David Williams

A poker biography of David Williams.

Quick Information

Name - David Williams

Born - June 9th 1980, Dallas, Texas, United States

Poker Room - Bodog Poker

Biography

David Williams may aptly be considered an outsider when cast among the veterans in online poker. Given his nearly excellent academic background and a flare for stylish clothing complemented by good looks, Williams is most definitely of a different breed when categorized as a professional poker player.

Still, one cannot hide the fact that this Texas-born player is simply great when it comes to poker. His game record and achievements are quite impressive, the most notable of which were his first-place victory in this year's WSOP and his runner-up spot at the No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Event. The twin victories have undoubtedly made Williams one fast-rising star in the online poker constellation today.

Born on the 9th of June, 1980 in Dallas, the African-American Williams grew up without a father, an Iranian from whom his mother, Shirley, separated when he was still very young.

The flight attendant Shirley was often away so the young Williams learned to take care of himself quite early, doing household chores while going to school at the same time. This developed in Williams a responsible and disciplined attitude, qualities that he eventually put to good use when he became involved in poker games.

Williams was the serious type of student, having particular preference for Mathematics and Science. His impressive school marks enabled Williams to receive invitation letters from several prominent American universities including Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard. He eventually settled for Princeton.

Princeton life proved to be hard for Williams so he had to eventually quit and transfer to the Dallas-based Southern Methodist University. Feeling at home in his native surroundings, Williams turned in good grades with a GPA of 4.0.

It was in Dallas that Williams found pleasure in poker games where he found his mathematical skills quite useful. Initially playing in various cash games, Williams eventually tried his hand at online poker, mainly concentrating on the games at Bodog.com. In 2004, a win in the said poker room entitled Williams to a seat in the WSOP.

Then relatively unknown, Williams surprised the WSOP organizers and the online poker world when he reached the finals and placed second in the main event, behind the ultimate winner, Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer. Williams took home $3.5 million, but more than that, he entered WSOP history books as the first African-American poker player to turn in the best tournament performance ever.

Following the victory, Williams failed to participate in several other poker tournaments, leading people to believe that he was just a fluke. Williams proved them wrong though after four months when he placed second in the World Poker Tour Borgata Open, where he walked away with a 600,000 prize. Then later still, he took the #121,000 grand prize in the Limit Hold'em Five Diamond World Poker Classic, his very first grand prize tournament victory.

The following year proved to be rather unlucky for Williams as he was unable to appear in any major poker tournament. However, 2006 proved to be different as Williams scored several major wins, including a fourth-place ranking in the WPT No-Limit Hold'em main event, a first-place victory in the WSOP Circuit H.O.R.S.E Event, and a second fourth-place ranking, this time at the WPT Main Event.

Williams considers his 2006 WSOP gold bracelet prize as his greatest poker achievement thus far. He dreams of having another significant achievement soon, an economics degree, which is not far-fetched since he is actually just several credits short of earning that title from Southern Methodist University.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 December 2007 )

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