2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel (27) has won another multi-million dollar poker tournament, besting the creme de la creme of international poker players in the $111,111 buy-in One Drop High Roller – event 58 at the 2015 World Series of Poker.
Highly skilled and motivated professionals like Phil Hellmuth (who finished sixth), Dan Colman (3rd), internet high stakes ace Ben Sulsky (4th), Andrew Lichtenberger (9th) and Phil Ivey populated the 135-strong entry list, which generated a prize pool of $14.25 million and allowed 16 players in all to cash.
Ivey’s much-heralded arrival for the big event turned out to be a disappointment; he was eliminated on the first day by Chris Klodnicki, but was in good company as One Drop multi-millionaire Antonio Esfandiari and WSOP main event champs Greg Merson and Martin Jacobson, along with high profile pro Daniel Negreanu all headed for the exit empty handed.
Among the early casualties was philanthropist and hedge fund billionaire David Einhorn.
Down to three handed action, Duhamel faced retired manufacturing company owner Bill Klein and the often controversial Big One For One Drop multi-million dollar champion Dan Colman (24) when tragedy struck as a spectator at the rail succumbed to a medial ailment, necessitating a half-hour suspension whilst he was rushed to hospital.
When play resumed it was Colman who was eliminated by Klein and headed for the cashier and a third placing pay-out of $1,544,121.
Entering the heads up, Duhamel sat behind a 23 million-chip stack, facing Klein’s almost 18 million chips; after a few tentative moves on each side the two reached the critical hand after just over 21 hands of heads up action, tangling over a 13 million chip pot that Klein lost, consigning him to the runner up position and a still-impressive pay check of $2,465,522.
Klein has generously committed his win to charity, and that significant amount of money will certainly help those less fortunate in the future.
Duhamel’s first prize at $3,989,985, bringing his career earnings to almost $16 million, was less than Tony Gregg’s $4.83 million in the last run of the High Roller back in 2013, when 166 players registered, but the One Drop Foundation still made $750,000 from the enormous prize pool.
Duhamel said he had enjoyed the 36-hour action of the tournament, and paid tribute to the One Drop Foundation.
“They really do some good things and help out a lot of people,” he said. “It’s one thing to win a tournament, but knowing that it’s going to help to save so many lives as well makes it even better and makes it like a double win tonight.”
Final table cashes were:
Jonathan Duhamel $3,989,985
Bill Klein $2,465,522
Daniel Colman $1,544,121
Ben Sulsky $1,118,049
Dan Perper $873,805
Phil Hellmuth $696,821
Anthony Zinno $565,864
Sergey Lebedev $466,970