Poker's newest and youngest tournament millionaire
Waterloo, Ontario's Mike McDonald won nearly $1.4 million in the European Poker Tour (EPT) when took down the tournament in Dortmund, Germany in early February.  This 18 year old Canadian lad had only been playing poker professionally for 6 months.  His first major tournament cash was in the 2007 EPT main event in Prague where he placed 14th and took home more than $28,000.  He followed this with 3 cashes at the 2008 Aussie Millions.  His current lifetime winnings are an astounding $1.533 million.

McDonald honed his skill playing online under the nickname "Timex".  All his accomplishments to date have been before he's even old enough to step foot in a live Canadian casino.  It's hard to imagine how far this kid can go.  He's entertaining sponsorship offers from several poker websites at the moment.

Young Mike McDonald started playing poker at the tender age of 15.  He estimates he plays around 25 hours a week and studies the game through reading, watching videos and talking strategy with other players for an additional 50 or 60 hours each week.  Mike had the added benefit of some tutoring from Waterloo, Canada native Steve Paul-Ambrose.  Steve won $1.3 million a couple years ago in a major Bahamas tournament.

The final hand
McDonald is heads up with German pro Andrea Gulanay.  Mike has A,K and lets Andreas bluff away his whole stack on a board of 7,K,10,K,2.   "He was being too aggressive ... I was more or less waiting for him to make a mistake," McDonald said.  Then, with two other kings on the table, he called Gulunay to show his cards.  "You win," Gulunay said, chucking in his cards.  McDonald calmly stood up, shook the hands of his opponent and took a sip of water.


McDonald plans on continuing as a poker pro for the next few years but says; "I don't want to make this my long-term career ... I might like to go back to school and get a real job."

He plans on investing in a hot tub and a used Infiniti SUV.  Mike doesn't even have a drivers license yet!  He intends to invest the rest of his winnings in a long term savings plan.

During one interview Mike had this to say about his start in online poker; "I guess I really didn't realize I was that good until I started playing tournaments online. In my first year and a bit of playing I made $10k or $12k. Then in my first three months of playing tournaments I made like $100k. Over the next six months I made like $500k so I figured I was getting pretty good."  Understatement to say the least!

WSOP 2007 - Canadian Accomplishments

* Steve Paul Ambrose of Waterloo Ontario placed 4th of 451 entrants in the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em event winning $146,259.  John Krshus of Calgary Alberta and Patrick Pezzin of Toronto also finished in the money at this event.

* Meaghan Larivee, a dealer at Casino Brantford in Brantford Ontario, placed 7th in the Casino Employees Poker World Championship Event.  This $500 buy-in tournament saw over 1,000 entries this year.  Meaghan had never played a serious live tournament prior to her appearance here and walked away with $11,221.  Stephen Baker of Niagara Falls and Chris Mikolajek of Winnipeg also cashed in this event.

* Canadians represented their country well in Event #3 - $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em.  The field was large, 2,998 entrants for a prize pool of $4,497,000.  Patrick Blye of Toronto won $16,778 for his 37th place finish.  Ryan Pittell of Windsor Ontario placed 44th for $16,778 in prize money.  $13,914 was awarded to Jean-Pierre Anglil of Quebec for his 48th place finish.  Nigel Vonas, Vancouver won $13,914 for his 52nd place showing and five other Canadians cashed in the event.

* Gavin Smith, originally from my hometown of Guelph Ontario, took second place in Event #4 winning an impressive $155,446.  Tony Basile of Toronto, won $10,115 for his 12th place finish in this Pot Limit Hold'em $1,500 buy-in event.

* Event #5 (Half Omaha High-Low / Half 7-Card Stud High-Low) saw another Canadian pull off a second place finish.  Ed Tonnellier of my current home town, London Ontario outlasted Chris (Jesus) Ferguson, Annie Duke, David Benyamine, John Phan and Josh Arieh to place second in this $2,500 buy-in tournament.  Ed won a whopping $118,456!  Very nicely done!  Patrick Pezzin of Toronto cashed (for his second time in 5 events) in 22nd place for $7,145.

* Event #6 - Limit Hold'em - $1,500 buy-in - Robert Beveridge of Vancouver BC took down 70th place for $3292.

* Eric Cajelais, Montreal PQ scored a 2nd place $483,755 payday in Event #7, a $5,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys Event.  Eric is ranked among the best poker players in Canada along with Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith.  Another highly ranked Canadian pro, Nenad Medic of Niagara Falls also cashed $30,235 for finishing 17th in the event.

