David Benyamine
- by Oliver Gaywood
David Benyamine is a natural born winner. Growing up in Paris, France, he was one of the country’s leading tennis players before a back injury forced him into an early retirement. Still eager to prove his worth in the sporting arena, Benyamine turned to billiards and was rated as one of the ten best French players.
Benyamine had learned the basics of poker as a kid and although he was competing at the top end of his profession he made the switch from billiards table to poker table in an attempt to earn more money. With over $1,000,000 in tournament winnings to date, it seems that his decision has been justified.
However, it is in the cash games where he makes most of his money, regularly playing the Bellagio’s ‘Big Game’, a table that is well known for its huge stakes.
In tournaments across the world, Benyamine has notched up four first place finishes. The most notable of these wins came in the Grand Prix de Paris, part of the second season of the World Poker Tour, when he won the No Limit Hold ‘em event and a cool $460,000 cash prize. He later went on to win the WPT Battle of Champions II invitational. He made his second WPT final table in 2004, finishing 6th in the No Limit Hold ‘em event at the LA Poker Classic.
In 2004 his life took a bizarre twist as he was held in police custody and later deported from the US. Whilst waiting to play in PokerParty Million III, Benyamine was arrested by the FBI. Apparently there was someone on their wanted list with the same name and Benyamine, with his bag full of $25,000, was taken in for questioning. They spent the best part of a day figuring out that they had taken in the wrong man; however, the ordeal had only just begun for the poker star.
The authorities decided that because Benyamine was playing poker professionally he needed to have a professional visa rather than a tourist visa. He spent almost a week in jail, not being told what was happening, before he was flown back to France. It took over a year for his application to come through to allow him to play poker in the US.
Benyamine, who celebrates his 35th birthday in 2007, has proved that he is a winner away from the table as well as at it. He has caused much jealousy to poker fans everywhere as he is set to marry his fiancé Erica Schoenberg, one of poker’s top female players with beauty to match her skill. He currently lives away from his place of birth, preferring the Mediterranean lure in the south of France to the cooler climate in northern Paris.
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