You may not know the name, but David Daneshgar has already established himself as a successful live tournament player. In 2006 he claimed a seventh-place finish at the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker, and then, only two weeks later, he nabbed fourth place at the Barcelona stop on the European Poker Tour. Those scores, however, pale in comparison to Daneshgar’s latest accomplishment: capturing a World Series of Poker bracelet. Outlasting nearly 2,700 players in event No. 52($1,500 no-limit hold’em), Daneshgar earned $625,443, increasing his career winnings to over $2 million. Card Player caught up with Daneshgar minutes after his victory.
Question: You've been around the World Series for a while now. How good does it feel to finally get over the hump here?
David Daneshgar: I started playing tournaments where I grew up; then I went to school at Berkley and started playing out there a little bit. When I came back I started playing at Hollywood Park and started really well. Finally I started entering the [ World Series of Poker] circuit and probably the first year it came out I had a sick year, I won like five tournaments and I won like $1 million in earnings. I kind of took it by storm. Then the next year I started playing a little less and I wasn't running good, and I got to see the two sides of the coin. The first year I was just running like fire and the second year... It just shows you what happens when you are running good and playing good. But I wanted to win one of these so bad I can't even explain it. You're right -- I've played the tournaments here for two or three years and I really never thought it would happen, especially now.
Q: Did you play everything you could get your hands on this Series so far? This is your last shot at a bracelet before the main event.
DD: Yeah. The sick thing is that I had chips in a bunch of events. I probably played three $1,500s, the $5k no-limit, the $5k short-handed and the $10k heads-up. Last year I got ninth in the $5k heads-up and a 12th in another one of these crazy fields. I have experience getting deep, but I guess better late than never. I got the main event next so let’s push our luck.
Q: You had a lot more experience than most of the other players at the final table. How much do you think that helped you?
DD: I think it helped me a lot. I mean, there's a certain level of experience that plays a part in when you pick your spots when you go over the top of people with nothing. A lot of times I had hands and a lot of times I didn't, but I think my experience [shows] in waiting and picking my spots. The one thing that was interesting at this table is when I came in the two or three players on my left were all aggressive players: [Corwin] Cole, and then Matt Matros, and Dan [Heimiller]. I usually like to take that role but I decided I should be patient a bit and pick my spots, and then at the end get a little more aggressive.
Q: When you were playing heads-up though, you limped a lot of pots on the button. Why was that?
DD: Yeah, when [playing] heads-up in general – I’ve had the fortune of playing a lot of live heads-up at the Commerce – and you’re playing with deep stacks you usually raise when you have a good hand. But when you’re playing for a bracelet and you kind of think you have an edge, you want to keep the pots as small as possible. So even in the beginning I was limping with tens and king-queen and he saw those hands and so I knew he was a little hesitant to re-raise so I knew I could keep the pots small and control the pots. And since I gave that definition that I’m going to limp with big hands, once in a while I would come in with a bad hand. I kind of chipped away. I won some small pots, then I won a pretty big pot, then I won a couple more small pots, and I got to a point where I was in my comfort zone where I had him by at least 2-to-1. Then I happened to have tens. I raised. He raised. Then I looked at him and I thought, it looks like’s you’re gonna shove – it just seemed like it. He pushed, I insta-called...
Q: Was that the longest sweat of your life?
DD: Even at that point I was just like: if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I think if you were to have measured my heartbeat it wasn’t that much faster than normal ... I got my money in and it worked out today.
Q: There was a hand three handed where you raised on the button, Heimiller called, and then Scott [Sitron] three-bet from the big blind and then you shoved. What were you thinking there?
DD: Yeah, I made it like a million more. I mean, he was squeezing. I had something I could play back at him with too; it wasn’t like I had nothing. It would be sick if I told you I had pocket sixes…I think the defining moment of the tournament for me was when I made it 100,000 on the button and Cole in the small blind went all-in for 1 million more. I think most people there fold, but I went with my read. I’m here to win the tournament so I called with ace-jack and he turned over 8-6. He even said, “I don’t even know how you can call me. That’s just sick.” But I go with my gut. That’s where the experience comes in. We were seven or eight handed at the time; I know it was a crazy call … I wasn’t playing conventional poker.
Q: Pretty much the first pot you played in the tournament was your kings running into aces, was that tough to overcome?
DD: See, that’s the sick thing. I feel like even if I don’t get cards I can do pretty well in these tournaments. When I woke up with kings that first hand, it went raise 80k, call 80k, I made it 280k or something like that, and then Dan [Heimiller] pushed all-in from the big blind with 500k. But to be honest with you, he’d do that with ace-king or queens, though he happened to have aces. The greatest part was that I stayed composed. After that pot, a lot of people would give up. Kings versus aces, you’re down to 390,000, the shortest stack, but like I said, I just picked my spots, I didn’t play too tight, and I didn’t play too aggressive, and it just worked out. It was sick but it worked out.
