Amateur player Courtenay Williams fired three bullets at the $500 Colossus and ended up winning the whole thing for a massive $524,540 payday. We caught up with him shortly after his final hand at the Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas.
What’s it like to make a deep run through 16,000 entries — one of the biggest fields in tournament poker?
I was telling my mom it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing just making it to today. I had the most turbulence-free Day 1 I’ve ever had. I did get it in early with a gutshot straight flush draw against a set of kings, and I turned it. But from that point forward I was like, 'Ohh, maybe this is it.' I just had some great f*****g hands. Day 2 and Day 3 were cruise control.
And I just kept trying to ladder up. I’d look at the tournament screen and think, 'Just make it 100 more players… then 10 more.' That’s how I paced myself through the whole thing.
So you started Day 3 in the top 10 and ended on the final table. Was it as smooth as it sounds?
Yes, it was pretty smooth. I didn't even know when I came into Day 3 that I was in the top 10. I had no idea. I got aces in the big blind, kings in the big blind, and people were shoving into me. So I got some really perfect situations, and I didn't have to do anything fancy.
As stacks got shallower, it leveled the field and neutralized the better players — they couldn’t make fancy plays, and it made my decisions easier.
'I wasn't afraid to get it in'
Talk us through the final table. You were one of the shortest stacks coming in — was the strategy to sit and ladder or go for the win?
I definitely wasn't thinking about the win, but I was definitely looking to ladder. I was also going to play my cards — I wasn’t afraid to get it in. I folded ace-ten to a raise and a reraise all-in — I just knew it wasn’t going to be good.
When it gets this shallow, it just kind of happens like that. It's going to be card distribution 100%.
What's your background in poker?
I started playing in 2003 after Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event. I think I saw Rounders first, and then I went to Hollywood Park and won the second daily tournament I played. That was one of the worst things that happened, though, because I thought it was an easy game.
I then tried to play cash for a long time and sucked. After that I transitioned to just tournaments. I've tried to study and do the charts and stuff like that, but I just can't. I play intuitively.
Ryan Leng and Matt Glantz were really cool because I know they are professionals. They were very nice people. They weren't arrogant, so it was really nice playing with them. They made the experience better for recreational players like me.
'I wasn't even going to play'
What are your plans now for the rest of the summer at the WSOP and beyond?
I've always said I'm never going to play the Main Event just because I don't want to do seven days straight. My friends are going to try to talk me into it.
I’m trying to move to a new place in LA this July, so I’m not sure it’ll work out. But now there are tax implications, and firing $10K to make more money kind of makes sense. But I had no intention of coming back before. I still don't know if I will or not.
What are your plans for the money?
This win makes things a whole lot easier to move. Funny thing is, I wasn’t even going to play. I ended up firing three bullets — and I had to be talked into the third one.
