Another Winner from Waterloo
Man, this area is kicking ass on the international scene.
"Timex" on 2+2, one of Watts homies just cashed big at the EPT
http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/304300
Watts, Ambrose, Chorny, Mcdonald, whos next?
"Timex" on 2+2, one of Watts homies just cashed big at the EPT
http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/304300
Watts, Ambrose, Chorny, Mcdonald, whos next?
Comments
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2008/02/ept-dortmund-18-year-old-mike-mcdonald.html
congrats, mike.
I was unlucky enough to play him a few times, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy ..or a more scary poker player!
Pick me, Pick Me!!!
congrats mike
The funniest part of this article is that it doesn't even scratch the surface.
well I would expect the average math graduate from U of W is earning $80k plus; over the long-term financially, I would expect he would be better off with a decent job than a lucky poker win. Especially since he is young and will likely blow the money on other tournaments chasing the dream. He may get lucky and place again, I wouldn't bet on it.
What kind of parent lets there son go on a world poker tournament and quit university?
1. Mike was a millionaire from poker before this tournament. lol lucky tourney score and pipe dreams.
2. He probably makes more than $80K a year just from (non-poker related)investments, and definitely will now.
3. He can always go back to school later. Poker is easy money (for him) right now, but may not be forever.
4. He's probably a smart enough kid that he could eventually land a big-money job in financial or business stuff or something and make more long term that way, but I somehow doubt it'd be as fun as traveling the world playing poker.
5. I have a UW math degree so I find this extra funny.
Anyways I would agree with you in around 95% of cases, but he is definitely an exception. I hope he finishes his degree some day and i suspect he will, but there's no reason he should do it right now, and his parents are very supportive to understand that and let him do what he loves to do.
was he a millionaire before from playing cash games or big tournies like Sunday Millions etc?
1) Intelligence, e.g., a young University of Waterloo student who is great at problem-solving.
2) "Math geeks", e.g., UofW math students who quickly figure out how to make correct poker decisions based on the odds and EV.
3) Playing massive amounts of hours online to accellerate learning how to make $EV-maximizing decisions.
4) Having a poker group to keep raising the bar, e.g., dorm games, mentors, or productive poker forum.
5) Winning satellites to big buy-in events, including $10K live events.
6) Winning any tournament with a big field takes a huge amount of both luck & skill, but the more events you play or satellite into, the better your chances of scoring big. At least 7 Waterloo players have had that "perfect storm" combination to win a big event: Steve Paul-Ambrose, Nenad Medic, Will "cutiepi314 or The Dreamer" Ma, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Matt "ch0ppy" Kay, Ryan "GotSkillz" Fisler & SirWatts.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=20126
btw, I also have a couple U of W degrees.
let's elaborate on this a bit. (those earnings are a bit high either way, but just for the sake of it)
Let's assume you make 80k out of school, and take home 50k after tax. If you work for 30 years, getting a 2% raise every year, the present value of your life's earning (at a discount rate of 5% - reasonable), is ~970k, as oppose to the present value of 1MM being 1MM.(Poker winnings are tax free in Canada)
If you offered me 30 years of well paid work or 1MM up front it's an easy choice.
With modest investments you can essentially spend 1/2 of any amount of capital every 10 years, and have it last you forever.
Jah, you're a nice guy but I'm glad that you got torn a new one on this.
a: don't be a douche, leave a congratulatory/celebratory thread to be that.
b: How the hell is 1mil up front ever worse than 80k over a series of years? (rhetorical)
c: xoxoxoxo
nice to see someone with a little common sense; what I was trying to get across was that he likely had a better chance of earning a decent income staying at University, vs chasing some poker dream. Granted he did get lucky and win the big one (nice show!), but the odds of him doing this were definitely not in his favour. Up until this win, he was likely in the hole for the poker tour he is on (with a small $20k cash). Kristy, I can't let you have all the fun on this forum. I've got to mix it up once in a while. Hopefully he goes back to university at some point or goes into business and uses the money wisely.
Interesting conclusion. Not sure how you determined this but it would be tough in the GTA.
You forgot:
7) the ratio of computers to women of about 50:1.
Not quite. He also had a first and a second at events in Aussie before the 20K in Prague. He's not the typical guy who just took a shot at playing and happened to win a tournament. Consider searching for him on 2+2 if you want to put your foot further into your mouth...
Moose, you may have hit on the real key to this phenomenon...
+1..........