 Michael
McDonald - Poker
Player Profile
Michael McDonald won
the EPT German Open
in Dortmund, Germany
in February 2008
winning €933,600
($1,370,161) at the
ripe old age of 18.
Earlier in January
the same year, he
also won the A$1,000
PokerPro No Limit
Hold'em preliminary
event at the Aussie
Millions and coming
runner up in another
preliminary event.
McDonald had been
ranked number three
by
CardPlayer.com.
He comes to us from
Waterloo, Canada.
The young pro — who
still sports braces
and hasn’t yet
finished his
post-secondary
schooling — has
parlayed countless
hours of playing
poker online into
two major payouts,
and has already
traveled to the
likes of London,
Macau and Aruba for
tournaments, writes
Michael Oliveira of
the Canadian Press.
Playing against some
of the world’s more
successful poker
players doesn’t seem
to faze McDonald.
“I start all
tournaments thinking
I could win, or else
I wouldn’t play,” he
said in a release.
McDonald learned
poker after a chess
teacher told him he
could make good
money by playing
online.
He adopted the
online nickname
Timex because he was
at a total loss for
a name and picked
the first thing that
came to mind, he
said in an interview
with
pokerlistings.com.
“I just looked down
at my watch — and I
didn’t have much
money at the time so
I had a Timex watch
— and I just used
that,” he said.
McDonald was the
protege of another
young Canadian poker
pro, 24-year-old
Steve Paul-Ambrose,
who himself won $1.3
million in a
tournament in 2006
while studying at
the University of
Waterloo.
McDonald asked if he
could practice with
Paul-Ambrose and
some of his friends
and before long it
was obvious he
wouldn’t need much
more guidance.
Paul-Ambrose said he
wasn’t at all
surprised by
McDonald’s win.
 “Honestly, not
really — he’s played
a few tournaments
since turning 18 and
it was just a matter
of time before a big
score,” he said.
“He’s a very smart
kid.”
McDonald said he
plans to invest most
of his winnings,
although he may
splurge on a hot tub
for the townhouse he
shares with friends.
"My type of boy!"
chirped
Gambling911.com's
Jenny Woo, who ranks
McDonald among her
top 10 Hottest Poker
Players Who Look
Like They Might Not
Quite Be Legal For
Her To Pounce On.
Here are the
tournaments won by
poker player Michael
McDonald:
2008 EPT German Open
- Season IV
EPT Main Event
02/02/2008 1
$1,381,728.00
2008 Aussie Millions
Australian Heads Up
Championship Event
13 01/16/2008 6
$17,600.00
2008 Aussie Millions
PokerPro No-Limit
Hold'em Event 11
01/11/2008 1
$29,876.00
2008 Aussie Millions
No-Limit Hold'em
Event 1 01/04/2008 2
$75,610.00
2007 EPT Prague -
Season IV
EPT Main Event
12/14/2007 14
$28,280.00
2006 Ongame Network
Poker Classic
No-Limit Hold'em
12/03/2006 23
$14,210.00
-----
Ace King,
Gambling911.com
Originally published
June 26, 2008 7:41
pm EST
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