Table 1 Podcast: Million Dollar Bets And Seven-Figure Fails With David Williams

David Williams burst onto the poker scene in 2004 after finishing runner-up in the World Series of Poker main event for $3.5 million. He didn’t score a bracelet then, but gold would follow in a $1,500 seven card stud event in 2006 for $163,118. Just a few months after his main event score, the 44-year original from Dallas, Texas, also found a big runner-up finish at the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open for $573,800.

In 2010, Williams won the WPT World Championship for $1.5 million, which remains the biggest score of his $9.5 million in total winnings. Williams was one of several players in the 2000s that transitioned to poker from the Magic: The Gathering card game. He recently joined the Table 1 podcast to talk about his life in the game, a few gambling stories, and some of his other interests.

Some of his tales included betting a million bucks on a Floyd Mayweather fight, as well as auditioning and later appearing on Gordon Ramsey’s MasterChef television show. He also discussed trying to win $1 million in a juicy cash game. Check out some of the highlights below. You can also watch or listen to the entire episode below, or on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or any podcast app.

David Williams: Some would say my biggest sports bet ever is degenerate, but I actually don’t think it’s degenerate. I think it’s just the sharpest thing I’ve ever done.

I put a million dollars on Floyd Mayweather to beat Conor McGregor. I told everyone I know, ‘Get every liquid dollar you can. F***ing mortgage your house, f***ing take a life insurance policy out on your children, do whatever you f***ing can. This is the freest money in the world.’

Art Parmann: I remember that fight. I didn’t have a million dollars on it, but it was huge.

David Williams: I had to lay a million to win $250,000. I was friends with Floyd, because me and (Phil) Ivey and Floyd, when I first was out in Las Vegas, we hung out a lot. Knowing Floyd, there was no way at 49-0 that he would tarnish his record losing to that guy.

I took every liquid dollar I could get together, which was a million dollars, and I put it all on Floyd. If he lost somehow, I would have no money – I would be broke.
I have this friend, Robert Sanchez, who’s actually played on High Stakes Poker. He’s a billionaire, very intelligent, sharp guy, and he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m coming out there for the fight. We ought to hang out.’

I was like, ‘I got a million dollars on Floyd.’ He was like a dad, he was so mad at me. ‘What are you doing, you idiot? You can’t handle a bet that large. Why are you doing this?’

I was like, ‘Robert, it’s the safest thing in the world. I promise you.’ He had third row tickets and said, ‘I’m taking you. Because if you have that much on it, you deserve to be in front.’

If you remember that fight, it was kind of rocky at the beginning.

Art Parmann: My wife’s friend invited us to their house to watch. I was the only person with money on Floyd, $10,000 or $15,000. I’m the only person that’s nervous during the first round because I don’t know a lot of boxing. If you don’t watch boxing, you could be worried about Floyd in those first few rounds.

David Williams: I had been to 100% of Floyd’s fights in Vegas and all his fights would go like that – the opponent comes out fast. His cardio is just so insane, his defense is insane, and then they get gassed, and by the end, they look like shit, and he just jabs him to death and then they just fall over. He just didn’t break a sweat.

Justin Young: The most boring boxer of all time (laughing).

David Williams: And probably one of the best. The first two rounds, Robert’s looking at me, ‘You good? You okay?’ I knew there was a plan. ‘We got this, bro it’s fine.’

Then as Floyd started to take over in the later rounds then he finally won, I remember it felt good, but it didn’t feel like I expected. It didn’t feel like confetti shooting from the rafters. I was just supposed to win. I [wasn’t really betting] my net worth because it was such a given. I could pick up this free $250,000. I wish I had more money. I wish I could have somehow gotten $8 million to bet.

Art Parmann: That’s the thing about sports betting, if you lose you bet too much and if you win, you didn’t bet enough.

David Williams: I went back to the suite and I just fell asleep. The next thing I woke up at six in the morning, and I’m still in my suit jacket. I was like, ‘I guess I’ll check out.’ I bet with crypto on some online sites and the money just was there. That money also was Bitcoin, so…

Justin Young: You won a lot more.

(Williams discussed almost being involved in an million-dollar cash game session.)

David Williams: It was 2008 and I’m in Bellagio one Saturday night. I won a UFC bet for $5,000 and I go sit in a mixed game and run that up to $15,000. There was a big PLO game in Bobby’s Room with Bobby Baldwin, Sammy Farha, and Kido Pham, my friend from Dallas. This guy named Art from New York said, ‘Let’s go halfsies kid,’ and I go play in that PLO game. It was $500-$1,000. We both put $15,000 and I ran the $30,000 into $80,000 profit. He’s like, ‘Alright, let’s chop out.’

So I get up, chop out. Now I’ve got $25,000 right? I play some other games, but that game is still going, and I get back on the list to come back in.

About 20 hours later, I’ve got about $800,000 in front of me. Sammy keeps going broke. He will reach in his pocket, pull out a little pouch, pull out $25,000 and be all in within three hands. Sammy would get up, go to his room, come back, reach in his pocket, pull out money. Is he printing these motherf***ers?

Sammy was on my left, so I’m smashing this game. Johnny Chan comes in, he’s crushing and ends up leaving. My friend calls me at five in the morning and asks if I’m still in the game. First, he thinks it’s bad because I’m still there.

