Yorky Pud

The former partner of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel has been informed she will remain in police custody until she and three men are tried for their part in the robbery of Duhamel in the week before Christmas. As yet no date has been set for the trial.

On December 21 news began circulating around the poker community that Duhamel had been robbed at his condo in Boucherville. At first details were sketchy at best but then more information was added and it became apparent that Duhamel had been bound and severely beaten whilst the robbers sifted through his possessions before they made off with $100,000 in cash, a personalised black Rolex Submariner watch and Duhamel's WSOP Main Event winner's bracelet.

Thankfully Duhamel escaped from the ordeal with nothing but a few cuts and bruises and just nine days after the savage attack the local authorities had found and arrested four people on connection with the robbery, amongst them Bianca Rojas-Latraverse who just so happened to be the former partner of Duhamel. She, AndreRobert-Perron, John-Stephen Clark-Lemay and Anthony Bourque were hauled in by the police and although the Rolex watch was recovered the money and the priceless bracelet still have not been found.

A report in the Montreal Gazette reveals that both Bourque and Robert-Perron were released on police bail on Tuesday but bail had been denied for Duhamel's ex-girlfriend and Clark-Lemay because the authorities believe the risk of a second offence is substantial and neither party has what is considered a stable base where they could stay.

Each of the foursome now faces a lengthy prison sentence, especially Bourque and Clark-Lemay who face eight and seven charges respectively. Both Rojas-Latraverse and Robert-Perron face five charges each of kidnapping, conspiracy, breaking and entering, assault and batter and grand larceny. The assault charge alone carries a maximum jail sentence of five years whilst kidnapping carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The judge in the case, Judge Pierre Belisle has said that Rojas-Latraverse was the “mastermind” behind the heist and that “the crime was heinous, planned, structured and committed in cold blood,” before adding that “as the conspirator, she has to take responsibility for her actions.”

One of my personal, non-poker New Year's resolutions is to organise my time better than I usually so I have taken to using electronic post-it notes on my laptop screen. It's a smart little program that, as you would expect, displays little yellow post-it notes which I can write on. Sounds cack I know but they are effective as hell.

At the start of each day I create a note for every client I have and write on whatever work I need to do for them. As I complete a task I delete it and the plan is by the end of each day my screen is clear of post-it notes and I am a happy Pudding. Unfortunately it rarely works like that and I have a number of personal tasks still to complete, one of which I never managed to cross off yesterday that read “Update Betfair blog.”

I had already mentally visualised what and how I was going to say in the update that never was during the course of the day and was quite looking forward to my brag of winning more than five buy-ins in around 1,200 hands playing Pot Limit Omaha cash games but it appears the Poker Gods (amen) caught wind of my forthcoming brag and decided to kick me square in the knackers and almost put me back onto square one.

The reason I never got around to updating my blog at the planned time was because it was after 19:30 and I decided to play some poker instead, silly me. The blog could wait. My session didn't start off on the best foot, missing a nut flush draw and rivering a second-best two pair to lose 16 or so BB, thankfully I played it like a passive fish. The Poker Gods the continued to set me up against gimps playing from a 30-55 big blind stack in pots where I simply had to call and ultimately lose, before something inside awoke and a fantastic idea was born.

“Hey Pud,” the little voice quizzed from inside my dense head, “How about you play like a complete donk for the last 30 minutes of your session? You could make ridiculously bad hero calls and pay off people like you are poker's biggest philanthropist. How's that sound?” Obviously I did not answer because that would make me a little crazy so I just did as the voices said because that is perfectly normal.

Jesus Christ I played badly. Oh hello there Mr I play 75% of my hands who has just check-called the flop and turn and has now lead into me when the flush draw comes in. I call with my chuffing ten-high flush, have my cash, go on take it. Oh hello there massively draw heavy board. What the world's most passive donkey in the history of submissive **** has started betting like mad. Here you go have some of my bankroll as I only have bottom set but I call anyway. I think you get the picture.

To cut a long story short I played the grand total of 291 hands and managed to leave 416 big blinds at the felt. What a great result that is! Thankfully I had run hotter than a McDonald's hot chocolate the previo0us five days and was up more than five buy-ins so I'm still up for 2012 as a whole but if I play like that again I certainly won't be. The month to date has seen me play 1,672 hands of PLO and I am up the kingly sum of $16.60, not as nice as at the start of yesterday but profit is profit at the end of the day. Tonight should see me jump back into the saddle at some point and I am contemplating entering a tournament or three as I've not tortured myself enough this past week so feel like taking part in poker's very own version of S&M.

Until next time, thanks for reading and don't make hero calls in PLO cash games!

