MONTREAL—World poker champion Jonathan Duhamel says he was tied up, beaten in the face and head and told he was going to be killed.

A day after a brutal home invasion, Duhamel has posted a statement on his website saying he feels lucky to be alive.

"Two men broke into my house and I was physically assaulted and robbed," Duhamel wrote on his website. "After being threatened with death and having given them everything I had, I was bound and hit repeatedly in the face and body before my attackers left."

Duhamel said he's hurting all over but he didn't sustain any major injuries. He is upset, however, that the robbers took his World Series of Poker champion's bracelet.

Also stolen was a Rolex Submariner watch given to him by his sponsor PokerStars to mark his feat. Both items were engraved with his name and the date of his triumph.

"I won't deny that these two items have a value much larger than money to me, and I hope with all my heart that we will be able to recover them in the near future," Duhamel wrote.

Police detectives on Montreal's south shore were meeting with Duhamel, 24, on Thursday to get more information about the attack a day earlier.

Duhamel became internationally known in 2010 when he won $8.9 million in a poker tournament in Las Vegas. The professional poker player became the first Canadian to win the Main Event at the World Series of Poker.

Longueuil police spokesman Constable Patrick Barriere said Thursday investigators are considering that Duhamel was targeted. Of the stolen cash, some was in Canadian currency while some of it consisted of euros, in the form of 500 euro notes.

Last January, Duhamel won the high-roller event at the European Poker Tour, taking home more than $270,000 and later won more than $40,000 at the World Series of Poker, bringing his total winnings so far to more than $9.5 million.

The woman, apparently, is Duhamel's ex.

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