Jonathan Duhamel won the WSOP Main Event and the $8.9 million prize to go along with the coveted bracelet. Our cameras were on Duhamel as he addressed the media about twenty minutes after winning the top poker tournament of the year against John Racener.
Duhamel became the first chip leader to go on to win the Main Event since the November Nine was instituted two years ago. Originally, Dennis Phillips was the chip leader and went on to finish in third place. Last year the chip leader was Darvin Moon, who went on to finish second. It seemed appropriate that Duhamel would be this year’s chip leader and go on to win to complete the trend.
During the press conference, Duhamel addressed many of the media questions. He talked about the experience of winning the main event and how much the event title would mean to his home country of Canada. He also mentioned that he would be giving $100,000 to a local children’s related charity in his home city of Montreal. When asked if he plans to represent the poker industry, he discussed at length how he will become an ambassador for the game and full embraces the role that typically goes along with being a Main Event champion, contrary to players like Jamie Gold and Jerry Yang.
Duhamel said that he was inspired before play began that evening by the Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, which saw the inductions of legends Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel. When asked if we might one day be seeing a Duhamel run to the Hall of Fame, Duhamel laughed but said that he was inspired and it was something he would be aiming to get one day in the future.
Now that all is said and done, Jonathan Duhamel now ranks as one of the highest money earners in the history of tournament poker.
yo man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!