Jonathan Duhamel Triumphs At 2010 WSOP Main Event

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The 23 year-old cash specialist from Canada, Jonathan Duhamel has won the WSOP 2010 Main Event, after a heroic heads-up battle against John Racener.

Duhamel’s biggest previous score was a 10th placed finish at the €5,000 EPT Prague for €42,800 ($54,904), but now his personal best has just risen to an impressive $8,944,310.

Despite just dabbling in tournaments, WSOP 2010 is where Jonathan Duhamel’s tournament career really picked up the pace after he cashed in 50th at the $1,500 NLHE 6-max for $5,724, 15th at the $2,500 NLHE for $37,276, before securing a place for himself at the $10,000 WSOP Main Event.

Duhamel confesses that cashing in at the WSOP $2,500 NLHE gave him just the incentive he needed to enter the Main Event, and commented at the time:

“I knew I could beat everyone…but winning [cashing] that last tournament gave me some confidence, and it put me back in the mood to play and perform.”

Duhamel had survived into Day 8 of the 2010 Main Event as an average stack but was propelled into a commanding chip lead after catching a lucky break against Matt Affleck.

Duhamel was dealt pocket jacks to Affleck’s pocket aces and all the chips ended up in the centre of the table on a 10d-9c-7h-Qd board. An eight on the river made Duhamel a straight to save his tournament while a stunned and tearful Affleck left the competition in 15th for $500,165.

Despite being the clear chip leader going into the final table, at one point Duhamel was reduced to the short stack with just five players remaining. However, a crucial all-in double-up holding As-9h to Mizrachi’s 3s-3h heralded the start of Duhamel’s  comeback as chip leader.

Duhamel then progressed to the heads-up phase of the tournament holding a 6 to 1 chip lead over John Racener, who an hour and a half later found himself all-in for his remaining few chips holding K-8 to Duhamel’s A-J.

The board ran out 9-4-4-6-5 to seal Racener’s fate who then walked away with almost $5.5 million for his heroic efforts at WSOP 2010.

Winning the WSOP 2010 Main Event for $8.94 million has now put Duhamel at number 15 on the ‘All Time money List’ just above Joe Cada, who picked up $8,546,435 for winning last year’s title.

Congratulations to both players for putting on such a great performance at the 2010 World Series of Poker, and also to the event organiser Harrah’s for another well run and professional operation.