The Official Scorers: Davin, we just want to start out by thanking you for your time. How old were you when you started playing poker?
Davin Anderson: I started playing poker with the older kids in my neighborhood when I was eight. We started with penny poker, but that quickly grew to nickels, dimes, and then quarters. The most popular game was called Acey-Deucey which is a form of a casino game called Red Dog. A simple game in which two cards are turned face up, and the player can bet up to the size of the pot that the third card’s value will be between the first two.
When we started to ante $1, the pots could become large quickly. I believe I was the first kid to figure out that if you kept track of the cards in the deck, eventually you would be able to predict accurately the remaining cards. I became the richest kid in the neighborhood when I won a $2800 pot (mostly IOU’s). After I tried cash in the several IOU’s from the parents in the neighborhood, the kids weekly poker game was over.
All my life I have been passionate about games and learning the best strategies to win. At the age of 12, I couldn’t find an adult that could beat me in chess. During my first two years in college, I made a nice consistent income playing Rummy, Ping-Pong and Poker in the dorms.
At the age of 18 I walked into a pool room for the first time and fell into a world of hustlers and gamblers that educated me in almost every form of gambling and street hustles imaginable. Poker for the first time became a serious past time. The games were very different from what I was used to, the stakes were serious and the competition was serious.
TOS: When did you know this was something you wanted to do professionally?
DA: I was first exposed to casino poker in 1997 and fell in love with it right away. I loved the game selection, the structure, and most of the earning potential for someone with superior skill. But, like most I went broke at the tables a hundred times until I finally had enough experience and reached a skill level that I could hold my own consistently. I moved up in limits quickly at that point, until I was playing the biggest games available in Atlantic City (400-800 limit poker).
Even though I considered myself a professional poker player (playing 40-60 hours a week) by the end of 1998, I maintained a professional business life as well. I believe that was crucial in my survival and ability to move up in the poker world. By the end of 2001 I was making just as much or more money playing poker than I was as an owner of two businesses. This is when it became very hard for me to justify maintaining and growing my businesses while playing poker at least 60 hours a week (mostly Thursday night to Sunday night).
I believe it is a great misconception for 99% of the young poker players today to think that all they have to do is play poker. Over half of all the successful poker professionals past and present that I know, have outside business interests that provide consistent income and enhance their annual bottom line. In reality, most poker professionals are not just poker professionals.
TOS: Have you always been good at reading people, or was it something you learned as you played?
DA: I believe that many things have lead to my ability to read people and situations properly and effectively. From the very beginning, being an abandoned and adopted child lay the foundation for me to be more aware of my surroundings and the people around me. I also give lots of credit to my adopted parents. They are educated and thoughtful people, and they taught me to question and research things that are important and interest me.
Probably the most important factor besides my childhood is my pool hall education. I will always hold academic education in high regard and hold my college degree as a personal accomplishment. But, the most practical and useful tools I’ve learned in the past 20 years have all come from being exposed to the huge spectrum of people that can be found in pool rooms. Pool hustlers, street hustlers, bookies, criminals, and self made millionaires were some of my best teachers.
In that Darwinist environment, you can only survive and prosper by honing your people skills. After 12 years of pool rooms, reading people and my environment has become an unconscious reflex. Being able to identify and profile the person I’m dealing with in the first 60 seconds is a tool I use everyday. In poker, I can usually have a working profile of everyone at the table in the first 5 minutes. This is most valuable in a poker tournament situation when you are forced to deal with table changes and new opponents all the time without the luxury of getting to know them first.
TOS: Are there certain tells that you see more often than others?
DA: For most beginners the obvious tells of body language are cool and fun to learn. When you’re playing with experienced and skillful players, these tells usually go out the window. I always start with my profile and psychological read of my opponent first. That is the most dependable and consistent method, and all the information and tells that follow are exponentially more valuable and accurate if you start with a profile first.
TOS: Do you have a different personality at the poker table than you do in real life?
DA: “You are who you are at the poker table.” My experience has taught me that most of the time people can’t help but be themselves at the poker table. All their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies come out eventually. A liar and a cheat will be a liar and a cheat at the poker table. A housewife will be a housewife, and an aggressive salesman will be an aggressive salesman.
Based on this theory, I usually try to keep a low profile at the table when I’m in a serious situation. Most of the top players will try and project an image of strength, either quiet confidence or loud and cocky. Just like a false physical tell, these are false images of themselves.
TOS: What’s the most you’ve ever won in one session?
DA: I’ve had several winning sessions of $100-120k. My biggest holdem pot ever was just over $34k, and my biggest Stud pot was just over $48k.
The holdem pot was funny because I walked down from my suite in the Taj around 9AM, found a $400-800 Limit Holdem game had just started. I posted behind the button, and 5 hands later I got KK second to act and got 8 way capped action pre-flop. I didn’t post my blinds, racked up and went back to bed.
