David Williams: Living the Dream

Play on, playa

David Williams is living the dream. Let's make a list. Wealthy, young, and independent – check. Dating playmates and actresses – check. Traveling the world to hang out with society's upper crust – check. Oh yeah, and playing poker for a living – check. Forget that old-school beer commercial; it just doesn't get any better than that. A gamer through and through, Williams progressed from Atari to Magic: The Gathering to poker stardom with only the slightest hint of anything resembling a 9-to-5 job along the way. Can you imagine anything more satisfying than pocketing $3.5 million at the 2004 World Series of Poker, clearing out the debts of friends and family, and then proceeding to live the life of a rock star? Williams is enjoying every second of it. For this dynamic young millionare, life is pretty sweet – and bound to get sweeter.



Do You Believe in Magic?

While excelling academically in his younger years, David also began dedicating himself to the task of becoming a skilled gamer. He discovered Magic: The Gathering in eighth grade and hung out at a collectibles store that was dedicated completely to Magic. There, the local veterans taught him how to play. "I really like being able to use the logical part of my brain with some art and creativity to create my deck, come up with ideas, implement them, and see how they work. I loved coming up with my own ideas on how to beat people, and seeing them work made it a lot of fun. I think I spent every day for 12 hours a day during the summer at the store," David said. And in that time, he became one of the best players in his area.



David next entered a Magic pro tour qualifying event and won his way into the first major tournament of his young gaming career. With the help of people he met at this tournament, David quickly rose to the top 10 percent of the game.



Not long thereafter, in David's early days at Princeton, some friends were sitting around a table playing Texas hold'em. "It was tournament-style limit hold'em, $5 buy-in, but the blinds never increased and you could rebuy as many times as you wanted. It would go until there was only one guy standing, who took the entire prize pool." David sat down, and 25 hours later it was down to him and Matt, one of the most well-respected Magic players in the game. "There was about $400 in the pool, but he had a huge chip lead. I asked him to chop, and even though he was my friend, he refused. He said, 'You don't know anything about this game; why would I chop with you?' Some of my friends pulled me aside and, knowing that Matt was a logical, tight player, told me to keep raising him and reraising him and he wouldn't call unless he had a big hand." The strategy worked. Eventually, David took the chip lead and beat Matt, capturing his first tournament victory and a severe case of poker obsession.

David sitting on a monster stack

On the Road, Online, and On His Way

With poker in his blood, David was now looking for a real game. While he was back in Texas over a college break, a friend got him into the $5-$10 limit hold'em game at a local card club, a club whose players served as bankroll fodder for the likes of Doyle Brunson and Johnny Moss back in the day. "My first time at the game, I sat down with $100, the only poker money I had to my name. I ended up winning $300, which was amazing because I didn't know what the hell I was doing. It's a good thing I won, because if I had gone broke, I wouldn't have been able to go back, and I probably never would have played again."



Fortunately for David, despite his lack of experience and self-proclaimed atrocious play, he started his poker career during a "running well" cycle of cards, and continued to win. Ascending the limits from the $5-$10 limit hold'em game, David stepped up through $15-$30 Omaha eight-or-better, $20-$40 and $30-$60 limit hold'em, and $500 buy-in pot-limit Omaha, eventually turning a consistent profit at each level.



In 2002, he made the switch to poker as a profession. "I was at the club every day, playing $30-$60, grinding it out, and trying to make my $1,000 a week and be happy. I'd have a big score, then a huge loss, but that's how it goes. Most important, I was a good money manager and began to stockpile money." About a year later, the Chris Moneymaker World Series of Poker episodes began to air on ESPN.



"I'd never thought about no-limit hold'em or tournaments, but I knew I could do it." David started off by playing in small live and online tournaments to gain experience. "Tournaments reminded me of Magic, in a sense. They're competition, not just one big session. You have a goal: You have to figure out how to outlast your opponents."



As was the case with all of David's previous endeavors, he threw himself into tournament play with rabid dedication. David and Eric Froelich (2005 World Series bracelet winner in the $1,500 limit hold'em event), with whom he developed a friendship through Magic circles, played together online using a "groupthink" type of strategy. They discussed hands and situations that arose during the tournament. "Every day after class, I'd get online and we'd play satellites. I won my first seat to the WPT event in Aruba, and that was my first big tournament. Mike Matusow and David Oppenheim were at my table. They were very friendly to me, and I became really enamored of them and the whole tournament circuit lifestyle."



It was then that David dedicated himself to locking up a seat in the 2004 World Series of Poker. It didn't take long. His reputation and performance around the clubs in Texas earned him some well-bankrolled fans. One such fan made David a deal: He'd stake David in the pot-limit Omaha game until they won enough to cover the $10,000 buy-in to the WSOP. David would then play and split all winnings with the backer. The deal was in place, but turned out to be unnecessary. David, after coming within one spot on three occasions, finally won his way into the WSOP through a PokerStars double shootout online. "That was truly a bad beat for [my backer]; he would have gotten half of what I won, so that was a $1.75 million bad beat." Ouch.