I said, ‘I’m up $980,000.’ He goes, ‘Are you f***ing serious?’

I’m like, ‘Let me get the million. Let me get to seven figures.’ He’s like, ‘No, f*** that. Let’s go right now, cash out.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m going to get a mill real quick. Sammy is fucking giving it away.’

About an hour later, I’ve got like $700,000 in front of me. Let me just get back to $800,000. Thirty minutes later, I take a big bad beat against Sammy or someone else to get down to $600,000.

Thirty-three hours into the session, I am now asking Kido for some chips because he is crushing. Kido throws me $50,000. Kido throws me $100,000. The game’s been going around the clock. Everybody is acting like zombies.

Johnny shows up again and sits in with $20,000 and runs it up to another $400,000 and leaves. I end up asking Kido again and he’s says, ‘No, $250,000 is the max.’ Sammy leaves, there’s really no one there.

I go back home. I don’t call anybody. I sleep for days. I went from plus $980,000 to minus $250,000, all because I wanted this mythical round number.

(Williams then switched gears to discussing his time in the kitchen for the Fox series MasterChef.)

Art Parmann: At some point in the recent past, you went from cooking at the poker table to cooking in the actual kitchen. Of course, we’re speaking to a runner-up finisher on MasterChef. How did you go from gambling to scrambling?

David Williams: Ironically, a year before the show, the only thing I’d ever cooked was scrambled eggs. I was a single dad and had to start making some food here and there. My four-year-old’s favorite thing was salmon, broccoli, and brown rice. Making rice is easy. Broccoli, you just grill it, whatever. Doesn’t really take any skills. Salmon, you just throw that bad boy in a pan and flip it.

So, I was cooking for her a little bit. Nothing serious, but I always liked to go to sleep watching random YouTube cooking videos.

I love to eat. I love restaurants. But I didn’t cook and didn’t care about cooking. Cooking videos, however, were just so smooth and excellent and fast. They just mesmerized me and I would watch these videos and fall asleep.

One day I was craving this pasta dish and I remember I was watching a video and thought, ‘That looks kind of easy.’ I started calling butcher shops. I need the perfect mix of boar and pork. I get everything ready and I’m going to make this dish. It took me hours and I invited over (some poker friends). They came over and I was so excited. They loved it, and something clicked.

When you play poker, to win someone else has to do badly. When you win a pot, somebody else lost that pot. I’ll always be getting my pleasure from someone else’s failure. When you start to think about it that way, it kind of confounds you a little bit.

I realized with cooking, everybody wins. I made people happy with something I did. That’s kind of cool, so I started making more dishes.

I started posting some photos on Twitter, more for record keeping. Then I got a phone call from this producer who says, ‘Hey, working on a cooking show. You should audition.’ I’m like, ‘What cooking show?’ She said MasterChef.

I didn’t even know what that was. She said, ‘It’s a Gordon Ramsey show. It’s on Fox and watched by eight million viewers. It’s one of the best in its demographic on prime time.’ I was like, ‘I’m not that good.’ She asked me to think about it.

The auditions were in Vegas, so I went to my couch and found it on TV. My daughter, who was four at the time, comes in and says, ‘Oh, I watch this with mommy. Why are you watching it?’

It was super intense. I didn’t think I was going to do it. She’s like, ‘Why not?’ I didn’t think I was good enough. She said, ‘You’re the best cook, daddy. I bet you would win.’ I try to instill in her to always try.

The next day she said my daddy’s going to be on MasterChef to another kid’s mom. So, I wrote the producer back to tell her, ‘I don’t know if it’s for me, but I’ll audition.’

Auditions were Saturday morning and two of my friends were having a bachelor party the night before. I knew everybody at the clubs and the strip clubs and the restaurants, and I was going to take them out. I made it work. I ended up dipping out early, not drinking, got home, woke up, made this spicy puttanesca sauce with spaghetti with some capers and anchovies in a thermos piping hot. I got my best white plates, shiny knives, napkins, put them in a backpack, and drove up there.

There were all these people waiting, but I was fast tracked because I told the woman I was busy with my daughter. I went into this room and there were probably 25 people seated at tables in a U shape and they said, ‘Okay, everybody pull your dish out and get it ready.’

People pulled out a hotel pan or like foil on a paper plate, and I pulled out a nice white plate and shiny silverware. I folded my napkin. I have fresh basil and I played the motherf***er up like you see at a restaurant.

So then the judges walk in and they just go to each and take a bite of your food. They get to me and see the setup and they kind of smirk and look at each other like they’re impressed. They take a bite. They talk, they scribble, and they keep going. They’re like, ‘Alright guys, go ahead and wait in the next room. We’ll let you know who moves on.’

Four ladies and I made it to the next round.

Williams ultimately made it on the show and finished runner-up. For more of his experiences on the show as well as other poker stories, listen to the full episode on the Table 1 Podcast YouTube page. ♠

About The Table 1 Podcast

Hosted by high-stakes poker pros Art Parmann and Justin Young, the Table 1 Podcast is on a mission to make poker fun again. Tune in to see world-class pros talk poker, gambling, and all manner of life experiences on and off the felt. Visit the website for the podcast, newsletter, or even to get in the game. ♠

*Photos by PokerGO