Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald

At only 20 years old Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald already has $2m in live tournament winnings and is the youngest ever winner of an EPT title after his 2008 victory in Dortmund. Although now well established on the live circuit, Timex made his name playing online MTTs. Bursting onto the scene well before his 18th birthday, the Canadian prodigy has over $400k in tournament winnings on PokerStars alone in the last two years and is one of the most respected pros on training site CardRunners. He’s also proven that his EPT win was no fluke, reaching the final table of WPT Venice and nearly making history by being the first player to retain an EPT title – falling just short in fifth place in Dortmund earlier this year.

Barely Legal

There are a couple of very good players from my university in Waterloo (Canada) such as Steve-Paul Ambrose, Matt ‘ch0ppy’ Kay and Aaron Coulthard. I started learning from them by watching them play online every Sunday when I was 16 or 17.

I watched quite a few training videos, talked about hands with my roommates and starting posting on the 2+2 forums. I started playing micro stakes limit Hold’em and eventually made the transition to tournaments. I built my bankroll very slowly in the cash games, but I was very fortunate from the start with tournaments and my bankroll went up very quickly.

Live Beginnings

By the time I was 18 I hadn’t played any live poker but I was still pretty versed in the game so I figured I’d be able to translate that and do well. I started travelling around and played in a lot of the tournaments that 18-year-olds are allowed to play, which meant the EPTs, PCA and the Aussie Millions. I had a nice run at the Aussie Millions (winning a side event) and returned home to Canada for a couple of days before a friend of mine convinced me to play EPT Dortmund.

Vorsprung Durch Technik

I won EPT Dortmund, which is still by far my biggest win to date [$1.37m]. It was pretty exciting to be 18 and win. At the table I’m usually pretty calm and after I won I wasn’t jumping around or anything but I was obviously very pleased. I went into the final table as the chip leader before losing a huge pot when I was a 2-to-1 favourite. That put me back in the middle of the pack before I coolered someone else, won a flip and things started rolling for me.

I made a CardRunners video replaying all the hands I played at EPT Dortmund. I don’t think I learnt a ton from it since I’d already discussed a lot of the hands with friends, but it was definitely more fun than a lot of the training videos I’ve done.

Winning Skills

I’m pretty good at not tilting. I just keep doing what I’m doing but I realise other people might be expecting me to tilt so I might need to tighten up to counteract that. I’m not one to sit back and wait – I’m a fairly maths-oriented player. In live deeper-stack tournaments there aren’t as many maths-based situations as there are online where it’s much more of a push-or-fold game.

When I first started playing online tournaments I wasn’t very good but things went well. A lot of it is knowing when to be patient and when to be aggressive. I also have the ability to quickly get a handle on how unknown players play, sizing them up and making pretty good assumptions. I can also react well to the regulars. I’m pretty sure that a lot of the people I play with all the time don’t have any idea about my game but I think I know a fair bit about theirs. I’m very good at being focused – it’s a big benefit to have.

Hold’em Manager

It’s absurd that it took me so long to start using Hold’em Manager online. It’s an awesome product – I should be a salesperson for them! I always had PokerTracker but Hold’em Manager is just way better. The fact that it’s got all the Fold To 3-bet% and Fold To 4-Bet% stats means it’s much more relevant today.

I wish these tracking programs didn’t exist though. Back when people used PokerTracker I thought it was sweet that it existed as the regulars had a competitive advantage. But now that all the regs use it, it just means it’s so easy to play decently well that you don’t have the big edges on people you could have if they didn’t use those programs.

WSOP Ambitions

I’m not 21 for another year so I’m going to have to miss out on the 2010 WSOP. I do have the WSOPE to look forward to though. Last year I went to Vegas during the WSOP but I decided to stay home this year. It was a combination of my frustration at not being able to play and the fact that there’s not much to do because everyone’s either working or playing in tournaments.