In poker, Jonathan Duhamel likes to bluff.
This confidence in court on behalf of a former world champion of poker will not surprise anyone.
In his tax dispute, the court must however determine which of the two Jonathan Duhamels is bluffing: the multimillionaire world champion of 2010-2011 or the poker retiree of 2021 who has trouble with the tax authorities.
The Jonathan Duhamel of the early 2010s described himself as a talented professional poker player. He argued that a good player could make his own luck if he adopted the right strategies. “Chance is not decisive [au poker] », Wrote Jonathan Duhamel in his book Cards on table, published in 2011. “My life is poker,” he wrote. My goal is to consistently rank among the best [dans les tournois]. I am no different from professional athletes and musicians. The more you practice, the better you become. ”
However, the Jonathan Duhamel of 2021 says quite the opposite: he played only for fun, poker is only a game of luck, and he was a particularly lucky champion.
What about his statements from 2010 and 2011 on his status as a professional player, his poker talent, the importance of his strategies? All that was “not true”, tried to explain Jonathan Duhamel Wednesday morning during his testimony in court. Rather, it represented the “brand image” and “speech” of PokerStars, its sponsor at the time.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Jonathan Duhamel was sponsored by PokerStars for five years.
So which Jonathan Duhamel – the one of 2011 or 2021 – is bluffing? This is a crucial issue in this litigation.
If the Tax Court of Canada finds that Mr. Duhamel was only lucky and that he accidentally won this money like any Sunday player, he will not pay tax on his poker winnings. Winnings from a game of chance are not taxable in Canada.
But if the court finds that Mr. Duhamel was a professional gambler carrying on a business, he will have to pay tax on the profits of that business, regardless of how they were earned. The bill for the dispute is estimated at $ 1 million in federal taxes between 2010 and 2012. Revenu Québec could in turn request a similar sum.
” That [faisait] part of the character ”
During his cross-examination on Wednesday, Jonathan Duhamel explained that from his World Series victory in 2010, he played a “character” on behalf of PokerStars, an online poker site that sponsored him for five years. . A sponsorship which amounted to 1 million US per year in 2011.
His “character”: a professional poker player who can win thanks to his talent, his experience and his perseverance. Just like professional athletes. ” That [faisait] part of the character, he said in court on Wednesday. It goes with the speech of PokerStars [voulant que] poker is like a sport, the more you practice, the better you will be. But this is not true. Every PokerStars spokesperson had a speech like this. PokerStars met with us several times a year to tell us [quel était] the message. ”
Jonathan Duhamel spent several hours of his cross-examination explaining that several excerpts from his book Cards on table (written with a ghost writer) are grossly exaggerated or outright wrong.
In 2011, he compared poker games to “marathons […] very exhausting physically and mentally ”. That’s why he had to go to bed early and try to relax during his tournaments. Wrong, he said today. “We celebrated a lot [lors des voyages de poker], sometimes until 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. even if we were playing at noon. He did agree, however, that he had been fairly disciplined during the World Series in 2010.
A chapter of his book entitled “A computer in the head” is devoted to the mathematics of poker. He told the opposite on Wednesday in court. “I am a human being,” not a computer, he said, arguing that poker odds calculations are relatively simple and accessible to everyone.
In 2010, Mr. Duhamel made net poker winnings of CAN 4.8 million from his World Series victory (he had won US $ 8.9 million, but traded 46% of his purse before the start of the tournament and had to pay US taxes). From 2011 to 2018, he made net poker winnings of 1.3 million CAN (excluding sponsorships), mainly thanks to a 2.4 million gain at a tournament benefiting the One Drop Foundation in 2015. Au total, this gives him net winnings of 6.1 million between 2010 and 2018. He has not played poker for three years.