David Singer made six final tables in 2005, including one on the
World Poker Tour, one at the
World Series of Poker, and three among the stacked fields of the
Ultimate Poker Challenge. He added another
WPT final table in 2006, and finished sixth in the prestigious $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the 2006
WSOP, taking his lifetime tournament earnings to more than $1.8 million. Yet, he doesn't get stopped for autographs at the supermarket. His soft-spoken demeanor, absence of showmanship, and lofty social concerns often miss the television camera's discerning eye. "All my life, I've watched sports, and I liked the players who acted like they'd been there before, and I didn't like the guys who showed up other people," Singer said.
In a day and age of poker when a well-timed quip or the right gimmick can land you an endorsement deal, Singer has chosen instead to let his play do the talking - and pay the bills.
Chasing the Big Fish
David Singer was born in Brooklyn, New York. Like a lot of kids, poker entered his life in his high-school years, when he played poker for quarters in the basement. While he never envisioned making a living playing poker, Singer sought out other careers that eventually led him back to the game.
A natural-born risk taker, financial stability was never a top priority for him when it came to career choices. In his own words, "There aren't that many jobs where you can lose money." But, Singer gravitated to the few that offered that threat of financial peril. A bona fide shark on the felt for many years now, he once made his living off fish long before his first check-raise.
"The fishing … in a way, I kind of look at it like poker." An easier metaphor may be difficult to find as Singer describes the risk/reward involved in fishing for giant tuna - which can weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are caught using the conventional rod and reel. "They're worth a lot of money," Singer said, "but they're hard to find, and hard to catch."
During his summers, he invested in a boat, fuel, bait, and gear - all on the speculation that he could catch enough fish to turn a profit. "You could lose a decent amount of money every day that you didn't catch a fish." Singer stated. "In a way, it's kind of like poker. Some days are really good, and some days are really bad. When it was really bad in fishing, you would lose a lot of gear, and it would be rough as hell … and you'd be beaten up. In poker, it seems like you're being beaten up when you lose every hand."
Even with nature trying to lay bad beats on him in the form of rough seas and evasive fish, Singer emerged as a success in the fishing world. At one time, he even held two world records.
Singer the Activist
Poker pros Greg Raymer, Mark Seif, and Isabelle Mercier all tried their hand at the legal profession before making the move to the world of professional poker. And just as they did for the aforementioned trio, the halls of justice led David Singer to the felt, also.
As much of an asset as he is to poker, Singer was to the legal community, as well. In a world often stereotyped as being self-centered, money hungry, and deceptive, Singer was the exact opposite. He took a job as an attorney in a nonprofit environmental law firm. "The money was really bad," Singer recalled. "I was getting paid worse than the secretaries."
However, his social concerns were more important to him than money. He and his associates worked on water issues, primarily on cleaning up the Long Island Sound. "I only went to law school to work on environmental issues, because I believe the environment is in bad shape and we have to do a lot to protect it. It's not taken seriously enough," he said.
It was during his time as an attorney that poker crept back into his life. He gambled on occasion - going to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and playing at an underground card club in New York City. But it wasn't until the organization he was working for started having grant problems and cut back on his hours that he considered playing poker full time. "I became disillusioned with how things worked in that particular nonprofit. I intended to go back and work someplace else, but I enjoyed poker and was making money at it, so I never did."
Singer the Stud Grinder
You've seen him moving huge amounts of chips at televised no-limit hold'em final tables, but stud was the name of the game for Singer in the early days of his poker career. For the first five years of his career, he played stud almost exclusively for a living - starting out at $10-$20 and $15-$30, and eventually moving up as high as $75-$150. "In the beginning, I would lose. I didn't really keep good records. Sometimes I'd lose the money I was making. Overall, I never lost that much. I always seemed to have some money. Sometimes I had only a few thousand dollars in my bankroll, and sometimes I'd have to borrow money," Singer said.
It wouldn't be long before he became a winning player, however. The studious Singer found a mentor who he thought was good at the $10-$20 limit, and at this friend's prompting, he picked up a stud book written by
Card Player columnist Roy West titled
7-Card Stud: 42 Lessons How to Win at Medium & Lower Limits. Its most important lesson was, "In stud, your level of aggression should be based on the ratio of the ante to the size of the opening raise," Singer recalled.
Singer stayed on the grind, and with the lessons well-absorbed, he found the most lucrative career of his life. "Within six months or so, I realized I could make a living at (poker)," Singer said. "I was able to read that there were a lot of people who weren't playing well early on, and I figured I could do well against them, at least."
Testing the Tournament Waters
In 1997, Singer would get his first taste of tournament success when he made the final table in a stud tournament at Foxwoods. Five years later, he made his first $10,000-plus score, finishing second in a no-limit hold'em tournament in the
United States Poker Championship at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City - at a final table that included pros Phil Hellmuth, Paul Wolfe, and "Miami" John Cernuto. He had bested a field that included former world champions and a future 10-time
World Series of Poker bracelet winner, but his tournament poker coming-out party would have to wait a few more months.
