David "Mr. Comeback" Chiu

While it may not be the media circus that is the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour Championship event remains as one of the lone remaining true tests of skill for tournament professionals. The hefty $25,000 buy-in accomplishes two goals: It creates the largest prize pool of the year on the WPT, and it keeps out most of the dead-money satellite winners. It is by far the toughest no-limit hold'em field of the year to navigate, as evidenced by this year's final table of six players who have collectively won more than $16 million in their careers.

In the end, consummate professional David Chiu emerged victorious in one of the most dramatic and bizarre final tables in recent memory. Chiu is well-respected among his peers as not only a fantastic player, but as a genuinely nice guy both at and away from the tables.

Despite a résumé that includes four WSOP bracelets and 20 final-table appearances, Chiu is often overlooked. His professional career spans just 11 deceptively short years, but he already has put up the numbers to suggest otherwise. His victory at Bellagio ensures his place in history, and moves him into 17th place in the all-time tournament winnings standings.

Card Player caught up with Chiu the day after he completed one of the most talked about comebacks in WPT history. Sitting across from the Bellagio sportsbook, just a few yards away from Bobby's Room, Chiu spoke about his life before poker, the game, both then and now, and his improbable victory against the goliath known as Gus Hansen.

Julio Rodriguez: Let's talk about your years before getting into poker.

David Chiu: I was a restaurant owner before I got into poker. It was a tough profession for me, because I never got a day off and it took up almost all of my time. It was really hard on my family, as well. In almost three years, I never had a single day off.

Toward the end of my run as a restaurant owner, I slowly got into poker. I started off playing in $3-$6 home games in Denver, Colorado. Back then, we played a lot of stud high-low, and that was the first game I really learned. It wasn't until after my first year that I learned the other games, including hold'em.

JR: Was there anybody who helped you speed up along the learning curve?

DC: I learned the game pretty much by myself. As a matter of fact, after giving up my restaurant, I took a job as a shift manager in a local casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. There, I was able to pick up the little things about the game that I think a lot of other players lack. Being around the game all day long, I was able to see that discipline and patience were very important if you wanted to be a winning player. I could watch all of the winners, and I started to play like them. Soon, I was winning, as well.

JR: What made you decide to take that first shot in Las Vegas?

DC: In 1996, I decided to take a vacation to Las Vegas. It ended up being a great vacation for me in the cash games, and I bought into my first World Series event, $2,000 limit hold'em. There were more than 500 players, and I was looking around at all of the professionals and was beginning to feel a little nervous. After the event got started, everything went my way. I started to get more comfortable, and before I knew it, I had won the event and almost $400,000. I guess you could say it was beginner's luck, but after playing in Denver, I thought I pretty much knew what I was doing.

I was very happy to win a bracelet on my first try, but I cashed two more times during that Series. I also finished in 10th place in the main event when Huck Seed won. After those two scores, I decided to take the game more seriously and consider becoming a professional.

JR: How did you end up in California?

DC: In Colorado, there's only so much you can do with poker. The $5 limit makes it very hard to make a living. There's a $3 rake taken from each hand, and it was becoming hard to find any action. In 1997, I made the move to California so that I could start my career as a professional. The action in California was a lot better, and I had no problem finding a game with higher limits. My bankroll got bigger and bigger, and I haven't left since.

JR: In what kind of game did you play back then?

DC: I played in some tough games. I usually played a $400-$800 game with some very good players. I believe Barry Greenstein, Freddy Bonyadi, Freddy Deeb, David Oppenheim, Phil Ivey, Ray Zee, Lee Salem, Daniel Negreanu, and Howard Lederer all played at some point. Actually, now that I look back at it, I'm 100 percent sure that I was the underdog in that game. But I did learn a lot from those guys, and hey, I'm always willing to ante up and pay for my lessons.

JR: How has the game changed since you started?

DC: When I first started, I never could have imagined what the game would become. If someone had told me that there would be a televised tournament every other week, I would have told him that he was crazy. I think a lot of it had to do with TV and the Internet.

These young, online kids are so aggressive. I remember in the old days, hands like A-Q, J-J, and Q-Q were not even close to good when someone came in for a raise. We would muck those hands instantly. Nowadays, they look at those same cards differently than we used to. What used to be trash before is now good enough to reraise with. They definitely have made the game tougher. Now, you have to consider your opponent before throwing away your jacks, because it is more likely than before that he has a worse hand. In some ways, it has made the game more of a gamble.

