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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.

WSOP 2012 will have a new event with an unprecedented $1 million buy-in. Titled “The Big One for One Drop”, this event is the creation of One Drop Chair and Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberte. Laliberte had worked on this concept with Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber. The idea was to combine poker players’ charitable nature with WSOP’s global reach to create an unparalleled poker event for raising the awareness to the acute shortage of water in many parts of the world.

The Big One for One Drop will take place from July 1 to July 3, 2012. Already 22 poker professionals have committed their participation. 22 is the minimum requirement for a WSOP official bracelet event. From each $1 million buy-in, $111,111 will be donated to One Drop towards raising funds for a legacy project of providing clean water access in a needy country. The balance amount will go to the prize pool. With 22 participants the expected prize pool will be nearly $20 million. The event will be capped at 48 players. The expected first place prize would very likely be $10 million or more and the winner will also receive a specially-designed WSOP platinum bracelet. A record 20% of the field will be in the cash. The event will be played as No-Limit Hold’em. WSOP is planning for ESPN to televise this event.

The players who have confirmed and have allowed their names to be made public are Guy Laliberte, Bobby Baldwin – four times bracelet winner and CEO of MGM-Mirage Resorts, Phil Ruffin – owner of Treasure Island Resort of Las Vegas, Andy Beal, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Tony Guoga, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Daniel Shak. Some others players have confirmed their participation but wish to remain anonymous for the present. Seats will also be offered through the following satellite events: The Montreal Group seat, Loto-Quebec seat, Caesars seat and European satellite seat.

Duhamel (in picture), who is a spokesperson for One Drop said that he was thrilled to participate in the biggest poker event ever organized. One million dollars is a lot of money but the cause is a great one. “Life starts with water and because of its uneven distribution a person dies every 20 seconds.” He further committed to give 5% of his winnings from this tournament to One Drop.

Lisa Hamilton is a poker babe who has been there, but in the background. She has not done anything on the tables like Liv Boeree or anything off the tables like Lacey Jones. She is currently in the news because she made a flutter at the World Poker Tour Jacksonville event. At one point during the tournament she appeared set to take the first place and etch her name in poker history, but flattered to deceive. Ultimately Lisa was eliminated in thirds place behind Anthony Ruberto and Sam Soverel.

Lisa originally hails from Honolulu Hawaii but moved to Las Vegas in 2005 to play poker. Her bio says that she is well-known as a high stakes live cash game player. At one time the poker babe’s PokerStars alias was “omgfml”, which for the uninitiated means Oh My God F*** My Life. PokerStars pro ElkY convinced Lisa to play live poker tournaments.

Her first one was the 2009 WSOP $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em World Championship in which she bested a field of 1,060 and won the bracelet and her first live tournament cash of $195,390. At that time Card Player wrote, “The 37-year-old Hawaiian didn’t have to endure a long final table, as play for the final nine lasted just under four hours. … Strictly a cash game player up until this WSOP, Hamilton now has a bracelet, lots of cash, and a reason to enter in some more events this summer.”

Lisa has four WSOP cashes, including two earned this year. Her total WSOP earnings are $222,869, which is nothing really to write home about if you take away her first win. Excluding her current WPT cash of $112,657 her total winnings have been $363,758 from 7 cashes. Money wise her second best performance was at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in January 2010 in the No Limit Hold’em High Roller 8 Max event, where she finished 5th and won $133,770. That made her the highest grossing woman player at PCA.

Lisa Hamilton has the experience and the ability. The question is will this poker babe break out of the background to become a luminary. Only time will tell.

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.”

This week the final table of the WSOP 2011 Main Event resumes and next week the world will have a new poker champion. The winner will be richer by $8.7 million and will join the big league. But, win or not, one of the November Nine has already made it big by being inducted in the elite Team PokerStars. He is Pius Heinz of Germany. As per chip count Heinz is in seventh position with odds of 9/1 from Bodog and 10/1 from Sportsbook.

The PokerStars press release says that Heinz joins Sandra Naujoks (in picture), Sebastian Ruthenberg and Boris Becker as a Team PokerStars member from Germany. There are several interesting aspects to Heinz’s entry into the November Nine. At the age of 22 he is one of the youngest members of this year’s November Nine and is the first German player ever to make the WSOP Main Event final table. Poker babe Sandra, also known as Black Mamba, said that Heinz has all the qualities needed to be a great poker player, and he has played a tough and intelligent game to get to the WSOP final table. She was happy to see another top player join the ranks of Team PokerStars. The German unit of PokerStars will have double the reason to root for him.

The WSOP Main Event was the second live cash for Heinz. The first won was also in WSOP 2011, when he finished seventh for $83,286 in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event. Heinz has not looked back, taking the first place in a €1,000 Turbo Bounty event at EPT Barcelona in August for another €17,450. After the WSOP Main Event Heinz will play his first event wearing the PokerStars patch at EPT Prague in the first week of December.

Heinz is not flustered by the buzz around him. He says, “I’m pretty relaxed about the game. There are a lot of tough players left but I’m confident I can win it. Joining PokerStars has given me an extra lift, too. I’m looking forward to being part of the team.” The chip leader in the November Nine is Martin Stazko who has been given 4/1 by Bodog and 7/2 by Sportsbook.