Jonathan Duhamel, winner of the main event of the World Series of Poker!

How could this guy make Quebec prouder?  Jonathan Duhamel, 23 years old from Boucherville earned about 9 million dollars by winning the main event of the WSOP.  He's the first Canadian (so the first from the province of Quebec) and the first french speaking winner of that tournament.  He realized the goal of every poker players and is now recognized all over the poker world.  Every great players now know his name and is now a source of inspiration for young poker players in Quebec, including me !

He began his heads-up against his opponent as the favorite, since he possessed 86% of the chips.  The game lasted 90 minutes and John Racener (his opponent) was never able to come back seriously in the game.  Duhamel said, after his great victory that he was the happiest man in the world and that it was an honor to be the first Canadian to win that title.

The path he took to get there though is very risky.  At the age of 19, Duhamel left University (he was a business student) to become a professional poker player.  He said he doesn't want to give the advice to young people to do the same thing, but that he is grateful to have done it himself.  Furthermore, he said on television, before his victory, that he would offer 100 000$ to La Fondation Canadienne de l'Enfance.  Now that he has a great bankroll to take care of, Jonathan says that he will be able to participate in other great tournaments all over the world.  He will also be back next year to defend his champion title at the WSOP.

Finally, now that he has become a great champion, PokerStars will obviously offer him contracts for various things.  First of all, they will surely pay the buy-ins of his tournaments in exchange of a certain percentage of his winnings and he will also make money just by being present in PokerStars' television advertisements.  After all, I can tell you that this guy doesn't have to worry anymore about how he is gonna win and live his life. 

The poker world and Halloween

 

The things I wanted to relate to poker now that we are at the time of Halloween are about costumes.  The man at the top of the post is named Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson.  He always wear (not because it's Halloween) his black glasses and his great hat.  My point here is to explain what those articles are used for when playing a poker game.  The first thought that might come to people's mind is that they wear those clothes for the look and I think it is the first reason.  Despite that, Chris Ferguson and every professional poker player wearing such accessories do so for other reasons.  

First of all, glasses are used so that people can't see your face and at the same time to avoid that other players get a good read on you, but these are still classical arguments.  What people who never played poker before don't know is that when you are playing a long tournament, you are exposed all the time to the spotlights on the ceiling and it really tires the players.  Sunglasses help you to stay comfortable for a longer time and to stay focus on the game and it's the same thing about the hat.  Of course, poker players sometimes use these articles to destabilize their opponents, but they also think about their welfare.