The final table of the World Poker Tour Ireland has been reached and it is Dave “Dubai” Shallow who is on course to become the second WPT champion in recent months, following in the footsteps of James “Flushy” Dempsey who took down the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December.

Thanks to a massive hand on the final table bubble, Shallow takes an overwhelming chip lead into the last day of play, in fact he has more than 60% of the chips in play! The hand in question came during Level 26 of play just after four O'clock in the morning with the players looking very weary indeed. Shallow opened to 85,000 from early position (blinds 20,000/40,000/5,000a) and his raise sparked some real fireworks.

First Steven Moreau three-bet to 220,000 then Shaun Conning moved all-in for 900,000 and Shallow re-shoved for 2,400,000! Moreau snap-called and proudly displayed pocket aces, which were in great shape against the queens of Conning and the jacks of Shallow. The 10s-9d-7c flop kept the bullets in front but the Js on the turn gifted Shallow the most unlikely of leads. The 4c on the river completed the hand, both Conning and Moreau were sent to the rail and the final table was set.

That double elimination means today's final table will start with just five players instead of the usual six. As mentioned Shallow has a massive chip advantage as he holds 6,115,000 of the 10,140,000 chip in play and is the odds-on favourite to walk away with the WPT Ireland title. Still in with a shout, though with plenty of work to do, are Steve Watts (1,345,000 chips), Patrik Vestlin (1,070,000), Charles Chattha (835,000) and Ronan Gilligan (775,000).

You can never take anything for granted in poker but if Shallow is not crowned a WPT Champion by the time the Main Event comes to a conclusion then shocked will not even come close to describe how we will be feeling. Each of the five hopefuls went to bed safe in the knowledge they would be leaving Dublin with €39,270 in their back pocket but for one of them, probably Shallow, will return home with the €202,680 first place prize, a $25,000 seat to the WPT World Championship, a replica of the Champions Cup and a solid silver WPT card protector.

WPT Ireland Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Steve Watts: 1,345,000
Seat 2: Patrik Vestlin: 1,070,000
Seat 3: Charles Chattha: 835,000
Seat 4: David Shallow: 6,115,000
Seat 5: Ronan Gilligan: 775,000

The inaugural World Poker Tour Ireland Main Event reached the money places in the early hours of Saturday morning and the man who bagged and tagged the most chips of any other player was the Betfair regular Dave “Dubai” Shallow.

Shallow ended Day 2 with a colossal stack of 951,000 chips, almost 80,000 more than his nearest rival Frenchman Franck Boyer on 873,000. The 28-year old former law student is famed for crushing heads-up sit 'n'go tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $500 to $5,000 but by the time this weekend comes to an end he could be better-known as being a World Poker Tour champion.

Despite his huge success online Shallow has so far failed to reproduce the same form on the live circuit. According to his Hendon Mob profile Shallow has just $36,406 in live tournament winnings, his largest score being for £7,000 and his last cash being in June of 2009 but that is all set to change when this tournament finishes on Sunday. That is because Shallow has now locked up €5,550 for his efforts and if he makes it through to the six-handed final table he will be guaranteed to walk away with no less than €31,120.

At the start of Day 2 the eyes of the media did not know where to look as there was a whole host of household names amongst the 195 players but one by one they lost their chips and headed to the rail. The likes of Andy Black, Toby Lewis, Kara Scott, Mclean Karr, James Dempsey, Jon Kalmar, Sam El Sayed, Leo Margets, Marvin Rettenmaier, and the Day 1 chip leader Dave Callaghan all busted out before the money bubble burst.

The bubble was popped almost as soon as it was due to begin at just after 0100 in the morning. Just as hand-for-hand was about to start Oliver Nilsson and the aforementioned Boyer were all in on a 10h-9h-7h flop, Boyer holding 9s9d against the Js8s of his opponent that had flopped a straight. The dealer put out the 2s on the turn followed by the 2h on the river which improved a stunned Boyer to a full house and he saw his stack swell to 873,000. During all the commotion David Prince was also eliminated and the tournament director brought an end to proceedings with the TV screens around the room displaying “36 players remaining.”

The players will return to their seats inside the Citywest Hotel at 1400 this afternoon and will play down to the six-handed final table. Although most of the so-called big names or on their way back home there are still some very well respected players in the field. Keep an eye on Stuart Fox, Shaun Conning, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jan Larsen, snooker player Ken Doherty, Ross Boatman, Dermot Blain, Charles Chatta, Sam Macdonald and “Little” Dave Nicholson.