The Big Show

David arrived in Las Vegas ready to play. With a feeling of confidence brought on by the presence of a large portion of his Magic posse and a $20,000 run playing satellites, David sat down on day one focused and determined.

David and best friend Evelyn Ng

"Really early, like the fourth hand, I got two kings. The announcers were still saying, 'First person to bust out will be interviewed,' and I had this nightmarish vision that I was gonna be the first one busted out. This guy raised from early position to $100, and I was thinking, 'Oh God, here it comes.' I called, the flop came 9-8-3, and he checked. I bet $1,000, and he called. The turn was a jack, and the guy checked. I bet $3,500, and he called. Now I was thinking, 'Oh Jesus, what's happening here?' The river paired the 9, and he checked. I figured there was no hand he'd call me with that was worse than mine, so I checked behind him. The guy sheepishly turned over two queens, and I took it down." This hand gave David the confidence he needed to start playing some real poker, and play he did.



He maneuvered his way through the next several days without getting into many confrontations, slowly building his chip stack through skilled play and a little luck. Along the way, David met and became close with Marcel Luske, who assumed a mentorlike status for David during the Series. They discussed hands and a little bit of strategy, and Marcel became a strong force in David's corner. "After day two, I was never all in and never flipped a coin for more than half of my stack until day six, the day before the final table. That day was a train wreck." After surviving several close calls, and with the help of coach Luske, David locked up a seat at the final table.



Things went well for him at the final table, but ultimately the day went to Greg Raymer when Raymer's deuces full of eights bested David's deuces full of fours. "People always ask me about that final hand against Greg. Looking back, I would have played it differently. I wouldn't have played as big a pot, but at that time my no-limit experience wasn't that much. I didn't really know what I was doing, but now I'm 20 times the player I was then." And he's just a little bit wealthier.

David cheesing it up with his mom, Shirley

The Aftermath and Math After

Winning $3.5 million may inspire the average person to take some time off, kick back, spend some money, and just plain chill – but not David. Since his second-place finish at the 2004 WSOP, David has followed the tournament circuit religiously, earning another $800,000 in live tournaments alone, including a fantastic second-place finish to Daniel Negreanu at the World Poker Tour event at Borgata in September of 2004. That performance, which David described as the best poker he's ever played, reinforced the fact that he was no one-hit wonder.



As you can imagine, money really isn't David's central concern in life at this point. With millions in the bank earning interest and tied up in well-placed investments, David knows how to make the dream last. Living this dream, for David, involves mostly helping those close to him. He paid off his mother's and grandparents' homes and bought cars for his closest friends and girlfriend. The only money David really spent on himself after the WSOP was for a diamond-laden $25,000 Rolex, a watch he'd mentally locked up years ago. Only recently did David make a major purchase, when he picked up a beautiful black Mercedes SL 500 this past May. "I looked at Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but I thought buying one would be too ridiculous. I loved the Bentley Continental GT, but I still didn't want to spend $165,000. I regret now not getting the Bentley. I see SL 500s everywhere, and don't feel complete yet. The Bentley is on another level, and you never really see it. I think by Christmas, if I win a little and save a little bit, I might trade up."



Complementing his success in the live-poker environment, David also has had quite a bit of success online. Sponsored by Bodog.com, one of the hottest new poker sites in the game, David spends as many as 12 hours a day playing online (screen name: David Williams) when he's not traveling the tournament circuit.



The Dream Goes On …

With success on the felt often comes celebrity status. David certainly has become one of the young superstars in poker, and runs with a like-stationed crowd. David's core group of friends consists of Daniel Negreanu, Josh Arieh, Phil Ivey, and Erick Lindgren. He most recently started taking up golf, and he and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi have been tearing up the local par-3 courses for a couple of months now. "I wanted to try a real course, but Grinder went out to a real course, shot a 12 on every hole, and gave up after 12 holes. Give me two months and I'll be out there gambling on golf like everyone else in the poker world."



David's celebrity has extended far beyond poker circles. During this year's MTV Video Music Awards, David and then-girlfriend model Summer Altice attended the most exclusive afterparties on the planet. David chilled first with Diddy, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, and Ice-T, and then with Snoop Dogg and Ludacris later that night. Most recently, David had Ice-T sweat him at a Bellagio tournament, asking, "What you got?" while terrified opponents folded without making eye contact.



Poker will always be part of David's life, but business is his ultimate goal, even if that requires giving up poker to get something started. "Poker is my passion, my love, and my hobby, but I want to do something that uses my brain and creativity, and allows me to leave a mark; maybe something like own a casino." No matter what David decides to do, it's a safe bet to assume that he will succeed. After all, failure has never been part of the recipe of David's life.