Just a few hours after announcing that Fox Sports Net had become its newest television poker, the World Poker Tour doled out $6.5 million, the prize pool for its fourth annual Bellagio Cup. The very first tournament that will air on Fox Sports Net as part of the new Season VII television package, the Bellagio Cup has been dominated by online poker stars in recent years. Mike Watson took home $1.67 million for the win in the Bellagio Cup IV, outlasting poker pro David Benyamine heads up. John “The Razor” Phan was also at the final table.
Watson has only entered five World Poker Tournaments. He failed to cash in three of them, took 10th in the L.A. Poker Classic during Season VI, and won the first televised event of the WPT’s seventh season at the Bellagio. He has seven cashes lifetime in the World Series of Poker; five came in 2007 and two came in 2008. His best finish was 10th in a $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better tournament, cashing for $9,049. Watson began heads up play against poker pro David Benyamine as a slight chip underdog, holding 8.4 million chips, trailing Beyamine’s stack of 11.7 million. On the 149th hand of final table play when action was heads up, Watson doubled up with big slick against Benyamine’s pocket queens by hitting an ace on the river. Watson went from a chip underdog to holding a 6:1 chip advantage literally in the flip of a card.
Benyamine has had a successful summer in live play. Though he may be disappointed that he didn’t win the Bellagio Cup, Benyamine walked away with a healthy $840,295 payday. His 2008 WSOP was nothing short of outstanding. He won his first bracelet in Event #37, a $10,000 buy-in World Championship Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better tournament, cashing for $535,687. He made two other final tables as well, finishing third in a $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys tournament for $316,307 and seventh in a $5,000 buy-in No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Rebuy event for $58,990. On the World Poker Tour, he won the Grand Prix de Paris, held at the Aviation Club, for $430,969 in Season II. Erick Lindgren was also at that final table.
Phan first cashed in a WSOP event in 2000 and since then has amassed $1.3 million in earnings from his play. Like Benyamine, Phan has been running well over the summer, as he took home two bracelets from the 2008 World Series of Poker. The first came in a $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament. He cashed for $434,789 and his first WSOP bracelet ever. Eleven tournaments later, he won the $2,500 buy-in 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Limit tournament for $151,911. In 2006, he finished second in a $1,000 no limit tournament at the World Series for a healthy payday of $289,389 (online pro Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg won that event for his first and only WSOP bracelet). This was the third WPT final table for John Phan, who has piled up nearly $800,000 in WPT winnings.
The buy-in to the Bellagio Cup this season was $15,000, which is 50% higher than the price tag to enter the World Series of Poker Main Event. There were 446 players who entered and the top 100 spots paid out. British poker player John Gale finished 11th, cashing for $64,640. If that name is familiar, it’s because Gale took down the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure during Season III for $890,600. Also at that final table were Nenad Medic and Miami John Cernuto. Medic took home $1.7 million in the Foxwoods Poker Finals on Season V of the WPT. Cernuto is a three-time WSOP bracelet winner.
Other notable finishes included David “The Dragon” Pham (9th for $90,495), Sabyl Cohen (13th for $64,640), Daniel Alaei (20th for $51,710), Hevad Khan (25th for $38,785), Ted Forrest (26th for $38,785), and Barry Greenstein (30th for $38,785). The next tournament on the World Poker Tour occurs on August 23rd in Los Angeles, the site of the Legends of Poker event. The $10,000 buy-in Main Event will play out its final table on August 28th.
