Interview with David Williams

The American pro talked about his experiences on Gordon Ramsey's cooking show Master Chef and about the WSOP Main Event amongst other topics.

As we have previously reported, American poker professional David Williams announced in April that he will be leaving the poker tables for a while to participate in Master Chef.

Williams, who was runner up in the 2004 WSOP Main event and has $8,658,386 in live tournament earnings (including WPT and WSOP titles) and after shooting was done he returned to the tables of the WSOP Main Event.

Williams talked with CardPlayer's Brian Pempus during a break, read the excerpts from the interview below. When asked whether he is a better cook or poker player he stated that he only started cooking a couple of years ago and he feels much more natural at the poker table.

He stated that the years of experience being under the spotlight of cameras in tournaments helped him immensely during Master Chef because it allowed him to stay calm during shooting. Williams then talked about his Main Event table which was very friendly and points out that this vibe is often not present in today's tournament poker.

One of his good friends is Josh Arieh who finished third behind him and Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP Main Event and Arieah also railed him during MasterChef shootings. He also expressed gratitude towards his fans who rooted for him during MasterChef.

He also said that winning MasterChef would have been the equivalent of winning a WSOP bracelet, but not near as important as winning a Main Event title would have been. Williams also talks about the strategy involved in MasterChef, he often had to calculate risks when deciding what kind of dish to make and had to strategize which fellow competitors save and when.

Williams managed to advance from Day 1 with 42,500 chips and will continue on Day 2C on Wednesday.