Ravnsbaek isn’t on an island, though. Alessandro Longobardi is right behind with 783,000, Andrea Dato is close with 726,000, and Jason Wheeler is sitting on a stack of 699,000 chips. In fact, it looks like it could still be just about anybody’s tournament, as all but two players have over 400,000 chips. And those two players – Rinat Bogdanov and Massimo Mosele – have 20 and 16 big blinds, respectively, so it’s not like they are already at “all-in with any two cards” mode…yet.

The story of Day 3 was arguably the fireworks that surrounded the chip leader going into the day, Marcel Bjerkmann. The fun started on the bubble when the tight Lionel Tran moved all-in for his last 50,000 chips with pocket Kings. Bjerkmann had tons of chips, so why not call with J-4 suited? Tran was still doing alright after the flop of J-T-8 rainbow, but another Jack on the turn allowed the chip leader to suckout and put everyone remaining into the money.

A little while later, after Bjerkmann had been moved to an aggressive table, he four-bet shoved on Simon Ravnsbaek with just A-4. Ravnsbaek made the call with Q-Q and doubled-up to about 330,000 chips. Bjerkmann was still doing fine, though, falling to 460,000.

After the next break, things got crazy. James Akenhead raised to 8,500 pre-flop and was called by Andrea Dato, Marcel Bjerkmann, and one other player. Upon the Qc-8h-7s flop, the players check to Dato, who bets 15,000. Bjerkmann decided to go with a check-raise to 44,000, forcing the other two players to fold before Dato called. The dealer laid out the 8d on the turn, prompting a 64,000 chip bet from Bjerkmann and another call by Dato. Bjerkmann again led out on the river for 82,000 when the 4h was dealt. Dato proceeded to ponder his move for two full minutes before calling.

As he was the original bettor, Bjerkmann had to show first, revealing he was on a complete bluff with just 5c-9c. Dato must certainly have had that beat, but it almost must have been a tough decision to call, considering how long he took to act. Right? Not quite. Dato flipped over pocket 7’s for the full house.

Bjerkmann was incensed. “That is the sickest slow roll I have ever had in my life,” he growled at Dato. “Do not talk to me dude. If you see me in the street do not talk to me.”

Undeterred, Bjerkmann kept on plugging away, but that didn’t mean he was calm. He continued to jaw at Dato throughout the night, regardless of whether or not the two were involved in a pot together (they were on more than one occasion). Eventually he succumbed to the current chip leader, Simon Ravnsbaek, as his Ah-8h could not improve against pocket 5’s.

Play will resume at 1:00pm local time as the tournament makes it down to the final table. Again, it should be a short day, as only three more players must be eliminated for that to happen.

2012 WPT Venice Grand Prix – End of Day 3 Chip Counts

Simon Ravnsbaek: 795,000
Alessandro Longobardi: 783,000
Andrea Dato: 726,000
Jason Wheeler: 699,000
Gianluca Trebbi: 474,000
Andrea Carini: 430,000
Jeremie Sochet: 402,000
Rinat Bogdanov: 201,000
Massimo Mosele: 163,000

You may remember our article from last week about the mini-controversy surrounding his interview with Poker Player UK. Negreanu covered several topics in the interview including the improvement in his online poker game and the current state of televised poker. His comments on those topics were plenty to get people talking, but he also had a few choice words on the subject of the ongoing Full Tilt Poker scandal.

On the Full Tilt Poker pros: “I’ve spoken to all of them. They are embarrassed and have disdain for their leaders. They trusted Howard (Lederer)…I didn’t. I don’t trust that family. It’s a family of scoundrels.”

Continuing on the subject of Lederer: “I don’t think he’s evil, but he’s arrogant. He talks to people like they are stupid. I don’t think he set out to defraud people, it’s just negligence, arrogance and incompetence.”

After all the talk on the poker message boards about the interview, both from poker fans and from Negreanu himself, one may feel it would be wise for him to just let it fester, stop talking for a while, and just keep playing poker. But in the immortal words of Boon from Animal House, “Forget it, he’s rolling.”

