Gemini – June 9, 1980
David Williams is a professional Magic player, turned pro poker player. His career in Magic: The Gathering was only short-lived although profitable. He entered the Magic Pro Tour in the late 90’s and during his first year had won over $30,000. During 2001 he earned his seat into the World Championships, held in Canada but ended up being disqualified from the event for allegedly cheating. During the course of the game, the judges noticed that three of his four Accumulated Knowledge cards had been bent more than the other cards in the deck, thus allowing David to know where he should cut the deck.
The judges inspected the cards and came to the conclusion that the cards had not been bent by accident and that David had cheated during the game. Williams did admit that his cards were marked but it wasn’t done intentionally. The outcome of the judge’s decision was that Williams would be suspended from competing in another Magic: The Gathering tournaments for a period no less than one year.
This is when Williams took poker seriously. Through high stake games he was able to win a significantly greater amount of money during one match than he would by entering Magic tournaments throughout the year. Although he loved playing the game, he seen the potential he had in poker.
For the most part, Williams taught himself how to play poker but was later mentored by Marcel Luske. It wasn’t until 2004 that he began to make a name for himself in tournaments, where he won his buy-in to the World Series of Poker and placed second in the main event, next to Greg Raymer. It was this finish that had many of the top poker sits looking to sign Williams, however he chose to join Team Bodog and has been representing the company ever since in live tournaments and online.
In 2006, Williams made headlines for a few things. He placed second on a World Poker Tour final table in 4th place, and another 4th place finish in the WPT again a couple months later. He also made the front page of most poker news sites during this year for his past indiscretions. Apparently the young rising player had also made a few homemade porn movies which ended being released across the net.
In 2007, Williams cashed in a number of tournaments including a 1st place finish in the $ 5,000 No Limit Hold’em Bellagio Cup III for $129,000 and 4th in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em, Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic and his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Seven-card stud event. William’s accomplishments this far into his career has been outstanding with total tournament winnings exceeding $6.5 million.
2008 Tournament Standings