TOS: Most you ever lost?
DA: The most I ever lost in one session was 96k playing $300-600 Stud8 and Holdem for three days.
The biggest holdem pot I ever lost was $36k in a Pot-Limit Holdem game. I made a blind raise on the button, flopped the nut straight versus a set of Queens and lost to a full-house on the river.
TOS: What’s the longest session you’ve ever had?
DA: I’ve had two sessions last just over 72 hours. That will never happen again.
TOS: How do you feel about online poker?
DA: I believe the best times are long gone for the professional poker player who is playing online. When I started playing online, the average internet player was 3 times worse than the average casino player. Now the exact opposite is true.
The best two positive arenas of online poker are the huge multi-table tournaments and the accelerated experience you gain by playing online.
TOS: Tell us about your 2004 run.
DA: It was one of the greatest times of my life, and hardest things I’ve ever done. I got my 15 minutes of fame and became a minor poker celebrity from it. Everyone always asks me about the money I won, but at the time the $120k I won wasn’t a big deal. The cash games I was playing in had 6 figure swings almost every session.
Some of my favorite experiences and memories from the 2004 WSOP main event:
- The atmosphere and feel of tradition at The Horseshoe can never be replaced!
- It was the first huge field for the main event and had the most first timers to that point. The air was filled with fear from the players on the first day. It was so prevalent you could cut it with a knife!
- The exposure to so many great tournament players from around the world. Especially the Europeans who at the time, I believe were the best NL tournament players in the world.
- Playing perfect poker for 5 days straight. Never having all my chips in the middle needing help on the river.
- The experience showed me I could play great under the tremendous pressure and on the biggest stage.
TOS: Do any hands stand out for you now, four years later?
DA: Usually the hand that knocks you out is the hand most remember the most. For me it was the first two hands of day 6 that I remember most because they set me up to be knocked out later.
On the 6th day of the tournament, I had 1.45 million in chips, which was good enough for 3rd chip position out of the remaining 32 players. First hand of the day, I’m on the button and everyone folds to me. I look down at my hand, AK offsuit, what a beautiful way to start the day! I liberally toss about 70k in for a raise (blinds were at 6 and 12k with a 1k ante), and the small blind thinks for a minute and declares himself all in! I beat him into the pot, knowing this young internet player from the past three days has made several dumb moves.
For a very brief moment I had him, his head slumped on his shoulders and he turned over A6 off. On the first hand of the day, he shoved over 400k into the pot against the chip leader of the table completely dominated. A single 6 fell on the flop and his blunder turned into roses for him and I lost almost a third of my chips to a 3 outer.
Less than 5 minutes later, another young internet player decides to shove about 400k under the gun. I look at my cards, Aces! I smooth call hoping to get extra action. We are heads up, the director tells him to turn over his hand, and he shrugs and mumbles, and turns over 99. Another dominating situation for me aces against nines. I briefly think about my opportunity to recover most of the chips I lost just minutes prior.
The flop comes 9 high, and my head exploded. I stood up and smashed my huge stack of chips and said, “Your name must be Moneymaker!”
After playing perfect poker for 5 days straight, I was rewarded by losing just over half my chips to a 2 and 3 outer. Two hands that if I won, would have easily positioned me for the final table and over a million guaranteed. My road to poker glory would have been all but complete. Instead, I lost both hands and was left in a position that I had to gamble and play aggressive to regain my top position. This lead to my ultimate demise of having the eventual winner Greg Raymer to my left and he busted me after the first break.
TOS: How often do you think about the key three hands on that sixth day that ended your final table run?
DA: It took me a full year to recover mentally from being robbed by the poker gods of the greatest win a poker player can have. Even now, every time I talk about it, it brings some emotions to the top.
TOS: What is your favorite hand?
DA: As a professional poker player and cash game grinder, you are not supposed to have a so called favorite hand. But as a gambler, I have a weakness for 98 suited in cash games, and Ace Queen suited in tournaments.
TOS: Aside from poker, what do you do for fun?
DA: As a new father and family man, I truly enjoy spending time and having fun with my kids. Even the anticipation of experiences to come is great.
I still play pool once a month and will I probably never get the chalk dust out of my blood. I also enjoy writing and teaching about poker and other things.
I have been a die hard NY Giants fan for twenty-five years and an avid NFL and college football fan for almost twenty years. I like fantasy football and sometimes join five to six leagues. I have also been a successful football handicapper for over a decade.
TOS: So what does the future hold for you?
DA: I have decided to leave full time poker to raise my kids and take care of my elderly parents. I will be focusing on starting a new career or business probably for the next 10-15 years. Poker and my poker dreams will always be there when I’m ready to return.
TOS: Davin, thank you so much for your time, and good luck to you in all your future endeavors.