In the latest edition of his blog on FullContactPoker.com, Negreanu absolutely lets loose on the three primary antagonists in the Full Tilt fiasco – Lederer, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and Ray Bitar. It is a true “tell me how you really feel” moment. Suffice to say he won’t be getting any Valentine’s Day cards from the trio next week. There is really no sense in paraphrasing the monologue or parsing it in any way, so here is a good, old wall of text:

“I’m disgusted by them and what they’ve done to smear the game with putrid decision making. Ray is a buffoon, Howard is arrogant, condescending, and incompetent, and Chris is a liar and has the warmth of a snow pea. These were never my friends, I never cared for any of them. I never trusted them for a second, and my “read” was always that these were not my kind of people. Why are they different from the rest of the group? These three were on the board, admittedly making all the decisions, and jeopardizing millions of dollars worth of players money that still hasn’t surfaced. You guys suck. I hope to never see any of your faces at the WSOP anymore, and I hope you live with the shame you deserve for the rest of your lives. Your own personal, private hell. You deserve all the wrath you’ve received from the poker world, and much more. You are scum and each of you absolutely deserves a few swift baseball bat swings to the groin area, old school Vegas style.”

Fortunately for Daniel Negreanu, he is as self-aware as anyone out there. “I know that I’d make for an awful politician because I always prefer to choose the brutal and honest truth and I’m not afraid to rock the boat,” he wrote. “My history and track record has proven that to be the case.”

There’s no doubt about that.

Like WPT Venice, which saw just 213 players register, the WPT Venice Grand Prix is small compared to other tour events, with only 155 runners plunking down the €4,500 buy-in plus €450 fee. As such, the total prize pool is €676,575 with €229,800 and a seat in the season-ending WPT World Championship going to the winner. Here is a breakdown of the entire payout structure:

1st – €229,800 + WPT World Championship seat
2nd – €111,700
3rd – €72,275
4th – €52,565
5th – €42,705
6th – €32,195
7th – €25,625
8th – €19,055
9th – €13,795
10th – 12th €9,855
13th – 15th – €8,540
16th-18th – €7,225

Marcel Bjerkmann does not have a lengthy record of live tournament cashes, but he makes up for it with quality. He has made just five journeys into the money starting in the fall of 2010, but every single one of them is a top-25 finish. He started out impressively, placing second in the 1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 European Poker Tour (EPT) London stop, earning £58,334 ($91,287). Just a week later, he won the Belgian Open Poker Championship Main Event, banking €200,030 ($278,380). Bjerkmann’s hot streak continued the following month when he won the Master Classics of Poker 2010 Main Event. That title was worth double his previous victory: €403,380 or $571,984. All told, Marcel Bjerkmann has won just shy of $1 million in his live tournament career.

Day 3 will start up on Wednesday at 1:00pm local time as the remaining 27 players maneuver towards the money and try to position themselves for the final table. The scheduled plan is to narrow the field down to 18 players, though if the eliminations come fast and furious, tournament officials have the option to play all the way down to the final table.

World Poker Tour Venice Grand Prix – End of Day 2 Chip Counts

Marcel Bjerkmann – 436,300
Marko Neumann – 384,400
Jason Wheeler – 348,200
James Akenhead – 336,000
Andrey Gulyy – 326,000
Gianluca Trebbi – 323,500
Andrea Dato – 309,900
Gabriele Lepore – 233,200
Jeremie    Sochet – 232,500
Alessandro Longobardi – 221,200
Giacomo Fundaro – 195,700
Rinat Bogdanov – 167,600
Massimo Mosele – 148,000
Erion Islamay – 140,600
Gianluca Speranza – 134,000
Dario De Paz – 94,900
Zoltan Szabo – 91,300
Andrea Carini – 83,000
Simon Ravnsbaek – 78,100
Guido Chiodo – 75,700
Kara Scott – 60,100
Giacomo Valenti – 50,500
Viachevslav Goryachev – 50,500
Konstantin Streletskiy – 44,400
Lionel Tran – 39,000
Maurizio Saieva – 38,800
Carla Solinas – 38,600

Tessa Munt, Member of Parliament for Wells and a member of the Liberal Democrat political party in the UK, had a bit of verbal finger wagging for the 37-year old singer, telling The Daily Mirror, “I’m outraged by this. It directly targets his fans, including children. The money he makes should go to addiction charities.”

