The title says it all. David Sir Sands Sands took down the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt Poker on April 19th for his fifth major win. The PocketFiver e-mailed in to ask if it was a record, and while I can’t confirm or deny it, winning a fifth major is quite an accomplishment. His victory in the Mulligan boosted his online poker net worth by $53,000. He currently sits at 50th in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, up 16 spots this week. He owns the 36th best PLB score worldwide and has five weekend major wins across four online poker sites to his name. PocketFives.com sat down with Sands to learn about his most recent accomplishment.In September of 2008, Sands won both the Absolute Poker $150,000 Guaranteed and the UltimateBet $200,000 Guaranteed. Those victories occurred before the two sites merged player bases to form the CEREUS Network in November and earned him a total of $82,000. Just after Thanksgiving in the United States, Sands celebrated a win in the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed, banking $132,000, his largest online poker cash to date. Add those three wins to a Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed victory two years ago and last week’s Sunday Mulligan and you have yourself quite a poker player.
So where does the Sunday Mulligan stack up to his four other major tournament wins? Sands explained, “I’d have to say it was my second favorite of the major wins. There were a lot of great players with chips left at the final three tables. In past majors, I had found it pretty easy to run over the amateurs late, but with Andy McLEOD (pictured at left) shaundeeb, and PiKappRaider still in late, I knew it was going take an exceptional effort to ship this one.” He suddenly found himself seated alongside Deeb, who sits at #2 worldwide, and told himself out loud, “You’re going to have to bust him to win this.”Although poker is his main source of income, Sands plays an abbreviated schedule during the week. He told PocketFives.com why he’s been so successful: “I love to compete and I love to win, whether in poker, golf, basketball, or anything else, so I never come out not charged up for a Sunday. I also attribute my success partially to my schedule and balanced life. I basically play two days a week and, outside of poker, I have a lot of other activities that I enjoy.” For Sands, balance is everything. However, he still found time to rack up nearly $110,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the Rankings over the first 20 days of April.
Right out of college, Sands moved to Las Vegas and lived in the gambling Mecca for a year. However, he carried a full-time poker schedule and ultimately became burnt out. He took a job at an internet marketing company before quitting in February. On finding a job, Sands recalled, “I was sick of living in Las Vegas and had burnt myself out playing. My brother lives in Palo Alto, California and said he knew of some good places that might like to hire me, so I came out to the area and interviewed.” The job lasted for a year before Sands returned to poker. On the decision to take the plunge once again, Sands stated, “I loved my job, but at the end of the day, I was making four times more playing online one day a week than I was working five days a week full-time.”Sands took third in the Sunday Warm-Up on PokerStars in January for $52,000. In March, he won the site's $100 rebuy for $25,000 two weeks after prevailing in the $200 buy-in Turbo $40,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt for $14,000. Sands comes armed to the felts with two monitors: One 30-incher and one 24-incher. He spreads his tables out 3x3 on the former and uses the latter for any overflow. A Gateway desktop computer with an upgraded graphics card powers his online poker experience.
In addition, it’s not uncommon to find Sands looking up opponents’ stats in thepokerdb. On the importance of doing a little research during the late stages of a tournament, the PocketFiver noted, “I do this because it really helps to know late in tournaments who has limited experience deep. They will play much weaker, so you really need to identify who they are and 3bet them and flat them in position.”
If you’re wondering what Sands’ late-game strategy is, he laid it out for us: “I get super aggressive, 3betting constantly and putting pressure on my opponents the whole time. That way, you get to three-handed play as the chip leader and heads-up play as the chip leader. It’s much easier to finish.” In addition to a successful late-game strategy, Sands’ success is partially due to his girlfriend, Erika, whom he met studying abroad in Australia at the age of 22.
Congratulations on a fifth major tournament title for David Sir Sands Sands.
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