* Event #8 was another gruelling re-buy tournament - $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em.  Steve Paul Ambrose managed to finish in 30th place for a $13,932 payout, his second cash of the series.  Maxwell Greenwood of Toronto also cashed with a 48th place $10,132 payday.

* Event #9 - Omaha High-Low - $1,500... Joshua Mammon of Richmond BC and Matthew Wood of Whitby Ontario managed to cash for $6263 and $3956 respectively.

* Todd Sisley of Kingston Ontario narrowly missed the final table in Event #10, a No Limit Holde'm $2,000 buy-in event, with his impressive 13th place finish.  Todd won a respectable $22,431 while Giovanni Massa (Montreal), who was right on his heals, went out in 14th place for an equal amount of money.  Tony Fasulo of Thorold Ontario, Aaron Lerner of Montreal, Derek Lerner (also of Montreal) and Edward Zakaria of Windsor Ontario also finished "in the money".

* Event #11 was a Seven Card Stud even with a $5,000 buy-in.  Pat Pezzin of toronto cashed for his third time in this series with an impressive 4th place $61,335 payday!  Phil Ivey was looking for his 6th WSOP bracelet but fell short with a second place finish.

* Event #12 - Six Handed No Limit Hold'em - $1,500 buy-in.  Canada's first WSOP 2007 bracelet goes to Jason Warner of Vancouver BC!  In addition to the jewelry, Jason won $481,698 and huge bragging rights.  Congratulations Jason Warner, very nice hand, sir!

* Event #13 - Pot Limit Hold'em World Championship - $5,000 buy-in - Allen Cunningham won the tournament (his 30th WSOP cash) and moved into 3rd place among an elite group of all time WSOP money winners.  Maxwell Greenwood of Toronto (again), Doug Dearborn of Toronto and Shawn Buchanan of Abbotsford BC all cashed in this event.

* Event #14 was dry for Canada, no Canadians cashed in this event.  Of note though, well known pros Barry Greenstein and Greg Raymer both made the final table.

* Event #15 - No Limit Hold'em $1,500 buy-in - 2628 entries... Phil Helmuth made history by winning his 11th bracelet at this event.  The field was the largest Helmuth had ever defeated.  Phil also has a record 59 WSOP cashes after this win.  11 Canadian were also "in the money" while Helmuth made history... Chris Mantas of Mississauga, ON $10,044, Duane Van Keulen of Abbotsford, BC $5,740,  Edward Zakapia from Windsor, ON $5,022, Bradley Marsh from Mississauga, ON $5,022, Derek Lerner (again) of Montreal, PQ $4,484, Ken McKay from Langley, BC $4,484,  Aaron Lerner (again) $4,484, Michael Monteleone of Toronto, ON $4,125, Kyle Fleisman Calgary, AB $3,408, Shawn Hattem from Melbourne, ON $3,049, Bradley Smith of Thornhill, ON $3,049 and Joao Aquino from Toronto, ON $3,049. 

* Event #16 - H.O.R.S.E. - Buy-In:  $2,500 - Jason Sagle of Sudbury Ontario finished a respectable 20th for $7,974 in winnings against the largest field ever (382) for a HORSE tournament.

* Event #17 - Ladies World Poker Championship - No-Limit Hold’em - Buy-In: $1,000.  Three Canadian ladies, all from British Colubia, cashed in this event.  Colette Ward, Charlene Boustead each won $5,266 while Cheryl Sanderson took home $2575.

* Event #18 - Limit Hold'em World Championship - $5,000 buy-in - A solid performance by Geoff Sanford of Halifax Nova Scotia netted him a 2nd place finish and $200,511 in prize money.

* Event #19 was a $2,500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em Event with over 1,00 entries and a prize pool of over 2.3 million dollars.  Shawn Hattem, a student at Queen's University, made the final table (among an international cast) and won $97,856 for his 5th place finish.  Shawn is a proud Canadian, sporting a tattoo combining the Chinese symbol for luck with AK stylized with the suits being red Canadian maple leafs.  Shawn is not new to big tournaments, he previously accomplished a third place showing in the 2006 WCOOP main event where he earned in excess of $417,000.  Eight other Canadian players cashed in this event including poker pro Greg Mueller of Vancouver.

