35-year old David Benyamine, from Paris, France, has had several successful professional careers before migrating to the green felt. His first career saw Benyamine as one of France's top-ranked tennis players. A back injury cut short his promising career, and so Benyamine turned his attention to billiards, quickly becoming a top-ten billiards player in France. He has enjoyed similar success at the poker table, with one WPT title under his belt (the 2003 Grand Prix de Paris), a first-place finish in the WPT's 2005 Battle of Champions, and total career tournament earnings exceeding $1 million. He is one of the big names at today's final table looking for his first WSOP bracelet to add to his impressive poker resume.
Benyamine is a specialist in pot-limit Omaha but has made a name for himself playing no-limit hold'em tournaments and as a winning player on Game Show Network's High Stakes Poker. Benyamine has one daughter and is currently engaged to poker professional Erica Schoenberg.
It's stars all around at the final table of Event #18, $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys. This internationally flavored final gets underway at 3pm and is sure to draw a huge crowd. The seat assignments, home towns, and starting chip counts are as follows: