Jonathan Duhamel Poker
Going back a decade
The Canadian taxman is going after 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel. According to a report from The Canadian, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is seeking $1.2 million (USD $907,000) in unpaid taxes from Duhamel, spanning 2010-2012.
To make matters worse for the champ, if the CRA wins its court case, Revenu Québec, might also decide to try to get the same amount from Duhamel.
Jonathan Duhamel (born August 24, 1987) is a Canadian poker professional from Boucherville, Quebec, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2010 Worl Jonathan Duhamel - Top podcast episodes.
Stories like this are not necessarily out of the ordinary. Tax agencies seek to get back taxes from people all the time, and there have been plenty of poker players who have been delinquent of their taxes. But this case is a bit different. Duhamel has paid taxes to the IRS in the United States, but games of chance are not taxable in Canada, so he never paid up in Canada.
- 2.1 These terms and conditions constitute a legally Jonathan Duhamel Poker Twitter binding agreement between: 'You', the 'End User' Jonathan Duhamel Poker Twitter or Jonathan Duhamel Poker Twitter 'Player'; and Dazzletag Entertainment Limited ('We' or 'Us' or 'The Operator'). 2.2 PlaySunny is operated by Dazzletag Entertainment Ltd 2010 - Licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority.
- Jonathan Duhamel. Biography: Jonathan Duhamel is a French-Canadian Poker player, who was born on August 24, 1987. He was raised in a family of four in a town Boucherville which is close to Montreal, Canada. His father, an airplane engine mechanic and cashier mother were very strict and disciplined in.
- Jonathan Duhamel, born in 1987 is a professional poker player from Boucherville, Quebec, Canada. In 2010 he scored the biggest win of his career by taking down the WSOP Main Event and collecting.
- Jonathan Duhamel began playing poker at a young age and reached the game’s pinnacle as one of the youngest players to win the World Series of Poker Main Event. The Quebec native played every venue available to him until he was old enough for the biggest poker tournament in the world where he found himself on top of the world.
Jonathan Duhamel Poker Announcer
Canada says he’s a businessman
But…The Canadian reports that a Canada resident who “carries on a business” is required to pay taxes and the CRA considers Duhamel to have operated a professional poker playing business. Hence, why the agency believes he owes taxes.
The CRA isn’t just coming up with this out of thin air. It has put together a case to prove that Duhamel operated a poker business from 2010-2012. In a nutshell, poker was and has been his job. His “sole occupation” since 2008 was as a poker player, he behaved like a “serious businessman” while playing, he “considers himself” a professional poker player, poker was his only source of income, and he devoted 40-50 hours per week playing.
Additionally, the CRA pointed to swaps with and investments in other tournament players, which earned him millions in profits in 2010. It looks like the agency considers this a sign of a businessman. It also pointed out that he signed with an agent in 2010 and earned sponsorship money from PokerStars.
The CRA also sees Duhamel’s study of poker strategy and mathematics as another indicator that he treated poker as a business.
Duhamel says he’s just lucky
But hold on, check this out. Duhamel’s defense is that poker is a game of chance, not skill. Seriously. For the first time in human history, a poker player is claiming that poker is luck-based. The 2010 WSOP Main Event winner, a guy who has won over $18 million in live tournaments, is trying to prove in court that he is just lucky.
Duhamel is saying that he has never had poker training and that he has never used a defined system. Better yet, though, he is specifically arguing that his winnings at the 2010 WSOP were “only the result of chance” and that poker is mostly based on luck.
Jonathan Duhamel Wsop 2019
Wow. In every poker legalization argument, the pro-poker side argues that poker is a game of skill. Duhamel is trying to get a court to believe that he is basically like me, but instead of me bubbling in a $5 online MTT, he was just a lucky donk who binked the Main Event and parlayed that into a professional poker career.
Jonathan Duhamel chipped up during the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and made the most of his arsenal, playing big stack poker to the best of his ability. He became the first ever WSOP Main Event champ from Canada and earned $8.9 million. Duhamel took 15th in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the 2010 WSOP prior to his deep run in the Main Event and banked $37,000, or 25 times his buy-in.
Duhamel is the chip leader entering the 2010 WSOP November Nine and will come armed with a massive stack of 65.98 million, nearly 50% more than the second place tally of John Dolan. Duhamel sent UB.com pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy to the rails with pocket aces against K-Q to chip up late on the November Nine play down day.
Besides coming to the final table of the Main Event with the chip lead, Duhamel might be best remembered for his knockout of Matt “mcmatto” Affleck. On a board of 10-9-7-Q, Duhamel called Affleck’s all-in with pocket jacks. Affleck flipped up aces and Duhamel suddenly found himself down to 10 outs on the river. Sure enough, an eight hit the board, filling Duhamel’s straight and sending shockwaves through the Amazon Room. The pot was worth a healthy 42 million chips, or 20% of the total in play.
In a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event, the former college finance major finished in 50th and collected nearly $6,000. In a key hand during Day 7 that fueled his Main Event run, Duhamel moved all-in on a board reading 6-3-6-8-2. He received a call from online poker stud Matt “berkey11” Berkey, who flipped up 6-10 for trips. However, Duhamel had him crushed and showed pocket eights for a boat. The double up took Duhamel to 7.9 million in chips.
Duhamel’s best poker work came not in the United States, but in Europe on the European Poker Tour (EPT), where he bubbled the final table of a €5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament in Prague and banked nearly $55,000. That tournament featured a solid final 10 that included Duhamel, Canadian poker pro Andrew “achen” Chen, Nasr El Nasr, and WSOP bracelet winner Sebastian Ruthenberg.
Duhamel also made the spotlight in the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, where he cashed for $17,000 after exiting in 151st place. When he’s not playing poker, Duhamel enjoys hockey and lives in Boucherville, Quebec. He was one of nine Canadian poker players, or 11% of the field, to reach Day 7 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas.
Jonathan Duhamel Wsop
Duhamel qualified for the 2010 WSOP Main Event through PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site.
Jonathan Duhamel
Poker News Daily caught up with Jonathan Duhamel for an exclusive video interview.