* Event #20 - 7 Card Stud Eight or Better - $2,000 buy-in - Andre Boyer of Acton Vale QC was the only Canadian to finish in the money in this event with a 32nd place $4,950 payday.

* Event #21 - No Limit Hold’em Shootout - $1,500 buy-in - A record 900 entrants created a prize pool in excess of 1 million dollars.  The Shootout format requires that a champion win what amounts to just three consecutive single-table (9-handed) satellites.   The initial 900 players played down to 90 winners.  Then, those 90 winners played down to nine players – with a winner coming from each table.   Then, the winner had to top the final table full of nine players.  Daniel Negreanu finished a disappointing 3rd (he commented that he didn't win $100,000 as much as he lost $150,000).  Negreanu actually won $101,351 for his 3rd place finish.  Jason Sagle of Sudbury also cashed in this event with an 86th place finsh just ahead of Miltiathis Donvas of British Columbia who busted out inh 89th place.

* Event #22 - No Limit Hold'em - $5,000 buy-in - Maxwell Greenwood of Toronto (his third cash this year) placed 42nd for $14,762.  David Matthew of Toronto placed 60th for just over $10,000 and Geoff Sanford cashed again for $10,394 in 63rd place.

* Event #23, a Pot Limit Hold'em event saw a couple Canadians finsish in the cash.  Steve Worr of Calgary won $4,717 while Sean Roy from Ontario won $4,010.

* Event #24 - Seven-Card Stud High-Low (Eight-or-Better) $3,000 buy-in. This historic tournament was won by poker pro Eli Elezra.  The heads up portion of this event was epic, Elezra against Scotty Nguyen!  Worth the price of admission?  I'd say so!  The only Canadian to cash in this event was John Harkness of Toronto who managed an impressive 4th place finish behind Elezra, Nguyen (2nd) and the legendary Dutch Boyd (3rd).  Harkness took home $47,224 plus enough memories to last a lifetime!  Just imagine sitting at that table facing three of the best poker players of all time, wow!  And who do you think went out in 5th place?  How about David Sklansky!  Talk about a star studded final table...

* Event #25 - No-Limit Hold’em - $2,000 buy-in - Close to 3 million in prize money - Unfortunately only 3 Canadians managed to cash in this one, Michael Watson of St. John's NL, Derek Lerner (yet again) of Montreal and Shane Foulds from Vancouver.

* Event #26  H.O.R.S.E. - $5,000 buy-in - No Canadians made it "to the money" in this event but a couple of well known pros cashed... Bill Gazes earned $153,000 for his second place showing and Phil Ivey collected $65,000 for placing 4th.

* Event #27 $1,500 Buy-in No Limit Hold'em - Michael lum of Toronto collected $164,319 for his impressive 4th place finish.  Stephen Ladowsky busted out in 15th for $24,964 and Canadians Jason Wilson, Shawn Hatten (his third cash) and Benny Chen also finished in the money.

* Event #28  No Limit Hold’em, $3,000 buy-in - Top Canadian in this event was 45th placed Greg Mueller of Vancouver BC with $10,728 (his 3rd cash).  Marcel Bedard of PQ and Peter Jetten of Toronto also cashed.

* Event #29 Razz World Championship - $1,500 buy-in - The lone Canadian to cash in this event was Steven Cage of Kitchener Ontario with a 25th place $3,724 payday.  Katja Thater of Germany won the event making her one of the few women ever to win a WSOP Event!  She joins Annie Duke (who won an event in 2004) in this elite group.

* Terrence Chan of Vancouver BC managed a second place finish in Event #30, a Six Handed No Limit Hold'em Event with a $2.500 buy-in.  Chan lost to poker legend Hoyt Corkins, he picked up a cool $287,345 for his effort.  Canadians Michael Watson, Sage Brocklebank, Mark Radoja and Anh Van Nguyen also finished in the money.

* Event #31  World Heads-Up Poker Championship - $5,000 buy-in - No Limit Hold'em - Winning required the champion to win 10 consecutive matches – 3 matches on Day One, 3 matches on Day Two, and 4 matches on Day Three. Six Canadians managed to cash in this event... 22. Robert Cheung Vancouver, BC $16,582  23. Peter Jetten Toronto, ON $16,582  24. Kyle Wilson Vancouver, BC $16,582  27. Philippe Boucher Quebec City, QC $16,582  38. Casey Jarzabek St. Catharines, ON $9,212  49. Marc Karam Ottawa, ON $9,212 .

