David Williams

David Williams Profile
	Nickname: D-Dub Bodog Username: David Williams Web: www.bodog.com Birthdate: June 9th 1980 Birthplace: Dallas, Texas Lives: Las Vegas, Nevada Tournaments Won: 4 WSOP Bracelets: 1 Total Winnings: $5,773,676

David Williams had been short-stacked and looking favourite to be the last man eliminated before the final table seats were decided in the 2004 WSOP Texas Hold’em main event. It was his first time in the tournament and he was desperate to be amongst the select nine. He had been playing somewhat cagily but eventually doubled up after hitting an ace on the turn for a pair against a pair of pocket tens. Later on the following day, it was just him and Greg Raymer left and Williams was no longer content with the final table finish. He wanted to win. He had been playing faster and looser than the previous day and this tactic had got him to this position. He was holding A♥ 4♠ and caught a middle pair when the flop came out 4♦ 2♦ 5♠. Raymer called and so Williams placed a $500,000 bet and was promptly re-raised. The turn was a 2♥ and William’s hand just kept on improving. Raymer announced a $2.5million bet and before he had even moved his chips in, Williams was stacking an equivalent amount for the pot. The river card was a 2♣ giving Williams a full house and causing the crowd to gasp. Raymer turned to the dealer and said ‘All in.’ Williams, his hand covering his mouth, studied the board for some moments and called with the rest of his chips. He flipped his cards over, shrugged his shoulders and turned his palms to the sky in an expression of disappointment as he saw Raymer’s cards, 8♠ 8♦. Later he would say that he had felt Raymer had made his moves quicker than usual so he hadn’t expected him to be holding a middle pair and despite being $3.5million dollars richer, he looked a dejected figure as he watched Raymer celebrate.

Williams had looked the epitome of cool at the final of the WSOP 2004 with a smart black shirt and designer shades and stubble but he is the first to admit that though he has always managed to disguise the fact, in truth, he is a ‘geek.’ He was born in 1980 and raised by his mother, Shirley, having never known his Iranian father. It was just the two of them, playing scrabble and video games together, until his sister, Tina, came along when David was eight. When his airhostess mother was on the other side of the world through her work, the pair were shipped off to their grandparents though David was often bored there and by the age of twelve had started to stay home alone.

Williams began to play the fantasy card game ‘Magic: the Gathering’ and found he was remarkably good at it. At the same time his mother discovered he was far brighter than his peers at school and enrolled him in a school for gifted children. He says that ‘he hung with the cool kids,’ but would return home to watch the Science Channel, finish his homework and play his beloved ‘Magic.’ Soon he was starting to enter tournaments in the game around the world. The ‘Magic’ circuit does tend to attract a more obsessive type of character to it and though overall he won over $40,000 at the game, he managed to get himself banned for a year for using a pack that was slightly bent which cut to the same card each time the judges tried. Williams refutes the claim that he was trying to cheat, pointing out that the bent card was actually one of the weaker ones but the ban stood.

The lack of tournament play in his favoured game meant that Williams focused his time on his studies and online poker instead. He got accepted into the highly rated Princetown University but found it cold on the East coast and feeling homesick, he returned to Dallas to continue his Economics degree there. He started entering small live poker tournaments in 2000 and continued playing online, built up his bankroll and in 2004 won a seat in the WSOP through Bodog.com.

Though achieving a second place finish in what was at the time the largest WSOP main event field should be considered an amazing achievement, Williams suffered a crisis of confidence. Luckily, it didn’t last too long and seven months later he won a Limit Hold’em World Poker Tour tournament and two years later managed his first WSOP bracelet at 7 card stud. Occasionally, he still enters ‘Magic: the Gathering’ tournaments but nowadays he says it is just for fun. He continues to play poker online and though this earns him a healthy income, he misses reading the body language of his opponents. And so this self-confessed nerd continues to play in local underground games and live tournaments and continues to make an impact, being regularly in the money. And he keeps this money in the family, having provided a bankroll for his mother, Shirley Williams, to start playing the game too.

Williams has been described as part of the new breed of poker player, young and intelligent (he has a SAT score of 1550) and who learnt the game playing on the internet. All this is true but he has still transferred his ability into the live arena, something a little bit of ‘Magic’ helped him to do. 

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