WPT Ireland Top 5 Chip Counts

1st: David Shallow: 951,000
2nd: Franck Boyer: 873,000
3rd: Steve Watts: 628,000
4th: William Dorey: 576,000
5th: Charles Harvey: 567,000

The inaugural World Poker Tour Ireland Main Event kicked off yesterday afternoon and the organisers were slightly worried about the potential turnout with the 2012 PCA festival getting under way on the exact same day but any fears they had were soon calmed as literally hundreds of players passed through the doors of the Citywest Hotel in Dublin to participate in the first WPT of the year.

By the time registration had come to close a total of 338 poker players had exchanged €2,500 for 30,000 tournament chips making this event one of the best attended European-based WPT Main Events in recent times. Amongst these 338 entrants were some of Britain and Europe's finest players who decided to give the PCA a swerve including Sam Trickett, James Akenhead, John Eames, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Matt Perrins and WSOPE bracelet winner Scott Shelly. However none of those young men managed to navigate through the minefield of Day 1 and all were seen heading to the rail at some point during the nine 60-minute levels that were played.

One man who certainly made it through the first day's play unscathed was the Dublin-based pro David Callaghan who ended the day with an impressive stack containing 186,900. Callaghan only entered this event on a whim and it will possibly be his only No Limit Hold'em event of the year because he is a Pot Limit Omaha specialist. Anyone looking at his Hendon Mob profile will see Callaghan has 18 cashes in major tournaments of which 13 were earned playing PLO. At the start of this event the Irishman had $443,268 in live tournament cashes and that will easily exceed half a million dollars should he go all the way and take down WPT Ireland.

Callaghan is experienced enough to realise that this tournament is far from over as there are still 195 players who have chips in front of them and some of those who are still in contention are extremely talented players indeed. Looking down the official end of day chip counts one finds the likes of Andy Black, 2007 WSOP Main Event final table member Jon Kalmar, the hyper-aggressive former WPT Amneville champion Sam El Sayed, Jack Ellwood, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Jake Cody, Toby Lewis, Mclean Karr, Kara Scott, Marvin Rettenmaier, James Dempsey and James Sudworth!

The 195 surviving players will return to their seats knowing the have to make it to the final 36 players if they are wanting to receive any money for their efforts on the Emerald Isle. Place 28-36 will take home €5,550 and the prize money gradually increases until the unofficial nine-handed final table is reach, at which point the jumps in payouts become more severe. Ninth place is worth €12,600 but by the time the official six-handed final table is set the prize money will be €31,120. The eventual winner will walk away with €202,680 and a $25,000 seat to the WPT World Championship in their back pocket. Will it be Callaghan who emerges the WPT Ireland champion or will he be overtaken by one of the more household names still in the chasing pack? Only time will tell and we will bring you updates of the action until the tournament is completed late on Sunday.

Christmas is now well and truly over, and in most cases the tree and assortment of decorations have been taken down and stored away the loft and all that is left, finally, of the enormous turkey is the stripped carcass. Now the festivities have been completed it is time to get back to the business of major live poker tournaments, the first of which kicks off today at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.

In recent years the World Poker Tour has started to live up to its name by becoming a global entity. It is no longer like the World Series in baseball where only American teams pick up a bat and ball, it now spreads far and wide dropping anchor in an number of different locations such as Venice, Barcelona, Paris and today for the first time ever Dublin.

The inaugural WPT Ireland Main Event kicks off today and if the tournaments that have been held in Dublin in the past are anything to go by then it has all the makings of being an fantastic event and more than worthy of kicking off the 2012 live poker calendar. At just €2,500 (10% withheld) the buy-in is one of the lowest on the WPT and that alone should attract scores of people to the capital city of the Emerald Isle, despite the horrendous winds the UK & Ireland are facing right now.

As mentioned, historically major events held in Ireland have been very well attended and there are high hopes for WPT Dublin despite the 2012 PCA starting today and the Aussie Millions in a week's time. Last year UKIPT Dublin saw 718 players take part, the Irish Poker Festival attracted 569 runners whilst the popular Irish Open Main Events regularly see more than 600-650 players participating in them.

If the various Facebook pages and twitter feeds are anything to go by then a number of well-known and respected poker players from the UK and Europe have decided to hop the short flight, or even ferry in some cases, to the land famous for its partying and ****ss. Amongst those who we will be keeping our eye on over the next week including John Eames, Marvin Rettenmaier, Matt Perrins, Nick Abou Risk and the Triple Crown winner Jake Cody.

The tournament gets under way at 1400 and late registration is open for the first six 60-minute levels. Anyone wanting to take part should be aware that unlike other European-based WPTs this is not a re-entry event and there is only one starting day so if you do not play today then you simply do not play! We will bring you updates on the action throughout the week here on the Betfair Poker blog.

