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William Davis poker results, stats, photos, videos, news, magazine columns, blogs, Twitter, and more. William Davis' poker tournament results and rankings.

The PokerStars Big Game, also known as the PokerStars.net Big Game or simply the Big Game, is a poker television program sponsored by Pokerstars.net originally airing on Fox Network. The program had a tie-in to the Pokerstars North American Poker Tour (NAPT), which was shut down by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York after the second, 2011, season had been filmed. The PokerStars.net Big Game did not return after the second season.

Format[edit]

The Big Game pits an amateur, known as the 'loose cannon,' who plays 150 hands of no limit Texas hold 'em poker against five other players, each of whom stake their own money. These five players are mostly professionals although well-heeled amateurs also play occasionally. The game consists of thirty hands per day over the course of five weekdays.

To become a contestant, the would-be loose cannon must be a citizen of the United States or Canada.^[1] He or she must first make it through three free qualifying rounds on PokerStars.net, placing in the top 300 in a daily tournament, then in the top 1000 on Saturday, and finally in the top 200 on Sunday. The remaining 200 send in video auditions, from which the producers select the contestant for the week.^[2]

The loose cannons are each staked $100,000 and keep all winnings in excess of this initial amount. To prevent the loose cannon from simply going 'all in' (betting everything) immediately, betting is pot limit before the flop and no limit after the flop. The minimum buy-in for the other players is $100,000 and the maximum is $500,000. They may rebuy up to $500,000. The blinds are $200/$400 with a $100 ante which is paid for all players by the player on the designated dealer 'button'.

The highest-earning loose cannon at the end of the season wins an additional prize, a North American Poker Tour (NAPT) 'passport' valued at $50,000, consisting of entry fees and expenses for various NAPT tournaments. In season one, if a loose cannon had a profit after 150 hands, they had the option of returning the next week for a chance to further increase their winnings.

Season one[edit]

In the conclusion of the first season, on the last day, Bob Ferdinand won two all-in hands and doubled his money twice to take the grand prize. He first went from losing over $30,000 to winning over $40,000 when he made a straight on the flop, which improved to a straight flush on the river. A few hands later, he was dealt pocket aces and was lucky enough to have another player pick up pocket kings, leading to a gain of over $140,000 when the flop came A66, giving him a full house. His final total profit of $181,500 easily exceeded the $129,600 won by David Fishman, who was in attendance.

Four loose cannons came away with some money, with Nadya Magnus in third position with $63,600, followed by Ernest Wiggins with $50,300.

Among the professionals who played were Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Tony G, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, and Barry Greenstein. Most (but not all) of the professionals are sponsored by Pokerstars.

Season One Loose Cannons[edit]

Week 1:Ernest Wiggins from Washington D.C. He became interested in poker while he dated a professional player, and now he competes in local home games where he has been somewhat successful.

Total Winnings:$50,300

Week 2:William Davis from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He spends most of his time playing poker in medium stakes home games and online. He is now trying to make a living playing poker.

Total Winnings:Busted by Daniel Negreanu

Week 3:Nadya Magnus. Magnus has had the poker fever ever since she visited Las Vegas in 2008. She now regularly plays in the U.S, and has won a ladies event in the 2009 World Series Circuit Event.

Total Winnings:$63,600

Week 4:Troy Howard. He is a music producer from Lansing, Michigan. Howard started playing poker with his friends. They started their own amateur league, where Troy has become a regular player.

Total Winnings:Busted by Rick Rahim

Week 5:Aaron Jensen. Jensen is a competitive poker player from Seattle, Washington. He has had a good amount of success at the poker table, where he has picked up five-digit winnings at several live events.

Total Winnings:Busted by Daniel Negreanu

Week 6:Andre Capella. He has been an amateur poker player for many years. He has placed in several events in places such as Reno and Lake Tahoe.

Total Winnings:Busted by Dani Stern

Weeks 7 and 8:Russell Harlow. Harlow is a delivery driver from Manchester, Connecticut, where he resides with his wife and three kids. He aspires to own his own farm one day, but for now he intends to use his twenty years of poker experience to provide for his family. Harlow became the first and only loose cannon to come back another week after ending Week 7 with a profit of $16,400, but was busted on the final day of Week 8.

Total Winnings:Busted by Barry Greenstein

Week 9:Elizabeth Houston from British Columbia, Canada. She spends a lot of time in a casino perfecting her game, which she claimed to have learned from her hero, Doyle Brunson.

