Next up, all his chips in the centre preflop again, he chopped versus David Benyamine, as he picked up a low with his 7-4-8-6 versus Benyamine's high only hand.

Finally he doubled through yet again, tangling with the imposing figure of Benyamine once more, making a full house to rake the pot and shoot up to a still vulnerable but much improved $300,000 in chips.

His short stack ninja skills have helped him ladder up several payout spots as you can see below.

Chiu Down (OUT - 8th)

David Chiu has been eliminated at the hands of Greg Jamison. He found himself pretty short and was all-in pre against Jamison's raise.

His 3-5-5-4 stood a chance of at least splitting versus Jamison's A-T-K-K as any non-counterfeiting low dealt out would give him half, but a board of J-7-T-8-Q gave Jamison a dominant broadway straight to send his opponent spiralling off to the rail.

David Chiu is OUT, eliminated in 8th spot, winning $71,792

Ram's Not The Man (OUT - 7th)

The last British player contending the bracelet, Ram Vaswani has fallen short of glory, Greg Jamison the executioner once again.

He was short enough that he elected to go heads up preflop with Jamison, holding Q Q 6 6 to Greg's A 2 8 7.

The first card dealt was an Ace, spelling disaster for Ram and as the rest of the board ran out low cards (but no 6) Vaswani's tournament was curtailed, as he was eliminated in 7th spot, picking up $88,360 for his troubles.

Kat's Nine Lives Gone (OUT - 6th)

Mad Ninja Short-Stacking Skills, Available From All Good Bookshops

Eugene Katchalov's luck has finally run out, taking another shortstacked shot with 6-7-8-9 versus the 2-A-3-J of Jason Gray, Gray bombed him out of the competition making the nut low and two pair.

Eugene Katchalov is off to an isolated cave in Tibet to further enhance his already impressive short-stacking Ninja skills, but for now, he is OUT, eliminated in 6th spot, picking up $110,450.

Jason Gray	$1,600,000
David Benyamine	$1,550,000
Greg Jamison	$800,000
Toto Leonidas	$350,000
Mike Matusow	$200,000

 

 

 

 

The final progresses slowly but surely. A thick throng of fans encircles the table, giving verbal encouragement to the various players.

Mike Matusow cuts a contrasting figure to the rest of the table, keeping a virtual constant stream of chatter going whilst his tablemates are motionless statues, the only indication that they are alive being the occasional movement of their arms toward their chips.

At present David Gray is in charge with a healthy chip lead.

Here's the action from the felt.

Chiu On This

Chiu was, and still is, short, although his position has been slightly improved through doubling up off Toto Leonidas, who has taken a dip down the leaderboard in recent times.

Chiu moved all his chips in with A 8 K T and Leonidas called with A 3 8 9.

Chiu needed some broadway cards to come out if he was to double and his wish was the dealer's command as it came Q Q A 6 3 to ship him the pot and bring him slightly more into contention.

Chiu Doubles Through!

Two Time Mike

As we watched on, Matusow caught the Pokerlistings.com crew's eye and mouthed "One more" holding a finger in the air indicating he intends to pick up another bracelet.

He has his work cut out, still with a chip deficit, but as he revealed when he won the bracelet earlier in the series, he is playing well and is clearly dripping with confidence about his game.

Here's the current standings as we home in inevitably on the bracelet, chip counts courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com.

Jason Gray	$1,300,000
Greg Jamison	$1,000,000
David Benyamine	$750,000
Toto Leonidas	$600,000
Ram Vaswani	$450,000
Mike Matusow	$300,000
David Chiu	$170,000
Eugene Katchalov	$125,000

 

 

The players are still tucking into their assorted foodstuffs on the dinner break, but here's the last few snippets of action PokerListings.com witnessed just prior to the break.

Waaah, I Want My Ma!! (OUT - 9th)

Tony Ma is the first player to be sent packing from the final table. Short stacked and heads up with Toto Leonidas, he bet out on a 3 7 T 4 board, and Leonidas raised enough to set him in.

Ma called with 3 4 5 8, an eight high flush and 5-8 low, but was in a world of hurt versus Leonidas' A 2 9 8, a better nine high flush and nut low.

He was drawing dead barring a one out straight flush draw for half the pot, but apparently he hadn't realised as he felt the A on the river counterfeited Leonidas' low allowing him half the pot, yelling out in delight, only for his tablemates to politely point out that no, in fact it was time for him to collect his belongings and skedaddle. Nice try!

Tony Ma is OUT, eliminated in 9th spot, winning $55,225.

Mouth Full Of Chips

Matusow was short, but is no more. All-in preflop, he was called by David Benyamine and Eugene Katchalov.

Both players remained in the hand till the river of a 7 Q 9 K 8, and it was checked round which led to Matusow jumping up and shouting "Send the pot to me!" as he was aware his K K 5 A second nut flush was good.

He continued to berate the players as he drew in the sizable pot, and warned them about the folly of doubling him up.

With one bracelet under his belt already this year, he might be right!

Here's how it affected the chip counts as we wait for the end of the dinner break. Counts courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com

Toto Leonidas	$900,000
David Benyamine	$765,000
Jason Gray	$680,000
Ram Vaswani	$670,000
Mike Matusow	$600,000
Greg Jamison	$375,000
David Chiu	$350,000
Eugene Katchalov	$270,000

 

 

Ladies and gentleman, it took only four hours but we finally have ourselves a final table and it’s a good one folks so stay tuned to PokerListings.com to see how this one turns out. In the meantime here’s what happened in the last hour of play.

