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David Williams Uncut
As part of my work for InsidePoker magazine at the 2007 World Series of Poker, I followed David Williams' progress throughout the events - something that was eventually turned into a short feature in the mag. Only a little from each interview made the final cut, but here are the full interviews for your reading pleasure.
For what it's worth, David was an outspoken and intelligent guy, but the stress of the World Series was clearly getting to him, particularly in our second interview.
Interview 1
David, Michael Mizrachi and Nenad Medic are playing Chinese Poker for $500 a point. The button is playing two hands at once.
What happened in the Mixed Hold’em?
I never really had anything to get going in the No Limit, or even the Limit – one time I made a straight. In Limit Hold’em, with so many people in every hand, you’re going to have to make some hands, you can’t really take them down by bluffing. I flopped a lot of draws, missed them all... A lot of times in LHE you flop a draw, there’s five way action, you’re getting the right price but at the river you have 7 high and have to fold for one bet. That happened a lot in the LHE. In the NL I made two ill-timed bluffs against pretty good players – Greg Mueller was one. He made a pretty tough call with A-10 on an AKQ76 board to knock me out. He thought forever and said ‘this is either the best call or the worst call’ – whenever people say that against me they’re usually right to make the call I guess.
David wins 8 points at Chinese
How relaxed / excited are you about the WSOP?
Before the first event, the excitement level was probably about 8/10, now I’m probably about a 6 – I’m still pretty excited for the rest of the World Series though. I think they’re doing a lot of things right this year that they did wrong last year – the whole atmosphere, the lighting, the space between the tables is better, the levels seem smoother, the starting chips are better, the food, they’re better organised – overall the place has a better vibe; I felt more comfortable. Seemed like they were really listening to the players – the card situation they sorted out straight away without any bullshit, which was pretty good. Overall, it seems that things are going good this year for the World Series. As far as relaxed, this is my fourth year now – I’m used to it, there’s nothing to be scared of. I’ve won a bracelet – done well, it comes naturally. There’s so many events to make noise in – you don’t have to worry about any specific event. The day before the main event, that might be different. It’s such a big deal that you wanna do well.
Do you seen the Main Event as more important than the others?
For me it’s important, because I’ve been there and almost won it, but actually when it gets down to it it’s just another $10,000 event, but it’s pretty cool because I like it’s prestige – you’re the world champ, everyone makes a big deal about it. The problem is it’s so big – if you ran it a million times you’d probably only get 3 repeat winners – it’d still be pretty damn cool to win it, but it’s such a daunting task. At a WPT event you can say, ‘I’m really gonna win this’, but nobody can say that about the WSOP – there’s so many people. I really want to win the Main Event, but for prestige value, no money involved, the HORSE event would be cool. Amongst the pros, it’s an unofficial main event.
How did winning a bracelet change your life / view of the WSOP?
It didn’t change my life – that’s kinda a drastic statement. I felt a little bit of validation, although my accomplishments before had already done that. Now I’m part of the cool club, and I can laugh at these fishcakes that don’t have them (pointing at Grinder / Serb). I guess because mine was a Seven Card Stud bracelet, with a small field, it doesn’t feel that special. It’s not the same as winning a big NLHE bracelet. I’m still hungry for one – I’ve never really won a big NLHE tournament*. Even the Bellagio’s weekly Sunday – been second in that twice! I play all the other games better I guess. The HORSE I’m excited about.
Did you get more respect when you won the bracelet?
Yeah, I guess from people who don’t look at it deeply – ‘oh he has a bracelet, he’s great, he’s the best’. I’m sure if you ask these guys, their respect level didn’t change after I won the bracelet. It was my day in one event, and it didn’t have to work out but it did. To some people who don’t know poker very well, people who didn’t pay attention to me before, it might have increased it.
Have you set any specific goals for this year’s WSOP?
I wanna win as many bracelets as I can – my plan really is to do better than last year. That’s gonna be pretty hard obviously, because I had a first and a second, a twelfth and a fourteenth. My plan is to just do as well as I can. I really wanna win the Deuce to Seven bracelet, but that’s such a hard thing to do – everyone in that game has more experience than me. If you look at the list of who has won that bracelet, everyone on it is amazing – Doyle, Stu Ungar, Howard Lederer, Allen Cunningham. I would love to be part of that. If I won the Deuce, and you asked Doyle Brunson about it, he’d say ‘this kid can play!’. It’s a pretty big deal to win. If this was a tournament, they’d be in pretty bad shape...
David shows his Chinese hand, which consists of two full houses and a pair of kings in the front.
I wanna do at least as good as I did last year – I’m gonna do some of the same things, like I’m not gonna go out – I don’t really go to the clubs during the World Series. I’m not going to go out – I’ve got my chef coming back, I’m gonna eat well, go to bed early...
What is your diet and routine for the WSOP?
I have a chef, he cooks good healthy food that’s tasty – he used to work in some of the 5 star restaurants here. He cooks me two meals a day – something new each day. He brings it to the WSOP if I’m still in, or to my home. Going to dinner normally takes a big percentage of my time – figuring out where to go and what to have...
