The Benyamine (pictured to right) versus Rosenkrantz saga was played out last week with online poker fans following every move.

Round 1 began on September 25 when David Benyamine and Jay “pr1nnyraid” Rosenkrantz had set up a $300/$600 game online.

But for some reason Benyamine simply walked away to play $500/$1,000 high stakes poker with durrrr at RailHeaven. A fairy godmother must have whispered something in Benyamine’s ear because he won a million dollars off durrrr in that session. But Rosenkrantz was not amused. He felt that his golden goose had just run away from him and he followed Benyamine to RailHeaven and had some harsh words to say. These have been reported on 2+2 poker and make interesting reading. Rosenkrantz said that quitting without warning was bad poker etiquette. He added that he if at all he had to quit he would have given a warning. But he would not do a foolish thing like quitting on Benyamine because Benyamine was a big fish.

Round 2 of the saga was even more interesting for two reasons. Poker players have become expert bloggers and this round was played out in cyberspace and not on the poker tables. The second reason was that it was Benyamine’s girlfriend Erica Schoenberg who put on the gloves on his behalf. Erica, who goes by the name of Poker Babe, has gambling in her blood. Both her parents were gamblers who met on the racetrack in Arcadia and fell in love.

She wrote her blog at PokerRoad from the hotel lobby while Benyamine, whom she refers to as Mr. B, was asleep in the room.

It read, “I’ve seen this player a couple of times on the no limit tables, but never playing the other games so I imagine he’s just the typical NL ass-clown. (You know the type - started playing in high school or college, probably after discovering poker through his Magic the Gathering friends.)” She added that young, arrogant, disrespectful players like what’s-his-name ultimately lose their bankrolls to pros like Mr. B and slink back to college and they have no right to say what table manners are.

Rosenkrantz responded in his own blog at Dangerlion on September 27. He first set the record straight by stating that he had already graduated in 2006 so there was no need for him to go back to college, that he had been playing $300/$600 for the past tear and a half without going broke, that he does not play Magic the Gathering and that he is extremely qualified to talk about online cash game etiquette. He then told Erica that since had faith in Mr. B’s ability to destroy him, why does not ask Mr. B to accept his challenge to a match of 2 tables of $200/$400 or $300/$600 Heads Up No Limit. He rubbed salt by saying that Mr. B was not good at multi-tabling. 

In Round 3 Benyamine took up the challenge and the match was arranged at $300/$600 stakes. Whether a war of words took place is not yet known but at the tables Benyamine lost to Rosenkrantz. Online poker fans will be closely following the blogs of Erica and Rosenkrantz to learn exactly what happened.