Just like a large number of people will have done I have made a number of New year's resolutions that I am hoping are going to help transform my life both at and away from the poker table. Some are related directly to poker, others to my work and some to my health. All though, it seems, are interlinked in one way or another.

This year I have set absolutely no goals when it comes to numbers of hands played, number of tournaments entered or profit made. By the time December 31 comes back around I will have played however many hands or tournaments that I have managed to fit in and I will have made or lost a certain amount of money. Volume and profit based goals are extremely counterproductive for me and are one of the reasons I have chopped and changed games, disciplines and sites so often in my career, and I use that in the loosest possible terms.

For 2012 I have set myself a number of poker goals but they are about becoming a better player, which I guess in turn would naturally see me play more poker and make more money. One of my poker goals for this year are to only play poker when I want to not just when I have time to play. This has been a problem of mine for as long as I can remember. So often I have found myself logging on and sitting down, in the virtual sense, and playing poker just because I had half hour to spare. During the next 12 months I am only going to play poker when I actually want to, when I am fired up and ready to play the best I can.

Another poker goal is to not play poker after consuming any alcohol at all, even a solitary glass. Someone on Two Plus Two said this was something they implemented last year and it was the best thing they ever did. They created a rule whereby they had to have gone to bed and slept before they played any poker if they had had a beer, glass of wine or whatever. Drinking whilst playing is my biggest leak by far and if I am honest drinking full stop is my biggest life leak but more on that in another blog. We are only four days into the month but I have stayed dry and on each of those days I have played poker, enjoyed it and remembered it! My sample size is meaningless but so far the signs are good.

Poker resolution three is to ensure that absolutely everything I do at the felt has reasoning behind it, something that may seem ridiculous to some but all too often I have found myself on autopilot and literally clicking buttons.  This is partly down to drinking when playing but also because I have been playing 4-8 tables and relying completely on my HUD but the last three sessions I have played, all Pot Limit Omaha, I have only played on two tables and every time I have either folded, called or raised I have done so with reasoning behind it. It may be the wrong thought process, who knows, but I am actually thinking about poker again and that can only be a good thing.

Last but not least, especially as I haven't wrote these down in any particular order, is studying the game at least once a day. I will be doing this by either reading a couple of chapters of a book, going through hands that I have played or discussing hands and theory on forums or with friends. Along with boozing whilst grinding I have also become lazy when it comes to studying and if that happens the game starts to first catch you up then completely overtake you and when you start getting left behind it is extremely difficult to catch back up.

I'll be back either at the end of the week or the very start of next as one of my non-poker resolutions is to keep this blog updated more regularly and rediscover my passion for writing and telling stories! As always thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

First of all happy New Year to the six people who read this blog and the three who stumble across these pages by accident whilst looking how to cook the perfect Yorkshire Puddings. I really hope 2012 turns out to be everything you want it to be and more.

I actually hate the whole New Year's eve débâcle, it really winds me up and gets on my nerves. I like a drink as much as the next man, probably more if I am honest but I cannot stand how everyone feels the need to go out and get wrecked and be nice to people they actually secretly cannot stand the sight of just because it is the end of another calendar year. That plus the robbing chuffing pubs and clubs that charge £30 just to get in and then taxi drivers charge you £25 for a £6 journey. In my opinion it is the second biggest rip off after Valentines Day.

My New Year's eve was spent at home with the kids in bed, the Mrs, a big fat curry and few tinnies. We watched The King's Speech, the Mrs fell asleep on the sofa with the kitten practically laid on her head and I played a couple of hours of the excellent Batman: Arkham City whilst the rest of the world were busy being pissed up and fake. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed The King's Speech because it is not really the kind of film I would usually watch but I am glad I watched it and would recommend it to everyone.

Last night I played my first poker session of 2012 and I am pleased to report that I actually got off to a winning start, albeit a small one. It took me just over two hours to play 303 hands of $0.05/$0.10 Six-max Pot Limit Omaha and I profited to the tune of $2.26, which means at this current win rate I will be able to retire like never! I should be happy with my 22bb profit because I was actually $15 and change down at one point then went almost $11 up. The reason for the big swings was not to do with the dreaded variance that everyone speaks of but the fact that I am actually pretty garbage, it seems, at PLO! But that is something I will be looking to change in the coming weeks and possibly months.

I've only played around 12,000 hands lifetime of PLO cash which is literally nothing in the grand scheme of things so I am still most certainly learning this crazy game but so far it has been fun. Last night saw me in at least five spots where I did not have a clue what the best course of action was meant to be and I also called off with the second nut flush draw which we all know is a no-no and managed to run into flopped quads when I hit the nut full house on the river but it is all gravy. Over the next few weeks I plan to read the two Jeff Hwang books and the Tri Nguyen PLO books I have and those, coupled with logging some volume for once, should see me on the right path.

