Jonathan Duhamel

Weighs In On Poker Ambassadorship

2010 WSOP Champ says a leadership role isn’t for everyone.

© World Poker Tour.
Positive interaction with fans is part of being a great ambassador.

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.

published 4 years, 10 months ago • by • permalink

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MILLIONS Online Will Return in 2019

After setting several records, partypoker is set to host MILLIONS Online once again in 2019.

A historic moment was created on December 4 as partypoker pulled off an incredible feat by setting the record for the biggest tournament in the history of online poker.

A total of 4367 entries were made across the five starting flights of the $5300 buy-in MILLIONS Online to create a mammoth prize pool of $21,835,000.

Portuguese player Manuel “Sheparentao” Ruivo living in the Netherlands took down the event last night with a massive $2,329,943 first-place prize which is also a record for the biggest prize ever awarded in an online poker tournament. He made a heads-up deal with Pim “ForMatherRussia” de Goede from Malta who also took home well over $2.3 million—the second biggest prize ever.

Two more players pocketed seven-figure prizes including the Slovenian player 'Scarmak3r’ who finished third for $1.3 million by qualifying via a $5.50 feeder satellite and winning almost 250,000 times the buy-in.

Apart from setting the record for the biggest online tournament prize pool and awarding the biggest prize, MILLIONS created several other mind blowing records.

Here are the following records which MILLIONS created:

  • Biggest Online Tournament Prize Pool
  • Biggest-ever Starting Flight in an Online Tournament
  • Biggest Turnout for a $5k buy-in Online Tournament
  • Awarded Biggest First-Place and Second-Place Prize in an Online Tournament
  • Created Four Millionaires in a Single Online Tournament
  • Awarded Biggest Prize Pool in Terms of Seats Guaranteed
  • Total Chips Crossed Over $4.3 Billion

The room has already made its plan to host another MILLIONS Online tournament in 2019.

“...following on from the success of the 2018 $20,000,000 GTD MILLIONS Online. 2019 will end with another phenomenal MILLIONS Online festival, where multiple millionaires will be made,” party wrote on its website.

However, no further details have been revealed yet including what the guarantee will be. Looking at how it went down, partypoker could return MILLIONS Online with yet another $20 million guaranteed if not more.

If they do, we’ll find out soon.

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