Jonathan Duhamel
Weighs In On Poker Ambassadorship
2010 WSOP Champ says a leadership role isn’t for everyone.
It was just a few weeks ago, during the 2014 Aussie Millions, that the incendiary words of former WSOP World Champion Joe Hachem started a firestorm about what it means to be a poker ambassador and how the personality in poker has seemingly evaporated. Now, former champ Jonathan Duhamel has taken to the PokerStars Blog to have his say and, in general, he doesn’t see things as black and white.
Duhamel doesn’t really blame Jamie Gold or Jerry Yang for not being the epitome of poker goodwill.
Joe mentioned Jamie Gold and Jerry Yang in his comments (who won in 2006 and 2007) and how those two kind of disappeared from the poker scene after winning their titles, but to me that’s not necessarily good or bad. Sometimes a career in poker is not for everyone, especially for guys who have other jobs or families as can be the case for players who are a little older. Not everyone who wins the WSOP Main Event wants to tour all of the time or continue playing tournaments, and that is absolutely their choice.
Read: On WSOP champs, ambassadorship, and the future of poker
As far as how players should act at the table, in terms of being welcoming and exhibiting personality, that too, like many things in poker – depends.
Duhamel snaps a pic with Bay 101 runner Candice Collins.
I think a lot depends on the kind of tournament, too, when it comes to how players should act. For example, at EPT Main Events there are so many qualifiers playing that the field is going to be more varied with a lot more amateurs playing. The WSOP Main Event is like that, too, with players from all sorts of backgrounds participating. During those kinds of events it is even more important to be inviting and make the less experienced players feel comfortable and want to come back again. Of course, it’s easier to be friendly earlier in those events than later on, and so when you get deeper it’s okay, I think, to be more serious and talk less.
The champ makes a lot of good points, but, in general doesn’t take much of a stand either way except to say that you can’t really dictate to anyone if they should or shouldn’t be good for poker but that, overall, being a good person while playing poker is to the benefit of everyone.
It’s a quick read, well worth a few minutes of your time.
Doyle Brunson Will Retire From Poker After Last WSOP Outing This Summer
*Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson has announced his retirement from poker so that he can spend more time with his wife, who is in failing health.
Brunson has amassed 10 WSOP bracelets, a WPT title along with being a fixture in the high-stakes cash games run in the famous “Bobby’s Room” over the decades.
Talking to Poker Central ahead of his last WSOP foray Brunson said: “I’m planning on retiring after the summer. My wife is not in very good health, and I will stay with her for the duration of either her life or mine.”
You can read more on Brunson’s decision to retire from the game over on Poker Central.
Currently Brunson and his son Todd have cashed in the $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw — where play continues today — in what could be the last hurrah from the poker godfather.
Watch Chris Ferguson's Nothingburger Full Tilt Statement
It has only taken 7 years for Chris “Jesus” Ferguson to apologise for his part in the Full Tilt fiasco that followed Black Friday. He has finally commented via Vimeo. Check it out below.
Jaime & Matt Staples Win Prop Bet!
A year on from agreeing to a crazy prop bet with billionaire Bill Perkins, the Staples brothers have walked away with $150,000 and won their bet to get within 1 lb of each other.
#QUEENRULES At Unibet
Unibet have worked with creative agency FCB Inferno to release a custom deck of cards to accompany the launch of a new poker format where the Queen outranks the King.The project is intended to help draw attention to gender equality and unconscious gender bias in poker.
Daniel Negreanu: "Forget Books...Watch Twitch Streamers"
Daniel Negreanu has taken to Twitter to let his followers know that he thinks Twitch streamers are “more engaging and entertaining than a book”.
The Kevin Hart Hand Everyone is Talking About
You need to see it to believe it!
Watch: Kara Scott's Top 5 Poker Topics of 2017
888poker’s The Poker Brief with Kara Scott released its year in review episode last week focusing on the “top 5 topics that matter” in poker.
Welcome to a New Dawn: PokerStars Announces the PokerStars Player Championship
PokerStars has revealed the PokerStars Player Championship NL Hold’em event for January 2019.
Liv Boeree Stars in Video Sponsored by Hewlett Packard
Professional poker player and PokerStars sponsored pro Live Boeree appears in a video released last week about artificial intelligence and poker.
WATCH: Doug Polk Gives Advice on Avoiding Poker Scams
In Doug Polk’s latest video, the subject is all about “scams, hacks and angles” that players should watch out for in the poker community.
Phil Hellmuth Thinks He'd Have Made A Good US President
In this great interview with CardPlayer Lifestyle, Robbie Strazynski goes one-on-one with Phil Hellmuth ahead of the launch of his new autobiography “The Poker Brat”—which Hellmuth hopes will become a New York Times Bestseller—to really find out the man behind the famous name.
2017: The Year of The Durrrr Challenge?
It looks like 2017 might be the year that Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “Jungelman” Cates can resurrect the Durrrr Challenge.
Doyle Brunson Dishes The Dirt On Bobby's Room Bust Up
Thanks to pokernyhederne and some cryptic tweets from Doyle Brunson it was revealed that the two men who lost their shit in the Bellagio’s high stakes Bobby’s Room were none other than Gus Hansen and David Oppenhiem.
Fedor Holz Challenges You To Read 40 _useful_ Books Before The End of The Year
We are bit late to the party on this, but back in late November Fedor Holz challenged his twitter followers to read or listen to 40 new books before the end of the year. All in the name of bettering yourself. I think.
Brian Hastings Moving On From Poker, Brewing Tea Instead
Brian Hastings is moving on from this turbulent industry of poker.
Pics! Jason Mercier & Natasha Barbour Tie The Knot
After a few minutes of creeping on Twitter, we have managed to round up some of the best photos from the much anticipated wedding of Jason Mercier and Natasha Barbour.
Introducing Doug Polk's Comedy Show
Branching out into the world of YouTube beyond his usual poker shows, Polk is now reaching for heights of internet stardom by trying to recreate the success of renowned YouTubers such as PewDiePie, Markiplier, and jacksepticeye.
Brian Hastings Sees Similarities In His Multi Accounting And Hillary Clinton's Emails
Brian Hastings has taken to his blog to tell us all why this election is so important to him.
StarsFun Skills Zone Adds to Festivities at PokerStars Festival in New Jersey
The Atlantic Ballroom at the Resorts Casino in Atlantic City New Jersey is the scene of the all new StarsFun Skills Zone. Those attending the new PokerStars Festival event in New Jersey can not only blow off steam while taking a break from the poker tables, but they can take the opportunity to even get in a little extra action.
William Kassouf Talks About What You Didn’t See in the “Check Your Privilege” Hand
By now just about everyone has seen the infamous “Check your privilege” hand from the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event (if not you can watch it below), but according to speech-play master William Kassouf, there was more to the hand between him and November Niner Griffin Benger than what was shown on ESPN.
Negreanu Bites Back at Mike “The Mouth” Matusow
Following Mike “The Mouth” Matusow’s interview on the PokerNews podcast where he talked about the Poker Hall of Fame nominees and why he feels he was snubbed, Daniel Negreanu took to the podcast to tackle some misconceptions that were spoken about.