Much of her ire stems from Williams’ own personal struggles with addiction. In the early 1990’s, when Williams was in his teens and early twenties as a member of the pop group Take That, he began drinking alcohol to excess and using cocaine. It eventually became such a problem that he almost overdosed in July 1995 the night before Take That was to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. As the years went on, his most significant problem became addiction to prescription drugs, many of which he used to battle depression. In 2007, Williams checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Tucson, Arizona to help get himself off of a variety of drugs including Xanax, Seroxat/Paxil, and Vicodin. He has also fought alcoholism and nicotine addiction. Munt feels that Williams is taking advantage of problem gamblers, a group with whom he should easily sympathize.

While many Williams fans are excited to try out the new site, others have similar opinions to Ms. Munt. Interestingly, however, not all who are against the idea of the poker room oppose it because of the potential gambling aspect. Some members of the fan community on Robbie Williams’ official website are upset that special Robbie Williams prizes (including the chance to meet the man himself) are being offered on a poker site, rather than just to the loyal fans at RobbieWilliams.com.

“…I fell [sic] that this opportunity to join a special online community (er hello? don’t we have one of those already HERE) and the potential for that community to have access to special perks and benefits (which by rights should also be offered here at the same time) threatens to alienate and offend the Friends here on RW.com,” one fan wrote on the RobbieWilliams.com forum. “People are bound to want to join up because of the potential benefits and rewards that Chrissie has outlined above. It is human nature to not want to miss out on something special from our favourite singer.”

“If perks are to be made available, the logical place to have made them available first surely must have been here [RobbieWilliams.com],” she added.

Robbie Williams Poker bills itself as a place for “…having fun with your friends and keeping up with the Robbie Williams community.” No real money is required to play, though it is possible to spend money on the site. Every player gets free play money chips every day, which can then be used to play in games like normal. As players win, solve “missions,” and unlock achievements, they collect experience points (XPs). These XPs are used to advance “levels,” which allow users to unlock more content. Poker winnings, in addition to being used to continue to play poker, can also be used to customize player avatars or buy power-ups that temporarily increase XP and chip earnings. Virtual chips have no cash value and cannot be withdrawn from the site.

The other form of currency at Robbie Williams Poker is “gold.” Gold can be purchased for real money and can be used to enter exclusive tournaments and gain access to restricted items in the avatar shop. Gold purchases are completely optional and are not required to play most of the games at the poker room. The vast majority of tournaments are freerolls, most of which reward winners with chips, avatar items, and even gold, while some do offer real prizes.

Robbie Williams Poker essentially follows a similar model as that of many “Free to Play” online games on the market today, except that it is packaged in a gambling wrapper. Typically, “Free to Play” games use some sort of credit system, allowing customers to play as long as they have credits remaining. Usually, free credits are rewarded every day so that everyone can get a decent amount of game time for free. Players then typically have the option to purchase additional credits to extend their play time or purchase a secondary form of in-game currency (compare this to “gold” in the case of Robbie Williams Poker) that offers additional benefits. The players that are able to advance the farthest and acquire the most valuable/powerful items (ex: weapons, armor) are usually the ones who commit real money to the game, but many games often have in-game economies that players can use to buy and sell items and game currency, allowing even those who don’t pay to have a rich gaming experience, albeit at a slower pace than those who do pay.

Despite Robbie Williams Poker’s status as a non-gambling site, it still adheres to the same rules as many real-money poker rooms, such as no chip dumping, no collusion, and no bots.

While Guichard and Kursevich started the final table almost neck-and-neck, the story was much different going into heads-up play. Kursevich had a gigantic chip advantage entering the one-on-one match. With a fortress of 23.145 million chips, it looked like Kursevich would make short work of Guichard and his 3.365 million chip mud hut.

While their battle was not long-lived by any means, Kursevich did not come about his title as easily as he might have hoped or expected. Almost right off the bat, Guichard found a bit of luck to double-up. Down to 3.175 million, he moved all-in on the button pre-flop holding just Jc-3c, likely figuring both his cards might be live in addition to having a flush possibility. He was right, as Kursevich called him with Kh-7d; all of the Frenchman’s outs were in play. He nailed one immediately on the flop, as the dealer laid out 3h-9s-5d. The Jd on the turn wrapped it up for him, as his two pair could not be beaten. A meaningless 6s landed on the river and Guichard now had 6.41 million chips versus Kursevich’s 20.1 million. Still a sizeable deficit, but it was a start.

