– General Introduction –
Ben Lamb is an American professional poker player. He was born on March 31, 1985 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He’s best known for reaching the WSOP Main Event final table twice, in 2011 and in 2017. He cashed in the WSOP ME four times in total. He also has a WSOP gold bracelet from the 2011 $10K Pot Limit Omaha event. Overall, he has $14 million in live tournament cashes.
He also appeared on PokerGO’s revived version of the classic show Poker After Dark multiple times between 2017 and 2020. Online, he plays under the screen name “benba” on PokerStars and has over $1 million in MTT winnings.
– Key Career Dates –
- 2011: He wins his first WSOP gold bracelet after finishing first in the $10,00 Pot Limit Omaha event for $814,436.
- 2011: He finishes 3rd in the WSOP Main Event for $4.021 million. That is the biggest single live tournament cash of his career to date.
- 2017: He reaches the WSOP Main Event final table again, this time finishing 9th for $1 million.
– Ben Lamb’s Career –
→ Beginnings ←
Lamb grew up in Oklahoma, the state with one of the biggest selections of Native American casinos – so, gambling and poker was never a far reach for a young man from the Sooner State.
According to a 2011 profile piece on him in the local paper Tulsa World, Lamb became a professional poker player in 2004, right after graduating high school.
He attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas but dropped out very early to pursue his career as cardplayer. To supplement his income, he also took on a part-time job as a dealer in the Cherokee Casino (now called the Hard Rock Casino). According to Lamb, he learnt a lot by watching other players play while dealing their hands.
However, he eventually made enough money from playing poker so that he didn’t have to deal the game anymore.
→ Live Tournaments ←
Lamb has $13.958 million in live tournament cashes, according to his Hendon page. That sum is the product of ITM finishes in 68 different live events over the course of 15 years. He’s currently in the top 50 on the US all time money list; and in the top 100 on the worldwide all time money list.
His first recorded result on his profile is from June 2006. He came in 14th in the $230 No Limit Hold’em tourney at the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge in his hometown of Tulsa, OK and won $688. The next month, in July 2006, he returned to the very same tournament series for a much bigger score. He took down the $1,060 NLHE event this time for $53,671. Later that year, in September 2006, he also won a $550 NLHE event for $60,000 at the United States Poker Championship at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ.
The first time Lamb made a live score for over $100K was in the 2009 WSOP Main Event. In January 2015, he finished 2nd in a $25K Aria High Roller for $300,000. Also, he took down the A$25,000 NLHE – $25,000 Challenge at the 2018 Aussie Millions for A$738,720 (equalling around $596,194 at the time).
In May 2019, he triumphed in the HK$500,000 Short Deck No Limit Hold’em – Ante Only event at the Montenegro stop of the Triton High Roller series and won HK$7.650 million ($974,634). Lamb’s biggest cash so far from outside the WSOP is from August 2019. Then, he finished 2nd in the £100,000 NLHE – Short Deck Ante Only “Les Ambassadeurs” Private Event for £1.350 million. He lost the heads-up battle for the title to Xuan Tan from China.
→ World Series of Poker ←
Ben Lamb has won one WSOP gold bracelet so far.
In 2011, he took down the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event for $814,436. He beat the Finnish Sami Kelopuro heads-up for the title at the end.
However, what’s more remarkable about his World Series performance is the fact that he managed to reach the WSOP Main Event final table twice! In 2011, the year Pius Heinz from Germany won, Lamb came in 3rd out of 6,865 players for $4.021 million. That is his biggest single live tournament score to date. Six years later, in 2017, he finished 9th out of 7,221 runners and won $1 million. That year, Scott Blumstein from New Jersey was crowned the world champion.
What’s more, Lamb even made another WSOP Main Event deep run in 2009. He eventually busted in 14th place, winning an additional $633,022. He also cashed in the 2007 Main.
On top of all that, he has a 2nd place finish from the $3,000 PLO event for $259,918 from 2011 (only a week before he won his first bracelet in the $10K PLO); as well as an 8th place finish for $201,338 from the $50,000 Poker Players Championship mixed game event also from 2011.
Overall, Lamb has cashed in 23 World Series events for a total of $7.557 million combined.
→ Live Cash Games ←
Lamb appeared on PokerGO’s revived version of the classic NBC show Poker After Dark a number of times.
In December 2020, he played a session of $100/$200 No Limit Hold’em cash game. His opponents at the table included Antonio Esfandiari, Justin Young, Alex Ding, and entrepreneur/real estate developer Andrew Sasson.
In one hand, Lamb was up against two 7-2’s, held by Ding and Sasson. Sasson was ambitious enough to double barrel bluff with his famous rags (which happened to make bottom pair), but Lamb eventually made the call with his top pair of Kings.
→ Online Poker ←
Lamb plays under the screen name “benba” on PokerStars and the now defunct poker site Full Tilt Poker.
The earliest cash on his PocketFives profile is from July 2006. He came in 44th in a $162 NLHE tourney on Stars for $276. The first time he made an online cash for over $10K was in February 2007 – and it was well over $10K right off the bat. He finished second in a $216 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Rebuy-Addon event on Full Tilt and won a hefty $56,490.
His biggest online cash to date is $146,288, which he got for winning the Full Tilt Series of Poker Event #8, a $240 NLHE tournament on FT, in May 2009.
The latest tracked scores on his P5 page are from 2016. Since then, his only recorded online MTT results are two cashes from online events from the 2020 World Series of Poker, both played on Natural8-GGNetwork.