* Daniel Negreanu managed his second final table and cash of the series in Event #32, a Seven Card Stud $2,000 buy-in event.  Daniel's 5th place finish earned him $21,321.  Canadian Grant Guevrmont also cashed in 18th place for $3,877.

* Event #33  Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys - Buy-in: $1,500 - One of the few events where Canada failed to cash.  Alan Smurfit of Miami won the tournament after entering the final table as the short stack.  His meager $95,000 in chips was just 10 percent of the table average.

* Event #34  Limit Hold’em, $3,000 buy-in - Petri Pollanen of Toronto finished in 9th place for a $14,705 payday and Greg Mueller cashed (for the fourth time) in 20th place for a little over double his buy-in.

* Event #35  No Limit Hold’em saw 8 Canadians cash for small amounts ranging from $9,708 for 59th to $2,947 for 267th place.

* Event #36  Omaha High-Low World Championship - $5,000 buy-in - First place paid $363,216 one of the largest cash payouts in Omaha High-Low history.  Canadian, Patrick Pezzin of Toronto shone through once again for his second cash of the 2007 World Series of Poker.  His 23rd place finish paid $12,502.

* Event #37, a Pot Limit Hold’em event was tough on us Canadians, only Ryan Fisler of Waterloo Ontario managed to cash with a 44th place payout of $5,560.

* Event #38 was a different story however, with Robert (RCW) Cheung of Vancouver BC winning his first WSOP Bracelet and $673,528.  "RCW" won the No Limit Hold'em event by outplaying and outlasting 2,778 other hopefuls who each paid $1,500 entry into the event.  Other Canadian poker players who managed to cash in this tournament include Mitchell Hecht ($21,993), Sorel Mizzi ($15,547), Dimitrios Koutougos ($5,309), Norman Gautron ($4,740), Marcello Delgrosso ($4,740) and Dominic Mirabelli ($3,982).

* Event #39 - H.O.R.S.E. World Championship - $50,000 buy-in - Freddy Deeb won this prestigeous event, defeating 147 contenders who each shelled out a whopping $50,000 to enter the tournament.  The win is Deeb's second WSOP Bracelet, his first came in 1996.  After winning the event, Freddy Deeb said, "When I won my first bracelet, I was mostly a cash game player so it didn't really matter that much to me.  But this one, it means everything to me.  They are the toughest players in the world.  It has the highest buy-in.  Except for the $10,000 buy-in (the main event), this is the bracelet that means the most of any of them."  The Canadian contingent was absent from this event.

* Event #40 was a Mixed Hold'em Event with a $1,500 buy-in.  Mark Radoja of Ariss Ontario placed 13th, winning $7,309.  Canadians Adam Schawrtz and Marc Aubin each won $5,619.

* Event #41 - Seniors World Poker Championship - $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em - Ernest Bennett, a 55 year old businessman from Encino California (born in Canada) won the $348,423 first prize.

* Event #42 - pot Limit Omaha (High-Low Split) - $1,500 buy-in - Another Canadian WSOP Gold Bracelet!  Lukasz Dumanski (a 24 year old from Toronto) took down this event and collected a sizable $227,454 to go along with his new bling.  Lukasz survived 686 other poker players to win this inaugural event.  Other Canadian poker players to cash in this event were Mike Watson ($9,049), Jean Piquette ($9,049) and Dustin Cole ($8,112).

* Event #43 - Limit Hold’em - $2,000 buy-in - David Ventura of Waterloo Ontario went out on the bubble (tenth) and took home $9,020.  Last year, David cashed twice including 177th place in the main event.

* Event #44 - Limit Omaha High-Low (Eight-or-Better) - $2,000 buy-in - Stephen Ladowsky cashes yet again with a 28th place showing and another $5,831 in prize money!

* Event #45 - Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Championship - $5,000 buy-in - Two Canadian players made the money in this event, Michael Hewitt and Gary Philipchuk each won $8,212.

* Event #46 - Seven-Card Stud High-Low (Eight-or-Better) - $1,000 buy-in - Tom Schneider won his second bracelet of 2007 in this tournament, a rare achievement indeed!  Canadian Rajiv Khanna of Toronto, finished in 27th place and won $4,498.