Just ten minutes or so later, Guichard made another big move. Again on the button, he raised pre-flop to 500,000 and Kursevich called. Kursevich checked the 4h-2h-2d flop, Guichard bet 475,000, and Kursevich again called. Same action on the 2s turn, though this time it was for 650,000. It looked like the pattern would repeat itself with the Jh on the river, but Guichard’s 1.5 million chip bet was too rich for Kursevich and the Belarusian laid down his hand. He was still in control of the tournament, but now Kursevich’s chip lead was down to 2-to-1.

Guichard wasn’t done. He wanted to make it all the way back. A few minutes later, Kursevich raised pre-flop to 500,000 and Guichard followed with a re-raise to 1.25 million. Kursevich then four-bet to 2.5 million, but Guichard wasn’t playing around, forcing Kursevich to fold his cards with a shove. With that, Guichard was close to even, trailing just 14.115 million to 12.395 million.

But as quickly as Guichard was feeling great about his chances, it all crumbled to pieces. The action started the same as the last hand we detailed, but rather than tempting fate with another four-bet, Kursevich just called Guichard’s pre-flop three-bet of 1.25 million. The first three community cards came down Js-7h-5d, prompting Guichard to throw out a 625,000 chip bet. Kursevich made the call and the two saw a turn of 9h. Guichard led out once more for 1.325 million, but this time, rather than simply calling, Kursevich shipped his entire stack to the center of the table. Guichard didn’t need to ponder his action at all – he insta-called for around 10 million chips and was all-in for his tournament life. It was an easy call, as he was holding pocket 5’s for bottom set, but he had to a fade a truckload of cards, as Kursevich had 3h-6h, giving him a flush draw and a double belly buster straight draw. Any Heart, 4, or 8 would win it for Kursevich. And it was that 8 that he got on the river, completing his straight and quashing what was amounting to an amazing comeback by Paul Guichard.

For the win, Vadzim Kursevich took home €875,000. This is the first live tournament win of his career, though he has flirted with a major title in the past. Last year, he placed 3rd in the EPT Berlin Main Event, cashing for €300,000. Accounting for currency conversion, Kursevich has now won just shy of $1.75 million on the live tournament circuit.

EPT Deauville – Final Table Standings

1. Vadzim Kursevich – €875,000
2. Paul Guichard – €557,000
3. Vuong Than Trong – €328,000
4. Yorane Kerignard – €260,000
5. Bruno Jais – €200,000
6. Olivier Rogez – €155,000
7. Luca Pagano – €110,000
8. Mick Graydon – €67,200

Guichard’s road to the chip lead hinged on two big hands. The first occurred with just 15 players left and Guichard already at the top of the leader board with about 3.83 million chips. He opened the betting pre-flop with a raise only to watch both Denis Cheremisin and Chris Brammer move their short stacks all-in. As he had pocket Kings, Guichard couldn’t call quickly enough. Cheremisin held Jh-Th and Brammer showed As-Ks, so Guichard was in good shape, but he still needed to dodge an Ace and a couple flushes and straights. The flop of Qd-3d-Tc eliminated those flush chances, but the two underdogs were still alive. The 9h on the turn gave Cheremisin a little more hope, but the 4d on the river locked it up for Guichard, eliminating the other two players. That pot sent Guichard up to 5 million chips.

Fast forward to the final table bubble, with nine players left and just one more knockout needed to end the day. Now back in 3rd place with 4.71 million chips, Guichard re-raised pre-flop to 290,000 after Mick Graydon originally raised to 110,000 and Olivier Rogez called. Graydon folded, but Rogez stuck around. Both players checked after the flop of Kd-Tc-8s, but the Jc on the turn prompted Guichard to bet 325,000 chips. Rogez thought a bit and then made the call. Upon seeing the 6h on the river, Guichard bet another 345,000 chips and again, Rogez called. Guichard flipped over Kh-Qd for top pair to take down the 1.27 million chip pot. With that, he was up to almost 6 million and grabbed the chip lead.

If he were to ride his chip lead all the way to victory, it would be far and away Guichard’s biggest score of his live tournament career. The Frenchman has just five cashes to his name (including one small win) for $23,680.

The EPT Deauville final table will commence at noon local time on Monday as the final eight battle it out for glory in the “Parisian Riviera.”