You could see it on the second-to-last day of this tournament. I got into a big hand with Bryan Devonshire when he went all in after I reraised him. Normally, I don't like my pocket queens in this spot, but I thought about it. He would do the same thing with A-Q, A-J, J-J, and a lot of other hands that I could beat. I called, and won a huge pot after he showed A-Q and didn't hit.

The key is adjusting to the player. A lot of people think that I am very tight, but if I get the right combination of opponents at the table, I can turn it on and play aggressively. Depending on the situation, I can lay down pocket kings preflop, or put in the third raise with pocket jacks. It is entirely dependant on my opponents and their images.

I always try to analyze my opponent, consider the circumstances, and then decide on the best play.

JR: Your peers credit you for your uncanny ability to read your opponents. Have you always been in tune with the other players at the table?

DC: Well, I have an advantage over my opponents, because I can pick up strength and weakness better than most. When I was younger, swimming infections left me hard of hearing. As a result, I have deeper concentration than most. I can literally tune out almost all distractions and work on the game. It was a big help at the WPT final table, where I hardly noticed the lights, the cameras, or the crowd screaming behind me.

JR: Last year, after winning this championship, Carlos Mortensen sort of fell off the radar for a while. What are your plans for poker in the near future?

DC: I don't play as many tournaments as I used to. I try to stick with the bigger events exclusively. But after winning this event, I think that I may try to get back out there, possibly travel a bit more to Europe, and head to Australia with Full Tilt.

I play a lot of online poker, but I don't play very high stakes like some of the other Full Tilt pros do. I enjoy talking with the other players and having a friendly, stress-free game, and you don't get that kind of environment in the big games. I like to play smaller, have a good time, and answer questions from the other players.

You know, I don't have any ego problems like some other guys do. I don't feel the need to beat the best and challenge myself to go higher and higher. I'm very happy and comfortable with my life now, and I don't need the stress. I guess you could say that I'm content with finding the best spot, taking it easy. Life's too short, you know.

JR: What are you doing when you're not tearing up the felt?

DC: I love spending time with my kids. I have a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old, and pretty much all of my free time goes to them. They know that their dad plays poker for a living, and they were very excited for me when I won the tournament. As a matter of fact, they called me just a few minutes after I won to congratulate me, because they were reading about it on CardPlayer.com.

JR: Let's talk about the final table.

DC: I came to the final table with a game plan, and pretty much everything went accordingly. I arrived knowing that Gus would try to take over and knock everyone out. I just didn't think it would happen so fast. Going into heads-up play, I made sure that I made him work for every pot. I chose my spots well, let him do the betting for me, and, to be honest, caught a few cards along the way. You will see on TV that I limped in with a lot of monster hands. I limped in with kings, and big suited aces, and then let him do the dirty work.

People got caught up in our stack sizes once we started the heads-up match. In limit hold'em, I would have had absolutely no chance to win because of his chip lead, but in no-limit, anything can and will happen. As Mike Sexton said, a chip lead doesn't mean as much in heads-up no-limit. Anyone is just a few double-ups away from taking it right back.

Don't get me wrong, Gus is a monster of a heads-up player and one of the best in the world, but I kind of held over him in that match. I would say that I played my best poker, but in the end, my victory was accounted for by mostly luck.

JR: Your win puts you in a pretty elite group of players. At the end of the day, which professionals have earned your respect?

DC: Can I name a thousand [laughing]? First and foremost, Chip Reese earned my respect. For years, he was my idol, not only because of his world-class skills, but also because I admired the way that he presented himself. There are a lot of players who are great at the game, and can pay the bills, but truly successful players get the most out of life. Chip was a great father who made sure that his life didn't revolve around the game. His family came first, and for that reason, he was very happy. If I had to model my life around anyone else's, it would be his.

Score One for China

David Chiu's victory marks the first time that a Chinese-born player has won a major title in the world of televised tournament poker. After hitting trips on the river to eliminate Gus Hansen, Chiu raced into the audience, grabbed the Chinese flag, and draped it over his shoulders for the remainder of the night. His gesture of national pride aside, Chiu spoke about living in the United States, and the current poker landscape back in China.