Talking of reading I have started to read a book called The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow after seeing Phil Laak mention it in his blog. I've only got through the first few pages but so far it seems really interesting so I will be ploughing through that whenever I go for a dump or jump in the bath. One of my New Year resolutions is to read more, at least a book per month, and as you can tell from the fact I read in the bath and whilst dropping the kids off at the pool another resolution is to try and utilise my time better.

Seeing how it is now almost 22:00 now (there goes that utilising of my time again) I think I will cut it there and continue with another blog post later on this week. Until then the very best of luck at the tables. Be lucky!

Whilst it was common knowledge that the so-called "Red Pros" on the stricken former online poker giant Full Tilt Poker used to receive $35 per hour and 100% rakeback the earnings of those on Team Full Tilt were always a closely guarded secret. That is until Phil Ivey and his estranged wife Luciaetta's divorce ended up in the courts.

Just before Christmas we brought you the news that it looked like Ivey had drawn the short straw when it came to the divorce settlement as he was saddled with $170,000 worth of credit card debt, $15,100,000 in gambling and "other" debt whilst his former wife walked away with 40% of Ivey's business interests, $1,000,000 in jewellery, a purse collection worth $1,200,000 and $180,000 a month in alimony.

Members of the poker community were astonished by that last figure, how could anyone afford to pay a former partner close to $200,000 each and every month? Well it is quite easy to afford that when Full Tilt Poker are, or should that be were, paying you $920,000 a month or a staggering $11,040,000 each year, more than the biggest-ever World Series of Poker Main Event!

The astronomical wage came to light after the former Mrs Ivey filed a petition to the Nevada Supreme Court after she discovered her ex-husband had contributed $5,000 to the campaign of Family Court Judge Bill Gonzalez, the man who was assigned to their divorce case back in 2009. Luciaetta Ivey has now filed a new document to the same court stating she is unhappy with the settlement she received, despite it being worth millions of dollars. It has now come to light through the court documents that Luciaetta Ivey received $180,000 per month as taxable alimony from Phil Ivey between January 2010 to April 2011 "while Phil enjoyed the remaining approximately $740,000." These payments stopped in April 2011 after Black Friday.

What is more astonishing? The fact Ivey received more than $11,000,000 per year for his "passive interest" in Full Tilt Poker or the fact he received this ridiculous sum of money whilst the hole in the company finances grew larger and larger up to a reported $150,000,000 or possibly more depending on who you choose to believe. It just goes to show how badly run Full Tilt Poker was and the mammoth task anyone will have if they attempt to resurrect the rogue site.

Last Wednesday morning the former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel answered a knock at his door and was greeted by two masked men who forced Duhamel back into his home, bound him and repeatidly beat him whilst they robbed his home. Amongst the items stolen were an undisclosed quantity of €500 notes, a black Rolex Submariner watch and his WSOP winner bracelet.

Thankfully the 24-year old only suffered bruises and no serious physical injuries but was obviously left shaken by his terrible ordeal. After being released from hospital on the afternoon of the robbery, Duhamel released a statement saying he was going to spend Christmas with family and friends in Quebec and offered $10,000 to anyone who gave information that lead to the return of his beloved watch, his bracelet and that lead to the thieves being brought to justice.

Late yesterday news started to filter through of four people being arrested in connection with the Duhamel robbery, amongst them a young woman believed to be Duhamel's former girlfriend. Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, 20, was arrested and charged with a total of five offences whilst Andrew Robert Perron, 26, and JohnStephan Clark Lemay, 22, were both also arrested and charged with robbery, assault, forcible confinement and breaking and entering. It is believed that it is these two men who were took part in the robbery and it has also been reported that Perron was wearing the stolen Rolex at the time of the robbery, but as yet the bracelet has not been recovered.

A fourth person, believed to be a 20-year old man, was arrested yesterday morning but as yet no charges have been brought against him.

Duhamel shot to fame in 2010 when he outlasted a field of 7,318 opponents in the WSOP Main Event, the second-largest poker tournament of all time. He defeated a talented final table that was the home to the likes of Matthew Jarvis, Jason Senti, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Joseph Cheong before busting John Racener heads-up to scoop the title and the massive $8,944,310 first place prize. Over the past six to 12 months Duhamel has been a regular on the European Poker Tour, hence him having a number of Euro notes in his home.

Anyone who has information on the whereabouts of the bracelet are urged to contact their local police force.