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If you’ve ever been to Spain you know that the country is not the most punctual place in Europe –unlike Germany’s mass transit system which runs within 5 minutes, visitors in Spain will be fortunate to see Spain’s buses and trains arrive within an hour of their scheduled in some instances—so it’s not all that surprising that Spain’s new online poker regulations slated to be rolled-out on January 1^st, 2012 have been delayed by up to six months according to PokerFuse.com.

According to the Official State Gazette (BOE) the delay will keep the current status quo in place until the first online poker licenses are issued in Spain (supposedly sometime in June 2012). This means that current operators will still have access to the Spanish market without the need for a Spanish license at this time.

According to reports the licensing process has met with a number of delays and revisions, and with roughly 50 applicants applying for the Spanish licenses, including Groupe Bernard Tapie which is rumored to be taking over the reins at the floundering Full Tilt poker site, the country was overwhelmed and has decided to delay the granting of licenses.

The laws that will soon be in place will be some of the most restrictive in the world in terms of player controls, including strict deposit and withdrawal limits as well as safety measures to identify habitual players. But as of now it is business as usual on the Iberian Peninsula.

Black Friday seems to have caused a major shakeup not only in the online poker industry, but also in the online poker training site industry. BlueFire Poker has parted ways with co-founder Phil Galfond, Jonathan Little’s training site FloattheTurn.com has slashed its membership prices to just $8 a month with no sign-up fee, and now Cardrunners has announced the signing of three new poker coaches as well as a 50% reduction in membership prices.

Cardrunners has just announced that they will be offering their Gold Membership for only $180/year, a 50% savings off the standard price! Not only will you get 12 months of access to the largest online poker training site in existence for just $15/month, Cardrunners is also waiving the initial $100 sign-up fee at this time.

In addition to the drastic cut in pricing, Cardrunners also announced the signing of three top poker players as coaches: Joao Barbosa, Stefan “sh58” Haffner, and Christopher “CeeGee” George.

Barbosa is #1 on the all-time list for Portuguese tournament poker players. The well-rounded poker pro is equally adept at ash games and tournaments, and will be producing 6-Max NLHE and Multi-Table Tournament content according to Cardrunners.

Haffner began his poker career as a small stakes S&G player before switching to cash games. A former member of Cardrunners, Haffner is now one of the top Heads-Up NLHE cash-game players in the world; which is the genre his videos will cover.

George is a mixed game specialist whose addition to the Cardrunner coaching stable will be a godsend for people who play the more obscure variants of poker. According to the Cardrunners website George’s submissions will focus on Omaha 8, 2-7 Draw, and Stud Poker variants.

After the success of the 2011 World Series of Poker live feed (both in the preliminary events online as well as the final table of the Main Event on ESPN) 2012 looks to be the year of the live tournament feed, as PokerStars has announced it will broadcast both the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event and High-Roller tournament live on the Internet with hole cards and live commentary.

The “live” feed from the PCA will be available on PokerStars.tv, and will show both events on a 40-minute delay with hole-cards available at the featured table, according to the PokerStars blog. PokerStars will also be making the broadcast available in English, Spanish, German, and Russian.

PokerStars will be utilizing the talents of former Big Game host Joe Stapleton as well as James Hartigan in the commentators’ booth, with Team PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu helping the duo call the action –assuming he is eliminated from each tournament.

Last year Galen Hall took down the PCA Main Event after an epic battle with Chris Oliver (chosen by PokerNews.com as the player most likely to get it in light) that saw Hall make one of the toughest lay-downs in poker history (Google Galen Hall folds straight for more info on the hand). The $25k High-Roller event was captured by Will Molson in 2011, after finishing in 2^nd place in the same event the previous two years!

Who will walk away the titles in 2012? Well, you can wither read about the following day, or follow the action nearly-live at PokerStars.tv.

The home invasion, beating, and robbery of 2010 World Series of Poker Champion Jonathan Duhamel took a bizarre turn yesterday when police announced they had arrested and charged four suspects with the crimes. Among the arrested was a 20 year-old woman named Bianca Rojas-Latraverse who was a former girlfriend/romantic interest of Duhamel.

According to Duhamel’s agent, Philippe Jette:

“(He) was seeing Bianca over a short period of time,” Jette said “She is the only one of the four suspects Jonathan knew.”

The arrests led to the recovery of Duhamel’s Rolex Submariner watch, but as of yet his 2010 World Series of Poker Championship bracelet in still missing –no word on whether or not authorities recovered any of the money stolen during the robbery.

According to Canadian reports: Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, 20, of St. Sauveur was the first person arrested last Saturday. Her arrest led police to John Stephan Clark Lemay, 22, of Pointe Claire and André Perron, 26, of Pierrefonds, both of whom were the alleged attackers at Duhamel’s residence. The fourth suspect, Anthony Borque, a 20 year-old male was arrested on Thursday and has also been charged in the attack; his involvement in the crime is unknown at this time.

Thus far charges include armed robbery, forcible confinement, breaking and entering, assault, conspiracy, and possession of a stolen watch worth more than $5,000. Police are still considering the case “ongoing” and are trying to determine f Duhamel was specifically targeted (which would seem likely now that Rojas-Latraverse’s involvement has come to light.

It’s been quite a year for German poker players considering Pius Heinz won the World Series of Poker, Germany won the IFP’s Nations Cup, and now Team PokerStars Online Pro Bjorn “Bloerni89” Schneider has just set a new VPP record at PokerStars, accumulating over 3 million of the Loyalty Program Points during 2011.

Amazingly, Schneider went from playing $5 Sit & Go’s a couple of years ago to becoming a fixture in the $5,000 Sit & Go tournaments by the end of this year! In the process the young German managed to eclipse Kevin “Wizardofahhs” Thurman’s VPP record by totaling 3,058,660 VPP’s over the course of 2011.

The VPP’s have a real-money cash value of up to $400,000 depending on the redemption methods Schneider uses –which is a good thing since by the end of the year Schneider was down around $90,000 at the PokerStars tables.

The record looked to be in jeopardy in January, but not by Schneider. Back in January and February you may remember that Andrew “AznTracker” Li shattered the record for reaching Supernova Elite status in the shortest amount of time (a record that was held by George Lind III), accomplishing the feat before the end of February despite taking 9 days off from poker during that time period!

Unfortunately, Black Friday put an end to Li’s chances at the yearly VPP record, and Thurman’s record looked to stand for another year… until Schneider came out of the wings and gave new meaning to the term “High-Volume Player”.