Competing against some of poker’s elite pros, David Benyamine brought his A-game and emerged to win the PartyPoker Premier League IV, netting himself US $400,000 in the process.
After a week of poker in Las Vegas competing against the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth, Benyamine made it to the final table and eventually found himself heads-up against the outspoken Luke Schwartz.
Benyamine was on the wrong side of the chip count when heads-up play began between the two as he only had 580,000 compared to the 1,320,000 of Schwartz. It didn’t faze him, though, as he quickly doubled up when he got all his chips in with {k-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds} against Schwartz’s {k-Hearts}{7-Hearts}.
Twenty minutes later, with Benyamine already holding a big chip lead, both players were all-in again. On a flop of {5-Spades}{3-Clubs}{q-Spades}, Schwartz moved all-in with {q-Diamonds}{2-Spades}. After some hesitation from Benyamine, he called and showed the superior {q-Spades}{8-Diamonds}. The turn and river did not improve Schwartz’s hand and he finished as the tournament’s runner-up, taking home US $200,000.
It was an experience of a lifetime for the tournament’s third place finisher, Giovanni Safina. After joining a US $120 satellite to the event on PartyPoker, Safina kept winning and eventually found himself as the sole online qualifier in the exclusive, invitation-only tournament. He showed that he belonged as he continued his run all the way to the final table, where he was knocked out just short of the final two. He won US $100,000 in prize money.
The six-player final table at the Premier League IV was composed of Benyamine, Schwartz, Safina, Negreanu, Phil Laak, and Roland De Wolfe. Last year’s champion, JC Tran, was knocked out just short of the finals.
The other players who participated this year were Hellmuth, Ian Frazer, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Vanessa Rousso, and Tony G.
The US $100,000 buy-in PartyPoker.com Premier League IV main event was held from February 12 to 18, 2010 at the M Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Sign up for PartyPoker through Asia PokerNews to get exclusive freerolls, bonuses, and promotions!
Join Asia PokerNews on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
No comments:
Post a Comment