Total Winnings:Busted by Daniel Negreanu

Week 10:David Fishman. Fishman is a cancer survivor from Tempe, Arizona, where he teaches mathematics. He considers his ability with numbers to be his biggest advantage at the poker table.

Total Winnings:$129,600

Week 11:William Given. Given is from Lincoln, New Brunswick and has also lived in Germany. He enjoys sports and poker, and planned to put any winnings into a store that will sell hobby gear that will include poker.

Total Winnings:Busted by Doyle Brunson

Week 12:Bob Ferdinand. He is a bus driver from Revere, Massachusetts. He has two kids, and is recently retired. His focus is now on becoming a full-time poker player.

Total Winnings:$181,500

Season Two[edit]

The rules were changed so that loose cannons no longer had the option to come back for another week.

Season Two Loose Cannons[edit]

Week 1: Gonzales Cannon II, an online qualifier from Sacramento.

Total Winnings: $155,200

Week 2: Courtney Gee. Based in British Columbia, Canada.

Week 3: Jared Huggins. A native of Manhattan Beach in California.

Week 4: Massimiliano Martinez. A medical student at university in Rome.

Total Winnings: $163,200

Week 5: Cari Bershell from Las Vegas and works as an Admissions Officer at DeVry University.

Total Winnings: $26,900

Week 6: Ken Hrankowski. A retired police officer from Maple Ridge in British Columbia.

Total Winnings: $53,300

End of The Big Game[edit]

A key feature of The Big Game had been a NAPT passport to the season champion Loose Cannon. The NAPT passport, valued at $50,000, consisted of entry fees and expenses for various NAPT tournaments.

On April 15, 2011, along with similar competitors' sites, Pokerstars.com was seized and shut down by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which alleged it was in violation of federal bank fraud and money laundering laws.^[3] The company subsequently stopped allowing players from the United States to play real money games.

The NAPT immediately ceased operation, eliminating the main prize for The Big Game's loose cannon. The second season had been filmed prior to the charges against Pokerstars, so this final season was able to run in the months after dismantling of the NAPT.

References[edit]

1. ^'Terms'. PokerStars.net.
2. ^'Frequently Asked Questions'. PokerStars.com.
3. ^Ben Rooney (April 15, 2011). 'Online poker companies indicted for fraud'. CNNMoney.com.

External links[edit]

DAVIS,WILLIAM, coalminer; b. 3June 1887 in Gloucestershire, England, son of Thomas Davis and Annises Dufly; m.30Oct. 1907 Myrtle MacPherson (d.1955) at Dominion No.6 (Donkin), N.S., and they had five daughters and five sons; d.11June 1925 at Waterford Lake,N.S.

William Davis’s father was a miner and a 14-year old brother had died in the Springhill explosion of 1891 [see Henry Swift*]. Davis himself worked at Nos.1, 6, 12, and 16 collieries of the Dominion Coal Company Limited in Cape Breton, beginning in 1905. He was a pumpman at No.12 colliery in New Waterford in November 1920 and a year later started as a roadmaker there. By 1925 he and his wife Myrtle, who was also from a mining family, were raising a family of nine. The intense conflict between Nova Scotia miners, organized as District26 of the United Mine Workers of America, and the British Empire Steel Corporation (Besco), which had resulted in 58strikes on the Sydney coalfield in 1920–25, culminated that year. The clash was the most costly, bitter, and determined one of the decade.

The miners’ latest contract had expired on 15Jan. 1925 and Besco, under its stubborn president, Roy Mitchell Wolvin*, was serious about breaking the union. On 2March credit at company stores located in areas of strong union militancy was cut off. Four days later almost 12,000 miners went on strike. At this point Besco vice-president John Ernest McLurg summarily dismissed a reporter’s analogy: “Poker game, nothing, we have all the cards. ... Let them stay out two months or six months, it matters not; eventually they will have to come to us. ... They can’t stand the gaff.” That attitude and the latter phrase steeled the workers’ resolve, though thousands of Cape Bretoners were reported to be “on the verge of starvation” over the next three months. The company refused arbitration and on 4June District26 began 100 percent picketing. The miners quickly expelled company men who had taken over a power and pumping station located at Waterford Lake. More than 30 union men were arrested during the next few days.

