A Closer Look At David Williams

Poker player David Williams got a strange start. A world-ranked player of Magic: The Gathering, Williams dominated that card game first before he set his sights on the world of poker. Born in Arlington, Texas in 1980, Williams was a product of a single parent household. His learned in his childhood the discipline, responsibility and proper money management, all of course key traits. The characteristics he formed early on helped him advance in the world of poker.

Williams is one smart man. He passed both Harvard and Princeton but chose the latter. Then, Williams studied Economics at South Methodist University. He also attended Texas Academy of Math and Science's early entrance college program. His college background has perhaps sharpened his analytical and strategic skills, which are apparently useful traits to have while playing poker.

In the late 1990s, Williams was making a name as one of the best players in the card game, Magic: The Gathering. While his future looked bright, everything was shattered during a tournament in Toronto where he was accused of marking cards in such a way that they would be easily drawn when in play. While Williams admitted that there were marks on the cards, he denied that they were there for an easy draw. The story came to a sad end when the judges ruled against him and decided to ban him from the circuit for one year.

With a passion for card games but a ban slapped on him, what was an enthusiastic card player to do? He was to look at other options, which was what Williams did exactly. He tried his hand in online poker and then later, found himself excelling yet again. He joined the Bodog online poker room and established himself as one of the players to look out. It was by displaying skill and good technique that he propelled himself to the 2004 Main Event where he placed second and took more than 3 million dollars in winnings.

In the Bogota Open World Poker Tour, Williams took second place and took home more than half a million dollars. This 2006 win earned him a bracelet from the W.S.O.P. where he bested his opponent, John Hoang. This momentous even in Williams' career was during a seven-stud event at the World Series of Poker.

As part of the Bodog team, his earnings as of 2008 have reached more than $5 million and a huge chunk of this is said to have come from the World Poker Tour.

Though he enjoys tremendous success in poker, Williams claims that he will still play Magic: The Gathering. Apparently, the man feels really strongly about this card game. He claims that playing Magic: The Gathering is for fun. Poker, he says on the other hand, is a game played for different reasons entirely. While Magic is for leisure, Williams says that the reason he plays poker is for the money. Moreover, he sure does get a lot of it from his winnings.