A 23-year-old from Quebec who dropped out of university just two years ago to try his hand at playing poker full time is US$8.9 million richer today, after winning the celebrated World Series of Poker Monday night.
Jonathan Duhamel of Montreal beat out thousands of challengers to become the first Canadian champion of the richest tournament in the game and earn himself a coveted gold bracelet.
Duhamel started the No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament in July against 7,319 entrants, after putting up the $10,000 entry fee. He slowly eliminated player after player, until reaching the final table.
Following a three-month break, he entered the final table of nine at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Sunday. After a marathon 18-hour day of play, it came down to two: Duhamel and 24-year-old Florida native John Racener.
Duhamel had earned himself a huge advantage in the form of a 6-to-1 chip lead.
After 90 minutes of head-to-head play, and just 43 hands, Racener went all-in with King-8 of diamonds against Duhamel's unsuited Ace-Jack.
A flop of two fours and a nine helped neither player. Neither did the six on the turn and a five on the river. Duhamel won the entire thing all with an ace high.
The moment sent Duhamel into primal screams of delight, as he was hoisted into the air by a crowd of 125 hometown friends and relatives who donned Montreal Canadiens jerseys for the event.
"My thought was just to go there and just try to play the best I could," Duhamel told 麻豆影视 Channel in a telephone interview from Las Vegas. "I ended up being very lucky at some points, played well also, now here I am the happiest guy on the Earth right now."
The win is a huge achievement for a man who only began playing poker at age 19, as he worked on a finance degree at the University of Quebec at Montreal.
He had watched his friends playing poker online and, recognizing that he was always a strong math student, he decided to give it a try. He started playing $10 cash games with five and 10 cent blinds.
He quickly learned how to calculate odds and it wasn't long before he had dropped out of university to play poker full time. As his speed increased, he was soon playing 10 tables at a time at much higher stakes, buying in for upwards of $2,000.
He told CTV Montreal that his first trip overseas was to a European Poker Tour event in Prague in December, 2008, where Duhamel finished 10th out of 570 players, pocketing 43,000 euros. That allowed him to finance more tournaments in the Caribbean, around Canada, the United States and, ultimately, Las Vegas.
He took his first shot at the World Series of Poker Main Event last year. He made it to Day 3, finishing just outside the money. This year, he rode a wave of aggressive play and of course, a few lucky hands.
On Monday night, Duhamel said he tried to change up his game for the head-to-head match, a form of play that often involves a lot of bluffing to keep your opponent guessing. Duhamel says he limped in on some hands against Racener after playing aggressively on the final table.
Racener said his only good hand was pocket queens and he didn't pick up anything better than an Ace-deuce.
"He was patient and kind of threw me off a little bit," Racener said. "I was like, 'Wow, you know, this is going to be harder than I thought.'"
Racener was still well rewarded for his effort, earning US$5.55 million for his second-place finish.
Duhamel said the key to success at poker is getting a lot of rest before a tournament, and drinking lots of water and eating well in order to withstand gruelling 12-hour days at the table.
"It's very important to be in shape physically and mentally," he told News Channel. "Then after that you try and play your best and make no mistakes."
Duhamel said he doesn't know how he'll spend most of his winnings, but has pledged $100,000 to a foundation for kids in Montreal. He also plans to play a lot more poker.
"I'm going to travel a lot and try to play the biggest tournaments in the world now," Duhamel told News Channel. "Go to a lot of different countries and try to enjoy life a little bit. It's very cool."
He also said he may yet complete his university studies, just "for the fun of it, for personal achievement. For now it's not the goal though."
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Montreal's Arpon Basus