Berry Johnston Buried (10th)

Berry Johnston, who has been razzed by Mike Matusow the entire day for his age, will not be making an appearance at the actual final table of Event 37.

Johnston was crippled by David Benyamine in a previous hand and then decided to get it all-in pre-flop versus Ram Vaswani. The players flipped over their cards:

Johnston: A 8 K Q

Vaswani: 4 2 3 4

The board came 6 6 5 A 3 which gave Vaswani a straight and Johnston his walking papers. The Full Tilt pro will receive $38,657 for coming 10th.

Full Blown Final Table

We waited and waited and it’s finally upon us: the nine-player final table of Event 37. There are some extremely well-known players in the running so it could be a final table for the history books. Here are the chip counts as the players enter the final table (courtesy of www.worldseriesofpoker.com):

1. David Benyamine	$1.2 million
2. David Chiu	$730,000
3. Toto Leonidas	$720,000
4. Jason Gray	$590,000
5. Greg Jamison	$450,000
6. Hieu "Tony" Ma	$310,000
7. Eugene Katchalov	$300,000
8. Mike Matusow	$195,000
9. Ram Vaswani	$175,000

 

We’re down to 10 in Event 37, which means all the players have been moved to a single faux final table. Just one more elimination and we’ll have a legitimate final table. Of course we were supposed to have that final table at 3 p.m. but keeping track of time here anyway.

Shun Uchida Stunned (11th)

One player that won’t be making it to any kind of final table in this event is Shun Uchida who just got in a raising war with David Benyamine that saw all the chips go into the middle on a 9 8 8 flop. The players flipped over their cards:

Uchida: A Q 7 2

Benyamine: K K 4 4

The board filled with the 2 on the turn and the 7 on the river. Benyamine scoops the pot and Uchida scoops a check for $38,657 for coming in 11th.

Mouth Chirping

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow is doing his nickname proud. He just introduced every player at the “final” table of 10 in a typically dramatic fashion. The only player he had trouble naming was WPT Five Diamond Winner Eugene Katchalov.

In the last level Mike Matusow implored the remaining players to just “have fun” as Event 37 is played out.

“All I know is that when I play I want to have fun,” he said. “If I’m not having fun I don’t want to play.”

Don’t worry, Mike, we’re having fun.

Here’s a look at the other happenings in Event 37:

Dang it! Danny Dang Eliminated 13th

The alliterative Danny Dang ran into a hot Mike Matusow and found himself on the rail. Dang got all-in on the turn of K 3 2 4 4 board and Matusow flipped over A 3 4 5 for the wheel. Apparently Dang was dead in the water because he mucked his hand before the river was even dealt.

Chau Giang Ganked 12th

Cash game legend Chau Giang is no longer a threat in this tournament. Giang shoved for the last of his chips with the board reading A Q 9 6 and Toto Leonidas called with 8 7 A Q for a flush which had Giang’s hand of T 2 5 4 beat. The river fell J and provided no help for Giang. He’s eliminated 12th and will receive $38,657. Word!

Benyamine Takes Control

David Benyamine, who regularly crushes online Pot-Limit Omaha at stakes you could only dream of, is having a great day and has already built up nearly $700,000 chips. Could this be the year the French pro takes his first WSOP bracelet? Stay tuned…

It’s apparent the players at Event 37 understand just how long they could be here if things don’t get moving in a hurry. We’ve already had five eliminations and more are likely on the way.

Ray Dehkharghani Waylaid

Ray “Best Last Name in Poker” Dehkharghani was the first player to hit the rail in Event 37. Dehkarghani held A A 7 5 on a T 6 5 and opted to push his remaining chips into the middle. Hieu “Tony” Ma called and tabled A 4 K 8.

The dealer turned the Q but the 7 fell on the river to eliminate Dehkharghani. He will receive $27,612 and three days of wonderful poker memories.

William McMahon McBusted!

Tony Ma is on a bit of a roll here at the final two tables of Event 37. William McMahon, no relation to this dude, was just busted by Ma making a flush and eight-low. McMahon will get a cool $27,612 for finishing 17th.

Even More Eliminations

Brent Carter, Stuart Paterson and Pat Pezzin have all been eliminated. Paterson and Pezzin made it into $33,135 territory before busting while Brent Carter had to settle for $27,612

Welcome to PokerListings' coverage of the final day of Event 37 World Championship Hi-Low Split-8 or Better.

You might notice that we still have 18 players remaining in Event 37 and we're supposed to be playing a final table.

They couldn't get beyond the 18 player mark last night so today we will go from 18 to winner in one day (that's the goal anyways).

There are a slew of big names in the running including Mike Matusow, David Benyamine, Ram Vanswani.

Here's a look at the chip counts (courtesy of www.worldseriesofpoker.com) as the players head into battle:

1. Ram Vanswani	$569,000
2. Mike Matusow	$396,000
3. Chau Giang	$384,000
4. David Benyamine	$378,000
5. David Chiu	$372,000
6. Jason Gray	$347,000
7. Berry Johnston	$338,000
8. Hieu "Tony" Ma	$319,000
9. Toto Leonidas	$269,000
10. Danny Dang	$257,000
11. Eugene Katchalov	$252,000
12. Greg Jamison	$208,000
13. Ray Dehkharghani	$149,000
14. Shun Uchida	$134,000
15. Brent Carter	$114,000
16. William McMahon	$76,000
17. Pat Pezzin	$65,000
18. Stuart Paterson	$25,000