Russian player Leonid Bilokur may have denied Jonathan Duhamel the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller crown, but Duhamel’s $634k payday for finishing second capped off an extraordinary run in the Bahamas. The 2010 World Series of Poker main event champ started with a fourth place finish at the Super High Roller event worth $313k, then a fifth place at a $5k NLHE turbo side event worth almost $18k, followed by a win at another $5k NL side event worth almost $240k, finally capping off his PCA run with his runner-up High Roller. Four final tables and over $1.2m in earnings. As Duhamel himself tweeted, “guess I cant complain, amazing 2 weeks in the Bahamas!!! #rollin’ “
Duhamel’s PCA triumph is even sweeter given he closed out 2011 on the receiving end of a vicious beatdown during a robbery orchestrated by his ex-girlfriend. But if an AIM chat German pro Martin Finger had with a friend is accurate, the hits just keep on coming. In the transcript posted to the 2+2 forums, Finger claimed that he and Duhamel had got into a verbal tussle at a PCA PokerStars party, which resulted in Finger being ejected. Finger then waited outside on the street for Duhamel to emerge, and when the French Canadian stepped onto the pavement, the German punched Duhamel in the face.
Duhamel subsequently told QuadJacks.com’s Marco Valerio that while he may have been “a little bit” drunk at the Stars’ party, he hadn’t been looking for trouble, particularly as he’d never really spoken to Finger prior to that evening. Duhamel confirmed that Finger had “sucker punched” him outside the bar, and that Finger immediately ran away before an “angry like hell” Duhamel could retaliate. Duhamel maintains that he has no idea why Finger chose to engage in this “pretty stupid” behavior, but suggested that “the world is full of stupid people, and we just have to deal with it.” Just don’t mention the war…
On the plus side, Duhamel appears to have made it home with his winnings, unlike three US college students who tried to sneak their $26k of poker money past the eyes of US officials at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas. The trio had staked a few friends playing in the PCA, one of which had cashed. Alerted by the visible ‘sweating’ of the youngest member of the trio, the authorities didn’t have to press too hard to get the 18-year-old to cough. The trio pled guilty to falsely declaring the amount of money in their possession to an officer of the US. They were neither fined nor imprisoned, because, as Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell observed, “the confiscation of funds is punishment enough.” D’oh…
