Monday, June 23, 2008

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Benyamine running better than g_d

Nothing anybody can do to beat him these days.

By Christopher Hunt

Is there any way 2008 could get any better for high-stakes baller and popular Euro-rounder David Benyamine?

Maybe only if France had done better at the Euro Cup.

But pretty much everything else a poker player could hope for has been falling at Benyamine's feet over the first six months of '08.

Up until this weekend, that mostly meant crushing the high-stakes Pot-Limit Omaha tables on Full Tilt Poker to the tune of about $3.5 million in profit (stats according to highstakesdb.com).

Then over the weekend - after an already-impressive performance at the 2008 World Series including three top-10 finishes - he steps up and wins his first WSOP bracelet (plus $535,687) in the $10k Omaha Hi-Lo Split Championship.

To ice the cake: he's also now sitting second in the WSOP Player of the Year race, just two points back of Jacobo Fernandez.

Why have things gone so well for the jovial Benyamine? Part of it, he explains, is just simply hitting good cards. As he said in his PokerListings.com post-bracelet-win interview on Sunday:

"I was hitting too many cards. I had very, very strong hands to play with all the time. There's nothing they could have done today I think."

Being the famed "degenerate" that he is, Benyamine also knows exactly what to do when he's running well: get in as much action as he possibly can.

For him that of course means back to the six-max $200/$400 PLO tables at Full Tilt to clear some more loose change.

Which of course he did in his latest session, hitting cards time and again to stack some more of the best players in the world - including fellow Full Tilt pro Cole South and famous Finnish LAG Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

The hand history of the biggest pot, for $115k, as tracked by the PL.com Marketpulse biggest pots section:

6937175610 TABLE : Pantheon (six-max) $200/$400 - Pot-Limit Omaha Hi - Mon Jun 23 2008 - 5:45am ET

Table Setup

Seat 1: KObyTAPOUT ($11,500)
Seat 2: David Benyamine ($67,191)
Seat 3: Ziigmund ($34,364)
Seat 4: lady marmelade ($10,896)
Seat 5: OnTheRize ($10,000)
Seat 6: Cole South ($40,000)
lady marmelade posts the small blind of $200
OnTheRize posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #3

Pre-Flop

Cole South raises to $1,400
KObyTAPOUT folds
David Benyamine calls $1,400
Ziigmund raises to $6,200
lady marmelade has 15 seconds left to act
lady marmelade folds
OnTheRize folds
Cole South raises to $20,600
David Benyamine calls $19,200
Ziigmund raises to $34,364, and is all-in
Cole South calls $13,764
David Benyamine calls $13,764

Flop: [4 5 7]

Cole South bets $5,636, and is all-in
David Benyamine calls $5,636
Cole South shows [6 K K A]
David Benyamine shows [8 J 6 7]
Ziigmund shows [9 A A Q]

Turn: [4 5 7][6]

River: [4 5 7][6] [6]

Cole South shows three of a kind, sixes
David Benyamine shows a full house, sixes full of sevens
David Benyamine wins the side pot ($11,272) with a full house, sixes full of sevens
Ziigmund shows two pair, aces and sixes
David Benyamine wins the main pot ($103,689) with a full house, sixes full of sevens
Ziigmund is sitting out
Cole South adds $40,000

Summary

Total pot $114,964 Main pot $103,692. Side pot $11,272. | Rake $3
Board: [4 5 7][6] [6]
Seat 1: KObyTAPOUT didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: David Benyamine showed [8 J 6 7] and won ($114,961) with a full house, sixes full of sevens
Seat 3: Ziigmund (button) showed [9 A A Q] and lost with two pair, aces and sixes
Seat 4: lady marmelade (small blind) folded before the flop
Seat 5: OnTheRize (big blind) folded before the flop
Seat 6: Cole South showed [6 K K A] and lost with three of a kind, sixes

To see more pots from the session, or more of the top 100 biggest pots won online over the past day, week, month and year, jump to the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section.

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