In the 32 open events leading up to the main event of the 2003
World Series of Poker, Singer made two final tables, in the $2,500 and the $5,000 no-limit hold'em events, finishing seventh and fifth, respectively.
His hot streak continued in the main event, and he eventually found himself at the final table, beating out 830 of the record-breaking (at the time) field of 839. His spot at the main-event final table meant that he had made the three highest buy-in no-limit hold'em final tables at the 2003
WSOP. "I understand that no one else has ever done that," Singer commented. However, in what has become a series of media oversights of Singer's poker talent, you hardly would have known that he was at that historic final table. Chris Moneymaker's name and story left little room for others in the spotlight. Singer received very little television coverage before he was eliminated in ninth place. He pocketed $120,000 (his biggest score up to that point) and was left to watch from the rail as poker changed forever.
Singer's 2003
World Series jump-started what would eventually become a consistent and lucrative career in tournament poker. He would have to call on his fishing days in 2004 to weather the storm of a year in which he earned only $57,154 in tournament play, but bluer skies lay ahead for the eco-activist-cum-poker pro in the form of big money.
Chasing the Big Fish - Part II
The 2005
Borgata Poker Open marked the first time that Singer would take a seat at a
WPT final table. After coming to the final table with the chip lead, Singer took a bad beat early at the hands of Ricardo Festejo. Festejo made a runner-runner straight against Singer's set, sending Singer on a downward spiral that saw him finish in a disappointing sixth place. Once again, he was the first player out at a televised final table.
Singer started 2006 with another
WPT final table, taking the chip lead outdoors to the set of the
PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Yet again, however, he fell short. After cracking Singer's trip aces with a flush, the eventual champion, Steve Paul-Ambrose, eliminated Singer in third place when his A-Q outdrew Singer's kings after they got all in on a queen-high flop. Singer pocketed $436,200 for his third-place finish, but was taken out of the spotlight yet again by a bad beat.
In the poker community, there is no doubt that Singer commands respect. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, a player known for his willingness to publicly discuss his opinion of another player's skill, has referred to Singer as "the most underrated player on the tournament circuit." Singer firmed up this standing when he took down the $7,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em heads-up event at the 2006
Mirage Poker Showdown (
MPS). In a field that included many of the same players as the
NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Singer defeated high-stakes cash-game player and Las Vegas businessman Eli Elezra to take down the $232,800 first prize - all with the cameras off. "It was very satisfying to beat some of the better players in the game. It made me feel like I had accomplished a lot, and that even if the general public didn't see it on TV, the win would command a lot of respect from my peers."
He followed up this victory with a seventh-place finish in the main event of the
MPS. Unfortunately, the seventh spot has become known as the TV final-table bubble. Victimized by a runner-runner flush, Singer was denied a third shot at poker superstardom.
His poker accomplishments were on display when
ESPN aired the final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event from the 2006
World Series of Poker. Although Singer counts one of his strengths as being able to "take advantage of bad players," he outlasted a stacked field and joined Chip Reese, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Jim Bechtel, T.J. Cloutier, Dewey Tomko, Doyle Brunson, and Patrik Antonius at perhaps the most prestigious final table in
WSOP history. This time, he finished in sixth place and won $411,840 for his efforts. "It was quite an accomplishment to get there, but it was also very disappointing to get there and finish sixth. Even with all of the great players at the final table, I still thought I had a good chance to win."
However, even with his continued achievements in this day and age of televised tournament poker, Singer has remained largely beneath the radar of the media and fans alike. Perhaps it's because he is still chasing the biggest fish of them all, the TV final-table win.
Looking Ahead
Making no excuses for himself, Singer has analyzed his falling short in televised majors, and aims to improve his game and take it to the championship level. He is even hitting the books again, this time flipping the pages of sports psychology books, looking to add a mental edge and more focus to his already fundamentally sound poker game. "I think I can play at a very high level, but I don't do it enough of the time," Singer said. "I think for a lot of new players, it's a big problem, too."
Continued success seems certain, given Singer's track record, continued dedication to the game, and philosophy on long-term success in poker: "I think basically being a solid player who doesn't get out of line too much is very important. Not steaming is very important, because you can lose a lot of money like that. At the higher limits, more reading skills come into it, but you basically develop that over time and get to know players."
Singer has not lost his social conscience, either: "I still intend on working more in the future on environmental issues, and not just playing poker." In fact, he donated a portion of his recent winnings to akuproject.org, a charity started by two of his cousins. The organization's main concern is to build educational facilities and provide clean water to underprivileged youth in Africa.
No matter what the future holds for David Singer, you can count on one thing from this poker pro - class on and off the felt. Now that's what I'm talking about!
