Jonathan Duhamel chipped up during the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and made the most of his arsenal, playing big stack poker to the best of his ability. He became the first ever WSOP Main Event champ from Canada and earned $8.9 million. Duhamel took 15th in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the 2010 WSOP prior to his deep run in the Main Event and banked $37,000, or 25 times his buy-in.
Duhamel is the chip leader entering the 2010 WSOP November Nine and will come armed with a massive stack of 65.98 million, nearly 50% more than the second place tally of John Dolan. Duhamel sent UB.com pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy to the rails with pocket aces against K-Q to chip up late on the November Nine play down day.
Besides coming to the final table of the Main Event with the chip lead, Duhamel might be best remembered for his knockout of Matt “mcmatto” Affleck. On a board of 10-9-7-Q, Duhamel called Affleck’s all-in with pocket jacks. Affleck flipped up aces and Duhamel suddenly found himself down to 10 outs on the river. Sure enough, an eight hit the board, filling Duhamel’s straight and sending shockwaves through the Amazon Room. The pot was worth a healthy 42 million chips, or 20% of the total in play.
In a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event, the former college finance major finished in 50th and collected nearly $6,000. In a key hand during Day 7 that fueled his Main Event run, Duhamel moved all-in on a board reading 6-3-6-8-2. He received a call from online poker stud Matt “berkey11” Berkey, who flipped up 6-10 for trips. However, Duhamel had him crushed and showed pocket eights for a boat. The double up took Duhamel to 7.9 million in chips.
Duhamel’s best poker work came not in the United States, but in Europe on the European Poker Tour (EPT), where he bubbled the final table of a €5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament in Prague and banked nearly $55,000. That tournament featured a solid final 10 that included Duhamel, Canadian poker pro Andrew “achen” Chen, Nasr El Nasr, and WSOP bracelet winner Sebastian Ruthenberg.
Duhamel also made the spotlight in the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, where he cashed for $17,000 after exiting in 151st place. When he’s not playing poker, Duhamel enjoys hockey and lives in Boucherville, Quebec. He was one of nine Canadian poker players, or 11% of the field, to reach Day 7 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas.
Duhamel qualified for the 2010 WSOP Main Event through PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site.
Poker News Daily caught up with Jonathan Duhamel for an exclusive video interview.