Assuming stage one of the Durrrr Challenge featuring Patrik Antonius and Tom “durrrr” Dwan wraps up, David Benyamine may soon find his way into the competition. On Sunday night’s episode of the GSN cash game series “High Stakes Poker,” Benyamine was on his game, pushing the competition out of pots in the blink of an eye.
Take this one, for example. Daniel Negreanu raised to $3,000 pre-flop with 10-9 of spades and 10-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Doyle Brunson came along with pocket queens. Benyamine, holding 7-5 of spades, also called and the flop came down 9-3-8 with two spades. Benyamine checked his straight and flush draws and Negreanu bet $8,500 with top pair and a 10-high flush draw. Brunson called with the best hand and the queen of spades hit on the turn.
Despite the jackpot card filling Negreanu’s and Benyamine’s flushes and giving Brunson top set, the action checked around to an offsuit ace on the river. Here’s when the fun began. Benyamine checked, Negreanu bet $26,200, Brunson just called, and Benyamine upped the price of poker to $101,200. Negreanu folded and, according to “High Stakes Poker’ host Gabe Kaplan, probably put Benyamine on a bluff or the nuts. Brunson called with top set, shipping the massive $265,500 pot Benyamine’s way. Needless to say, Negreanu was quite distraught after seeing Benyamine’s baby flush.
The high-stakes cash game pro is one of three opponents penciled in for the Durrrr Challenge, which has been running for more than a year now. The competition is two-thirds finished, with Dwan holding what may be a comfortable $2 million lead over Antonius with 33,303 hands in the book. Benyamine won the 2010 PartyPoker Premier League and finished second two years ago in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Bellagio Cup IV for $840,000, proving that he’s a tournament whiz as well. He took down the $10,000 World Championship of Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better during the 2008 WSOP for his first and only bracelet.
Stay tuned to Durrrr Challenge for more updates from the ongoing contest. You can catch Dwan, Benyamine, and Phil Ivey on new episodes of “High Stakes Poker,” which air at 8:00pm ET on Sundays on GSN.
