Home / Poker News May 2010 / Mike McDonald to miss WSOP
Mike McDonald to miss WSOP
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2010-05-27 15:32
If you’re a poker fan, you probably know that professional poker player Mike McDonald (known online as Timex) has vowed a while ago to quit poker or at least to push it way back on his list of priorities. In the wake of his vow though he did show up to play in some live poker events so most railbirds thought that a poker-less summer for McDonald was nothing more than wishful thinking on his part.
It now looks as though Timex does intend to make good on his promise. In the wake of the EPTs Monte Carlo Grand Final, the crème of the poker world turned its attention to the WSOP, even if that meant that many of these players would miss some pretty solid live events like the WPT’s Paris and Barcelona stops. The reasons why McDonald will skip the WSOP this time around may be several though. First of all, it’s easy to decide you’ll skip something you’re not allowed to attend anyway. The 20 years old McDonald is too young to play in this edition of the
WSOP. The points he made in an April blog post on the other hand, made a lot of sense as well.
Despite his tender age, McDonald is a true veteran of the live poker circuit, not to mention the online scene. He won an EPT and he has amassed around $2.2 million in tournament winnings in his relatively short, but stellar poker career.
In the blog post in which he announced his partial retirement from the game, he pointed it out that poker used to be a centerpiece of his life and he felt that it was no longer that. He said he’d lost interest in improving his game, and as such he couldn’t expect to be successful anymore.
His disappointment with
tournament poker had also contributed to his decision. He said he felt that in poker tournaments, the later stages had turned into a coin-toss based contest of luck, and therefore he could find no more motivation to play in such events.
The fact alone that he was not allowed to play in the US because of his age had a negative impact on him too. The constant traveling took a toll on him, and demanded a price he was not ready to pay.
