Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008

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Benyamine turned No-Limit corner?

By Christopher Hunt

He is, arguably, the best Pot-Limit Omaha player in the entire world. But David Benyamine has always had one major leak: No-Limit Hold'em.

Or so he says, anyway. An overall loser in Hold'em by his own admission, Benyamine has, through some particularly gory nosebleed sessions over the years, garnered himself a bit of a reputation as a high-stakes Hold'em fish among the game's regulars.

Warranted or not, the truth does seem to be in the waiting list - i.e. when Benyamine sits, he never suffers for tablemates, and there's usually a string of players chomping at the bit for a piece of his action.

If his latest high-stakes NL sessions on Full Tilt are any indication, though, that impression may be in need of a reevaluation.

Benyamine's been stepping up for quite a few high-stakes NL Hold'em sessions over the last few months and, truth be told, more than holding his own. In fact for September, the PL.com top 100 Moneymakers list even has him at #4, and a $320k winner in Hold'em on Full Tilt.

A key leak plugged? A bit of run-good? Working his fish image for all it's worth? Could be a lot of things.

Whatever the case, Benyamine's never one to shy away from action, and as per usual he's been all over the MarketPulse biggest pots list again - most notably for taking the biggest so far today, for $143k, off yet another top NL Hold'em specialist, Ariel "DaEvils" Schneller.

The hand history, as tracked by the PL.com MarketPulse software:

8012104698 TABLE : Canfield (six-max) $200/$400 - No-Limit Hold'em - Wed Sep 10 2008 - 3:49am ET

Table Setup

Seat 2: David Benyamine ($72,191.50)
Seat 5: DaEvils ($71,680.50)
DaEvils posts the small blind of $200
David Benyamine posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #5

Pre-Flop

DaEvils raises to $1,200
David Benyamine raises to $3,600
DaEvils calls $2,400

Flop: [9 3 Q]

David Benyamine bets $6,400
DaEvils calls $6,400

Turn: [9 3 Q][Q]

David Benyamine checks
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils bets $15,200
David Benyamine raises to $62,191.50, and is all-in
DaEvils calls $46,480.50, and is all-in
David Benyamine shows [9 9]
DaEvils shows [2 Q]
Uncalled bet of $511 returned to David Benyamine

River: [9 3 Q][Q][6]

David Benyamine shows a full house, nines full of queens
DaEvils shows three of a kind, queens
David Benyamine wins the pot ($143,360.50) with a full house, nines full of queens
DaEvils is sitting out

Summary

Total pot $143,361 | Rake $0.50
Board: [9 3#QQ 6]
Seat 2: David Benyamine (big blind) showed [9 9] and won ($143,360.50) with a full house, nines full of queens
Seat 5: DaEvils (small blind) showed [2 Q] and lost with three of a kind, queens

To see more big pots from Benyamine's latest sessions, or more of the 100 biggest pots won online over the past day, week, month and year, jump over to the MarketPulse section.

And as always, rail the action any time you want by downloading the Full Tilt Poker software here.

More big hands from the last few weeks:

• RailHeaven goes off; Jepsen takes $500k pot
• Two days, another $1.2 million for Ivey
• Galfond smokes out bluff for $327k
• Wrath of Dwan: durrrr explodes for $850k

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