2012 European Poker Tour Deauville – Final Table Chip Counts

Paul Guichard – 5,955,000
Vadzim Kursevich – 5,670,000
Olivier Rogez – 4,415,000
Bruno Jais – 3,450,000
Vuong Than Trong – 2,570,000
Luca Pagano – 2,010,000
Yorane Kerignard – 1,680,000
Mick Graydon – 960,000

An article on IowaPolitics.com written by Lynn Campbell points out the two sides of the argument between members of the General Assembly, which could be just the first salvos in the battle. State senator Jeff Danielson (D-Cedar Falls) says to IowaPolitics.com that he will be introducing a bill later this month that would legalize online poker inside the state. This move comes after the December 23 statement from the U. S. Department of Justice that the Wire Act of 1961, which previously had been used to prevent states from operating online gaming sites, was deemed as only applicable to sports betting.

When the Department of Justice changed its stance, “that took a significant hurdle away from the ability to play poker online,” Danielson stated to IowaPolitics.com. “We believe by the end of this year you will see a handful of states continue to authorize it. Because of the DoJ’s opinion, we believe you’ll see very quickly multi-state compacts.”

Currently, the state of Nevada and the District of Columbia are the only two locations that have passed legislation regarding online poker, but the District of Columbia proposition is coming under fire from the City Council. Other states, such as California, Florida, Connecticut and New Jersey, have or are considering moving on the online poker question.

Although Danielson sees the need for the state of Iowa to step into the online poker arena, other state politicians are not quite as eager. State representative Jeff Kaufmann (R-Wilton) said to IowaPolitics.com that he is ready to fight against the proposal, remarking, “I have a problem any time we’re talking about an expansion of gambling.”

Kaufmann’s opposition, despite evidence that says Iowans are already gambling online, is that it would bring gambling into homes and increase the numbers of people who are gambling. “I see so many people spend so much money they don’t have,” Kaufmann states to Campbell. “I see so many families that are affected negatively by gambling.”

The two politicians also differ on the reasons for opening up online poker inside the borders of Iowa. While a study by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission estimated that an online poker operation could make between $13 and $60 million in a year – and the state would take down $3 to $13 million in taxation revenues – Danielson says that the money isn’t the reason for looking at passing legislation for online poker.

“I don’t give two hoots about the revenue for the state,” Danielson is quoted by Campbell as saying. “We’re in the black (the state budget). We have a surplus…I don’t think that’s the reason to do this.”

Kaufmann, meanwhile, believes that is the exact reason for the drive to regulate online poker in Iowa. “I think it’s about dollars coming into the state coffers,” he said. “I think it’s about dollars going into the pockets of people that own these casinos. A lot of those owners are in Nevada, on the West Coast, and they’re not here in this state.”

The debate over the plan in Iowa to legalize and regulate online poker certainly will continue to be active, especially if and/or when a bill is put in front of the General Assembly for consideration. Poker News Daily will continue to monitor the situation regarding online poker’s potential for regulation – not only on a state by state basis but also on the national level – and provide information when it is available.

54 players came to the felt on Saturday, looking to whittle the field down to the final three tables. Leading the pack was Samphane Phomveha with slightly more than 1.4 million in chips, while Day Two chip leader Martins Adeniya was in the Top Ten with a solid 893,000. At the start of the day, Pagano was way down the leaderboard, sitting in 36th place with only 344,000 chips, but he began his surge almost from the start of action.

Within the first level of play on Saturday, Pagano used an aggressive style to begin his assault on the leaderboard. He would take a good sized pot against Kevin Vandersmissen and Andre Corredoira to move up to over 600K in chips, then would assume the chip lead after a massive score against the start of day leader, Phomveha.

After an under the gun raise from Pagano, one player made the call and Phomveha put the squeeze play on, popping the bet to 90K. Pagano made the call and their third decided to drop his hand, allowing Pagano and Phomveha to see the rainbow A-6-7 flop. Pagano put out 125K and, after Phomveha made the call, the duo saw another Ace fall on the turn. Another bet from Pagano, this time for 325K, was called by Phomveha and they would go to the river.

