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The year 2011 did not end well for 2010 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel. On December 21 his home in Longueuil, just outside of Montreal, was invaded by assailants. Duhamel was badly beaten and tied up. His WSOP bracelet, a high-end Rolex watch and an unspecified amount of cash were stolen.

Following tip offs from the public, two men and one woman were charged and a fourth man was arrested and questioned by the police. The men arrested were John Stephan Clark Lemay, Andre Perron and Anthony Bourque. However, the woman, who was the first to be arrested, was the most interesting person in the case. She was Duhamel’s ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old Bianca Rojas-Latraverse (in picture), who dated Duhamel a few months ago. She was with Duhamel during the 2011 WSOP Main Event. With her arrest it was confirmed that the attack was not random. Bianca was charged with five offences including conspiracy. Bianca was the only one of the four suspects Duhamel knew.

A few days ago Duhamel spoke to CJAD Radio about the attack. He said that the attackers had entered his home posing as parcel deliverymen and beat him up. Duhamel said, “I’ve played hockey all my life, so I’ve had some fights – but not one like this one.” Duhamel also expressed regret over entering into a relationship with Bianca, and said that he was not surprised about her involvement. Duhamel described his five month relationship with Bianca as “rocky” and said that it included a pregnancy scare. “There’s no relationship that can end on good terms, so of course it was bad, but it wasn’t bad, like, real bad,” Duhamel said.

The Rolex has been traced, but the cherished WSOP bracelet is yet to be found. Speaking about the bracelet Duhamel said, “It means everything. It was a realization of a dream to me to win the biggest, most prestigious tournament in the world. It’s kind of like a Stanley Cup ring for me.” Seth Palansky, a spokesman for WSOP, said that the bracelet can be replaced. “We reached out to Jonathan when this occurred to let him know we’ll be able to replace it if need be. We’re not concerned with that yet. We’re going to let the police continue their investigation.”

Duhamel was in the news recently for promoting the $1 million buy-in bracelet event that will be added in WSOP 2012. Earlier in 2011 he featured in one of the WSOP Classic Rematches.

Strip poker is an established pastime and usually is engaged in private, especially among the college going crowd. Public strip poker events are also not unknown. Last year an unusual strip poker event was hosted in London called the Baller Strip Poker Championships. As poker players lost at the tables, their designated girls shed items of clothing. Mobile strip poker games have surfaced frequently and with the growth of mobile gaming these will only get better and more popular.

The latest announcement was made by a 20-year-old model from India named Poonam Pandey (in picture). Whereas Poonam is an unknown figure in the rest of the world, she is well known in India and known for stripping. Before the finals of the World Cup Cricket held earlier this year she had publicly announced that she would do a lap of honor with the Indian team should they win. And she would do it completely naked. The Indian team won but Poonam was not allowed to participate in the lap of honor, with or without her clothes.

Coming back to the poker, Poonam has revealed that she has signed a contract with an American company for a strip poker game that will be available on Android mobile phones in the US. It will be based on the Teen Patti game. Teen Patti is Three Card Poker in the Indian language. The mobile poker game will be preceded by a hot video clip of Poonam. As the player starts clearing various levels of the game, Poonam will start stripping. Poonam said, “I don’t mind stripping, but to what stage I will be doing it, I can’t say that now. However, reaching the level where I will have to strip fully may be really tough.”

Poonam has no background in poker. In India even the non-strip variety of poker is a private affair, there being no public poker events and no casinos. Poonam said that she was excited about this project because she would be exposed to such high profile international gaming for the first time and it would help her reach her fans worldwide. Her technical assistant, Micky, explained, “It is like gambling, just that there is no money involved here but one gets enticed by Poonam’s visuals.” Further details of the project were not made known. Nor was the name of the American company involved revealed, so no confirmation could be obtained from them.

Last week Pius Heinz overcame odds of 9/1 to win the coveted WSOP 2011 Main Event. But unfortunately, his feat was relegated to the back pages of poker news because Leeann Tweeden thought that this was the best time to bare all in Playboy.

Leeann wears many hats in sports casting. To the poker world she is the sexy hostess of the NBC late night television show Poker After Dark. One of the best episodes was titled Lonesome Shark and featured six of the most eligible bachelors of the poker world. Leeann entered this show in the fourth episode and saw it through till September this year. Poker After Dark went off the air because its sponsors Full Tilt Poker got into big trouble after Black Friday.

