Jonathan Duhamel: From Cash Game Specialist To 2010 WSOP Champion

Canadian pro Jonathan Duhamel (23) is now the WSOP 2010 Main Event Champion, and with a $8,944,301 boost to his bankroll is firmly standing atop of the poker world.
Duhamel lives the life of a true poker pro and puts in up to 9 hours poker work each day, while leaving his evenings free to “go out like everyone else.”
Despite having won the biggest tournament on the poker calendar, Duhamel says that he is still mostly a cash poker player and makes a comfortable living playing online on up to 18 tables at a time of 6 players max.
Duhamel also firmly believes that being an excellent cash players gives him an edge in poker tournaments and, as he explains:
“It’s harder to be the greatest cash game player than it is to be the greatest tournament player.  When you play cash games, it’s a lot deeper.  When you master that and then go into tournaments, most of the time you have fewer chips and big blinds, and it’s kind of easier to adjust to that.”
Also, his hyper-aggressive style means that he will not allow himself to be contented with just a mid-finish cash in a tournament, but will push all the way forward to the last few places, where all the money lies.
That philosophy obviously held Jonathan Duhamel in remarkable good stead at the 2010 WSOP, where he entered a total of 17 WSOP tournaments, managing to cash in 4 of them, including his Main Event victory.
Entering such a number of WSOP events also had the extra benefit of homing his poker instincts and, as he comments:
“After playing 16 tournaments, when you get to the Main Event you’re very sharp and in the zone.  I think it was a good idea to play a lot of tournaments as I was ready to go to war!
The rest, as they say, is poker history and now Jonathan Duhamel will forever be immortalised as the WSOP 2010 Main Event Winner, whilst rising to number 15 on the ‘All Time money List’ just above last year’s winner Joe Cada.
However, the one piece of advice Duhamel gives to young aspiring players is to study and practice often. His first attempt to go pro two years ago didn’t progress exactly as he anticipated, after all, and as he explains:
“I went broke — so I had to go back and get another job,. But then I reviewed my game and studied and learned more and more and became better. Then I went back and tried it again and it was successful for me.”
No one would disagree with Duhamel there, and congratulations to the Canadian pro as he takes his deserved place amongst the pantheon of past WSOP Main Event Champions.