On the ten river, Pagano decided to quit playing around and pushed his remaining stack to the center of the table. Deliberating for a bit, Phomveha decided to make the call and was dismayed to see Pagano turn up pocket sixes for the turned boat. All Phomveha could do was shoot his cards to the muck and a massive portion of his chips to Pagano. He would depart the tournament soon afterwards in 42nd place.

Adeniya did not have a good day either, bleeding chips through much of the early action. He would lose a great deal of his chips to Chris Brammer in a hand where Brammer was penalized for exposing his cards prior to the end of action. On the very next hand, Adeniya would push his remaining chips to the center and Heinz Kamutzki min-raised to isolate. Adeniya was never in contention with his K-7 versus Kamutzki’s pocket Queens and would be eliminated in 43rd place.

As the evening wore on, other players would step up to try to contend with Pagano. Brammer would sit out his one round penalty and still be able to accumulate more chips, ending the day’s action in eighth place with 1.262 million in chips. While he has been able to make it to the final 24, France’s Marc Inizan will have his work cut out for him on Day Five as he only holds 481,000 in chips.

When the cards fly on Sunday at noon (Deauville time), the Top Ten will look like this:

1. Luca Pagano, 3.561 million
2. Olivier Rogez, 2.668 million
3. Vadzim Kursevich, 1.815 million
4. Paul Guichard, 1.7 million
5. Andre Corredoira, 1.316 million
6. Ignat Liviu, 1.303 million
7. Christian Togsverd, 1.271 million
8. Chris Brammer, 1.262 million
9. Artem Litvinov, 1.193 million
10. Yorane Kerignard, 1.124 million

Players will not know what to expect tomorrow as, depending upon the pace of eliminations, it could be a long day. The 24 players will go until the traditional EPT final table of eight is determined. On Monday, the final table will return to determine the champion, who will take home a nice payday of €875,000.

The interview with Poker Player UK, written by Alun Bowden and entitled “What’s Wrong With You?” for its January issue, covered a wide range of subjects including the current state of the poker world, improving his online game and the ongoing Full Tilt Poker debacle. True to his nature, Negreanu didn’t pull any punches as, in the first few paragraphs, Bowden states that Negreanu believes that the game of poker is in “big trouble.”

In discussing the current state of the game, Negreanu is quoted as saying, “I think we’re heading in the wrong direction. The WSOP was much more serious and boring this year. It was much more fun with guys in chicken suits being jerks.”

“When poker became popular you had people like Devilfish, Sammy Farha, Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey,” Negreanu continues. “Today the story is: ‘I dropped out of college and I grinded 20 tables to build my bankroll.’ The story isn’t sexy…they don’t want to hear, ‘Well, he’s raising UTG+1 and polarizing his range with a 31BB effective stack.’”

Daniel allegedly addresses how to fix the current state of the game during the interview, stating, “Televised poker needs to address it. If you want to create the best show you need to create poker personalities. Audiences like Phil Laak and Antonio (Esfandiari)? Then okay you invite them. Daniel Cates? Okay you’re a great player, but nobody gives a s**t. You may be a better player, but who cares?”

Poker Player UK also touches on the subject of Full Tilt Poker, where Negreanu unleashed a few more barbs. Bowden asks the Team PokerStars Pro member his impressions of the ongoing saga and Negreanu doesn’t hold back, stating, “They were running the company like buffoons.” When asked if he had been in touch with any of the former Full Tilt pros, including his good friend Phil Ivey, Negreanu allegedly responds, “I’ve spoken to all of them. They are embarrassed and have disdain for their leaders. They trusted Howard (Lederer)…I didn’t. I don’t trust that family. It’s a family of scoundrels.”

When pressed by Bowdon as to his impressions of Lederer, Negreanu is quoted as saying, “I don’t think he’s evil, but he’s arrogant. He talks to people like they are stupid. I don’t think he set out to defraud people, it’s just negligence, arrogance and incompetence.”

Finally, Negreanu discusses the improvements in his online game, giving credit to his improvement through his usage of poker software and strategy discussions with other players. Perhaps most interesting during this discussion, however, was when Bowden asked Negreanu about his deal with PokerStars.

“If I hadn’t signed with PokerStars I would be a much better player today,” Negreanu reportedly said. “I would be infinitely better. It sounds really bad, and I really enjoy working for PokerStars, but look at the paths me and Ivey took. We were on a similar level and he just played poker non-stop and I started doing a lot more media work. It’s no coincidence that he became the best player in the world and I fell off the map a little. I still think I am one of the best, but I need to work a lot harder on my game.”

