Michael McDonald ‘Timex’ burst onto the poker scene with victory with a $1.3m EPT Dortmund win
When Canadian university student Michael ‘Timex’ McDonald won the PokerStars.com EPT Dortmund in January this year, he became the youngest EPT winner in the tour’s history. But just like WSOP record- breaking winner Annette Obrestad, he was already a poker veteran.
McDonald had been playing since 2004 and had worked his way up from $0.50/$1 limit hold’em games to winning $330,000 in a Paradise Poker tournament in June 2006. He began to study advanced maths at university, but after less than a year the pull of the live tournament circuit became too much.
McDonald took a break and began playing events around the world, and he soon had a breakthrough performance at the Aussie Millions where he made three final tables and won his first event (scoring a total of over $130k). By the time he arrived in Dortmund, McDonald was far from the fresh-faced tournament ingenue he appeared. Despite being just 18 years old he already knew what time it was…
You turned 18 in September 2007. For how long were you playing before that?
I started in late 2004 by trying to get a free poker chipset for playing 250 raked hands. My chess coach had been playing poker successfully and taught me how to beat small-stakes limit hold’em. I continued playing $1/$2 and $2/$4 limits until early 2006.
My chess coach had quit by this time and I had been looking for a new coach when fellow University of Waterloo student Steve Paul-Ambrose won the PokerStars.com Caribbean Adventure in 2006. I approached him and asked him if he’d mind me watching him play some time.
How much did Paul-Ambrose help your game?
We became close friends and he helped me improve at short-handed limit and progress into tournaments. I ran pretty terrific from the start. In my first week of grinding $20 180-man sit&gos I won $5,000 and then had a $10k week the next month. I continued to have a lot of success and had built my bankroll to about $70k by June 2006. In July I decided to play five or six days a week for 10 or 12 hours a day.
I had an awesome month with three $20k scores and tons of wins on Paradise Poker. My success qualified me for a ten-player million- dollar winner-takes-all freeroll, which I eventually chopped three-handed for $330k and went on to win.
Soon after that you hit the non-US live circuit. Was this always your plan?
This had been the plan for three months before I turned 18. After the Paradise win I cut down on my poker for school and didn’t profit substantially in late 2006. But 2007 started awesome and by June I had a large enough bankroll to handle the variance of big live events.
Tell us about your success in the 2008 Aussie Millions…
I chopped one preliminary event, won another [the Poker Pro event which was played on computerised tables] and got top eight in the heads-up event. Everything went well, and of the ten events I was chip- leader at one point in six of them.
You went on to win the EPT Dortmund. How was that and are you playing at a high level to achieve all this so quickly?
I definitely feel as if I’m playing nearly as well as anyone touring the circuit. I don’t think I’m anywhere near playing at the level of the top players but for most of them, travelling for a week for random $10k buy-in events isn’t worth their time.
How did the ‘Timex’ handle come about?
When I signed up for twoplustwo.com I knew I’d often post in threads anonymously and could give away info that I’m under 18, so I didn’t want my name to be similar to my handle at the time (hit21hit). So I picked the first thing that came to mind, looked down at my Timex watch and went with it. Later it became my main handle.
You’ve had some epic ups and downs staking other players. How are you doing overall and are you staking many for the WSOP?
I started staking players because I had a few friends who were capable of beating much tougher tournaments than their bankroll would allow them to enter. I’ve had some pretty big swings. At my high point I believe I was very marginally up by a seven-figure sum from backing, but since then I’m on about a $300k downswing. My biggest wins were from my friend Will Ma who was one of the first people I staked. I won a lot backing him online, then about $350k when he won the Grand Prix de Paris.
I also had 33% of Greg Dyer when he was third in the EPT Barcelona and have had several horses who have had cashes for roughly $200k when I’ve had half. I have five horses for the WSOP.
Tell us about the highs and lows of a travelling player’s lifestyle.
The highlights are definitely doing well in tournaments. In terms of the best places I’ve been to, I enjoyed the Aussie Millions a lot and plan on returning every year. The lowlights for me are hotel life. It’s not that fun being confined, not having a fridge full of food, having to go out to eat, not having a gym nearby and not being familiar with the area.
How much have you made and what have you done with it?
My net worth peaked mid-March at around $3.1 million; now it’s around $2.9m. I bought a town house last summer, but otherwise I don’t spend that much money. I guess it’s pretty weird having so much money at a young age, but I don’t mind!
How did you become a guest pro for CardRunners?
I asked Taylor Caby if I could be an instructor and he said okay. I think CardRunners has a lot of awesome videos and is probably the best way to learn poker without spending too much time on it. I’ve been trying to learn PLO and the videos have helped my game.
Where do you see yourself and poker in ten years’ time?
If I’m still playing I will probably be one of the top ten or 20 players in the world, but I doubt I will. I don’t like the idea of other people improving faster than me and it’s likely I won’t have the motivation to keep improving to be one of the best. There are lots of good mid-stakes cash grinders with a similar skill level to me who will be motivated to improve as they haven’t luckboxed a tournament score and can’t retire just yet!
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