David Williams Finds the Right Mindset

David Williams has lived the full circle of a poker career since he broke into the game as a 24-year-old from the Dallas area who finished second in the 2004 World Series of Poker main event. His initial big score quickly led to a sponsorship deal with Bodog, and since that time, he has experienced both the highs of poker success and the stagnation of the poker grind.

His recent victory in the 2010 World Poker Tour Championship is the culmination of his journey back to the top of the game. It gave him a WPT title to go with the WSOP gold bracelet that he won in 2006, and it took his career tournament winnings to more than $7.8 million.

Williams doesn’t turn 30 until this summer, and his tournament earnings already put him in the top 20 on the list of all-time leading money winners. His story is one of quick tournament success followed by years of living the fun lifestyle of a young poker celebrity. The second chapter of his career began at the WPT Championship in April, and the next chapter could be his renaissance.

The Man Who Might Have Been King

When Williams finished runner-up to Greg Raymer in the WSOP main event, it was a bittersweet experience. “Even though I won $3.5 million, I felt miserable. I felt like I got so close to something, and I was second-guessing my decisions and wondering if I could have done something better,” said Williams. “When you win, there is nothing to second-guess.” That prize money gave him the financial freedom to buy a house for his single mother, Shirley, and then move to Vegas, where he currently lives in a classy condominium in the Panorama Towers.

Williams was clearly enjoying the lifestyle of a young poker celebrity. VIP bottle service at the hottest night spots in Las Vegas, a Bentley in his garage, and a gorgeous model on his arm soon became par for the course for the young star. He was living the dream and winning a lot of money in the process.

Between 2004 and 2006, he made three WPT final tables. And he made two WSOP final tables in the 2006 World Series, finishing second in the $5,000 deuce-to-seven lowball event, and winning his first bracelet in a $1,500 seven-card stud event. He banked another $2 million in the two years following his smash rookie appearance, and separated himself from the one-hit wonders who had come before him and faded away.

Finding His Way Back to the Final Table

But after the summer of 2006, he wasn’t finding success in major tournaments. He would win an occasional preliminary event and cash in a major tournament here and there, but he couldn’t find his way back to a major-tournament final table. He remained relevant during this drought as a result of his cash-game success and the poker community’s respect for his skill, but many, including himself, thought he could do better.

“I’ve had streaks where I haven’t played my best,” said Williams. Poker had become boring for him, even at the top. His first major-event final-table appearance in almost three years came in June 2009, when he finished fourth in the $1,500 limit hold’em shootout event at the WSOP. He then would make a change in his approach to the game in the spring of 2010, and the benefits came quickly.

Just a few weeks before the 2010 WPT Championship, Williams began to meet with mindset coach Sam Chauhan, who helped him take a more focused and serious approach to poker. “I was more focused during this tournament than I ever have been. For six straight days, I literally never had one thought outside the table. Usually, I’m thinking about poker, but I still have a few things on my mind, like what bills to pay or what’s going on with my family. The focus I had was like nothing I have ever had in my life for anything,” said Williams.

He didn’t enter the WPT Championship until day 2, thanks to the late-registration policy, but he never looked back once he sat down at the table, thanks to his new approach. “I had a vision of this right here,” said Williams as he held up two fistfuls of $100 bills and posed for winner photos. The positive changes that he made had led to his first major win since 2006.

“The main goal for me is for him to become so focused on playing that nothing else matters. He took a couple of beats and didn’t even flinch. That shows a strong inner core and a strong mindset, and that’s what it’s all about,” said Chauhan when asked about what he has Williams work on during their sessions.

In addition to Williams, Chauhan works with Phil Hellmuth, Josh Arieh, Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith, and Paul Wasicka in the poker world, and he also has athletes, CEOs, and business owners on his list of clientele. In terms of poker, he tries to get players to focus on how they’ve played, not the outcome, because as anyone who has felt the sting of lady luck knows, you can play your best and still lose. He also takes a different approach in guiding each individual client in the right direction to succeed. “There are different things that you have to be good at; you have to have a good mindset, you have to have good energy, and you have to have a high skill level. With David, his skill level is through the roof, but it is when all of those cylinders work at the same time that you give yourself the best opportunity to win,” said Chauhan.

Williams had one of the largest stacks heading to the final table, and although he experienced a few setbacks, he quickly established himself as the favorite. He was the chip leader most of the way, and was at his best when facing the toughest competition.

“You can’t be a fluke and win this tournament; you have to be a pro. That kind of stuff inspires me. I want to be the best that I can be. I want to be respected as a good poker player, because I know what I’m capable of doing. I’m able to do more psychological things and play by feel against pros than against amateurs, whom I know nothing about. I have a lot of experience with these guys, and I’m able to manipulate things in my favor,” said Williams.

