David Benyamine (born July 5, 1972 in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) is a French professional

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player with a

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the fi ...

title. Benyamine was a professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player in his early career but had to retire because of shoulder pain. He was also a successful top ten

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

player in France. He learned poker at the age of 12 and plays high-stakes cash games on a regular basis. Benyamine is a

Pot-Limit Omaha Omaha hold 'em (also known as Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make their best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five ...

specialist.

Poker career

Benyamine started his career playing No Limit Hold’em cash in Aviation Club de France. He is a regular in the world’s most famous high stakes cash room at the

Bellagio Bellagio may refer to: * Bellagio, Lombardy, an Italian town * Bellagio (resort), a luxury resort and casino in Las Vegas * Bellagio (Hong Kong), a private housing building * Bellagio declaration, an intellectual copyright resolution * 79271 Bellag ...

, Bobby’s Room (now renamed Legend’s Room).

World Poker Tour

Benyamine has made four final tables in

(WPT) open events: the 2003 Grand Prix de Paris ( second season) - 1st place (€357,200); the 2004 L.A. Poker Classic (second season) - 6th place ($132,355); the 2008 Bellagio Cup IV ( seventh season) - 2nd place ($840,295) and the 2010 WPT Championship ( eighth season) - 4th place ($329,228)-He won the Premier League of Poker IV. He is also the winner of the WPT Battle of Champions II invitational event, where he defeated a final table including fellow professionals

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Mel Judah Mel Judah (born 8 October 1947 in Kolkata, India) is an Australian professional poker player, also known as "The Silver Fox" (a nickname he shares with fellow poker player Peter Costa). He learned poker at the age of 14 by watching his father ...

Antonio Esfandiari Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari ( fa, امیر اسفندیاری; born December 8, 1978 as Amir Esfandiary), is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. Esfandiari was the face of th ...

, and

Phil Laak Philip Courtney Laak (born September 8, 1972) is an Irish–American professional poker player and a poker commentator, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, a ...

World Series of Poker

Benyamine is primarily a

cash game Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In contrast, a pok ...

player, but due to comments from his friends, he started playing tournaments more regularly during the

2008 World Series of Poker The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30th, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All ...

. He has made four WSOP final tables, three of which were in 2008, which was the same year he won his first bracelet.

Other poker ventures

Benyamine played high-stakes

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

under his own name at

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...

until the site was shut down.

Poker earnings

As of 2020, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,800,000. His forty cashes at the WSOP account for $2,541,000 of those winnings.

Personal life

Benyamine lives in Henderson, Nevada. He has one daughter, and was formerly engaged to professional poker and

blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

player Erica Schoenberg. The couple have since separated.

Notes

External links

World Poker Tour profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benyamine, David Expatriate sportspeople in the United States French expatriates in the United States French poker players People deported from the United States People from Henderson, Nevada Sportspeople from Paris World Poker Tour winners World Series of Poker bracelet winners Poker After Dark tournament winners 1972 births Living people