David Benefield

David Benefield is 96th on the list of biggest poker winners tracked by HighstakesDB. The data is based on 208168 hands played and his total cash game profits amount to $923,996.

David Benefield is a high stakes poker player from the USA who plays both NLHE and PLO. He is also known by the name "raptop517". He was a regular in the nosebleed action up to 2009 but decided to take a break from the game to continue his academic studies.

He is good friends with Tom Dwan and the two of them lived together in what was called the "Ship it Holla Balla Mansion". He started his poker career off in the same way many of the best pros have done, by making one small deposit and never looking back. He grinded his way through the NLHE ranks quite quickly and transitioned to PLO though he believes that he is still a better NLHE player especially heads-up.

He was still seen at the tables until Black Friday even though he was pursuing other interests such as coaching baseball and going to college. He is currently at Columbia University studying Political Science and Chinese although he can still be seen playing at the tables in his free time.

We spoke to David in November 2012 and you can read the full interview here.