11 Jan 12

The Daily Rewind: Duhamel Trial, Rousso's Privacy, MGM Injunction

Today we hear the latest in the Jonathan Duhamel robbery case as well as news of a cyber injunction from MGM concerning web domains. Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown have announced the end of their relationship on Twitter and Gus Hansen is winning in Macau.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we bring the following stories to you:

Bail fail for Duhamel robbers while the champ wins again

Yesterday's Montreal Gazette reports that two of the accused in the Jonathan Duhamel home invasion case have been denied bail.

Duhamel's one time girlfriend, Bianca Rojas Latraverse as well as co-accused John Clark, "will stay behind bars throughout the trial."

The judge in the case was quick to express his disgust at the crime committed, labelling it as "heinous, planned, structured and committed in cold blood.”

On a brighter note it seems that Jonathan Duhamel isn't letting the stress of the harrowing ordeal affect the rest of his life.

Last night Duhamel took down the $5000 PCA NL Event for $239,830, overcoming the likes of Jason Mercier and current world champ Pius Heinz on a tough final table to record another chunky score.

It's been a successful week at the tables for the Canadian 2010 WSOP champion who also snared $313,600 for his 4th place in the PCA $100k Super High Roller.

jonathan duhamel
Duhamel letting his poker do the talking


MGM cyber injunction

WPT Magazine today reports that MGM Resorts International "has been granted a preliminary injunction against four individuals and two companies who had registered poker domain names under terms associated with the company from 2002-2005."

Yesterday web hosting firms were ordered to freeze several domain names, all of which are the names of existing MGM casino properties.

The sites blocked are bellagioonlinepoker.com, circuscircuspoker.com, excaliburpoker.com, luxorpoker.com, mgmpoker.com, mandalaybayonlinepoker.com, and ariapoker.com.

MGM filed the case on the basis that the owners of the domains were using MGM brands to gain an unfair advantage and capitalise on a likely soon to be regulated online poker market in the United States.

The world mourns as Vanessa and Chad part ways

Sadly news broke yesterday that that one of the world's great romances is no longer.

Forget Brad and Angelina, Beyonce and Jay-Z or William and Kate. PokerStars Pros Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown have parted ways, having announced the news via Twitter.

Ironically Ms Rousso has asked her 38,925 Twitter followers to "respect our privacy at this time."

v and c
It's GG for Chad and Vanessa


High stakes corner

Over the past 24 hours the action has been ramped up over at PokerStars.

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky and Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond have been at the centre of some juicy $50/$100 PLO games with Sulsky coming out on top, banking a tidy $267,485 for the day.

Galfond and Blom traded blows over a marathon session over over 6000 hands each, with Galfond roughly $20,000 to the good and Blom pocketing an impressive $210,028 according to HSDB. 

Meanwhile over in Macau, Gus Hansen reports in his blog that he has got a seat in the big game, and that he has" just finished a 24 hour session with plenty of big hands." 

BluffEurope indicates that Hansen has fared well so far, and is up somewhere in the region of $2m HKD (roughly £165,000) in the $10k/$20k NL game. We look forward to hearing about some of the hands from Gus.

Signoff of the Day

Today's signoff features a signature play from Tom Dwan.

It's been a while since we've seen the fearless "durrrr" in action so today we hail his mighty balls after running this insane bluff against Sammy George.