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.

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The festivities kicked off at 10:00pm ET on the cable station, about the same time as the Super Bowl wrapped up on CBS. The first hour of coverage was dedicated to Day 1A and included UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth and DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson at the feature table. Hellmuth arrived dressed as Caesar and flanked by a handful of scantily clad women. ESPN announcer Norman Chad quipped, “Frankly, I would revoke his passport.” All Brunson could do was shake his head.

Table 2 featured Full Tilt’s Andy Bloch, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, and Beth Shak. Bloch flopped a set of deuces against Robert Campbell’s straight flush draw, but an ace on the turn filled Campbell’s straight and the former MIT Blackjack Team member was crippled. Bloch was eliminated shortly thereafter from the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event. Reigning National Heads-Up Championship winner Huck Seed was all-in with K-J, but could not withstand Hoyt Corkins’ Q-J. The flop came queen-high and Seed was sent to the rails.

Hellmuth doubled through Gilbert Diaz after raising pre-flop with 10-7, shoving all-in on a 10-high flop with top pair against two pair, and promptly hitting a straight on the turn. Not so fortunate was Durrrr Challenge combatant Patrik Antonius, who held A-Q against an opponent’s A-6. The two got it all-in on a board reading 3-9-A-6 and the river blanked out, eliminating Antonius. Chad described Antonius’ physique as “exquisite” on multiple occasions. Also finding the rail on Day 1A were Phil Ivey, Jeffrey Lisandro, and Roland de Wolfe.

The second ESPN2 episode on Sunday night contained coverage of Day 1B, whose stacked feature table included Caesars Cup captains Daniel Negreanu and Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Barry Greenstein, and Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania. Negreanu doubled after flopping a set with pocket twos and turning a full house. Also ascending the leaderboard was Freddy Deeb, who doubled up after turning two pair.

Former Bodog pro Jean-Robert Bellande hit the skids after failed run-ins with Scotty Nguyen and CardRunners instructor Eric Liu. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Victory Poker front man Antonio Esfandiari, who doubled up with A-Q of diamonds against an opponent’s A-J of spades when the board fell 2-7-6-2-K.

The hand of the episode was between retired tournament grinder Shaun Deeb and Negreanu. The Team PokerStars Pro member announced, “I’m going to pound you back a little more” and double-fisted raising chips into the pot. Deeb contended that Negreanu put in a string raise that shouldn’t count. Despite two bona fide pros competing in the hand, floor officials were called and ruled that the raise stood. Deeb retorted, “That’s a terrible ruling.”

The final episode of the evening featured coverage of Day 2, which saw the survivors of Day 1A and Day 1B take to the felts. Brunson scooped back-to-back pots with pocket kings to open play and a debate ensued between “Texas Dolly” and Hellmuth as to whether Hellmuth’s grand entrances are good for poker. Brunson contended, “I wish I could have applied for the role of Brutus.”

Hellmuth was eliminated with J-8 against Esfandiari’s Q-J. He called all-in on a board reading 8-10-Q-10-10, giving both players boats, and Hellmuth’s tirade began. Bystander Jeff Madsen lent his ear to Hellmuth, who complained, “How the fuck do you get so lucky and hit a 10 so you can move in there?” Esfandiari chuckled, “Nothing better than torturing Phil Hellmuth.”

After a commercial break, ESPN cameras found Hellmuth still barking at Esfandiari. The UB.com pro explained, “That’s why you don’t have as many titles as you should, because you play big pots with jacks,” referring to a previous hand. In an interview with ESPN hostess Kara Scott, Esfandiari issued a $100,000 heads-up challenge to Hellmuth where the winner would also shoot the loser with a taser gun.

One of the potential men behind the Isildur1 moniker, Viktor Blom, shipped a massive stack to Ian Munns. On a flop of A-A-3, Blom check-raised to 58,000 with K-2, Munns made it 116,000 with A-7, and Blom shoved over the top with air. Munns called as a 96% favorite to win the hand and a 10 on the turn sent Blom out. The rest of the table laughed at the hand and Munns became the overwhelming chip leader thanks to the blow up. Elsewhere, WSOP Main Event November Nine member Antoine Saout was crippled in a hand against David Docherty.

Curiously, eventual winner Barry Shulman’s name was not mentioned during the three episodes, although an image of him appeared in the closing montage. Five more episodes will air as part of ESPN2’s coverage of the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event, including three more hours on Valentine’s Day weekend:

Sunday, February 14th: 11:00pm ET
Monday, February 15th: 12:00am ET
Monday, February 15th: 1:00am ET
Sunday, February 28th: 9:00pm ET
Sunday, February 28th: 10:00pm ET

The tournament was hosted by reigning World Series of Poker (WSOP) PLO Champion Matt Graham, but he busted out midway through the event, leaving it up to Matt Vengrin to carry the torch for the sponsored pros. He had the deepest run of the bunch with a 34th place finish, while known pros like Carter “CKINGUSC” King (11th), Owen “OCROWE” Crowe (17th) and Matt “MCMATTO” Affleck (18th) got a little closer to the final table.

See the details here.

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