Naturally, Negreanu’s alleged statements during the interview were like chum in the water for sharks when it comes to the message boards. Negreanu seemed to have started it himself when he Tweeted on Wednesday, “Just read my article in Poker Player mag and it set a new record for the number of misquotes. Pretty impressive! They twisted everything.”

On the Two Plus Two message boards, the discussion escalated between not only the posters on the site but also Negreanu and Bowden. “Let’s nip this one in the bud,” poster ‘InsidePoker’ (apparently Bowden) wrote yesterday. “There is nothing in that article that is misquoted. It’s all on an audio file if he has any specific points he would like to address.” In the thread, Bowden also apparently releases the audio file after several requests by posters.

Negreanu and Bowden discuss their issues through the 2+2 thread and reach a form of détente, with Negreanu contributing an article to the online arm of PPUK where he clarifies the interview, while the discussion continues to rage on the message board.

According to reports in the Canadian press, the Longueuil Police Department has recovered roughly half of the money that was stolen from Duhamel during a brazen robbery just before Christmas. For those of you who may have forgotten, Duhamel was the victim of a home invasion on December 21 in which the thieves beat the 2010 World Series of Poker Championship Event winner in order to get him to open his home safe. Once the robbers were able to gain access to that safe, they walked off with approximately $115,000, Duhamel’s WSOP bracelet and a Rolex Submariner that his sponsor site, PokerStars, had gifted him with to commemorate his World Championship victory.

The Longueuil authorities, acting on an anonymous tip, were able to recover the money in a rather strange location. That tip led the Canadian police to a mail box in Longueuil and, after opening the box, found approximately half of the money stolen simply sitting in an envelope. The police were able to identify the money because much of what was stolen was in large denomination Euros, a currency not seen much in North America (as of now, the WSOP bracelet is the only thing that hasn’t been recovered; the Rolex was being worn by one of those alleged to have stolen it when they were arrested).

This latest good news for Duhamel in 2012 comes after the alleged conspirators in the crime – Anthony Bourque, John Clark, Andre-Robert Perron and Duhamel’s ex-girlfriend Bianca Rojas-Latraverse – have all faced preliminary hearings in the case. Arrested within a week of the robbery, the foursome has been charged with various crimes, including assault, kidnapping, breaking and entering and conspiracy. In January, two of the alleged thieves were denied bail during their preliminary hearing on the charges.

During those preliminary hearings, Clark and Rojas-Latraverse presented themselves in less than appealing ways, at least if they were trying to get the judge to set bail for them. Rojas-Latraverse stated that her profession was “professional poker player” and that she had no known home residence for the court. Although her father stepped up during the hearings to state that he would provide a residence for Rojas-Latraverse, he also admitted that he had not been in contact with his daughter for several years.

Clark, for his part, seemed to use the hearing as a tryout for the Chuckle Shack. When asked by the judge directly if he could refrain from alcohol use while awaiting trial (Clark had prior alcohol convictions on his record), he stated that he “wouldn’t like to” but would do it “if he had to.” He had much the same answer when asked if he would abide by court monitored supervision until the trial date.

With this evidence presented, the judge in the case denied bail for Clark and Rojas-Latraverse, remanding them to jail until their February 21 court date. Bourque and Perron are also awaiting their trial dates, with Bourque out on bail and Perron released on his own recognizance.

While these hearings were ongoing, Duhamel went back to his job as a poker player, with outstanding results. During the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Duhamel was a terror on the felt, making four final tables in some of the highest buy in events on the schedule. He kicked off what would be a huge January for him by finishing in fourth place in the $100,000 Super High Roller tournament that started the festivities in the Bahamas on January 5.

Three days later, Duhamel would add some more cash to his bankroll. He finished fifth in a $5000 Turbo tournament on January 8, then turned around and won a $5000 NLHE Eight Max event the next day. Jonathan would wrap up his January by finishing in second place in the $25,000 High Roller event on January 12, making his total score for the month of January just north of $1.2 million.

Although 2011 might have ended on a down note, it seems to be obvious that Jonathan Duhamel has adjusted quite nicely in 2012, to be sure!