This week, it was officially announced that 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel has joined Team PokerStars Pro.
In an announcement on the PokerStars blog, Duhamel was welcomed to the Team PokerStars Pro lineup: “Though you might have assumed so by now, this morning PokerStars made it official: Duhamel, the 2010 WSOP Main Event winner, is the newest member of Team Pro.” Duhamel joins a lineup that includes such notable names as fellow Canadian Daniel Negreanu, veteran Barry Greenstein, and top female players Vanessa Rousso and Vanessa Selbst.
For those of you who missed it, Duhamel’s 2010 journey at the WSOP started off with his first two cashes ever in the annual Las Vegas tournament series. He parlayed those two cashes into a seat in the Main Event and made a run for the ages to reach the final table as the chip leader. Even with the lead, Duhamel felt the pressure of having the opportunity to become the first Canadian champion of the Main Event.
When the WSOP Main Event final table convened in November to determine its champion, Duhamel kept his wits about him and meticulously worked his way through the lineup of players. Although he lost the chip lead at a few points during final table play, Duhamel was able to play a strong game that eventually led to reaching heads-up play with a sizeable chip lead against Florida’s John Racener. In a seemingly quick battle, Duhamel was able to capture the WSOP Main Event bracelet and the $8.9 million first place prize.
With the new sponsorship from PokerStars, Duhamel is expected to be in attendance for many of the top tournaments in the world. Currently, he is in action at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.
In the $100,000 Super High Roller event, Duhamel was unable to get anything going, Tweeting, “Bah, just busted from $100K Event. Guy had to had one exact hand or he had nothing, and he had it… Then short stack I ship and run into K-K.” Duhamel was also eliminated from the PCA Main Event on the first day, but made a deep run in a $2,000 side event, coming up just short of the money. “Just busted in 42nd place out of 476 players, but only 40 were paid,” he Tweeted. “Still, I’m in Bahamas so I can’t complain.”
According to his Twitter account, Duhamel will be taking part in the $5,000 Short-Handed Bounty Shootout, where a player has to defeat the five opponents at his table to move on.
In one of his first duties as a Team PokerStars Pro, Duhamel will join forces with Negreanu for PokerStars’ Ultimate Home Game promotion. The new promotion for PokerStars’ latest innovation, Home Games, will be offering a player who starts their own poker club on PokerStars the chance to travel to one of four locations: Austria, Vancouver, Macau, or Buenos Aires. The player who wins this trip will be able to play against Duhamel, Negreanu, and another Team PokerStars Pro of their choice, with the player’s bankroll stocked with PokerStars’ cash.
Duhamel is the latest WSOP Main Event champion to join PokerStars’ formidable lineup. Over the past ten years, the #1 site in the online poker industry has been able to draw in past champions such as Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), Joe Hachem (2005), and Joe Cada (2009). 2008 champ Peter Eastgate was also a PokerStars sponsored pro, but was released from his deal in 2009 when he retired from the game.