Medic has a straight flush in the back and wins eight points from David and ten from Grinder.
Last year Evelyn and Noah stayed with me and he brought us all food. Noah’s coming this year too – he’s about to board a plane. The chef’s gonna cook for both of us – bring it to the Rio if we’re still in, or to my house if we’re not. It’s the nuts, it’s the best. Last year there was only one thing out of about sixty meals that I didn’t like.
Do you have much downtime?
It depends on when I get knocked out – today I got knocked out at about 4 or 5 o clock, so I’m playing with these guys (points to Serb and Grinder). I was just gonna watch some movies, tidy the house because I just moved in. People wanted me to go out but I’m not gonna. Just taking it easy. We’ve got a stripper pole here (points to stripper pole in the corner of his living room), so maybe we’ll get some strippers in. I’m not going to play much poker if any outside of the WSOP. There’s cash games at the Rio, and I’ve thought about playing, but I don’t want to get out of focus. I might play if the games are really good, but I’ll probably just take it easy.
What do you normally play?
Usually No Limit Hold’em, anything from $50/$100 to $100/$200, sometimes $200/$400 but that’s rare. I play at the Venetian – Gabe Thaler organises a pretty good game. I play on Bodog during the day, just to take it easy, get the poker fix without it being too stressful, because I don’t care if I lose to those guys. I’ll probably spend a bit of time on there, playing online and chatting with people – things that take my mind of the World Series.
Where would you normally go clubbing?
Everywhere – Pure, Tao, Light, Jet, and we always finish up at the Rhino. It’s a celebration every day – no need to celebrate during the WSOP.
Mizrachi comments that being with David is like being with a celebrity and you get into all the VIP areas and skip the lines.
Are you still taking Sundays off?
This Sunday is Stud 8/ Omaha 8 mixed – I like it but at the same time limit kinda bores me. I think I’ll take this Sunday off and go to Rehab (afternoon pool party at the Hard Rock).
How many events do you plan on playing?
As many as I can – if I get knocked out the noon event and there’s a good five o clock event, I’ll play it – I’ll play the Sundays too if they’re good. I’m even going to play on my birthday next week.
How do you plan to celebrate your birthday?
Pure wanted to throw me a huge party – advertise it and invite celebrities. But I couldn’t do it on my birthday because that would mean I couldn’t play the events on the day before or even two days before, just in case I made the final table. It’s good money and I didn’t want to possibly miss my own birthday party.
David loses 8 points.
They invited me to Lindsay Lohan’s birthday party, but I said I didn’t wanna go. We’re gonna do mine in July after the World Series, kinda an unofficial thing.
How much money have you set aside? Do you have a bankroll?
No I don’t set money aside – every dollar is always in action. I play every tournament for the whole friggin’ year. If I set myself a bankroll and then run out, I’m not going to say I’m done with the World Series. I play everything and hope for the best. I’m a net winner in tournaments overall so I can’t really not play – If I had skipped events last year, one would definitely have been the $1500 stud event, and the other would have been the Deuce, because I barely knew how to play. You never know when it’ll be your day. There’s a lot of luck in tournaments and if things are going to go good for you, you want to be there when it happens.
You’d never played Deuce to Seven before?
I played it once, briefly in Tunica with Sam Grizzle. I knew how to play but I’d never actually played it. I asked Sam to play small blinds, sat with $1000, so I can learn. Once you win that $1000, we’re done. Basically for practice – I wanted an opponent who knows something about the game. We played for a couple of hours and he eventually beat me – he loves to tell that story, but he leaves out all the details- ‘Remember when I played you heads up and I busted you out of all your money?’. That was my only experience, I’d never played it in a tournament fashion before.
Interview 2
In the Poker Royalty Lounge at the Rio. David is not looking happy.
So what events have you played so far?
I’ll give you a list. We played (yes, he said we... why?) event 1, the mixed Hold’em. Event 3 ($1500 NL), we took Sunday the 3rd off and went to Rehab at the Hard Rock Pool, and had a good time. On Monday I skipped the Limit Hold’em and got excited and played the $5000 rebuy Pot Limit Omaha. I loved it, I only spent $15000, which was way below average. I had a ton of chips, I was one of the chipleaders a few hours in, and then I had a mental collapse and just gave my money away. I was kind of sick, I had the flu, I was on antibiotics and painkillers – I could blame all the medicines, but it’s my fault for taking them and I just played really bad. I played one hand so weird, everyone stared and didn’t know what was going on. I just gave all my money away, it was atrocious. I had a legitimate shot at making the final table.
On Tuesday I was so distraught I didn’t want to play because of it. I felt that with the mood I was in mentally, and with the sickness too, I didn’t need to play a rebuy in the morning. I didn’t want to go off for $30k or $40k. But by the time 5 o clock wore on I felt better, rejuvenated and was ready to play the $1500 Omaha 8 or Better, I played that, lasted about two levels, it was the worst two levels ever, I don’t think I ever dragged a whole pot. I got a quarter of a pot once, so I was out of that.
