New Poker Champion Doesn’t Need A Finance Degree

by: Nathan Vardi, http://blogs.forbes.com/ Nov. 29 2010 

Source: Forbes.com

For Jonathan Duhamel, the road to riches meant dropping out of a finance degree program at the University of Quebec in Montreal to concentrate on playing poker. The move paid off recently when, at the age of 23, Duhamel won the World Series of Poker’s main event and the $8.9 million prize that went with it. Duhamel is the latest poker champ to highlight the connection between finance and poker. Hedge fund manager David Einhorn placed 18^th in the World Series of Poker’s main event in 2006. Aaron Brown, a former professional poker player, is now a risk manager at Cliff Asness’ big hedge fund firm AQR Capital Management. Chris Moneymaker, who helped launch the current popularity of poker when he won the World Series of Poker’s main event in 2003 as an amateur, was an accountant. Steven Begleiter, who used to head corporate strategy at Bear Stearns and now works at a private equity firm, made the final table at the main event in 2009. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, who won the World Series main event in 2000, used to day trade at a proprietary trading firm. Billionaire banker Andrew Beal became a poker legend by challenging poker pros to some of the highest stakes games ever.

“Knowing finance helps because in poker there is a lot of math, lots of probabilities and percentages you need to calculate all the time,” says Duhamel. “There is that mathematical knowledge and then after that the psychological aspect of the game.”

Duhamel, who grew up in Boucherville, Quebec, says going for a finance degree was an obvious decision for him because he always excelled at math. Duhamel had ambitions at one time to become a trader or maybe start his own business. A decade ago, that probably would have been the direction his career path would have taken. Duhamel’s poker skills were developed in online poker rooms over the last five or so years.

After studying for one year at university, it was tough for Duhamel to tell his father, an engineer at United Technologies unit Pratt &Whitney, and his mother, a bank teller, that he was dropping out of school to travel and play poker. “At first my parents were not too happy—not too many parents would be happy, but I explained to them I was taking a year off,” says Duhamel.

Duhamel’s parents have now accepted his decision. So have his friends. One of them, who is studying to become a high school teacher, pulled off  a great trade by contributing $100 to Duhamel’s $10,000 entrance fee for the World Series of Poker. Duhamel recently paid his buddy his cut of the winnings: $90,000. PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker site, also made a good bet by sponsoring Duhamel on the eve of the World Series of Poker.

Duhamel might finish that finance degree some day, but for now he says he is going to stick to playing professional poker.