David "Doc" Sands

David “Doc” Sands is a semi-retired professional poker player currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Doc” Sands grew up in upstate New York and attended Hamilton College, where he learned to play poker in his freshman year. He played in dorms for with friends until one of his friends showed him the then exploding world of online poker. Unlike most players, he managed to turn a profit in the very first week of play, confirming that he had a natural talent that many people work years for. Whereas many players have to force themselves to play when they are losing, Sands was already hooked and making money that would keep him from being a broke college student.

He continued playing through college, even winning a $1k tournament at Turning Stone Casino in New York, although he was still unsure about what he would be doing with the degree he had earned. It seemed poker never looked like the professional life that he had envisioned. He finally ended up at a job in Internet Marketing, although it only lasted one year before poker took over and he began his journey as a professional player.

In 2008, he played well and even though he played less than most of the other pros online, he still managed to find himself at the top of Pocket Fives’ rankings, as well as being the player with the most major online tournament wins.

That success continued, although it was 2011 that made him a household name, at least in the poker community. In that year, he had a total of $400k in cashes at the WSOP as well as finishing fourth in the EPT Grand Final for $200k. 2013 brought even larger results, including taking second in the $100k Super High Roller at PCA for $1.26 million and winning the WPT World Championship $100k Super High Roller for $1.02 million, making him a feared competitor in high roller events that are known to have some of the stiffest competition in the world.

In 2014 an exchange on Twitter led to Sands announcing that he was retiring from poker to some extent. He told Doyle Brunson that he had taken a job at a hedge fund and would not be playing the large volume that he had through the length of his career. Although he has since been absent from online play, he returned to the World Series of Poker in 2015, however, and played in eight events, earning over $300k. Not bad for a “retired” poker pro. There has been radio silence on whether or not he will play more tournaments at some point, but many players have a hard time staying away from the table once they have had a taste of the kind of success that Sands has had in the past.

In total, he has recorded nearly $8 million in live winnings and $3 million in online tournament wins, spread out over an incredible 941 cashes. Now that he has taken time away from poker, however, he is working hard at a hedge fund as well as spending time traveling the world in search of great cuisine and golfing, which typically involves a fair amount of gambling when poker players are involved.

Doc Sands previously played on PokerStars under the same SexSeen.