|
Miscellaneous:
|
|
Check out our Exclusive FTR Interview with Jonathan Duhamel! |
|
Residence:
|
|
Boucherville, Quebec, Canada |
|
Birthdate:
|
|
August 24, 1987 |
|
Career Highlights:
|
|
- 2010 WSOP Main Event winner ($8.9 Million)
- 3 WSOP cashes
- Final Table of 2007 East Coast Poker Championship
|
|
Affiliated Poker Room(s):
|
|
Poker Stars
Read our PokerStars.net review or pick up our exclusive PokerStars Bonus Code. |
|
Personal Website:
|
|
N/A |
|
Products:
|
|
N/A |
|
|
FTR Exclusive Jonathan Duhamel Interview 12/1/10
FTR - courtiebee
Congrats on the win! What are your plans now as a PokerStars pro? Are you going to continue on the tournament circuit or focus on cash games?
Jonathan Duhamel
I'll definitely be playing a lot of tournaments on the tour. I've played a lot of cash games, now I want to know how good I can do in tournaments. I'm thinking about the PokerStars European Poker Tour and the PokerStars North American Poker Tour just to name a few, and the PokerStars Caribeean Adventure in Bahamas this January!
FTR - cr4zybe4utifu1
How did you get started in poker?
Jonathan Duhamel
Like almost everybody, playing with friends just for the fun of it. Eventually I went online and tried on PokerStars.net. I played for free there for a while to try to improve my game as much as I could.
FTR - courtiebee
Are you able to explain your thought process during the JJ hand with Matt Affleck? Did history between you at the earlier tables come into play?
Jonathan Duhamel
Matt is a very good and aggressive player. When I raised from the Cutoff and he 3bets from the dealer, I felt he could be weak a lot of times. That's why I reraised him, and decided to go all the way on the flop and turn. The main thing is even if I lost the hand, I still had around 10 million to play with, which was around 30-35 big blinds, good enough to play with.
FTR - CoryATX
Could you talk about the hand vs Joseph Cheong (Cheong's 6-bet bluff with A7o vs your QQ)? Could you explain your thought process in the hand?
Jonathan Duhamel
Joseph was playing a lot of hands, very aggressive player. When we were down to 3 handed, given the fact John Racener was short in chips, it was normal for Jo to bully even more. I had folded a lot to his 4bet so far, so I might thought I was 5betting light there, explaining why he shoved. For me I was just happy to go all the way with my QQ there. When 3 handed, QQ is a very very good hand.
FTR - lolzzz_321
Do you prefer online or live play?
Jonathan Duhamel
I love both. When you play online you can play up to 8-10 tables at the time, which is kind of cool. When playing live, you see the players and can interact with them, which is also cool. I think mixing both is the best way to go.
FTR - daven
What kind of prep did you do between the summer and November?
Jonathan Duhamel
I did a lot. I played the PokerStars EPT London, which was 1 month before the final table. I also played a lot online, there was the WCOOP on PokerStars at that time, so I played that and a bunch of tournaments and sit n gos.
FTR - courtibee
Speaking of the break, was the final table delay beneficial to you directly? Do you think it's good for the game overall?
Jonathan Duhamel
I think it is good for the game. That way people get into the game much more, and I think more people are watching the Final Table because of that. As for the players, the break was the same for everybody, so it was about who's going to prepare the best.
FTR
What are your plans with that big $8.9 million paycheck? What was your first purchase?
Jonathan Duhamel
The only thing I have in mind now is to give $100,000 to the Montreal Canadians Children’s foundation. For the rest I'll just be traveling a lot to play all the big tournaments.
FTR
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and again, congratulations on being the first Canadian to take down the Main Event title!
Jonathan Duhamel Bio
Jonathan Duhamel is a name recognized world over in the poker community, thanks to his 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event win, in which he outlasted some of the biggest names in the business. While a WSOP Main Event title propels the holder to instant celebrity status and ensures we will find out about his every poker move from that day onwards, it can also be interesting to take a look back at where champions like Duhamel came from.
Born in Quebec, Canada, Duhamel first got into poker in High School, as a result of the so-called Moneymaker Effect, following Chris Moneymaker's 2003 WSOP Main Event win. In his words he was introduced to poker, "just like almost everyone," as he started playing with the older brother of a friend and others at the age of sixteen. Immediately noticing that there were both good and bad poker players and that therefore it was possible to improve and be a consistent winner, Duhamel started to take poker seriously over the next few years.
The young Canadian made the transition from High School to College, where he had chosen to study finance. As is a common story among young pros, particularly young online pros, he soon realized that with the success he was having from playing, it made the most sense to him to put his studies aside and focus solely on poker. While his friends and family protested at the time, he fired ahead with this plan and given the success he has since enjoyed, it is hard to find fault here.
While he played predominantly online, he also enjoyed a measure of success from live tournaments before 2010, most notably bubbling the official final table of the 2008 PokerStars European Poker Tour stop in Prague. While he was eliminated in tenth place, this still paid out a very respectable €42,800 (about $58,000 USD), and is his second largest live tournament cash to date. He started 2010 strongly with a cash in the PokerStars EPT Caribbean Main Event good for $17,500, and then went on to cash in two events at the World Series of Poker before entering the Main Event.
Duhamel played solid poker throughout the Main Event, outlasting the vast majority of the field and coming into Day 8 with a fairly average chip stack. Lady luck was smiling on him for the eighth day of play, however, as he started accumulating chips at a furious rate, eventually culminating in his pocket jacks cracking the pocket aces of Matt Affleck in a 42 million chip pot, which sent Duhamel sailing into the final table with a solid chip lead. Months later as the November Nine squared off, he put this chip lead to good use, applying what felt like near constant aggression and made it to Heads Up play with more than a 6:1 chip advantage against runner-up John Racener.
The rest, as they say, is history, with Duhamel taking the title, the bracelet and the $8.9 Million in prize money. With his victory, he becomes the first Canadian ever to win the World Series of Poker Main Event, and it will undoubtedly change his life in numerous ways. Duhamel generously decided to donate $100,000 to the Montreal Canadians Children Foundation, and time will tell how he chooses to spend the rest of his winnings, but it's a pretty safe bet that we'll be seeing more of him on the poker circuit in the future. You can check out our exclusive interview with Jonathan Duhamel here. For more information on his views on the World Series of Poker and his Main Event performance.
Common Misspellings: Jonathen Duhamel, Jonathon Duhamel, Jonathan Duhamal
Learn more about Jonathan Duhamel at PokerStars.
Have you ever come across a confusing poker term? Our poker dictionary has 1224 definitions! Play for FREE and practice your game at...
Would you like to submit your own poker article to be featured on FTR? You can by clicking here - Submit a Poker Article!
|
English
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
Pусский
Svenska
