£20,000 High Roller Event | PokerStars.com EPT London £1m Showdown

10-06-2008 17:35 UTC+2

Final Table Bios - David Benyamine

[user46392]

Seat 5: David Benyamine, 36, Nevada, USA - 175,000 chips

Originally from France, father-of-one David now lives in Henderson, Nevada and is engaged to fellow pro Erica Schoenberg. David’s first career was as a professional tennis player but he had to give up the sport because of a back injury. He was also one of France’s top ten billiards players. David is now known as one of the best high-stakes cash game players in the world and a regular in the “Big Game”, which is legendary for having some of the highest stakes in the world. Only two days ago, David came 12th in the EPT London main event for £35,981. He has two WPT titles and won his first WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi/Low Split this summer, as well as making two other final tables at the series.

Tags: David Benyamine

10-06-2008 17:34 UTC+2

Final Table Bios - Isabelle Mercier

[user46392]

Seat 4: Isabelle ‘No Mercy’ Mercier, Quebec, Canada – Team PokerStars Pro - 86,000 chips

Canadian player Isabelle Mercier graduated from the University of Montreal and began practising law soon after. Keen on travel, however, she moved to France and a job at the famous Aviation Club De France in Paris where she ended up as poker room manager. Isabelle’s first major success as a player was a WPT invitational tournament in 2004, where she took first place in the Ladies Night Out event. In 2005, she narrowly missed making the final table at the EPT1 Grand Final in Monte Carlo, taking away $31,811 for 10th place. A month later, Isabelle earned another $56,616 for a 28th-place finish at the $25,000 WPT Championship event. She’s also made several cashes at the WSOP including a fifth-place finish for $175,404 at the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event in 2006.

10-06-2008 17:33 UTC+2

Final Table Bios - Isaac Haxton

[user46392]

Seat 3: Isaac Haxton, 23, New York, USA - 293,000 chips

Isaac, a graduate of Brown University, is a Boston native who now lives in Syracuse, New York. He began playing poker at home games during high school and then played fulltime online during his college vacations, earning $40,000 the first summer and $100,000 the next. His first live cash was also his biggest to date – runner-up at the 2007 PCA for $861,789. He has had eight WSOP cashes in the last two years and a total of $1,203,980 live tournament earnings.

Tags: Isaac Haxton

10-06-2008 17:32 UTC+2

Final Table Bios - Michael Watson

[user46392]

Seat 2: Michael Watson, 24, Canada - 104,000 chips

Known around the vibrant online poker community as “SirWatts”, Michael Watson has had a formidable rise to the top of the game. He cashed five times at the World Series of 2007, then was the captain of the Canada team in the PokerStars World Cup of Poker last year in Barcelona (where one of his charges was the Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu). Then he translated excellent online form to a huge scoop at the Bellagio Cup around about World Series 2008 time. He was among the chip leaders in the Main Event at the Rio but busted before the money, freeing SirWatts to joust to the $15,000 WPT event down the road and win the first prize of $ 1,673,770.

Tags: Michael Watson

10-06-2008 17:31 UTC+2

Final Table Bios - Peter Jetten

[user46392]

Seat 1: Peter Jetten, 23, Toronto, Canada – 347,000 chips

Only minutes before the bubble, a stunning hand against John Juanda turned Peter’s fortunes around in the EPT London £1 Million Showdown. He got dealt Aces in the small blind, was raised by Scotty, re- raised by John and moved all -in. Scotty folded but John had QQ and called the bet to double up the young Canadian pro. Known as “Apathy” online, Peter – a former camp counsellor and bartender - has been playing fulltime for around three years and is a coach at the leggopoker.com training site. $10/$20 NL and $25/$50 NL cash games are Peter’s bread and butter, but also frequents higher stakes in both NLHE and PLO.

Tags: Peter Jetten

10-06-2008 17:30 UTC+2

A Lack of Eclecticism

[user4144]

Today's final table is rather less eclectic than other events with four finalists representing good ol' Uncle Sam. One behind is Canada with three players, whilst Japan and France also have players flying their respective flags.

Sadly for the locals, we're once again lacking a Union Jack. Bah! One day we'll get good at this game and then you'll all be in trouble.

10-06-2008 17:21 UTC+2

What They're Playing For

[user46392]

It's a lot of money. Sterling, not dollars.

1 £516,000
2 £327,000
3 £241,000
4 £189,000
5 £137,000
6 £103,000
7 £86,000
8 £69,000
9 £51,000

10-06-2008 17:10 UTC+2

Delayed Start

[user4144]

Players are yet to return, but cards should be in the air shortly.

10-06-2008 16:52 UTC+2

Our Final Table

[user46392]

Seat 1: Peter Jetten -- 347,000
Seat 2: Michael Watson -- 104,000
Seat 3: Isaac Haxton -- 193,000
Seat 4: Isabelle Mercier -- 86,000
Seat 5: David Benyamine -- 175,000
Seat 6: Scotty Nguyen -- 68,000
Seat 7: Jason Mercier -- 204,000
Seat 8: Masaaki Kagawa -- 142,000
Seat 9: John Juanda -- 302,000

10-06-2008 16:40 UTC+2

Re-Draw, Then to the Final Table

[user46392]

The final table is due to start at 4pm, and will be broadcast in its entirety on EPT Live. We will, of course, be continuing our coverage here on PokerNews.

Our current chip leader is Peter Jetten on 347,000, trailed by John Juanda on 302,000 and Isaac Haxton on 293,000. Our short stacks are Isabelle Mercier and Scotty Nguyen, both on less than 100,000.