The focus that he had throughout the tournament, combined with his confidence, led to the most prestigious win of his career, even if he didn’t take home $3.5 million. “Financially, it’s not as awesome, but it feels a hell of a lot better. Winning a tournament always feels great, even if it’s just a $100 tournament. Anytime you win something, it’s an amazing feeling, and winning something of this caliber makes it even better,” said Williams. “I hope to keep that focus in other tournaments. If I can keep that focus and that positivity, great things are going to happen. Positive energy magnifies, and it grows. The more positive you are, the more positive the things will be that happen to you,” said Williams.

Small, Tough Field Defines 2010 WPT Championship

The 2010 World Poker Tour Championship $25,000 no-limit hold’em event at Bellagio attracted a small field of 195 players. It was the smallest turnout for the event since 111 players entered at the end of season one of the WPT. A crowded April schedule had poker players spread across the globe at European Poker Tour events in San Remo, Italy, and Monte Carlo, and something had to give.

The small turnout influenced the Bellagio tournament staff to announce new dates for the event next year. In 2011, the WPT Championship will be held May 21-27.

The turnout may have been small, but there was still big money up for grabs, with the winner taking home $1,530,537 and the runner-up also enjoying a million-dollar payday. The quality of the field was impressive. Every table in the field would have been a featured table at any other tournament, as a savvy collection of professionals played deep-stack poker. The ranks of the professionals had not thinned by the time the money was reached on day 4 of the event and 18 players remained.

Tony Cousineau (18th place), Matt Stout (17th place), Josh Arieh (16th place), Faraz Jaka (14th place), J.J. Liu (13th place), Jason Lester (12th place), and Olivier Busquet (11th place) all finished in the money on the way down to a final table of 10 on day 5. All that had to happen on day 6 was the elimination of four players to reach the final television table of six, but with some of the best players in the world and biggest personalities in poker competing for those spots, it took close to 10 hours.

Cliff Josephy was eliminated in 10th place when David Williams made a straight flush to top his full house, and the next player to fall was Nikolay Evdakov in ninth place after he was crippled by a Phil Hellmuth double-up. Then, four hours elapsed before Scotty Nguyen was eliminated and the television-table bubble was reached. Hellmuth turned out to be the last elimination of the night, and even though he had traded tense words with Shawn Buchanan, Eric Baldwin, and anyone else who crossed his path, when he busted out in seventh place, he was rather subdued, and no Hellmuthian blowup occurred.

Final-Table Chip Counts:

John O’Shea was on a mission to double up quickly or bust out trying when the day began. The end result was the latter. He hit the rail in sixth place ($199,888) after Billy Baxter called him down with A-10, and all that he could muster was 6-3. Baxter busted out a short time later in fifth place when his aces up fell to a flopped Broadway straight by Williams. Baxter was awarded $246,921.

The remaining four players then battled for hours before David Benyamine shoved all in preflop for 3,205,000 with the Q J. Shawn Buchanan made the call with the A 5, and a 9 7 2 5 7 board sent Benyamine out in fourth place ($329,228). Shortly after that, Buchanan found his own stack at risk. He moved all in preflop with pocket queens, and Williams made the call with pocket nines. The 9 fell on the flop, and Buchanan was out in third place. He took home $587,906 in prize money.

Williams took a 3-1 chip lead into the heads-up battle against Eric Baldwin. The Card Player 2009 Player of the Year was never able to get much going against Williams, and the first major hand that they played was the final hand of the tournament. Baldwin moved all in preflop with the A 5, and Williams went into the tank for a few minutes. “I just really felt that he didn’t have a big pair, because he would have made a different kind of raise. I felt there was a good chance that he had just two overcards, which didn’t put me in great shape, but I counted the chips and tanked for a while, and realized that if I lost the hand, I’d still be a little bit ahead. I decided that I wanted to take the shot and gamble. It was a coin flip, and I was willing to take that chance,” said Williams.

He made the call with the 2 2, and the crowd rose to their feet in anticipation of the flop. The board came A 7 6 2 4, taking everyone in the room on a wild ride before settling the dispute of who would be the 2010 WPT champion. Williams said, “I saw the ace on the flop right away, but I wasn’t really discouraged because I had already decided that if I lost the hand, we were going to play some more poker; but when that deuce came on the turn, it was amazing. As soon as I saw it, I thought, ‘I just won,’ and I couldn’t speak for a while.” Baldwin was eliminated in second place ($1,034,715), and Williams took home one of the top titles in poker and $1,530,537.

Final-Table Results: