Geoff Hum Hopes To Keep the Big Run from Montreal Going in Florida

By Sean Chaffin

It’s already been an amazing November for Geoff Hum (pictured). The 30-year-old from Toronto, Ontario, earned a huge win at WPT Montreal including $380,648 in cash, a championship belt, and an entry into the WPT Tournament of Champions. That score also vaulted him to third place in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year points.

That list of accomplishments inspired him to hit the road this weekend to play in the WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open. He’s also enjoyed a nice change in the weather. Back home in Toronto, the high reached only 29 degrees on Saturday.

“I wasn’t planning on coming down here obviously until after Montreal, but when it starts snowing six to eight inches in Canada, the weather makes it a pretty easy decision,” he said at the dinner break. “We had a snowstorm two or three weeks ago. It’s pretty brutal. It’s been a pretty crappy fall, but it’s 80 degrees and sunny right now in Florida so it’ll help make this dinner break a little nicer.”

Hum now has more than $432,000 in live tournament winnings. He is a regular at the Montreal event and WPT Fallsview Poker Classic in Niagara Falls, and the Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open now becomes his first WPT event outside of Canada.

Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Hum graduated from St. Mary’s University in his hometown. While he may have found some nice scores at the poker table, leaving his full-time job in management with the Otis Elevator Company.

“Right now I think playing part-time is the best avenue for me,” he says. “I’m not a dummy to think that poker isn’t getting any easier. For me just to travel around to a few places a year obviously makes the pressure that much less when you know you have a paycheck coming in every two weeks.

“A lot of my friends are professional poker players, so I know how it works with long stretches of run bad and that sort of thing. For me right now, I’m kind of happy doing both.”

Saying that he faced an uphill battle adding his name to the WPT Champions Cup would be quite an understatement. The other five players at the final table collectively had more than $49.1 million in live tournament winnings. That group included: WPT Champions Club member Mike Watson; 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Martin Jacobson; 2017 and 2018 GPI Female Player of the Year Kristen Bicknell; and WSOP bracelet and Circuit ring winner Joseph Cheong.

“Playing against such a tough field is probably something I’ve learned a lot from,” Hum said after the win. “[Day 3] was such a crazy day where I started with 380,000 and I got aces and kings four times in one orbit, which really catapulted me.”

Beyond just picking up nice hands Hum also brought plenty of skill. While battling it out at the final table, he became the star of the show back home at his workplace in Toronto. 

“After Montreal, everyone was super happy and all my coworkers were watching it,” he says. “The following Monday they had the stream up on YouTube in the conference room. It was a pretty good laugh for everyone and obviously awesome for me.”

When not playing poker, Hum enjoys supporting the Toronto Maple Leafs. He grew up playing junior league hockey and still plays once a week as well as mixing in some golf.

His oldest brother played poker professionally for four years during the pre-Black Friday poker boom. Hum sweated him while in college at the time and says his family was generally into any card game.

“When I was at home I’d also kind of be behind the computer screen watching him,” he says. “That was kind of my start.”

When a final table appearance looked to be in the works, Hum flew his girlfriend in for the final table. Another deep run might require booking a last-minute ticket again and using a couple more vacation days – something he’s certainly hoping comes to pass.

“My boss doesn’t really know that I’m here right now actually,” he says laughing. “My boss just thinks I’m off on vacation. Currently I have a flight booked back on for Monday night, but hopefully, I have to delay it.”

Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.