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According to several Canadian newspapers, when 2010 World Series of Poker Champion Jonathan Duhamel answered his doorbell early Wednesday morning two men reportedly forced their way into his home located in Boucherville just outside of Montreal, Quebec, assaulting the 24 year-old poker pro badly enough to require a hospital visit.

Duhamel was treated and released from the hospital after calling 9-1-1 once the two assailants left the residence. No details on the possible of the motive or whether or not anything was taken from the home have yet been released.

The police have yet to officially confirm the identity of the victim, but Duhamel’s agent and his mother have both spoken-out regarding the incident. His Mother has told the Canadian press that he is doing well. Duhamel’s agent Yves Bouchard was the first to confirm that the victim was Duhamel. The Montreal Gazette quoted another of Dumahel’s agents, Philippe Jett, as stating:

“Let’s say that getting out of bed will be particularly hard tomorrow and that his Christmas photos won’t be the prettiest,” Philippe Jetté told The Gazette. “But Jonathan got out without serious injuries.”

Police are reportedly holding back some information in the ongoing investigation, and have promised an update at some point on Thursday. Thus far the only a general description of one of the attackers, a white male approximately 5’8” tall and weighing about 180 lbs. has been released; the other attacker was also a white male, but no description has yet been released.

The US Department of Justice handed down 11 criminal indictments as part of their online poker crackdown on April 15, 2011 –henceforth to be known in the poker world as Black Friday—and one of those indicted, Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Beckley, decided to plead guilty to those charges leveled against him.

According to the AP, Beckley appeared in the courtroom of Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis and entered his guilty plea, stating that he knowingly deceived banks in order to process transactions to and from Absolute Poker. Beckley also admitted to hiring Ira Rubin (another man indicted on Black Friday and currently awaiting trial) to process these transactions. Rubin’s attorney told the AP that his client would likely be entering a similar plea as Beckley.

By virtue of the plea deal, the 31 year-old Beckley, who was looking at up to 30 years in prison for his crimes, will likely receive just 1 – 1.5 years in prison. Although this is speculation on my part, it’s also quite likely that Beckley’s deal is contingent upon him providing information against the other men indicted on Black Friday, many of whom live abroad and have yet to be arrested and turned over to the US.

Beckley founded Absolute Poker in the early days of online poker with Scott Tom (who was also indicted on Black Friday), and the site has been one of the most scandalous in the history of online poker. Currently Absolute Poker and its sister-site UB Poker are trying to liquidate the company in order to repay their players.

On Tuesday the World Poker Tour sent out a press release detailing their latest addition to the Season X schedule, a stop at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida from February 10^th – 14^th, 2012. The tournament, named the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, will carry a $3,500 entry-fee and will utilize the reentry format that has grown in popularity this year.

The new tournament is a non-televised event but will be available on a “live” stream hosted by WPT commentator Tony Dunst, who will be joined by an as of yet unnamed professional poker player. Despite the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship being a non-televised event the full ensemble of WPT personalities will be in attendance, including Dunst, Mike Sexton, and the Royal Flush Girls.

The Lucky Hearts Poker Open is now the fourth stop for the WPT in the state of Florida. Florida expanded their Brick & Mortar gaming in 2009, and the state has turned into one of the top destinations for major tournament poker events ever since –evidenced by the FOUR WPT stops in the state.

Here is a look at the four Florida stops during Season X of the WPT:

• WPT Jacksonville – November 18-22, 2011 ($3,500 buy-in)
• WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open – February 10-14, 2012 ($3,500 buy-in)
• WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown – April 18-23, 2012 ($10,000 buy-in)
• WPT Jacksonville II – April 27-May 11, 2012 ($5,000 buy-in)

For more information on these or other WPT events you can visit the World Poker Tour website at www.worldpokertour.com

Coming soon to an online poker site near you: The PokerStars TURBO Championships of Online Poker (TCOOP)! The world’s largest online poker site announced the creation of a new major tournament series this week, with a total of 50 tournaments (all using variants of Turbo tournaments) tallying an impressive $10 million in guaranteed prize-money.

Most of the tournaments feature modest buy-ins ranging between $22 and $109 buy-ins. The series will culminate with a $700 Main Event featuring a guaranteed prize-pool of $1.5 million.

Here is a look at the complete schedule released by PokerStars on Monday:

January 19, 2012
$22 NL Hold’em [6-Max] – $200,000 guaranteed
$33 NL Omaha Hi/Lo – $50,000 guaranteed
$134 NL Hold’em [Knockout] – $250,000 guaranteed
$33 NL Hold’em – $100,000 guaranteed

January 20, 2012
$22 PL Draw – $50,000 guaranteed
$55 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Shootout] – $100,000 guaranteed
$22 NL Hold’em [Rebuys] – $400,000 guaranteed
$82 NL Hold’em [Big Antes, 2x Chance] – $300,000 guaranteed