* Event 47 - No-Limit Hold’em - $2,000 buy-in - A strong Canadian showing with Jennifer Tilly leading the pack.  Jennifer landed a 30th place finish and took home $18,546.  The other Canadian players ranked as follows... 43. Shane Matyias Hamilton, ON $15,578  63. Stephen Ladowsky Toronto, ON $10,571  96. Domenico Scalamogna Vaughan, ON $5,378  97. John Vlassis Toronto, ON $5,378  115. Kaan Becer Richmond, BC $4,822  116. Steven Black St. Catharines, ON $4,822  148. Simon Ford Calgary, AB $4,451  161. Giovanni Massa Montreal, QC $4,451  173. Rene Angelil Las Vegas, NV $4,080  175. Joseph Minialoff Mississauga, ON $4,080  188. Martin Feijo Brantford, ON $4,080.

* Event #48, a Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Lowball (with Re-Buys) tournament had no Canadian representation.

* Event #49 - No-Limit Hold’em - $1,500 buy-in - Facing the largest field ever in a non-main event, Canadian poker pro Greg "FBT" Mueller of White Rock, BC scored his fifth cash of WSOP 2007 with a solid 8th place and a win of $55,914.  Other Canadian finishers were John Ewens, Daniel Hamm, Todd Bryson, Robert Moretti, Tim Adams, Keith Bram, Bruno Mellambro, Terry Tsang, Ryan Miller and Michael Johnson.

* Event #50 - Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship - $10,000 buy-in - Stephen Ladowsky of Toronto shared the final table with legends Doyle Brunson, Marco Traniello, Robert Mizrachi and Patrik Antonious.  Stephen's 7th place finish was his fifth cash and his second final table appearance at the 2007 WSOP.  Ladowsky won a whopping $92,975 in the event.

* Event #51 - Limit S.H.O.E. - buy-in $1,000 - Of the 730 entrants, no Canadians made it to the money.

* Event #52 - No-Limit Hold’em (with Re-Buys) - $1,000 buy-in - Shawn Hattem cashed for his fourth time by making it to the final table and finishing in 4th spot to win an impressive $161,330.  The Montreal poker pro has 2007 WSOP winnings of over $270,000!  Joseph Gualtieri and Michael Watson were the other Canadians to cash in this event.

* Event #53 - Limit Hold’em Shootout - $1,500 buy-in - Anh Van Nguyen of Toronto managed a very impressive third place for his second cash of the series.  He won a decent $83,538 and enjoyed the chance to play against tournament winner and Hendon Mob member Ram Vaswani. Canadians Mitar Kalezic, Isabelle (No Mercy) Mercier, Shawn Buchanan, Jason Sagle, Andre Boyer and Terrence Chan also fished in the money.

Event #54 was the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball (with Re-Buys), $5,000 buy-in Event which attracts the smallest number of participants but is usually the toughest event to win due to the all-star line up of poker players.  This year was no exception with Erik Seidel, Chad Brown, Shahram Sheikhan, Wil Wilkinson, Andy Black, Freddy Deeb and Todd Brunson all sitting at the final table.  I know, none of these guys are Canadian but Erik Seidel is such a nice guy he could easily pass as one of us.  Anyway, this line up deserves mention just for the sheer star power it contains.  Besides, Seidel won the tournament and the $538,835 first place prize money.  We could adopt him!

Event #55 - World Poker Championship - This is it, the Main Event!  $10,000 buy-in - 6,358 entrants - $59,784,954 in prize money!  We all know the story.  Jerry Yang wins $8,250,000 by defeating Canada's Tuan Lam in a heads up battle that ended with Yang catching a river straight to win the money, the title and the gold bracelet.  Tuan Lam didn't do too bad either, $4,840,981 for his second place finish!  Lam's win gave him the distinction of being the highest grossing "single tournament" Canadian of all time!  Many other Canadian poker players managed to cash in this tournament... Peter Darvil, Robin Bergren, and Ryan Lawrence all cracked the top 1% of the field.  Thomas Koo cashed in 112th place, his second main event cash in as many years.  David Cowen qualified on-line for $7 and cashed for $51,000.  Sorel Mizzi, Terris Preston, Pat Dattilo, Andre Boyer and pro Gavin Smith all cashed as well.  Other canadian money winners at the 2007 main event were... Guang Lu, Kevin Howart, Petri Pollanen, Ryan McLean, James Dawick, Michael Ium, Mathew Ciezki, Daniel Galowitz, Peter Valente, Irvin Hoffman, Jonathan Krela, Christian Abele, AAron Coulthard, Kizirian Armenak, Kyle Wilson, Duane Van Keulen, Christopher Perry and Sheldon Saul.