Prior to 2014, Daniel Colman was just another 23 year old and nobody knew him on the live poker circuit. Colman was more of an online poker player and had experienced reasonable success but he wanted to try his hand at live poker tournaments.
Colman shocked the poker world by having one of the best year’s in the history of live poker, dominating just about every event he participated in and eventually finishing the year in 2nd place on the all time money list. He displayed exceptional skills and presence of mind at the poker table to defeat some of the best poker players on the circuit.
These are some of the tournaments that Colman has won in 2014 along with his payouts. Colman finished first at the EPT Grand Final Monte Carlo Super High Roller winning $2,127,398; the WSOP $1,000,000, The Big One for One Drop winning $15,306,668; the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $5,300 Main Event winning $1,446,710 and the WPT Alpha 8 London winning $957,396.
He finished second at the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller winning $1,118,479; third at the WSOP $10,000 NLHE Heads-Up winning $111,942; the Aria $100,000 Super High Roller winning $796,821 and seventh at the APPT 2014 Asia Championship of Poker Super High Roller winning $373,932. His total prize money in 2014 is over $22 million, an exceptional year by anyone’s standards but Colman has continued to be very low key and not have any over the top celebrations.
Colman created a lot of controversy when he won the The Big One for One Drop event but quickly left the event as he did not want to celebrate his win or make a big deal out of winning $15 million. Colman has a conflicting view of the poker industry as he believes it exploits players weaknesses and is a very dark game, yet he still plays the game to make a living.
Colman also created more controversy when he used a poker forum to attack Phil Hellmuth, considered to be a legend on the poker circuit and the all time leader in WSOP bracelets. Colman said
It’s embarrassing that we have to share our profession with whores like this guy. After I [won] One Drop, he immediately [came] on stage to shake my hand in front of a camera and congratulate me. As if he’s the gatekeeper to the poker world and welcoming me inside. It is truly pathetic that a 40-year-old would behave the way he does at the table, not to mention how spineless he is, just willing to take any sponsorship regardless of the company’s integrity
