Mike McDonald, A Very ‘Lucky’ Poker Player

8 years ago
Mike McDonald Highlight
16:32
02 Dec

A year ago, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, the youngest player ever to win an European Poker Tour and an Epic Poker League event, made an AMA on reddit. Still humble yet much more comfortable behind a screen than in front of a camera, he introduced himself in the following way:

I am Mike McDonald, a very lucky poker player. Ask me anything.


He did admit that the game of poker involves a certain degree of luck but never downplayed what got him in the spotlight: skill! Since he was a young boy, he knew skill was essential in order to achieve anything; nevertheless, skill can’t guarantee success. In order to achieve greatness, he also had to take advantage of his opportunities and take risks whenever necessary.

At just eight years of age, the young Mike learned an important lesson from his supportive father; confused about why some smart people have bad jobs or why less smart people have success, his father told him (courtesy of iGaming who interviewed McDonald extensively last year):

People who take advantage of their opportunities and who are willing to take chances are usually the ones who make the most money, not the people with the highest IQ or the best degree.

Little did his father know that he had set stage for one of the best poker success stories of our time.


Volleyball, Hockey, Chess and… Poker

Mike has always cherished his father’s council and his family’s support. His family had no problem talking about money and opportunities to invest and they had no problem with gambling either. In fact, McDonald Sr. was the first member of the family to have a major cash - $5,000 - way before the legend of ‘Timex’ was born. He wanted his son to become a hockey player but didn’t pressure him. He encouraged Mike to try every sport possible, so by the age of 13, the young Mike was already involved in three sports activities: volleyball, hockey and chess. Eventually, he ditched hockey - much to his father’s disappointment - and tried to focus on volleyball and chess. It was actually during one of his chess sessions that he discovered poker.

McDonald Jr. told Card Player in 2014 that his chess coach was a part-time poker pro and he offered to teach him the basics at the age of 15. So he logged in, opened a $25/$50 cash table on the now-defunct UltimateBet and both watched Prahlad Friedman playing against a random. During that particular rail, the chess coach tried to cover everything he knew about poker.

Young Mike never looked back.


Meeting a Poker Millionaire

To hone his poker skills, Mike knew he had to practice at the real money tables where the real poker was being played. The major problem was his age: he was just 15. That’s when McDonald Sr. came along to help. He had an online poker account and allowed his 15-year-old son to use it and play under only one condition: Mike would play only after he did his homework first.

Of course, Jr’s first steps were nothing like what he saw during his chess lessons. He didn’t played the high stakes, he started from the very bottom, at the penny tables, with his chess coach and his father as trainers.

The major leap though happened one year later. Mike found out that a local guy studying at the University of Waterloo named Steve Paul-Ambrose had just won a poker tournament in Bahamas - the 2006 WPT Poker Caribbean Adventure Main Event - and cashed in over $1 million. Fortunately, Ambrose and Mike were browsing the same forums so the 16-year-old gathered his courage and sent Steve a private message asking the millionaire to teach him the game. Steve eventually invited the 16-year-old over to his dorm and a strong bound between the two was born.


Mike the Millionaire

The bankroll boost came later and it was fairly... lucky. After winning $500 in one day - a huge score for a teenager -, Steve encouraged the young Mike to try a $250-buy-in tournament. Mike had never played at such high stakes and refused: he was known for being both a bankroll and a life nit. Although he had decent earnings online, he used to walk 20 minute every day to pay a quarter less for a bad pizza. Buying a tasty pizza near his home was not an option if he would cost him 25 cents more.

And a $250 tournament? No way, he thought. To make $500 a day was a dream for him. Steve managed to convince him with a proposition: to better their chances, Steve, Mike, and another friend of theirs entered the tourney with the following pact in mind: if any of them won, the cash would be split. ‘Timex’ wasn’t lucky and neither was the 2006 PCA winner. However, the friend was; he finished third for $16,000 and even though the pact was about winning, they agree to split the third-prize cash. This meant around $5,330 for Mike. Feeling the heater, the three friends repeated the pact months later when a $1 million prize was at stake. Mike won $230,000 and life couldn’t be better for the rising poker star.

Entering college, Mike’s net worth was around $400,000 and although he did his very best to be under the radar, rumors spread throughout the campus and a new nickname started trending: Mike the Millionaire.


Going Live and Facing the Spotlight

As soon as he turned 18, he went live. Mike McDonald virtually wanted to play every live tournament out there and since he couldn’t start with the notorious World Series of Poker where the entrant must be 21 or older, he tried his luck at the EPT.

His first ever EPT was in Baden shortly after he turned 18, in October 2007. To get there, he spent 35 hours at high altitude, changing airplanes four times from Aruba to Austria. ‘We (he and a friend) took one of the most ridiculous flight paths I’ve ever done in my life, went there, busted pre-antes,’ McDonald said in a PokerNews interview in August 2014 about his first ever EPT experience.

His next EPT wasn’t that crazy and was definitely more profitable. In December 2007, in Prague, he finished 14th cashing in €20,200 and over one month later, in Dortmund, McDonald went all the way winning EPT Dortmund and €933,600. He also became the youngest player ever to win an EPT event.

The spotlight was his for the taking.


3rd All-Time Canada Tournament Money List

Since then, Mike McDonald has won the 2011 Epic Poker League $20,000 Main Event - becoming the youngest to do so - and the 2015 EPT Malta High Roller. He also made countless final tables including two WSOP nine-man showdowns and earned a total of $12,502,964, according to HendonMob DB. He ranks third on the Canada All-Time Money List with only Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu and three-time bracelet winner Jonathan Duhamel in front of him. Overall, he is 15th in the All-Time Money List.

Online, he has won $2,926,938 according to PocketFives. Most cashes were earned on PokerStars: almost $2 million.


Mike McDonald - Behind the Poker Scene

Away from the poker tables where he scares his opposition away with his stare, Mike McDonald remains a modest person who still feels awkward when he has a camera staring at him or a mic ready to record every word he says. Even after eight years of being in the spotlight and winning millions of dollars, he still is the young Mike, not eager for attention yet willing to work hard on his game.

He admitted that poker consumed all his time as a teenager which left no room for socializing. But he did improve his life, never losing his interest in sports activities and willing to invest in himself even if it means spending big - he has a Lamborghini Gallardo Spider that didn’t help him a whole lot with the ladies, ‘not in the way rap videos suggest.’

Nevertheless, he knew when to push the right button. When he was 17 and ‘a millionaire, virgin who liked the show Heroes’ as he said in the AMA, he had a crush on a local girl. When his parents asked her one time ‘What is your dream?’ the girl responded: ‘To spend a night in the underwater hotel in Fiji which costs $15,000.’

‘That can be arranged,’ the young Mike reacted. Indeed it could...

Welcome to Mike McDonald’s world!


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Florian is a freelance journalist and avid poker player with a strong passion to create unique and appealing stories.He is an experienced researcher on various topics, from business and the financial markets to psychology and the gambling industry.He blogs at Florianghe.com.Read more

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