Once
again, meeting Mike McDonald was one of those situations were someone
"knew a guy" that I may find cool. Well, I'm about 100%
certain Mike fits my definition of someone who's pretty cool. Not to
mention someone with a super nice condo and a nicer yellow
Lamborghini, but life isn't about the material things right...?
Anyway! This guy is only 23 years old and to this day has earned
over $4734563.00, by himself.. in words, that's four
million seven hundred thirty-four thousand five hundred sixty-three
dollars. Now,
that's not some secret income I shouldn't be telling you, I happened
to read it on the internet actually. After all, every poker star has
to have his prize money listed somewhere, even the young Michael
McDonald.
The
McDonald home, I was told, was a game filled environment, but never a
poker filled one. When Mike was about 15 though, he found poker
elsewhere. Like myself, he didn't really want to get a job, and he
saw that some of his older friends were making more than minimum wage
with online poker. Since he was a fast learner (seeing as he started
university at age 16, I guess fast learner is really accurate), he
felt he would give it a try. He turned to some of the older friends
to help teach him, as well as his competitive chess coach. After a
while, it seemed that this young chess player may instead go
somewhere with cards, so the end came for the competitive chess days.
Probably a good move, no offence to my chess instructor brother.
Mike
started playing poker in a time when a lot of other young players
were getting into the game, allowing the sport to grow to new levels.
Amateur players started getting big prize pools, and more lucrative
to others, television time. Although some believed they could hop in
with big prizes right away, Mike started out with small stakes
online, this was doubly needed since none of his other 15 year old
friends considered, well, gambling. Being so young, he didn't really
have many personal expenses, slowly detaching himself from the
rewards of his success. I on the other hand at age 15 was probably
doing nothing, or reading Harry Potter. I had wondered how he was
even able to get an online poker account at such a young age anyway,
then I found out he simply became his father. His credit card
information, his name, and his picture on the account. Genius. There
were some rules with this though, including Mike needing to do all of
his homework before he could play poker, and he could go and talk to
his dad if he lost all of his allowance instead of mope.
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Mike McDonald, photo by Victoria Alexander
When Mike was in grade
12, he had his first big win (keeping in mind grade 12 for Mike was
about age 16). This was back in 2006, when I was a kind of dorky,
awkward grade 6 six kid. Similar in fact to myself now seven years
later, but that's for another day. Mike had heard of this guy from
the University of Waterloo who entered a tournament in the Bahamas
and ended up winning over a million dollars, the excitement rose when
he found out this winner posted on the same poker forum as him. Over
the next few days Mike started writing a message to this guy, “longer
than any essay I've ever written for school”, as to why this guy
should meet 16 year old Mike and quite frankly, teach Mike his
skills. As I would be, this guy was a little nervous and didn't know
how to reply. The guys girlfriend thought Mike could turn stalkerish,
and the guys best friend thought it would be funny to invite the 16
year kid over to the dorm. He listened to the friend, and a powerful
poker bond was formed. Anyway, the first big win...
One day Mike ended up
winning $500 (in just that day), which was big for him at the time.
“At the time..”, I wish I could have $500 today... but as I was
saying, a good day. Then, his two new friends saw a tournament with a
$250 dollar buy in, which Mike had never done before (it was high for
him at the time). Nervous to lose his successes of the day, he didn't
want to enter, but eventually his friends talked him into it and they
said that if any of them won, it would be split evenly. Eventually
Mike cracked and entered, shortly after, he lost. Then the friend who
won big in the Bahamas also got out fairly early, things weren't
looking good. It just so happened though that friend number three
ended up placing in third place, with a total payout of $16000,
making Mike's 500 dollar day a $5500 day, at age 16. His career came
rapid fire from there.
Mike McDonald (left) and I, photo by Victoria Alexander
That summer
Mike won entry to a ten player tournament were 10th to 2nd
place would win $10000, and first place would win a million dollars.
Of course you would think everyone would just agree to split the pot
right away and leave with just over $100000 a piece, but rules said
such a deal couldn't be made until the final three. Understandable,
Mike didn't get much sleep that week from the nerves, this game could
change his life forever. Hours into the game, with his father
encouraging him behind his shoulder, Mike was in second place with
three people left. The group decided to split, and Mike walked away
with $230000, I think that summer I spent most days playing RISK the
board game. That was the second, early defining moment. Remember
though, at this point Mike was still pretty desensitized from the
money, since he didn't really have any expenses. So 16 year old Mike
went into university with a net worth of about $400000 (at that age,
mine was probably about $25), and hoped to keep it a secret. He still
planned on getting a co-op type job he hoped would pay about $16 an
hour, and blend in with the crowd. The secret came out though, the
“young baby-faced kid” was a professional poker player, earning
him the (then inaccurate) nickname “Mike the Millionaire”.
Funnily enough, the
deciding game to millionaire status wasn't even a game he played.
Mike taught one of his university roommates poker, but slowly
realized that this guy may be better than the level he was playing
at. Mike decided to invest in him to play a tournament, it just so
happened his friend entered the wrong one.
A mistake that would actually be a blessing. This guy won big,
and won entrance into a European Poker League game which he ended up
winning, in fact becoming the youngest person to win a EPL
tournament. The thing is, Mike had a hold on a fair bit of the prize
money, being the original investor. Enough to make Mike a millionaire
(say that five times fast...) before he was even old enough to
legally play the game. I qualify that as a major success.
The day Mike finally
played his first live game was literally the first day he could, his
18th birthday. On the first day Mike was legally an adult,
he was in Europe playing poker in the World Series of Poker. A month
or two later was his first European Poker League tournament, and
shortly after that he stole the title his friend had won, and become
the youngest European Poker League winner ever, a title he still
holds. This win also added $1.4 million dollars to his pocket.. at
age 18.. I think I have about $1.40 right now.
Although his father
has always been supportive, this win won over his mother. After this
tournament his mother started her own pokerstars account and learned
a lot more than she ever had before. It seemed that although Mike was
big before, it was two factors that people used to determine if he
was “a professional”. One being television time, the other being
playing against a celebrity. The curiosity tugged at me so I had to
ask Mike which celebs he's faced. He causally dropped the names of
multi-Olympic champion Michael Phelps, award-winning rapper Nelly and
actor Don Cheadle (from Iron Man two & three and Hotel Rwanda).
After his first year of university, he dropped to focus on playing
high stakes, live games.
Nowadays, Mike puts in
about 15-20 hours a week of playing poker when he's in town, and
about 60 hours a week when he's away, averaging just under a
full-time job in time commitment. His prize money now is an
incredible $4.7 million dollars, and he's far from done playing.
Honestly though, I was glad to hear that Mike didn't want to do this
his whole life, glad he's keeping his options open. In the future
some ideas have floated around such as stock trader, company
investment, and possibly even a company of his own. Good ideas there
Mike, I'm sure your mom is glad to hear them!
After a fun time
meeting Mike, I got to sit in the shiny yellow Lamborghini, which was
awesome. We went for lunch with my photographer Victoria, and the
conversation turned to such diverse subjects as Hermione Granger (and
actress Emma Watson), the Planet Mars, and life force from fresh
fruit and veggies (all three of us questioned the legitimacy). Final
analysis, Mike McDonald is a really cool guy, and if he ever wins a
World Series of Poker, I expected to see his WSOP Bracelet, it would
make feel like a champion by default.
Mike very nicely letting me sit in his Lamborghini, Photo by Victoria Alexander
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