David Chiu is one of the players who holds two of the big three poker tour titles. The experienced poker player has racked up four WSOP bracelets and a WPT title. The WPT title came in April of 2008 and the decisive heads up against Gus Hansen proved to be a classic, as David turned what looked like a hopeless situation into victory after having been basically written off by the public, players, arranger and presumably both Hansen and himself. An unforgettable moment, although David Chiu has accomplished quite a lot more during his long poker career, which began properly in 1981.
David Chiu was born in China, in 1960, but has been a US citizen for a long time. Before his poker career took off, David was a restaurant owner in Colorado, where he also worked as a dealer for a few years. Working as a dealer allowed him to study players up close and work out how different players react in different situations, something David has put to good use at the poker table. Together with his ability to concentrate, it is precisely his ability to read his opponents that form the strongest part of David’s poker.
Chiu suffers from impaired hearing
One thing not a lot of people know about David is that he suffers from impaired hearing after puncturing his ear drums as a child. David himself has said that this was due to getting water in his ears as a youngster, after having bathed (!) too much. Despite his condition having caused David a series of problems over the years, he has still managed to turn it into an advantage at the poker table. The problem has meant that he needed to be more focused and concentrated to be able to get what people around him are saying, something that, according to him, has developed his ability to concentrate.
1996 is David Chiu’s breakthrough year
David’s breakthrough as a poker player came in 1996, when he won his first bracelet in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event. But David has been around for longer than that. Back in 1981, he came in fourth place at his WSOP debut, in the $1,000 Ace to Five Draw event. The other bracelet came two years later, at the 1998 edition, when David again won at Limit Hold’em.
Unbelievable turnaround by David Chiu results in WPT title
Chiu won his third WSOP title in 2000, but unlike the previous times, this time he managed to win at a Seven-Card Stud event. His fourth and last bracelet came in the $5,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event and, with four bracelets to his name, David was naturally a watched player in the poker world. When he also won the World Poker Tour’s final event, the WPT World Championship, in April of 2008, he took the step to the true greats.
But, by the skin of his teeth David would have lost the WPT title. In the heads up against Gus Hansen, things looked very grim for a long stretch and it seemed as if the Dane was just about to deliver the killing blow when it all changed. David, who had avoided Hansen until the final, successfully began to reel in the significant lead and Hansen’s attempts to cut short the process by using his strong position only resulted in David getting closer and closer. And, in the end, he was left standing as the winner, after an almost unbelievable reversal.