Besco gathered all its available police and late on the 10th this force escorted 30 company men to restart the plant and the mine pumps. The next morning the company police sent a provocative patrol through New Waterford, an action that led to a small clash with a group of miners. It was followed by an open-air meeting and a decision by the miners to approach the plant workers and ask them to quit. The crowd (estimates ranged from 700 to 3,000) arrived at the site around 11:00a.m. Before the spokesman could state his request the company police charged. Or perhaps the horses bolted– neither the animals nor the police were trained. The police fired over 300 shots. A policeman bore down on the 5foot 3inch, 150-pound Davis; as he struggled to turn the horse away another policeman shot him in the heart. He was dead within five minutes. Within ten minutes the police were in full retreat, leaving behind many wounded.

Maybe Davis had been looking for a son who had skipped school, or getting water for his family or milk for his youngest child, as local sources mention, but it is just as likely that he was supporting his fellow unionists. Later reports suggest he was on picket duty. On Sunday, 14June, an estimated 5,000 mourners attended his funeral; it was the largest ever seen in New Waterford. After his interment in the Union Grove Cemetery at Scotchtown they quietly dispersed. But their anger and frustration fuelled raids on company stores and other property throughout the month, in spite of the presence of a provincial police force and an estimated 2,000 Canadian troops. Only the North-West rebellion of 1885 had brought more military forces into an internal conflict.

A few weeks after William DavisJr was born on 23Sept. 1925, and two months after the strike was settled, Besco policeman Joseph MacLeod appeared at a preliminary hearing in Sydney on a charge of murder. There was a problem with positive identification, not surprisingly, given the brief and intense mêlée at Waterford Lake. Also, the crown prosecutor agreed with the defence that MacLeod should not be singled out of the many policemen who had “charged the mob.” Davis’s death was due to a stray shot; the case was closed.

Two District 26 conventions strongly supported the idea of a fund for the Davis family, and a second resolution endorsed 11June as an “idle day.” On Friday, 11June 1926, many Cape Breton miners did not go to work; they assembled at the union hall in New Waterford and paraded to Calvin United Church. The practice of not working on Davis Day spread throughout District26, although it did not become a day with pay for 43years. Davis’s widow would eventually receive a monthly sum from the miners and in time she managed to purchase a headstone. Robert, a son, was soon working underground and the family stayed together.

Davis Day was renamed District Memorial Day in 1938, and in 1970 the date was changed to the second Monday in June. Four years later the original name and date were restored. New Waterford, since 1985, has had Davis Square, and the Davis Wilderness Trail, started in 1996, follows the route taken by the miners to Waterford Lake in 1925. Davis Day continues.

Cape Breton Development Corporation, Dominion Coal Company (Glace Bay, N.S.), Human resources dept., employment records. NA, RG31, C1, 1901, Springhill, N.S., dist.2: 14 (mfm. at NSARM).NSARM, Churches, All Saints’ Anglican (Springhill), reg. of baptisms, 6June 1894 (mfm.); RG32, M, Cape Breton County, no.348/1907. Private arch., Don MacGillivray (Sydney, N.S.), David Frank, interview with Robert Davis, 24July 1975. Sydney Post, 10March, 4–10, 12–13, 19June 1925. Sydney Record, 11June, 9Oct. 1925. Edith [Davis] Pelley, “Edith Pelley, William Davis’s daughter; an interview, with photographs, by Norman MacKinnon,” Cape Breton’s Magazine (Wreck Cove, N.S.), no.60 ([1992]): 45–54. C.M. Lamey, “Davis Day through the years: a Cape Breton coalmining tradition,” N.S. Hist. Rev. (Halifax), 16 (1996), no.2: 23–33. M.W. Littler, “Mary Willa Littler and ‘The Strangers’ Grave,’” Cape Breton’s Magazine, no.71 ([1997]): 33. Don MacGillivray, “Military aid to the civil power: the Cape Breton experience in the 1920’s,” Acadiensis (Fredericton), 3 (1973–74), no.2: 45–64.

Document History

• Published 2005

Occupations and Other Identifiers

William Davis Poker Club

Region of Birth

Region of Activities

Related Biographies

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McLACHLAN, JAMES BRYSON

Cite This Article

Don MacGillivray, “DAVIS, WILLIAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed December 18, 2020, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/davis_william_15E.html.

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