WSOP Event #10: David Williams is a Stud

It has seemed like David Williams has always been the bridesmaid. Now he is finally the bride (this is not a commentary on Williams’ manhood).

One of the most well-known main event runner-ups after his much televised 2004 final table duel with Greg Raymer, Williams also has a WPT second place finish. He had never won a WSOP or WPT event. That is, until Friday night. Williams won his first ever WSOP gold bracelet by defeating a strong group of competitors at the final table of the $1,500 seven card stud event, in the process winning $163,189.

It was actually a strange day at the World Series of Poker. The typical day this summer has seen three events being played simultaneously. One would be at the final table stage, one would be in its second day, working down to the final table, and another would just be starting. Friday, however, was different. There was this stud final table, starting at 2:00pm PST, as usual, and there was the $2,500 no-limit hold’em event starting at noon, but then there was the $5,000 Omaha high/low event in its second day, but not stopping at the final table. In that event, they started with 26 players Friday and were going to go all the way until they crowned a champion. The final table actually started AFTER the final table of the stud event ended, which makes for a very, very long day for the Omaha players. As of 2:00am PST, the Omaha tournament was still going.

Additionally, the stud final table was unusually upbeat and friendly, due in large part to the tournament announcer. He took the time to give every player a long, welcoming introduction, a nice touch that really allowed the casual fans in the crowd to associate an actual person to the otherwise anonymous faces at the table. That is not to say that the players were nobodies, though. In addition to Williams, Johnny Chan was looking for his record-breaking 11th bracelet, “Miami” John Cernuto was seeking his 4th, and Jack Duncan his 2nd. Overall, however, the casual fan probably only knew Williams and Chan. Throughout the proceedings, the announcer tossed out some anecdotes about the players, keeping everyone entertained.

David Williams and John Hoang were the chip leaders going into the final table (Hoang was ahead by $28,000) and they really made it a two horse race from the get-go. It was a good thing that the announcer talked about the players immediately, because most of them weren’t around for long. Within thirty minutes, the two had about sixty percent of the chips on the table. They were the big stacks, everybody else was a small stack.

Within the next hour, half of the final table had been eliminated.

When it finally got to heads-up between Hoang and Williams, Williams had a $450,000 to $270,000 chip lead.

Hoang played admirably to close the gap, but as soon as he got within shouting distance of Williams, he went card dead and Williams just ate him alive. Their stack sizes got so out of whack, that instead of taking the scheduled dinner break, they just opted to keep playing, as they both agreed that it would be over soon.

The funny thing was, that while the match did end relatively quickly after the “dinner break,” Hoang did make things interesting, coming back from the dead to double-up a couple of times. There was a minor murmur in the crowd, as some started thinking the impossible could happen, but it never did.

Williams finally took the last of Hoang’s chips was an astoundingly weak hand for seven card stud: a pair of fours. But nobody said the hands had to be pretty. The bracelet is pretty enough.

Originally published July 8, 2006