There ain’t no mountain high enough to keep Mike “timex” McDonald from becoming the newest Full Tilt Poker Red Pro. For the youngster from Canada, it’s another accomplishment in what has already been a highly successful tournament poker career.
McDonald is fresh off a fifth place finish in the €5,000 buy-in European Poker Tour (EPT) Dortmund event for $249,000. That tournament saw three Germans sweep the top spots, with McDonald serving as the lone Canadian to finish in the money. He won the tournament in 2008 for over $1.3 million, besting Andreas Gulunay heads-up. American online poker player Christinan “charder” Harder took eighth for $125,000 at the talented final table. McDonald is not yet 21 years-old and therefore is not of age to compete in the upcoming World Series of Poker (WSOP). Nevertheless, you can expect to find the newest Red Pro at the Rio anyway. He told Poker News Daily, “I might head down for a week or so to hangout with friends, but Las Vegas when you’re under 21 isn’t a lot of fun.”
On how being a Red Pro came to fruition, McDonald recalled, “CardRunners wanted more team pros and they found that my tournament videos were the most popular on the site. They asked if I would be interested in becoming a part of Team CardRunners. I was definitely interested and they sent my bio to Full Tilt Poker. Although it took a while for the site to get back to them, they eventually said sure.” McDonald does not currently appear under Team CardRunners on the Full Tilt Poker website. Instructors from CardRunners include Andrew “muddywater” Wiggins and Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby. The winner of the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Ryan “Daut44” Daut, is also part of the team.
McDonald’s videos on the popular poker training site include play in the $22 rebuy on Full Tilt Poker, the $109 Double Shootout on PokerStars, and the Stars $1K event. Average ratings for these videos by CardRunners members range between 7.4 and 9.6. He’ll receive a special designation in future videos made on Full Tilt Poker and told Poker News Daily about potentially having a target on his back: “I don’t necessarily mind that. I’m pretty good at reacting to different dynamics and I doubt it will take long to adjust.”
The primary faces of Full Tilt Poker include 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event Champion John Juanda, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Allen Cunningham, Erik Seidel, and Howard Lederer. On being part of the second largest online poker site worldwide, McDonald explained, “I definitely didn’t expect it, especially pre-Dortmund. After that, I thought it was a reasonable possibility one day.” McDonald has primarily focused on playing outside of the United States because of his age. He grabbed eighth place in a AUD $2,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament held during this year’s Aussie Millions in Melbourne, earning AUD $10,000 for his efforts.
Back in August, fellow CardRunners pro Brian “sbrugby” Townsend had his Red Pro status removed for six months as a result of playing under two screen names on Full Tilt Poker. He commented in his blog at the time, “To compensate those who were hurt by my actions, I am going to be donating $25,000 to a charity to be determined in the future. This money will be removed from my CardRunners distributions.” Townsend finished 15th in the WSOP Europe Main Event last year for £45,250.
Online, McDonald picked up a win in the challenging $100 rebuy on PokerStars two weeks ago for $38,000. He also won the tournament, which regularly boasts the top names in the online poker community, back in November.
