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EPT event winner 'from poker capital of Canada'

2008-02-07 14:23:27

Mike McDonald, the teenager who recently won the European Poker Tour (EPT) German Open, hails from what one newspaper has called "the poker capital of Canada".

According to the Globe and Mail, the town of Waterloo in Ontario seems to be some kind of breeding ground for successful poker players, with McDonald the fourth player from the area to win more than $500,000 at a tournament in the last two years.

McDonald - who won in the region of $1.4 million - follows Grand Prix de Paris winner (more than $600,000) William Ma and World Poker Finals in Connecticut victor Nenad Medic, who scooped around $1.7 million, according to the paper.

Steve Paul-Ambrose, a University of Waterloo graduate who won $1.3 million from a World Poker Tour Event, pointed to his university education as the secret of his - and the three others' - success.

"Waterloo has always been known for math and engineering," Paul-Ambrose, told the Globe and Mail. "And there's certainly a large math element to poker. The students who are getting introduced to poker here tend to get very good very quickly."

McDonald had to come out on top of 410 other poker players in the five-day EPT German event to take home the prize pot.

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