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As the dust settled on a career-defining win at the WPT World Championship, David Williams took some time out to talk to WPT Poker’s Matt Waldron.
He first shot to prominence in 2004 when he was narrowly beaten into second place in the WSOP Main Event by Greg Raymer. Since then he’s racked up almost $8 million in tournament winnings across the globe and become known as one of the most stylish poker players in the world. Of all his achievements his latest, a victory in the WPT World Championship, is arguably his most prestigious. We grabbed a few words with the former Magic: the Gathering player after his win at the Bellagio.
So David, has becoming WPT champion sunk in yet?
Yeah, a bit but it still doesn’t feel real. But then again who knows what it’s supposed to feel like. It feels good, I’ll tell you that, but nothing has really changed in my daily life. I’m still playing poker online and I haven’t really bought anything spectacular because I was already doing well financially. So in that sense there haven’t been any big changes, it’s just been more of a relief and a feeling of excitement knowing that I won something.
With the WPT World Championship being such a prestigious event does it feel good to finally make your breakthrough in this tournament?
Pretty much. Aside from a financial point of view the only thing better or more exciting to take down would be like the Main Event of the World Series. To me the WPT’s the other major poker series in the world, so in terms of prestige and toughness of the field it feels fantastic to have my big win come in this event.
There’s a little bit of competition between you and your poker friends, the ones that had a WPT title and a bracelet and that kind of thing. What was that like for you?
Yeah not a tournament goes by where I don’t go out and see buddies who have WPT titles. I mean there’s so many WPTs, I look around and I’m just like, “Man, that guy has a title, that guy has a title, that guy has a title.” But to finally have my own, it just really feels good. I don’t have to think about that anymore.
Obviously you played a great tournament but who was your toughest opponent leading up to the final table?
Well leading up to the final table there wasn’t really anyone who gave me too much trouble, to be fair. Eric Baldwin was playing well and he was tough, but we never really played any pots together leading up to the final. Not to slight my opponents but it was pretty much smooth sailing the whole way. I never really had any tough individuals who I battled with or people I couldn’t figure out. Everything seemed to go my way and I always seemed to know where I was and never really faced any kind of adversity on route to the final table.
You said “I had a vision of this” before you hoisted up the cash and posed for the cameras. When did that “vision” occur?
It happened during Day 2 towards the end of the day. I went home and I felt really good about how the day went and then I just covered my eyes and saw it. It was just, I mean, even to the shirt I wore to the final table. It was weird, it wasn’t like a dream it was in colour, like a clear vision. I told all my friends “I’m going to win this tournament” and it wasn’t a cocky, confident “I’m going to win this thing,” it was more of a casual conversation.
You’ve started doing some mindset work with Sam Chauhan before the tournament. What in particular has he helped you with?
Sam has taught me how to focus 100% on a task and give it my all and not be distracted by things that are out of my control. Sitting there worrying about the past and not thinking constructively is only detrimental to your game. Saying: “oh man that guy just beat my aces” or “oh my God I can’t believe I haven’t won a pot today” is useless and you have to forget about all that stuff. The only thing you should really worry about is how to correct a mistake if you make one. Other than that you have to be thankful that you still have chips and give it your best. Basically he taught me that you shouldn’t sit there wasting energy on negative thinking, but focus it instead on accumulating more chips.
Are there any specific exercises you go through to achieve that kind of get mindset?
Sam has a full program that you live which goes on throughout your entire day, not just when you’re in tournaments. Things like meditation, breathing exercises, listing things you’re thankful for and remembering that at all time every day are just some of the things we’ve worked on. Something that really helped during the tournament was the breaks. Because were in the Fontana Lounge I had the luxury of going on balcony, where the fountains are, by myself for some peace and quiet. There it was good because I could feel the breeze, listen to the birds and just relax and clear my mind on the. It was fantastic.
Aside from your live performances this year you’ve also been running well online, placing highly in various WCOOP and SCOOP events. What factors do you think have contributed to your recent good form?
I think the major difference recently has been the amount of time I’ve had to focus on my online game. The 8-Game SCOOP event is a tournament I’ve always done well in and is a game I’ve always enjoyed playing. As far as the recent No Limit results I have a lot of who’ve been helping me. Justin Bonomo, Scott Seiver, Isaac Haxton and Eric Froehlich, for example, all live in Panorama Towers [the exclusive home to many a pro player in Vegas] and we talk about poker together a lot. Those guys are some of the sharpest and best poker players I know, so they’ve been helping me get a lot better at playing online and my results have really shown that. Being surrounded by players whose game you respect is amazing so I have that to help me out in the tournaments.
You’ve talked about the influence your friends have had on your poker game but your mother, above all, seems to have had the biggest influence on your life.
My mom has always been there for me. She’s sort of like my sister, my best friend, everything. She was a single parent and I was an only child for the first eight years of my life before my sister came along. My mom’s always been into games and gambling and took me to Vegas when I was growing up. We played a lot of bingo games, board games; she was always my best friend. Eventually I went away to college and started playing poker and Magic with my friends. She never really got into playing Magic because it was just too much time involved and she had to work and it’s not a game you can just play on the side. I started learning poker with the Magic guys and she didn’t really know much about it until I went to the World Series and I told her I was playing. She was like, “well I’ll come to Vegas and check it out too.” She learned how the game worked while she was there watching. Afterwards she caught the bug too and she still lives in Texas, we talk every few days and she comes to Vegas every month or two. She started teaching herself using every resource she could: forums, books, videos, training sites, and she’s really gotten deep into it. We don’t really talk as much about poker as people would think, we mostly talk just about life and things because we’re at different stages in poker, but she loves it and I do everything I can to support her. If she ever asks me for advice I try to give it to her.
Looking forward to the WSOP, are you planning to play the $50,000 Player’s Championship?
Well, I was really excited about the $50,000, but I don’t arrive until the Monday before the [$5,000] Shootout so I’m going to have to miss the $50k Championship. Like I said, I seem to do well in 8-Game tournaments. I’m a SCOOP winner and I’ve got two final tables both at the EPT London and the PCA in the 8-Game event. I’ve also won a HORSE WSOP-C event. I love those events, but it’s alright, if I could play and didn’t cash then I’d be stuck $50,000 to start the Series which wouldn’t be fun.
So what goals do you want to achieve at the WSOP this year?
I would love to pick up another bracelet–that would be sweet. I just want to be able to play my best and have some great results. And it would be awesome to make a run for the Player of the World Series. I’m also not going to force myself to play every day like I have in the past. I’m only going to show up and play if I feel like I can give 100%, which might limit the amount of events and limit my chances for the Player of the Year title.
You’ve recently split with Bodog and your recent WPT win will obviously open more doors for you. Do you currently have anything in the pipeline that you can talk about?
I’ve been working with Poker Royalty which is the same company that work with Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren. I was one of their first eight clients back in 2004. It was a mutual decision to split with Bodog. I had a great relationship with them, I have no hard feelings, I think they were awesome to me and I’m pretty sure they’ve announced that they feel the same. Poker Royalty is working on my newest venture, but I’m not really able to talk about it at the moment. Needless to say they are fielding tons of offers and they’re just trying to find the one that is the best fit for me. Hopefully we’ll have it in place by the World Series but we’re not going to rush it because we want to make sure we get the best match we can.
OK, a quick question just to finish. If you were to pick 5 players from the Panorama Towers to back at the World Series this year who would they be?
That’s easy: Eric Froehlich, Brock Parker, Justin Bonomo, Isaac Haxton and Scott Seiver. |
