David Benefield Crowned £25K Short Deck Ante-Only Champion in London
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David Benefeld may not play as much poker as he once did, but he showed he still has what it takes to rub shoulders with the game’s elite by winning the £25,000 Short Deck Ante-Only event at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series London festival.
£25K Short Deck Ante-Only Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (£) | Prize($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Benefield | United States | £650,000 | $789,707 |
| 2 | Cheok Leng Cheong | Phiippines | £445,000 | $540,645 |
| 3 | Pang Feng | Hong Kong | £292,000 | $354,760 |
| 4 | Bjorn Li | Hong Kong | £236,500 | $287,331 |
| 5 | Chin Lim | Malaysia | £190,000 | $230,837 |
| 6 | Peter Jetten | Canada | £148,300 | $180,174 |
| 7 | Talal Shakerchi | United Kingdom | £117,000 | $142,147 |
| 8 | Jordi Urlings | Netherlands | £89,000 | $108,129 |
| 9 | Michael Watson | Canada | £65,500 | $79,578 |
Benefield, known as “Raptor” in online poker circles, was once a prolific grinder who often played as high as $100/$200 and $200/$400. He was no slouch in the live poker world either, amassing more than $2.5 million in winnings, thanks in part to a $944,650 haul from his eighth-place finish in the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Until the start of the year, Benefield hadn’t recorded a live cash since reaching the money in the European Poker Tour Barcelona €10,300 High Roller in 2016. Benefield must have been keeping his skills sharp because he managed a cash in the $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship at the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January and followed that up with a fourth-place finish in a Short Deck Ante-Only event at the Triton poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, South Korea in March that banked him $206,141.
Now Benefield has his first major live title after triumphing over a 106 entry field in the £25K Short Deck Ante-Only event in London.
Fifteen Players Reach The Money
Only 15 of the entrants received prize money for their efforts, John Gabe Patgorski of the United States being the first casualty inside the money place, a result worth £42,800 ($51,999).
Patgorski was joined on the rail by high stakes cash game specialist and Triton Poker regular Rui Cao, Jun Yap, Devan Tang, runner-up in the £50,000 Eight-Handed event earlier in the week Jason Koon, and recent WSOP bracelet winner Danny Tang; the latter bursting the final table bubble.
The nine-handed final table was a star-studded affair as you may have expected from a £25,000 buy-in specialized tournament.
Michael “SirWatts” Watson added £65,500 ($79,578) to his already impressive live earnings when he crashed out of the event in ninth-place. Jordi Urlings from the Netherlands then busted in eighth-place for £89,000 ($108,129).
Jetten Adds Yet Another Triton Cash
Talal Shakerchi ran out of steam and finished in seventh-place for £117,000 ($142,147) and now has more than $7.6 million in lifetime winnings.
Shakerchi, a regular in the high roller and super high roller events around the world, gained some company on the rail when Peter Jetten exited in sixth place for £148,300 ($180,174). Jetten is a big fan of the Triton Poker Series having competed regularly since May 2018, racking up more than $6.7 million in the process.
Chin Wei Lim, final table bubble boy in the Triton Million event, busted in fifth place and made his way to the cashier’s desk to collect £190,000 ($230,837) and was joined there by Bjorn Li whose £236,500 ($287,331) score was the largest of his career so far.
Li’s fellow Hong Kong countryman Pang Feng was the penultimate elimination and what a way to record your first Hendon Mob flag, by finishing third in a £25,000 buy-in event for £292,000 ($354,760).
Heads-up saw Benefield and Cheok Leng Cheong lock horns for the title and the lion’s share of the prize pool. It was Leng who fell by the wayside, but not before securing £445,000 ($540,645) for his runner-up finish, leaving Benefield to bank £690,000 ($789,707) and the winner’s trophy.
One more tournament remains to be played, the £100,000 Short Deck Ante-Only event. Ninety-one players started and they were whittled to only 40 after the first day’s play with Furkat Rakhimov leading the way from Isaac Haxton, Cary Katz and that man Benefield.
Follow all of the action from that event right here at PokerNews.
All photos courtesy of Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive.
