Lee Davy sits down with the winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Seniors Champion, Dan Heimiller, to talk about his decision to give away 2 percent of his Main Event action to a random Twitter follower, his second bracelet win and much more.
Dan Heimiller was racking up live tournament scores as Bill Clinton was moving his furniture into the White House.
This is a man who is a fixture in the poker circuit and a man who has just won his second WSOP bracelet—12 years after he won his first.
Heimiller topped the largest ever senior’s event when he defeated 4,424 other players en route to a $627,462 payday—all for a tournament buy-in of $1,000.
So how does it feel to win his second bracelet after such a long time trying?
“Well it was a long time coming but it was great. It was huge money—doubles most of the WSOP tournaments. I don’t remember ever beating so many people in a live tournament. I might have some online wins in fields this big but nothing like this live.
“A lot of the players look at this as their only tournament of the year. So that made it a little bit easier than some of the others. Perhaps 20–30 percent of the field fell into that category but the rest of them were pretty sharp poker players so it wasn’t as easy as some people think. We are not all senile you know.”
When it got down to the final 16 players, I thought Heimiller was a shoe-in for the title. I wondered if being the big name has put any pressure on him?
“Dennis Phillips was there, as was David Tran, who plays high stakes at the Commerce. Then there was The Doc who also plays a lot at the Commerce. I don’t recall playing against any of the others though.”
Before he can fully answer the question Heimiller bursts into a sales pitch and it’s a bloody good one at that.
“I am giving away 2 percent of my Main Event action to a random Twitter follower. All you have to do is follow me, and retweet a promotional tweet that I put out each day, for a chance to win 2 percent of my action, which will be $200k if I win. So follow me at @danheimiller.”
That’s right folks—free money—so get to it.
When a professional poker player wins a big tournament, the confidence that they gain usually lends itself to an almighty heater. Not so, for Dan Heimiller.
“Maybe I have had too much money in my pocket because since that win I am 0/15 in terms of cashes, which may be the worst run of non-cashes in my tournament career. It’s irritating but I don’t think anybody is going to cry for me because I hit my score just before I went on the run.”
How does a losing streak like this affect Heimiller?
“It doesn’t really affect me because that win in the seniors has given me 200 buy-ins, so losing 15 is not too bad. But if I had not won that then I would, of course, been climbing the walls.”
Has Heimiller been playing in more tournaments as a result of his victory?
“I have been, yes. I would have had to be staked in anything above $10k because I didn’t have a roll to play in those. I would have to do the running around to get staking and do my salesmanship piece. Fortunately, I won’t have to do that anymore but in the past, over 100 people have staked me in the past couple of years.
“The money goes as fast as it comes. I probably pay $400–500K in entry fees every year, so you have to hit something pretty large once a year or at least once every two years. I hit a second in the World Poker Tour last year, and I have hit a lot of WPT, WSOP and EPT final tables in my career.
“They used to publish stats on how many WSOP events people played in, but they stopped doing that because it was embarrassing. I remember there was a guy that was 0/50, and that’s no good but I know I have a significant edge so I have no fear. Most people have an expiration date on their forehead. It’s a number of tournaments they can afford to play before they expire. My friend Padraig Parkinson said they should tattoo it onto the forehead of the people at the WSOP. I think mine has now been projected way into the future.”
Don’t forget to win a 2 percent stake in Dan Heimiller’s Main Event action, follow him on Twitter at @danheimiller and retweet his promotional tweet to get a shot.
