David Diaz

They say that poker is a hard way to make an easy living. For Honduras-born Diaz, playing cards to make money is an absolute walk in the park compared to the journey he went through before becoming a pro. One of six children in his family, David suffered with undiagnosed cancer from an early age as he repeatedly experienced swelling in his right arm. Doctors in his home country could only offer up a cast which never resolved the problem. With limited funds but no solution to David’s troubles in Honduras, his family reached out to relatives they had in New Jersey to help them move to the United States in search of better healthcare. Relocating to Memphis, Diaz was placed under treatment at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital where he was officially diagnosed with cancer. David had his arm amputated to remove the cancer and went through a year of chemotherapy to make sure that it was completely eradicated. After conquering cancer as a child, becoming a crusher in poker world hardly seemed difficult.

David and his family remained in America after his treatment, and it was in his late teens that he discovered poker. He officially went pro on the day he turned 21 and was legally allowed to take a seat at the felt. Since then, he’s made over $2,000,000 on the live tournament circuit and become a member of the WSOP bracelet club. This significant accomplishment came in 2011 at the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Triple Chance event, where Diaz got past a field filled with more than 1,000 players featuring some of the biggest name in the game. Sam Trickett, Dan Smith, Isaac Haxton and legendary poker author David Sklansky were all in the mix, but none of them were able to stop the Honduras native from seizing the gold and $352,808 top prize.

Before the year played out, David had earned himself another six-figure payday after winning the $3,000 NLH Main Event in Tunica. This made 2011 his most successful year in poker to date.

2013 saw Diaz hit a harsh roadblock in his poker journey when he was banned from the Rio casino – the site of the WSOP – and all other Caesars properties. In a tweet shedding more light on the issue, he explained why this happened:

‘Because I was so drunk and harassing people at carnival court the other night but I don’t remember any of this’.

To make matters worse, he was in the middle of playing a WSOP tournament where he was sitting on a top 10 chip-stack with around 100 players left. He reflected on how this ban affected him financially in a 2014 interview:

‘I was running deep in a lot of events. I kind of screwed myself out of a lot of money. I also missed the main event, and that’s the biggest tournament there is. It was devastating’.

Although many poker pros came to his defense, it wasn’t until the following year that this ban was revoked. Fortunately for Diaz, he has been able to enjoy every WSOP since 2014 - let’s hope he doesn’t ever get banned again!