If there’s a major tournament online out there, chances are that David Doc Sands Sands has won it. His online poker resume is pretty impressive and, over the weekend, he recorded another entry by winning the $530 buy-in PokerStars Sunday 500, adding a healthy $90,000 to his bankroll. Sands won the Monthly PLB title on PocketFives.com in May and sits perched at #8 in the Online Poker Rankings. I’m wagering that he’ll once again crack a single-digit ranking this week. We sat down with Sands to talk about his latest major tournament victory, which he attributes in part to a special “rally massage” by his girlfriend.Sands battled against Matt papamat25 Iles heads-up in the finale of the Sunday 500. Iles was no pushover, either. Instead, he holds the 75th spot in the Rankings and took down the PokerStars $55 rebuy in mid-May. On his run through the competitive field in the Sunday 500, Sands noted, “I was a little tilted because I fell short after a good run in the Sunday Million. I was chip leader with 500 left and ended up busting out early. I cut out most of my late evening schedule to focus more on the Million and 500.” His dedication in the two tournaments worked, cashing in the former and winning the latter for over $90,000.
On having fewer tables open while making a deep run in the Sunday 500, Sands commented, “I think in that tournament, having fewer tables open makes a big difference. The structure of the 500 is much better than in other tournaments. The average stack in the 500 will almost always have more than 50 big blinds. With more chips, the decisions become less automatic and post-flop play becomes more crucial.”Last September, Sands won the weekend majors on Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker two months before they merged to form the CEREUS Network for a combined $82,000. Two months later, he was in the winner’s circle in the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed for $132,000. In April, he dominated the field of the PokerStars Sunday Mulligan for $53,000. In May, he won an event during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $259,000 for his largest online poker cash to date and also took down the Cake Poker $250,000 Guaranteed for $50,000. Now, you can add a win in the Sunday 500 to his list of accolades. Other than that, he’s been relatively quiet.
Sands told PocketFives.com that he’s been improving his deep-stack play, making a victory in a tournament like the Sunday 500 even more meaningful. He explained, “The experience of playing an event which is relatively deep throughout really helps my confidence. Plus, you would be hard-pressed to find a live $10,000 buy-in event where the average player is better than the average player in the 500. I don’t think many online pros would disagree.”
His upcoming live tournament schedule consists of a bevy of five-figure buy-in events. After the FTOPS XIII festivities, Sands will head to the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Legends of Poker, the Commerce Casino’s L.A. Poker Classic, the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and the Aussie Millions. In between, you can find this heralded PocketFiver on the felts of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) in September. That’s a lot of frequent flier miles.Sands recently returned from the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP), where he recorded two in the money finishes for a combined $18,000. On his performance on poker’s biggest stage, he critiqued, “On paper, the results were disappointing, but I was very happy with my play. I made five Day 2s with only two cashes. About 15% of the field makes Day 2, while 10% cashes. As usual, I didn’t care about money bubbles and was turning up the aggression to pick up chips.” In addition, his pocket jacks could not hold up against pocket tens in a $5,000 buy-in tournament at the Venetian, forcing Sands to the rails in 15th place for $12,000.
He wanted to thank his girlfriend for helping him through the final moments of his Sunday 500 win. Sands vividly painted the picture for us: “I was 22 of 24 when I asked her to come give me a ‘rally massage.’ She gave me a non-stop back rub all the way for the win!” In case you’re wondering, her reward was a brand new pair of shoes.
Congratulations to Sands for rallying to take down the Sunday 500 and cementing himself as one of the most talented online poker players in the business.
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