Then on Wednesday I played both the $2k NL and the $5000 Stud, two early exits again. Played the 6 handed NL on Thursday, I was playing well at first, but then I took a bad beat and got frustrated, and just threw away all my chips again. I played the $5000 PLHE yesterday and came up with a new strategy, tried to play tight and straightforward. Things were going okay at first, but then my AK ran into aces and I lost a big pot. Then Daniel (Negreanu) called my raise with a 6-8, flopped a straight and I was out. Last night I played the $1500 Stud, to defend my title if you like, I was doing okay until the dinnerbreak but then I just kept running into rolled up hands – rolled up threes, rolled up sixes. I got busted out right at midnight, right when my birthday came, I looked down at my watch when I got busted and was like ‘Happy fucking birthday Dave!’.
I woke up today and played the $1500 No Limit and probably capped off my bad play – I sat there and played atrocious, calling raises out of position with bad hands, chasing gutshots – it was just all around bad. So I went and picked up my car and got a massage and started thinking about things. I thought I’ve really got to start focusing and change this World Series. It’s still early, I’ve got time to have a good series if I can turn it around. So I played the HORSE event today and I was playing great – got up to 7000 early, but then I got drawn out on again and seemed to lose my mind again. I’m glad we went on dinnerbreak because I was starting to play bad, and I’m down to 2800 chips. Luckily the blinds don’t go up for another hour so If I can come back and focus, and don’t run bad. In Razz I just lost every hand that I played, it was so sick. I’d start with A-2-3 and catch K-K-J, it was unbelievable. Now, I’m trying to fix this thing. If not, I’m taking tomorrow off, it’s Sunday again, plus I hate limit Hold’em events so I’ll skip that.
What’s wrong with Limit Hold’em?
I just don’t have the patience for it, and it really bothers me. Especially the way I’m playing right now. You really have to be precise to play limit Hold’em right, you can’t really be giving away bets. Everyone plays it pretty much the same, you’ve just got to make less mistakes. I’m in a mistake making mood so I’m gonna take some time off and go to the pool.
What do you think has put you in the mistake-making mood? Being outdrawn?
I feel like I’ve lost my patience – like I don’t know how to wait. Every time I have a hand, I’m antsy and I want to be in the next hand. I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t know how to change that. Monday has a $2500 NL and a $2000 Stud 8, I really wanna play both of those but maybe it’ll do me some good to skip that day, and just have two days of non-poker, relaxing. It’s hard though, if I take a day off I’ll turn on my computer and see everyone doing well, people winning bracelets, then I wanna come back up here. Then I play and feel like shit again.
Who do you think has been playing well so far?
I haven’t really been playing with anyone that I know, and I haven’t lasted long enough to make a good evaluation.
You mentioned a hand in PLO? Tell me about that hand.
A guy open raised to 4800 at the 800-1600 level. I called in the BB with 789J double suited. Not a bad call. It came 268, giving me an open-ended and a pair of eights. He’d been playing really tight so I figured he probably had aces. I decided to lead into him, hoping he’d raise me so I could reraise and get the money in – I’ve got a ton of outs, two pair outs, trip draws and a straight draw. So I bet 8000, and he just called. That made me really think scared aces, and he just doesn’t know what to do with them. I figured I could fire a big bet on the turn if it’s not a card that would help an aces hand, and he can’t call. The turn is a king of clubs giving me a club draw too, I could’ve just check-folded or check-called here, and kept the pot small. I led out, he has to throw aces away. He thinks for a while and raises the pot, about 100,000 more. For some reason, I moved in on the guy for 25,000 more, I don’t know what I was thinking. The guy called – he had 6699 – a far cry from aces, he’d flopped a set and picked up a club draw on the turn to go with it. The river didn’t help. I was out shortly thereafter. I could’ve easily thrown that hand away and kept 165,000 chips and stuff.
You’ve not been out much then, and you still have your chef and everything?
Yeah, we just had some great food, and I stay in every night. At the moment every night’s the same – I’m out of the event at 1am, I go home, pretty tired, then get up the next morning and do it all again. It’ll be good to wake up late tomorrow if I’m out, go to the pool, drink and not think about poker.
What’s the play like at the WSOP this year?
The no limit play is the worst I’ve seen ever, which is weird because I heard that everyone was supposed to be getting better. In the mixed games, people who have no clue how to play the games keep playing them, there’s 400 players in every HORSE tournament but there aren’t 400 good HORSE players in the whole world. It’s shocking. I’ve had some people make the weirdest raises. Like in Razz, I clearly had a made eight and the guy has K-2, and we capped it. He caught a nine and I caught an eight and we capped it again. He made a seven low on the end, with his three hole cards. After that hand the wheels fell off and I was in every pot, raising raising raising.
Are you still happy with how the WSOP is being run?
I think given what they have to work with they’re doing a good job. There’s four or five tournaments a day, satellites, cash games, 3000 people in the room all the time. They’re doing the best they can. Obviously in an ideal world there’d be no problems but I’m sure nobody expected this many people to turn up after the internet thing.
How many players do you think we’ll see in the main event?
I think four to five thousand.
* Ironically, David won a No-Limit Hold'em event at Bellagio the next week.