January 21, 2012
$55 PL Omaha [Knockout] – $100,000 guaranteed
$11 NL Hold’em [Rebuys, 3x-Turbo] – $300,000 guaranteed
$109 NL Hold’em [Heads-Up] – $150,000 guaranteed
$33 Triple Stud – $25,000 guaranteed
$33 Saturday Speedway – TCOOP Special – $100,000 guaranteed

January 22, 2012
$55 NL Omaha Hi/Lo [6-Max, 2R1A] – $50,000 guaranteed
$55 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo] – $150,000 guaranteed
$55 NL Hold’em [Knockout] – $200,000 guaranteed
$109 NL Hold’em [1R1A] – $300,000 guaranteed
$22 PL Omaha [6-Max, Rebuys, 2x-Turbo] – $150,000 guaranteed
$215 Sunday Supersonic – TCOOP Special [Hyper-Turbo] – $300,000 guaranteed

January 23, 2012
$55 PL Omaha [6-Max, 1R1A] – $100,000 guaranteed
$44 NL Hold’em [4-Max] – $150,000 guaranteed
$82 FL Omaha Hi/Lo – $50,000 guaranteed
$153 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo] – $200,000 guaranteed

January 24, 2012
$109 PL Omaha Hi/Lo [6-Max] – $50,000 guaranteed
$215 NL Hold’em – $500,000 guaranteed
$22 Stud – $25,000 guaranteed
$22 NL Hold’em [Rebuys, 2x-Turbo] – $300,000 guaranteed

January 25, 2012
$82 NL Hold’em [2x Chance] – $150,000 guaranteed
$109 NL Hold’em [Shootout] – $75,000 guaranteed
$11 PL Omaha [6-Max, Rebuys, 3x-Turbo] – $100,000 guaranteed
$22 Stud Hi/Lo – $25,000 guaranteed

January 26, 2012
$5.50 NL Hold’em [Rebuys, 3x-Turbo] – $100,000 guaranteed
$33 Razz – $50,000 guaranteed
$215 NL Hold’em [2x Chance] – $400,000 guaranteed
$55 PL Omaha [4-Max] – $75,000 guaranteed

January 27, 2012
$82 NL Hold’em [6-Max] – $250,000 guaranteed
$55 PL Omaha [6-Max, 2R1A] – $100,000 guaranteed
$55 NL Hold’em [Ante Up] – $100,000 guaranteed
$109 FL Hold’em [6-Max] – $100,000 guaranteed

January 28, 2012
$109 HORSE – $25,000 guaranteed
$109 PL Omaha [Heads-Up] – $50,000 guaranteed
$33 NL Hold’em [Rebuys, 2x-Turbo] – $300,000 guaranteed
$109 NL Omaha Hi/Lo [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo] – $100,000 guaranteed
$33 Saturday Speedway – TCOOP Special – $100,000 guaranteed

January 29, 2012
$109 NL Hold’em – $100,000 guaranteed
$215 NL Hold’em (replaces Sunday Warm-Up) – $750,000 guaranteed
$2,100 NL Hold’em [High Roller] – $500,000 guaranteed
$320 8-Game – $100,000 guaranteed
$700 NL Hold’em Main Event – $1,500,000 guaranteed
$215 Sunday Supersonic – TCOOP Wrap Party [Hyper-Turbo] – $300,000 guaranteed

For more information on the TCOOP you can visit the PokerStars website at www.PokerStars.eu

A few weeks back we learned that Phil Ivey’s ex-wife was asking for Clark County Family Court Judge Bill Gonzalez to be disqualified from the couple’s divorce proceedings since her husband (along with his lawyer’s law firm) donated in the neighborhood of $10,000 to the judge’s reelection campaign. Now Phil Ivey has fired back, releasing some of the details of the sealed divorce settlement according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

According to the newspaper, Ivey’s attorney’s filed a document with the Nevada Supreme Court, answering the charges leveled by Luciaetta Ivey.  In the answer Attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld stated:

“Luciaetta Ivey received her car, her life insurance policy, 40 percent of a stock account, a down payment for a new residence, half of the proceeds from the sale of the couple’s home, and 40 percent of all business interests with the exception of Tiltware, LLC… Phil Ivey accepted more than $170,000 in credit card debt and more than $15.1 million in gambling and other debt.”

The document went on to say that “Luciaetta ended up with no debt, with millions of dollars worth of property, and with specific unambiguous alimony provisions,” The “millions of dollars worth of property” seems to be a “purse collection worth more than $1.2 million, jewelry valued at more than $1 million,” according to the LVSR.

The sticking point seems to be the $180,000 in alimony Luciaetta was due each month, but this was contingent on Phil Ivey’s income from Titlware, and should Tiltware stop paying Ivey, Luciaetta would receive nothing in alimony –and we all know that Tiltware is most definitely NOT paying Ivey! Ivey made alimony payments up until April of this year, and now it seems Luciaetta is looking for a more favorable ruling that might take into account Ivey’s other revenue streams when it comes to alimony.

You can read the entire Las Vegas Review-Journal piece here: Ex-wife of poker star Ivey got millions in divorce settlement