Seat 2: Mike McDonald -- 4,650,000
Mike McDonald enters the final table second in chips at 4.65 million, trailing only his good friend Dan Smith. Yesterday on Day 2, McDonald built and built, knocking a few players out throughout the day's play including John Juanda and Anatoly Gurtovoy.
Hailing from Waterloo, Ontario, McDonald may be better known to all of you as "Timex." In 2008, he became the youngest player ever to win a European Poker Tour title by taking down the EPT Dortmund for $1,370,161 at the age of 18. McDonald nearly went back to back after having placed fifth in the same event the following year. In 2010, McDonald took third in the EPT Deauville Main Event for over $400,000.
He also has cashed in various events such as the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Aussie Millions, Canadian Open Poker Championship, World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.
In 2011, McDonald made his first WSOP final table in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha - Six Handed event. He went on to finish in sixth place for $73,965. He continued to have a strong year and went on to win the Epic Poker League's second event for over $780,000. This year at the recent WSOP, McDonald cashed five times and made one final table.
In total, McDonald boasts a career live tournament record of over $4.2 million. He currently sits ninth on Canada's All-Time Money List. By making this final table, McDonald has already guaranteed himself to jump ahead of Scott Montgomery into eighth place on that list and could climb as high fourth if he were to win the event. McDonald is also 19th for total number of cashes from his country with 37.