Leeann always had plenty of action on the sidelines. Last year she entertained the US Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Leeann had been on the cover of Playboy in 1996 as a host for ESPN’s workout show “Fitness Beach”, but then she had kept her clothes on. The bare all shoot had been a work-in-process for a year, and after September she decided to go for it. For 20 years she has made a living in show business and she reckoned, “…why not do this?”

The 38 year Leeann thinks she looks better now than she did in at the time of her first Playboy shoot. She has always been voluptuous and is not ashamed of her age or her curves. She said, “Everyone is telling me they like a little meat on the bones!” Leeann did this for herself and not anyone else. She had long talks with her husband, an Air Force pilot, before saying yes. Then she saucily adds, “If people don’t like it, they don’t have to look.”

The December 2011 issue of Playboy in which Leeann appears in her birthday suit is already on the stands. The photos were shot by female photographer Odette Sugerman. Leeann said, “The photos are beautiful, tasteful and very artistic. I felt the time was right to do this. And it helps add to my legacy.”

Earlier this month the short list based on public voting was announced. Now the jury has done its job. It is official that Barry Greenstein and Linda Johnson will become the 41st and 42nd individuals to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Neither has a flamboyant media profile, but both are deserving inductees. Annie Duke has missed out. Daniel Negreanu will be more pleased than Annie will be disappointed.

Linda Johnson (in picture) said, “I am extremely proud and humbled to be voted into the Poker Hall of Fame. I feel lucky to have been involved in many facets of poker over the past 35 years.” Linda is known as the First Lady of Poker and is the second female inductee in the Hall of Fame after Barbara Enright. Linda teaches at WPT Boot Camp and is a partner in Card Player Cruises, which conducts poker cruises. In 1993, Linda purchased Card Player magazine and turned it into the best journal of its genre. Her other projects include the World Poker Industry Conference, the World Poker Players Conference, and the Tournament Directors Association. Linda is currently on the Board of Directors for the PPA and the Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS). She is a co-founder of Poker Gives. Linda was inducted into the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame in 2008.

Barry Greenstein said, “I’m happy to be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside my friend Linda Johnson …” Greenstein has amassed more than $7.5 million in worldwide poker tournament winnings and possesses three World Series of Poker bracelets and two WPT titles. Greenstein is the author of the widely-acclaimed poker book Ace on the River. He has a practice of autographing a copy of the book for players in tournaments that eliminate him. Greenstein has donated more than $3 million from his poker winnings, earning him his nickname “The Robin Hood of Poker”.

Greenstein and Johnson will be officially inducted on Tuesday, November 8 in the Penn & Teller Theater of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas just prior to the start of the final table of the 2011 WSOP Main Event.

There is something about Annie Duke that ignites the ogre in Daniel Negreanu. Last week Annie was one of the poker babes nominated to the short list from which inductees to the Poker Hall of Fame will be chosen. In an interview given to Poker Listings during the current 2011 World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, Negreanu questioned the credentials for which Annie was included in that list.

He said, “For what? Robbing people at UB? Owing Russ Hamilton money and never paying him back? For stealing money from people at the poker table? For representing poker in the worst light imaginable when she was on Celebrity Apprentice?” Negreanu added that if one took out the “F” and added a “Sh” in the word fame then he though Annie should be inducted. The clear implication was that Annie Duke, according to him, has been a disgrace to poker and should be listed in a Poker Hall of Shame.

Not content at clawing Annie, Negreanu went after her brother Howard Lederer as well. Lederer has been one of the prime movers of the Full Tilt online poker room, which has remained closed since Black Friday. The US Justice Department has claimed that Lederer was running an elaborate ponzi scheme at Full Tilt. Negreanu said, “Along with her brother, the Lederer family would be the king and queen of the poker Hall of Shame.”

The feud between Negreanu and Annie is said to go back over ten years. It hit an all time low about a year ago when Negreanu called Annie a f****** c*** in a live interview.

Annie is now playing a major role in the Federated Sports + Gaming, which has 218 poker professionals as members. They are grouped into four categories and Negreanu falls in the most prestigious 5 Year Card category. FS+G also aims to enforce a rigid code of ethics on its poker professional members. It cannot be said whether Negreanu’s outburst violates the code and calls for any action against him.

Negreanu was nominated for Poker’s Hall of Fame in both 2009 and 2010 but was not inducted. This year a new rule sets the minimum age for induction at 40 and Negreanu has now to wait for at least three years before he gets a look in. Maybe it is this that has provoked him into that vituperative tirade.