Little David Nicholson is a twenty-three year old professional poker player from Leeds in the North of England. Nicholson makes his money playing cash games online but has become more famous for having one of the funniest and most degenerate poker blog’s on the Internet. We caught up with Little Dave during a break and this is what we were talking about.
How do you earn the bulk of your money?
Hustling.
As a cash game player how did it feel to run deep at WPT Ireland this year?
I set a challenge to play a number of live tournaments and Ireland was the first one. So it was really encouraging to get a deep score in my first event. I also had a good few scores when I was out in LA.
With your blog being such a success are you starting to like writing more than poker?
Definitely. I would like to do some mainstream media writing work and not just poker writing as well someday.
Anyone reading your blog is going to think you are the ultimate party animal. Are you?
When you are 23, have slightly higher than average disposal income, plenty of time on your hands and all your friends get wrecked all the time then I guess I am.
Does the partying interfere with your poker?
Yes, a little bit negatively sometimes. If you party a lot then you are not going to play as much – or as well – but if you don’t party you will get boring. The balance is hard and I don’t have the right balance yet.
With the increased blog popularity do you find pressure to get more blog stories?
I definitely love getting into adventures, but I sometimes feel like I need to get into some intentional scrapes because the fans want to read some degeneracy yes.
Do you have any poker goals?
To win a tournament without having to play hardly any. I just want to win one like everyone else has.
Do you have any life goals?
I want to be financially independent in ten years time. I want to enjoy myself without worrying about money.
Do you have a life purpose?
Stay in the game. Stay alive until I am old enough to create a life purpose.
What next for Little Dave?
Go home; play a lot on the net to win some money back from this trip. I play six-max PLO and HU mainly. Then I am going to go to Barcelona and returning to Las Vegas in October.
What song will you play at your funeral?
You’re the best – the one from ‘Rocky’.
Why are you called little Dave?
Because I am small.
Not because you have a little penis?
It’s a name ironically referenced to my penis size.
Describe your most embarrassing moment while in Vegas?
Probably the Craig McCorkell rail. I was in bed by 21:30 and conscious, so between the hours of 17:00 & 21:00 was probably my most embarrassing moment.
Give me three words to describe what you think of Justin Bonomo?
Boring, boring and boring.
Describe your perfect date
Nice smile, friendly and up for a laugh. We would start with dinner and then drinks, drinks and more drinks.
What is your favourite one line joke?
I broke up with a girl once because she lied about her weight…well I say that, she died in a bungee jumping accident.
Who is your biggest poker inspiration?
People like Jamie Sykes, Ashley Mason, Jake Cody and Matt Perrins. But the main inspiration would be Dave Burn. He works harder than most and gets it quietly. That’s quite inspiring to me.
Are most poker players crap at poker and why?
The general theme is to believe people are worse that they are. Most people have one thing they do badly and people jump on that. But I think most people who play poker should be respected for the fact that they can make a living play poker
What was the last animal you killed?
Cockroach. There are lots of cockroaches out here.
If you could put any poker player in Room 101 who would it be?
Michael Mizrachi because he just wins too much and I am jealous.
Who is the tastiest bit of poker crumpet on the circuit?
Victoria Coren
What does JP stand for in the name JP Kelly and is it a real name?
It’s actually JB Kelly and it stands for John Bowl Kelly
What is your favourite blog story?
Its called Tab’s on Pab! and it’s about a dinner we all went to and everyone had twenty minutes to find a date or you had to pay the bill. The whole evening was hilarious.
I urge you to read more about Little Dave’s exploits on his blog at LIL Dave’s Life.
