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POKERSTARS PLAYER JONATHAN DUHAMEL LEADS NOVEMBER NINE AT 2010 WORLD SERIES OF POKER

Juli 22, 2010

PokerStars player Jonathan Duhamel is massive chip leader;
Team PokerStars Pros William Thorson and Johnny Lodden enjoy deep runs but falter at final hurdle.
Las Vegas, NV – July 19, 2010 – Thirteen days ago, 7,319 players were gathered at the Rio Hotel in Las
Vegas with dreams of making millions and becoming the 2010 World Series of Poker champion. Now only nine
remain – and two of them are PokerStars players. Canadian Jonathan Duhamel is the massive chip leader and
American Jason Senti the short stack in the battle for poker’s ultimate prize, but all the players will have to wait
124 days until the November final for their next shot at the $8,944,138 first prize.
PokerStars player and former finance student Duhamel, who goes into the final with 65,975,000 in chips, first
hit the limelight when he came tenth at the Season 5 PokerStars European Poker Tour event in Prague, Czech
Republic for €42,800 – his best live result before now. The 22-year-old, from Boucherville near Montreal in
Canada, has already made the money in two events at this year’s World Series – 15th place in a $2,500 NLHE
tourney for $37,276 and 50th in a $1,500 NLHE Six-Max event for $5,724.
He said: “I don’t have much tournament experience. I’m a cash game player but I’m confident in my game. It
was a long day but the longer it was, the better it was for me because I could accumulate more chips.”
Duhamel says he plans to limber up for the November final by competing in some European Poker Tour events
as well as “have fun with my family and friends and relax.”
PokerStars-sponsored Minnesotan Jason Senti, 28, who is the short stack for the final with just 7,725,000
chips, is an internet pro who specialises in cash games. He is also an instructor for an online poker school,
after ditching his job as an electrical engineer some 18 months ago. The $811,823 minimum that he’s
guaranteed as a member of the November Nine dwarfs his best live result to date: 32nd place at the $10,000
World Championship of Heads-Up NLHE event during the 2009 WSOP, which won him $17,987. The other
finalists include Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (14,450,000) andıJohn Racener (19,050,000).
PokerStars-sponsored Brandon Steven, 36, was the final table bubble and returns home to Wichita, Kansas
with $635,011 for his tenth place finish. Steven and his brother Rodney – who busted out of the Main Event on
Day 1 – run health clubs and car dealerships in Kansas and are dedicated fund-raisers for local and national
health charities.
This year’s mammoth $68,798,600 prize pool is the second largest in WSOP history. PokerStars gave away
over a thousand seats to the 2010 WSOP, with more than 800 players accepting the challenge to compete in
the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Main Event. Out of the 839 PokerStars players who took part,
145 have cashed, notching up at least $14 million so far between them.
The 2010 Main Event showed the strongest ever finish by members of Team PokerStars Pro. Eight made the
money but it was the spectacular runs by Sweden’s William Thorson and Norwegian Johnny Lodden that set
pulses racing. Both made it to the final 27 players of Day 8, the day when the November Nine are decided.
Lodden, the second shortest stack, bust swiftly in 27th place for $317,161 but Thorson seemed a plausible
candidate for the final until his jack-ten of diamonds was thwarted by John Racener’s KK. He was eliminated in
21st place, also for $317,161, the deepest ever WSOP Main Event run by a Team PokerStars Pro.

Other Team PokerStars Pros that finished well in the Main Event included British pro JP Kelly and Gualter
Salles from Brazil, who both survived to Day 6. Salles, a former racing car driver, had a remarkable experience
recovering from just a single $1k chip early on Day 5 to a peak of $1.5 million before busting in 117th place for
$57,102.ı JP Kelly was finally ousted in 111th place, also for $57,102.
New Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst, winner of the PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun event in
Connecticut in April, cashed in 476th place forı$27,519. Her fellow team members Jason Mercier and Greg
DeBora from Canada also min-cashed on Day 5, while Humberto Brenes from Costa Rica andıFriend of
PokerStars Pierre Neuville from Belgium both made the money on Day 4.
Mercier cashed an impressive six times during the whole Series but his best finish was tenth place in the PLO
World Championship for $50,867. Brenes’ 736th place finish in the Main Event, for $19,263, was his 58th WSOP
cash, making him one of the most prolific WSOP earners of all time. He is now in joint sixth place in the “All
Time WSOP Cashes” list.
Young Michiel Sijpkens from Holland was the best-placed PokerStars qualifier in the Main Event. The 21-yearold
from Rotterdam, one of the youngest entrants this year, won his seat only six weeks after his birthday in a
$33 rebuy on PokerStars. He finished 19th for a $317,161 payday. His performance was the second best
Dutch result ever in the Main Event, after Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske came tenth in the Main Event for
$373,000 in 2004.
Outside of the Main Event, Pat Pezzin, one of four new Team PokerStars Pro Canada members, nearly
matched this year’s record for most cashes during the Series with seven overall. Russian Team PokerStars
Pro Alex Kravchenko and Victor Ramdin both cashed six times.
Five Team PokerStars Pros competed in the Tournament of Champions, a $500,000 free-roll whose 27
participants were all WSOP bracelet winners and voted into the event by the public. Daniel Negreanu came
sixth, Barry Greenstein came fifth and former world champion Joe Hachem came fourth, each winning
$25,000.
It’s now become a given that the PokerStars party is the biggest and most spectacular celebration of the World
Series, if not the entire poker year. This year’s gathering was no exception. As well as winning their seats,
accommodation and spending money, PokerStars qualifiers were guests of honour at the lavish bash, mingling
with Team PokerStars Pros and other stars as aerialists, podium dancers, roller-skaters and Canadian singer
Esthero provided non-stop entertainment into the small hours at the spectacular Rain Nightclub. Rap superstar
Snoop Dogg, a keen poker player himself, was the headline act and had the room rocking into the small hours
– a fitting sequel to last year’s performance by Nelly.

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