Bodog Poker Pro David Williams Credits New Focus for WPT Win
by Bodog Poker | Apr 28 2010
Bodog Poker Pro David Williams has some prestigious wins in his career, but when it came to taking home poker's most coveted prizes he always had to settle for reaching, but not conquering, the final table.
In the World Poker Tour alone he's had a trio of final table appearances, including runner-up at the Borgata Poker Open in Season III and finished in fourth place finishes at Bay 101 in Season IV and the Mirage Poker Showdown in Season V.
His inability to win the big one all changed in this season's WPT Championships on Saturday, April 24. Williams dominated the final round to take home the WPT Championship, one of the top prizes for a professional poker player.
"This is the biggest thing ever for me," Williams said after a weekend of celebrating with family and friends. "At $1.5 million the prize money didn't pay as much as my WSOP runner-up, but as far as being a player this is huge. It feels like a dream, it hasn't even really sunk in yet."
Williams dominated the competition at the WPT Championships, keeping the chip lead at the final table before taking out his last opponent Eric Baldwin -- who went all-in with two aces -- with triple deuces. Though Williams said that a combination of skill and luck are what helped him take home the championship, he also credits mindset coach Sam Chauhan for helping him take the next step as a player.
"I recently hired a mindset coach for poker," Williams said. "Chauhan's been teaching me from the beginning about staying positive and using meditation to focus. It really helped."
Williams explained that he had been on a slump before Chauhan started coaching him. He said the first sign that the slump was over was his 78th finish in the Mohegan Sun poker tournament.
The solid placing in the tourney and the positive influence of his coach gave Williams the ammo needed before the WPT. When Williams and his new outlook brought him to the final table, he was confident his skills would win him the top prize.
"I said in day two that I was gonna win this tournament and nothing was going to stop me," he said. "I was telling friends, family, everybody to come down to the final because of that."
As a Team Bodog member for approximately six years, Williams is happy that he was able to take home such a huge prize for a team that has treated him so well.
"Bodog has been great to me, it's been great to be a part of the team," he said. "I look back to the trip to Hawaii for the Salute to the Troops Charity Event, checking out the Snoop concert with Calvin [Ayre]. And then the poker tourney in Costa Rica, I had a blast at those events."
"Bodog has taken me to a lot of cool places."
Though Williams plans to take a bit of a breather after the big win by deciding not to fly to Monte Carlo for the EPT Grand Final this week, he'll be right back to work on Tuesday, April 27 at the WSOP Circuit Event Championship at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
