Benyamine a man to be feared

News / Editor / 23 June 2008 / Leave a comment

Frenchman David Benyamine has got to be one of the favourites for victory every time he steps up to the table, and he has now finally landed one of those elusive World Series of Poker bracelets, writes Rob Eddy.

The 35-year-old former professional tennis player has earned a fearsome reputation playing cash games, while he has enjoyed a fair degree of success on the World Poker Tour.

However, he had struggled to make that breakthrough at the WSOP or WSOPE to win that first piece of jewellery, but a more concentrated approach to tournament play has now yielded its reward with victory in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split, event 37.

At the WSOP in Las Vegas, Benyamine came through an extremely tough final table, which included Tony Ma, Mike Matusow, David Cjiu, Toto Leonidas and Ram Vaswani, to win his first gold bracelet and a cool $535,687.

Benyamine stepped up his aggression when play became short-handed and it proved successful as he ultimately accounted for the last three of his opponents.

He has now made three final tables and four cashes, as well as picking up the gold at this year's WSOP, which is a pretty productive tournament, I dare say you will agree.

With the confidence that a bracelet can give you, it would be no surprise to see Benyamine add to his tally in Las Vegas, while his attendance at the WSOPE in London towards the end of September would merit both respect and fear.

The fiance of poker pro Erica Schoenberg is widely regarded as one of, if not THE best Omaha players in the world, and has to be one to watch out for when play comes back to this side of the pond, particularly after breaking his duck in WSOP titles.