A Poker Life With Dan Idema

You might not recognize the name Dan Idema, but only 37 other poker players have won more World Series of Poker bracelets. In fact, Idema has three WSOP titles, as many as poker veterans Barry Greenstein, Sam Farha, and John Hennigan.

What makes Idema’s accomplishment even more impressive is that fact that he’s only been attending the summer series for seven years, and at 31 years old, still has many more decades to add to his win total.

Idema originally spent his early years as a top hockey player before making the full-time switch to poker. He now has more than $2.2 million in live tournament earnings and has played in some of the biggest cash games in the world.

A Lifelong Passion For Hockey

If you ask Idema, he’ll tell you that there is some truth to the stereotype that Canadians are obsessed with hockey. Idema couldn’t get enough of the sport and played from the age of five until he reached his twenties. As a teenager, he competed with a team in the Western Hockey League, which is one of three leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League.

“I grew up playing competitive hockey and I was pretty good,” said Idema. “I played major junior in Alberta with the Medicine Hat Tigers. We won the President’s Cup in 2004 and went to the Memorial Cup as well, which is kind of a big deal in Canada. This league is where a lot of the amateur players go before they turn pro.”

Idema didn’t settle with amateur hockey, however. As a solid defensemen known for his skating ability, he caught on with the Geleen Smoke Eaters, a pro hockey team in the Netherlands that was part of the Eredivisie, otherwise known as the Dutch premier league.

Poker Beginnings

Despite his love for hockey, Idema was getting the itch for poker as well.

“I probably would’ve ended up playing hockey all over Europe for most of my twenties if it wasn’t for poker,” he admitted. “Poker paid more and my heart just wasn’t in hockey anymore. I had played it my whole life and was looking for something new.”

Thanks to his older half-brother Adam Schwartz, a poker player known for co-hosting a popular podcast, Idema had an inside look at what it takes to play the game professionally.

“One of the first times I played poker was $3-$6 limit hold’em with a kill in a Vancouver casino,” he recalled. “My brother played poker quite a bit and was a fixture in the Vancouver poker scene. Obviously, I looked up to him, and when I told him I was interested, he suggested some books to read and helped me out when he could.”

Of course, if his parents weren’t alarmed that he was walking away from hockey, they certainly raised an eyebrow over his decision to play poker for a living.

Finding Success

Idema found early success by playing online poker, and it quickly consumed his life, much like hockey did as a teenager.

“I ended up spinning $100 into about $20,000 playing on PartyPoker,” he said. “That’s when I kind of felt like I could play poker for a living. For the first couple of years, I was basically playing 60- or 70-hour weeks. I couldn’t wait to come home and put in the hours.”

In 2007, Idema got his first major taste of live tournament success when he won the B.C. Poker Championship main event for $402,500. Although he could more than hold his own with no-limit hold’em, it was limit hold’em where he had a major edge and those games just weren’t being spread often enough to keep him from the online grind. In fact, he stated that early on he would travel to the World Series of Poker and play online anyway.

Then in 2010, he made two final tables at the WSOP with a seventh-place showing in the $2,500 mixed hold’em event and a runner-up finish in the $10,000 limit hold’em championship event for $263,244. Narrowly missing out on his first bracelet was particularly brutal considering that he had such a big chip lead against Matt Keikoan during heads-up play.

“He was so short that he was basically all in before looking at his cards with 8-2,” Idema recalled. “I had pocket sixes, but he hit an eight and came back to win it. It was tough to deal with that.”

The very next year, Idema returned to the WSOP, entered the $10,000 limit hold’em championship and managed to navigate his way through a field of 152 players for the win and the $378,642 first-place prize. This time, with a 4-1 heads-up advantage, Idema was able to close it out.

“When I somehow managed to win that very same event, it felt incredible. It felt like I was vindicated.”

Adding More Bracelets To The Collection

In the years since his first win, the WSOP has continued to be kind to Idema’s bankroll. In 2013, he made another final table when he took seventh in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em tournament, and followed that up with his second bracelet in the $1,500 seven card stud eight-or-better event for $184,590.

He made the final table of the $1,500 dealer’s choice event in 2014, and then the next summer, he made three more final tables including a third-place showing in the $1,500 seven card stud eight-or-better event for $70,322 and a sixth-place finish in the $3,000 pot-limit Omaha event for another $53,342.

The highlight of his 2015 campaign was when he won his third bracelet, this time in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event for $261,774. Idema has now cashed at the WSOP 26 times and made nine final tables, adding up to $1.45 million in earnings.

Idema credits his success in the WSOP events to his limit hold’em background, which made it easier to wrap his mind around mixed games.

“I think I had an easier time making the transition to mixed games because of my limit background,” he said. “The no-limit guys not only have to learn the other games, but they aren’t used to the flow of a limit game and how it differs from the big bet games.”

He was also clear to point out that his style of play in the mixed cash games is often more aggressive than in tournaments.

“In the later stages of a limit tournament, your chips become more valuable and you can’t really take high-variance spots like you would in a cash game. In a cash game, you don’t mind pushing hard when you think you have positive equity, but in a tournament you have to consider the pay jumps and your tournament life.”

Money Over Prestige

With three bracelets, Idema now belongs to an elite club that includes the likes of John Cernuto, Jonathan Duhamel, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Barry Greenstein, John Hennigan, Jason Mercier, Michael Mizrachi, and Vanessa Selbst. Winning obviously feels good to a former hockey pro, but Idema has no problem admitting that the money is his ultimate trophy.

“I’m extremely proud of my bracelets. Every time you win one, you enter a new club that’s smaller and more exclusive. I feel very blessed to have had the success at I’ve had at the WSOP. Three bracelets are hard to get. But I’m not going to lie, the money always makes me feel really good. So when I won a tournament, I usually felt more relief than anything. It was a relief to know that I was going to have a profitable summer and that all of the buy-ins and expenses were justified, because there are a lot of amazing players each year who are just on the bad side of variance and don’t have my results.”

Idema has had his own share of downswings before, but he says the best players always find a way to respond well to adversity.

“I have a high tolerance for pain,” he said. “If you don’t have that, then don’t gamble for a living. Everyone plays great when they are on a ten-day winning streak, but it’s how you react when things aren’t going well that determines whether or not you can make it as a poker pro.”

For the better part of the last decade, Idema has spent his maximum number of days in the U.S. playing poker. With limited action in Vancouver and the online games not being what they used to be, Idema will usually travel down to the Commerce in Los Angeles for about three months a year to play the $200-$400 mixed games.

These days, however, Idema is content to cut back on the poker grind and work on some other projects, as well as coach hockey in his spare time.

“To be honest, as I get older I’m not a big fan of traveling much for poker,” he admitted. “Unless I can do it as a vacation, then it’s tough, a big poker trip. My goal is to do something else and then just show up to play at the WSOP every summer. That’s when I get really excited about poker, like I was during my first few years playing.” ♠