WSOP -- Duhamel Confident About His Chances Heading Into NovemberChip Leader Hoping to Beat The Grinder Heads Up |
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Jonathan Duhamel can already envision it — a heads-up battle with The Grinder wherein the young Canadian emerges victorious and takes home nearly $9 million and poker’s most prestigious title.
At 22, Duhamel is the youngest player at this year’s final table. With nearly 66 million in chips, he is also the far-and-away chip leader, with about 43 percent more than John Dolan, currently in second place, and nearly three times the amount of chips as third place, Joseph Cheong.
He is unabashed when it comes to talking about his chances in November.
“I’m going to win, 100 percent. I’m the best,” said Duhamel. “I’m going to play the best poker game I’ve ever played and win that thing.”
He has almost Hellmuthian-like confidence, somewhat fitting as he tries to become what would now be the third player to inch past the former champ’s outdated youngest-age mark. Phil Hellmuth was 24 when he won the 1989 WSOP. Peter Eastgate broke that record in 2008 by winning at the age of 22, with Joe Cada outdoing them both when he won last year at 21.
Despite his relative inexperience — he has cashed in a few previous premiere events, but his live winnings are lower than most of his final-table competitors — Duhamel has embraced the role of favorite due to his massive chip stack.
“I like that pressure [of being the chip leader]. I live on pressure,” said Duhamel.
After growing up and going to school in Montreal, Duhamel became so enraptured by the game that he dropped out of college after one year to pursue poker as a career. The former finance student admits his parents weren’t exactly thrilled by the decision.
“It was tough to start with. They were not happy about it, but they understand. I explained it to them and now it’s fine,” said Duhamel, who considers himself primarily a cash-game player.
Despite his self-identification as a cash-game player, the young pro certainly showed his tournament prowess by taking advantage of the November Nine bubble situation. With a decent pay jump between 10th place and ninth ($635,011 to $811,823) and an even more significant financial jump when you consider lost sponsorship opportunities for the one player who did not make the final table, play tightened up considerably when it got down to 10-handed.
Multiple November Niners likened it to feeling almost like a satellite where there were nine winners and one loser. Nearly everyone tightened up to try to squeak into the final table, and Duhamel punished them for it.
In the six hours it took to eliminate 10th-place finisher Brandon Steven, Duhamel chipped up from the mid-40 millions to nearly 66 million in chips — without ever reaching a showdown. Along with Dolan, Duhamel applied constant and consistent aggression.
When interviewed after the fact, the young pro almost seemed more annoyed than anything else that no one would gamble it up with him.
“It was the most boring play ever,” Duhamel complained. “Everybody was so tight, so because I was the chip leader, I had to abuse that and raise a lot of pots, so that’s what I did.”
Besides just opening with virtually any two cards, he also said that he was re-raising very light to gain even more chips from his opponents. Cheong, who tried to ratchet up the aggression when it got to 10-handed, went from around 41 million to 23 million during 10-handed play because he kept opening a lot of pots, only to watch as Duhamel or Dolan raised him out of the hand.
Although Duhamel showed his abilities throughout the tournament, he was also the beneficiary of one of the most talked about hands in the final few levels. Matt Affleck, making his second consecutive deep run in the main event, pushed his remaining chips into the pot on a board of 10
9
7
Q. After going into the tank, Duhamel wound up making the wrong decision. He called with pocket jacks, only to watch somberly as Affleck turned over pocket aces.
The pot had a monstrous 42 million in chips. The winner would be guaranteed a spot in the final nine. Affleck needed to avoid 10 outs to book his ticket to the Penn & Teller Theater. Unfortunately for him, an 8 came out on the river to complete Duhamel’s straight and transform the top of the leader board.
Duhamel admitted he was a little shell-shocked and even tilted after the hand, saying he was mad at himself for making what he called a bad play. But as everyone knows, to beat a field of thousands, you need to get lucky every now and then.
During the final few breaks of the last day of play, Duhamel would prance around just away from the table and do some shadowboxing to stay focused. The energetic young pro told Card Player that he will be more than up for the fight come this November.
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