"I am proud of who I am and where I come from," said Chiu. "Obviously, I lived in China for only 18 years and I've been here in the States for 30 years. I still have family and friends back there whom I visit occasionally, but my home is here now. This is the most beautiful country in the world, with so many opportunities, so no matter what I've gone through in the past, I will always consider America to be my home."

Chiu wanted to comment on the way poker is viewed by the Chinese people, as well. The Asia Pacific Poker Tour has recently sparked an interest in poker in the largest country in the world, and with the popularization of Traktor poker, Chiu sees an attitude shift on the horizon for his current profession.

"Poker is considered to be an unacceptable form of income right now in China. But, as you can see, Macau has allowed casinos to come in, and they've done very well. So, maybe the attitude is changing with the times." The APPT also has reached other new destinations, such as South Korea, the Philippines, and even as far south as Australia.

"I think you have to give it time. The current leaders in China are not as traditional as their forefathers. They are American-educated men who have learned the benefits of the tourism industry here in the States. I believe that over time, you will see China make a move to become more modern in its thinking, and shift toward an economy that welcomes casinos and, more importantly, poker players. Eventually, my profession and others like it will be more accepted by the Chinese people. You just have to give them some time; 1.3 billion people aren't going to change overnight."

A Bad Beat Leads to a Positive Outlook

Just three days before Christmas in 1998, David Chiu's life was turned completely upside down. Wrongly accused of kidnapping, Chiu was arrested and forced to spend more than three months in jail, all the while desperately trying to prove his innocence. The experience is a tough story for Chiu to tell; his face reddens with even the smallest memory of it, but he insists that he came out of his ordeal a changed man, a better man. Here is his story:

The night before I was arrested, I stopped at a nearby grocery store to pick up some milk for the baby. My son was just a month old at the time. After getting my groceries, I went home, and everything was normal and fine. The next day, I headed to Commerce Casino to play in my usual game. Right in front of everyone at the table, I was arrested by the FBI.

When they picked me up, I was still in a good mood. I was joking around with the officers and still had a smile on my face. I knew that I was innocent of whatever they were going to charge me with, and figured it would all get sorted out after they questioned me. It wasn't until I saw my wife and mother-in-law that I began to get scared.

The authorities told me that I was being charged with kidnapping. The real kidnappers had used a pay phone in front of the same grocery store where I had been the night before. Also, our vehicles were very similar, and after checking the surveillance tape, everything pointed at me.

At this point, I started to get angry. My family was being threatened with guns pointed at them, they didn't speak any English, and had no idea what was going on. Not only that, but what they were accusing me of didn't make any sense. They told me the ransom was $30,000. When they picked me up, I had more than $17,000 in front of me on the table, and another $250,000 in my box. Why would I kidnap anyone, let alone for $30,000? The FBI confiscated everything in my box, but Commerce Casino was nice enough to collect my chips on the table for me until everything was sorted out.

I spent the next three-and-a-half months in the Los Angeles County Jail, waiting and waiting for the day that I could defend myself in court. My wife and children were alone, and I was stuck in hell. After coming to America, I got along with everyone and saw the good in them. There was no good to see in jail. The people are awful, and will try to find any excuse to get into a fight. After finally having the charges dropped, I vowed never to do anything that would send me back. As a result, I think I have become a better, stronger person.

I have yet to get an apology. I spent nearly $100,000 on legal fees, all for a crime I had nothing to do with, but I don't even care about the money. All I ever wanted was an apology, just someone to tell me they were sorry for putting me and my family through hell.

I asked my son, who is now 9 years old, what he wants to be when he grows up. He told me that he wants to be a police officer. That might make some people in my situation concerned, but I think that's great. I want nothing more from my children than for them to look up to law enforcement and realize that 99 percent of them are there to protect the innocent.

Despite my experience, I still have to say that I love the United States and all of the opportunities available. I appreciate that you are given the opportunity to prove yourself innocent in court. I appreciate the rights that a citizen has in the judicial system. In some other parts of the world, innocent people are thrown into jail every day, and are never given the right to have a lawyer.

People ask me, "How are you able to stay so calm about everything you've been through?" I just think about it in the same way that I would handle a poker hand. I took a really bad beat in a really big pot, but life goes on. Next hand.