30 Dec 11

The Daily Rewind: Duhamel's Ex Arrested, PokerStars Rake, Big Game at Bellagio

Today we report on the latest in the Jonathan Duhamel robbery saga which has seen his ex girlfriend arrested. There's news on PokerStars rake changes and reports of a huge game running in Bobby's Room at the Bellagio.

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 discovered the following topics for you:

Duhamel's ex among four arrested

News reaches us today that 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel is one step closer towards discovering who was responsible for his harrowing ordeal last week.

The French Canadian star was the victim of a home invasion, beating and robbery after two masked men forced their way into his Quebec home.

After posting a reward earlier this week, members of the public alerted police who have subsequently arrested four people in conjunction with the crime.

It is reported that Duhamel's ex-girlfriend, 20 year old Bianca Rojas-Latraverse is one of the suspects charged.

Duhamel's agent Philippe Jette has expressed his relief, admitting "we are very, very, very happy that the investigation moved so quickly".

Anyone seen my WSOP bracelet?

PokerStars rake changes

For those of you that aren't aware, PokerStars have made some changes to their rake model which will be implemented in January 2012.

PokerStars are changing the way rake is calculated from 'dealt' to 'weighted contributed' in ring games. Find out what this all means in our article here.

Big game going down in Bobby's Room

2011 has seen some huge changes for poker. Many top pros have been forced to rethink their careers following Black Friday, and the high stakes action has dried up considerably.

Gus Hansen reported a couple of weeks back that the games nowadays are a fraction of what they were 12 months ago, but he'll be pleased to know that Bobby's Room at the Bellagio is currently running a $1,000/$2,000 NLH game.

Players rumoured to be sitting are Scott Seiver, David Oppenheim, Todd Brunson and Jonas Lindlof. Seiver tweeted about the experience: "One thing I learned tonight, 1k-2k nl is a big ******* game".

Scott Seiver and his game face

High stakes corner

Aside from the big live action going down in the Bellagio, yesterday saw the return of Viktor "Isildur1" Blom to the high stakes PLO tables at PokerStars and his reappearance didn't disappoint.

Blom's longterm nemesis and current yearly HSDB leader Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies locked horns with the super aggressive Swede over several $50/$100 PLO tables and the result was a bloodbath.

According to HSDB, Blom emerged a $492,571 winner for the past 24 hours, winning almost exclsuively from Sahamies who will be licking his wounds after dropping $428,316 in just 1092 hands. We look forward to the next episode with a great deal of anticipation.

WAG of the day

Today's WAG (wife or girlfriend) features the wife of Erick "E-Dog" Lindgren, Erica.

The couple have recently had their first baby and are one of poker's most well-known partnerships.