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During the March 23rd installment of the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday, Dan USCswimmer White (pictured at right) brought home the largest online poker cash of his young career. He took fourth place in the tournament for $37,000 and nearly would have won it had it not been for a pair of bad beats in the late stages of the event. White is in good poker company, rooming with Carter ckingusc King and David Bakes Baker. Surrounding himself with some of the top minds in the game, he has been able to excel. He sat down with PocketFives.com to talk about his longtime swimming career and future in poker.

Five-handed in the $1K Monday and with blinds of 6,000-12,000, White picked up pocket kings. As World Poker Tour Host Vince Van Patten would say, “The Star Spangled Banner was going off in his head.” It folded around to White on the button, who bumped it up to 27,500. The small blind called and the flop came Q-9-3. White commented, “My read on the guy was that he was a very loose player.” The PocketFiver bet 36,000, the small blind made it 72,000, White shoved, and the small blind called, flipping over Q-10 for top pair. Ahead for now, White saw the turn come an eight and the river a jack to give his opponent a runner-runner straight.

The unfortunate hand dropped him down to just 10 big blinds, but he was able to work his way back up to a stack size of 420,000. Then, disaster struck again. Four-handed, he peeked down at 6-4 on the button and the action folded around to him. He made it 2.5 times the big blind and the same opponent called. The flop came a benign 3-5-8, giving White an open-ended straight draw, and the action went check-check. The turn came a two, filling his straight. His opponent checked, White bet, his opponent min-raised, and White just called. The river came another eight, pairing the board. His opponent shoved and White called with a straight, only to see he was defeated by pocket twos.

Despite the two hands, he managed to record the largest cash of his poker career. His method of improving has been to surround himself with the best in the business. He is backed by King and Matt mattg1983 Graham (pictured at left). White lives in a house on a lake in South Carolina with King and Baker, who recently moved in. He commented, “I think Baker brought the run good with him because right when he got here, Carter shipped the PokerStars Sunday Million, I made the deep run in the $1K, and witcher1984 final tabled the $100 rebuy on Full Tilt Poker and won that site's $50,000 Guaranteed.”

Although he is currently known for his success on the felts, he gained fame for his performance in the pool. He explained how his world-class swimming career began: “When I was 14, my mom told me that I needed to pick up a sport and get good at it because I was not going to go to college on my grades.” Originally from Florida, White noted that in the southern state, “swimming is as big as football.”

He attended the University of South Carolina, swimming competitively for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) school. White noted that the sport is taken very seriously at the collegiate level: “The NCAA Championship is considered to be the fastest swim meet in the world other than the Olympics.” According to White, the SEC boasts the perennial swimming powerhouses of Auburn, Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky. The University of South Carolina was consistently ranked in the Top 25 nationwide while he attended.

He regularly competed in the 200 meter and 500 meter freestyle events and was an All-American for two of the three years that he swam for the Gamecocks. The 400 meter freestyle relay, the 800 meter freestyle relay, and the 1,000 meter freestyle were all among his best events. He left the team in 2007 with the arrival of a new coaching staff and has not swam competitively since. He noted, “My little sister swims for Indiana University, so I keep up with her, but that's about it.” In several aspects, hitting the pool and hitting the felts are similar. White explained, “The competitiveness and the hours and hours you have to put into it are comparable.”

So where does poker fit into the mix? White explained, “I picked up poker my freshman year. I trained for about five hours a day and, along with school and study hall, didn't have much time for it.” He organized $20 tournaments in his dorm room that would attract up to 70 players. Among the regulars were King and PocketFiver Chris cdbr3799 Dombrowski, further expanding his poker network. He started taking the game more seriously and has transitioned from being a full-time swimmer to a full-time poker player. He recalled, “A year ago, I was staked by Dombrowski into nothing more than $33 buy-ins. Now, I'm in the $1K's and it's pretty wild.”

He asked PocketFives.com to call out witcher1984 for not living up to his end of a prop bet. White explained, “I beat witcher1984 in a last longer on who has to jump in the lake (its still freezing cold in there). He lost this bet about four weeks ago, had a week to do it, and still hasn't done it.” Our advice to White's prop betting partner would be to head to the lake as soon as possible.

We look forward to more accolades from this swimmer turned poker pro in the near future.