After back-to-back years where the youngest-ever Main Event winner changed from the 1989 winner Phil Hellmuth (24) to Peter Eastgate (22) in 2008 to Joe Cada (21) in 2009, the 2010 WSOP Main Event was not so much about the final table drama. Sure, that’s where the money was handed out, and the glittering bracelet was awarded. It was a bracelet that would eventually become burgled and defamed.
“Matt Affleck is going to have 41 million chips or no chips.”
However, the real story of what happened at the 2010 World Series of Poker happened months before its conclusion.
The early stages of the 2010 World Series were by no means unremarkable. Frank Kassela was the sole multiple bracelet winner of the 57-event series, taking gold in the $10,000-entry Seven-Card Stud 8 event for $447,446 and the $2,500 Seven-Card Razz event for $214,085. Those wins, along with four more cashes, including a third-place finish in the $25,000 NLHE 6-Handed event for over $550,000, meant Kassela was the clear winner in the WSOP Player of the Year race.
Other legends picked up bracelets too, with Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen winning his seventh bracelet in the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship, Sammy Farha won his third bracelet in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship, and Phil Ivey claiming bracelet number eight in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.
Two players won firsts for their country. Vietnamese player Hoai Duc Pham took down the curtain-raising $500 Casino Employees Event, while Simon Watt won New Zealand’s maiden WSOP title in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event #11. And, at a staggering 97 years old, Jack Ury became the oldest player to ever WSOP play the Main Event. But none of these accomplishments is what the Main Event would be remembered for.
“He needs to dodge a king, a jack or an eight.”
With 7,319 participants, the 2010 WSOP Main Event was the biggest since Jamie Gold won it in 2006, offering a top prize of $8,944,138. With 747 players making the money, the reigning champion Joe Cada survived to Day 3. Other former champions made it further, with 1998 winner Scotty Nguyen cashing in 209th place and back-to-back 1987 and 1988 champ Johnny Chan finishing 156th.
Danish legend Theo Jorgensen came 30th with $255,242, the current All-Time Money List leader Bryn Kenney came 28th to earn $317,161, and David Baker finished 17th to take home $396,967. But the real drama was reserved for the feature table, when just two tables remaining in the tournament.
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“He’s gotta be heartbroken.”
With 15 players, a huge hand developed as Matt Affleck, who was second in chips, held pocket aces in the button and faced off against the cutoff, Jonathan Duhamel, the chip leader, who had pocket jacks. Affleck three-bet his aces, and Duhamel just called, a play he has admitted to this reporter that he would change if faced with the decision today.
On a flop of T-9-7, Duhamel checked, and Affleck bet 5M into the 8M pre-flop pot. The Canadian made the call. The turn brought a queen, which gave Duhamel an up-and-down straight draw to go with his pair, but he knew he could still be behind. He admits now that between the cameras and chatter from the rail, his head was “a mess.” The 22-year-old did not know what Affleck had.
Affleck shoved and said once he wasn’t snapped off, he knew he was ahead. But Duhamel was still thinking. Eventually, he made the call and while he was behind, he wasn’t drawing dead. He had 10 outs, any jack, eight, or king would give him the best hand. Affleck was either going to be a massive chip leader or be on the rail with perhaps the biggest equity bad beat story in WSOP Main Event history.
“Affleck is thunderstruck.”
“At that point, the emotion of knowing we were first and second in the tournament at that moment hit me,” Affleck told me years later about the gravity of the situation. “Thinking about all the chips I could have. And it wasn’t even the final table bubble, so whoever would win the pot was going to be able to build a lot more chips.”
The river card was an eight, and Affleck, struck dumb by the cruelty of going out inside the top 100 places in back-to-back Main Events, could barely bring himself to leave the table. Duhamel looked up from under his hoodie, a grin struggling not to make it to his mouth. The Canadian now had a monstrous chip stack and an almost unassailable lead.
“He was one card from locking up a seat at the final table. His world is shattered.”
According to the commentary team of Norman Chad and Lon McEachern, Affleck behaved as if in shock and could barely stand. He staggered from the table, past a roaring crowd inside The Rio, and into the corridor, where he slammed his near-full water bottle onto the carpet. Back inside the cardroom, Duhamel and everyone else at the table reacted; they could feel his pain, but no one could share it; it was Affleck’s alone.
“The whole room was in shock; the cameramen, the director, everyone,” Duhamel said. “There was a collective gasp. It was like the world stopped turning.”
Affleck crumpled into a heap against the walls of the Rio corridor. Sobbing with tears, he was disconsolate. Somehow, he pulled it together and then did the most remarkable thing – he walked back into the cardroom.
“One man’s bounty is another man’s demise.”
Shaking hands with the players he knew and those he didn’t, Affleck fronted up the worst moment of his poker career and left Duhamel to boss the latter stages of two-table play.
“If I was him, I would just have run to the airport!” Duhamel admits. “I had huge respect for him to come back and shake everybody’s hand. He’s a super nice guy and I wished him all the best. He showed a lot of class coming back.”
The Canadian would head to November and the final table with a massive lead, eventually making it count when he turned a 6:1 heads-up lead into victory, triumphing against John Racener. Winning the best part of $9 million changed Duhamel’s life, although just a year later, he was robbed of the bracelet and some cash after a home invasion by three people, which left him battered and bruised. The next day, he was philosophical.
“I spent yesterday at the hospital and I’m black and blue all over, but no broken bones, no blood clots, nothing to worry about. Today, I am exhausted, both physically and mentally, but I’m happy to be alive.”
The WSOP Main Event bracelet, however, had been taken. Evidently, the heist was led by an ex-girlfriend of Duhamels, Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, who would go on to serve three and a half years in prison for the robbery. The bracelet was eventually found and returned to Duhamel, but in a fairly battered state itself.
What Happened Next?
In the years that followed, Jonathan Duhamel and Matt Affleck’s poker careers didn’t go in opposite directions, but they did run on alternate lines, both weaving forward in successful ways. Duhamel became a poster boy for PokerStars in the years following his World Championship victory but then slowed down his activity in the tournament space.
Matt Affleck initially plunged into a dark place, allowing his weight to increase. Since then, he has slimmed down and trained up and become a much healthier person and better player. Training others these days as a hugely successful poker coach, Affleck still prioritizes the WSOP as his go-to tournament series and puts in more work than ever on the Main Event, taking days off beforehand to give himself the best chance of one day taking it down.
“It only happens once a year.”
One day, perhaps Matt Affleck will take it down. Until then, as in 2024, there is one thing he hopes for other than a victory in the Main Event.
“My favorite part of watching Day 7 is rooting for the best hand to win,” he says, “No shenanigans. I just want to retain my title of worst bad beat in poker.”
That title is unlikely ever to be relinquished after the unique drama of the 2010 WSOP World Championship.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Jonathan Duhamel | Canada | $8,944,310 |
| 2nd | John Racener | United States | $5,545,955 |
| 3rd | Joseph Cheong | United States | $4,130,049 |
| 4th | Filippo Candio | Italy | $3,092,545 |
| 5th | Michael Mizrachi | United States | $2,332,992 |
| 6th | John Dolan | United States | $1,772,959 |
| 7th | Jason Senti | United States | $1,356,720 |
| 8th | Matt Jarvis | Canada | $1,045,743 |
| 9th | Soi Nguyen | United States | $811,823 |
2009 WSOP Main Event 2011 WSOP Main Event
About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.