"From basement to $8.4M for poker king Duhamel"

Jonathan Duhamel went from playing cards in his basement to the to top of the poker world in just five years.

Duhamel, a 23-year-old University of Montreal finance studies dropout, became the first Canadian to be crowned world champion of the World Series of Poker, winning $8.94 million and a diamond-studded bracelet last Monday.

“I’m just so happy right now,” said Duhamel during a stop at the Park Hyatt Hotel on Avenue on Friday. “The first time I played it was for fun and my friend invited me to play. I learned quickly it became a passion.”

Duhamel, a native of Montreal suburb Boucherville, won the coveted title after 43 hands when his ace and jack held up against his opponent’s king and eight. It’s been a long road to the money, since the tournament began July with 7,319 players each paying $10,000 to enter.

The key to winning, as he and many poker stars claim, is to keep your cool.

“The more you practice, the better you’re going to be,” he said. “But you need to have both (skill and luck),” he said. “It’s very important to keep your focus and not let your emotions get the best of you. It’s something you master when you play over and over again.”

The huge hockey fan and avid reader of poker books first stepped into the international poker scene when he finished 10th at the Season 5 PokerStars European Poker Tour in Prague for nearly $60,000.

And while he did drop out of university in 2008 to play poker, he doesn’t recommend it to everyone.

“This is a cool experience...I don’t think people should quit school. I am the exception,” he said. “You have to practise a lot. There’s no magic way to get there, but you don’t need to play $1,000 a game to have fun, you can play for free or small amounts.”

Duhamel said he’s still thinking about what to do with all his winnings, but he’s already gearing up for his next big tournament in the Caribbean in January.

“The first thing I’m going to do as soon as I get back to Montreal is give $100,000 to Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation because it’s very important to me, then after that, I have no idea what to do,” he said. “Over the next few months and years, I’m going to gear up for more tournaments."

( http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/11/12/16112521.html#/news/canada/2010/11/12/pf-16113021.html )

Years ago there was a bishop in our ward who was positively fanatical about the evils of playing cards. He had it all figured out about the Satanic signs and symbols portrayed on cards. He said they were a devilish mockery of the Temple signs and tokens. At the time I was TBM but, even then, I thought he went overboard. Now I find that sort of paranoia laughable.

Face cards are evil, even if you're just using them to play Go Fish. Uno cards are OK. Don't go near the water on Sunday. It's the devil's domain. Yada yada yada. LOL. BS.

I really like playing poker now and nothing evil has happened, other than I have slightly more spending money now that comes to me in an enjoyable way at the (slight) expense of others who also really enjoy the game. Oh no. No wonder it's still outlawed in Utah.