World Series of Poker 2010 main event champ Jonathan Duhamel has spoken publicly about being victimized in a harrowing home invasion on Wednesday morning. Duhamel released a statement on his blog thanking all those who’d offered words of support following news reports of the incident. Duhamel confirmed that two men had forced their way into his home, and “after they threatened to kill me I gave them all I had. They then tied me up and beat me, hitting me in the face and all over my body before leaving my house.” While Duhamel stressed that he “did not sustain any major injuries,” he described himself as “black and blue all over but no broken bones, no blood clots, nothing to worry about. Today, I am exhausted, both physically and mentally but I’m happy to be alive.”
Duhamel said the two thieves made off with some €500 notes, which he describes as “quite rare [in Quebec],” but far worse was the loss of Duhamel’s WSOP championship bracelet and the engraved Rolex Submariner watch Duhamel received from sponsor PokerStars following his main event victory. Duhamel said he couldn’t “hide the fact that these two items have a much larger value for me than their commercial value, and I really hope we will be able to retrieve them in a near future.” Anyone with any helpful info is urged to contact the police at 1.450.463.7211.
The World Series of Poker Circuit’s sixth and final event of 2011 wound up in Atlantic City last week, and if current trends continue, the remaining 11 events of the 2011-2012 season could be packed to the rafters. So far, overall participation is up 25% over the same point of the 2010-2011 season, and the overall prize pool is up almost 33% to $12,321,800. The next stop for the WSOP-C is at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles beginning New Year’s Day.
The World Poker Tour Season X has added another stop in Florida. The Lucky Hearts Showdown will get underway Feb. 10 at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. The main event will be a $3,500 buy-in with a Day 1B re-entry option.
Just so we don’t leave any finished tourneys on our books before we close out the year, we can report that Michael Gathy has emerged victorious at the €1,700 buy-in Belgian Poker Series Grand Final 2011. The Belgian native battled through a 538-strong field in the city of Namur to earn €175k for the win. France’s Pascal Junkar was runner-up, earning €105k, while Belgium’s Stéphane Buzzo collected €63k for placing third. Meanwhile, Colburn ‘Rastafish’ Tomlin has won the Dusk Till Dawn Monte Carlo in Nottingham, UK, earning £89k for outlasting his 287 competitors, including runner-up Paul Skipper (£52k) and Triple-Crown winner Jake Cody (£31k), who finished third.
