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After five days of action, the 2011 edition of World Poker Tour Amneville is now over. Adrien Allain emerged victorious among 378 other runners to win the title along with a massive 310k Euro.

Despite his relatively young age of 25, Allain has developed an impressive live poker tournament resume that includes a 2009 win at the Asian Poker Tour Macau for $391k, along with two money finishes at this year’s WSOPE. One of those finishes took the form of a final table run in the 2,500 Euro buy-in 6-Max NLHE tournament.

The six-handed final table at WPT Amneville was a slugfest, with over two hours passing before the first elimination. The victim was Arnaud Trouer, who pushed all-in with A-Q offsuit against the A-J suited of Allain. Allain scored trip jacks on the flop and Trouer was sent to the cage for almost 48k Euro.

Michel Konieczny hit the rail next when his A-10 suited couldn’t hold up against the pocket queens of Scott Baumstein. The garbage board sent him packing with 60k Euro. Baumstein himself was then eliminated with 7-7 under K-J suited, held by Jordan Quin.

Exiting in third place was Thibaud Guenegou, who pushed all-in with A-7 offsuit against the A-Q of Allain. Allain scored a pair on the flop, leaving Guenegou with 113k Euro.

Heads-up play then ensued between Allain and Quin, with both holding roughly even chip stacks. The pivotal hand came when Allain scored a flush, resulting in a nearly 5:1 chip lead. On the final hand, Quin pushed his remaining 1.5 million chips in on the strength of his K-9 offsuit. Allain was holding pocket 10s, however, and a mutually unhelpful board sent Quin home with 170k Euro.

The Poker Hall of Fame will be expanding by two on Tuesday as Linda Johnson and Barry Greenstein take their place among the great names of the game, and the two new inductees will be introduced by two players already in the Poker Hall of Fame –Doyle Brunson will be introducing his good friend and longtime high-stakes opponent Barry Greenstein, while Mike Sexton will have the honor of listing “The First Lady of Poker” Linda Johnson’s resume.

Brunson was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1988 (a bit of a surprise when you consider he was already considered one of the game’s greats in the 1970’s) alongside Jack “TreeTop” Strauss (who is best known for being credited with inventing the “Chip and a Chair” mantra of poker players around the world), while Sexton was the lone inductee in 2009.

The two presenters will have to keep their note-cards at the ready considering the vast resumes of both Johnson and Greenstein.

Greenstein is not only one of the best tournament AND cash-game players in the history of poker, but he has also penned one of the most popular poker books of all-time in Ace on the River, not to mention that his moniker “The Robin Hood of Poker” comes from all of his philanthropic activities.

Johnson may not have the poker resume of other inductees (she is a WSOP bracelet winner) but her contributions to the game are as meaningful as just about anyone in the game’s history. An original founder and editor of Card Player Magazine, an instrumental part in the creation of the World Poker Tour, founder of the Tournament Directors Association, and a member of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.

The online poker world was abuzz last week with news of the agreement between Groupe Bernard Tapie and the U.S. Department of Justice in which former Full Tilt Poker players will receive their long-awaited funds. Meanwhile, some of the biggest names in online poker were logged into PokerStars and battling it out at nosebleed stake levels.

The week’s biggest winner was Romain “moirhums” Arnaud, who played a prolific set of almost 9,000 hands across 68 sessions to earn nearly $163k. Hot on his heels was Ville Wahlbeck, who played a relatively paltry 3,166 hands in 23 sessions to add $131k to his bankroll. Joining them in the winner’s circle was azn_baller3, who earned just over $89k.

!P0krparty¡ lost more than anyone in online poker this past week, dropping over $139k after playing 63 sessions comprising a seemingly inhuman 18,000 hands. He remains unidentified, but rumors abound that he buys into tables with his entire bankroll, shifting from stakes of $1 / $2 to upwards of $50 / $100 depending on how he’s running.

Most of !P0krparty¡’s money this past week went to Phil Galfond at the high stakes PLO tables. The two traded enormous pots on Sunday, including a $72k pot for !P0krparty¡ and one worth $86k for Galfond.

Although !P0krparty¡ was the biggest loser of the week, Davin “mTW-DaviN” Georgi didn’t fare much better with a loss of almost $134k. Georgi has been on a losing streak that’s in stark contrast with his performance earlier in the year. Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro dropped $93k as well, placing him squarely in the top 3 losers of the week.

Other active big-name online pros last week included Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies, Rui “PepperoniF” Cao, urubu111 and Gavin “gavz101″ Cochrane.

After months of anticipation, last night’s reconvening of the World Series of Poker November Nine was everything fans could’ve hoped for, with exciting action lasting well into the night and a boisterous rail cheering the competitors on. When play concluded for the day, only Martin Staszko, Pius Heinz and Ben Lamb remained.

Sam Holden was the first to face elimination when he ran into Ben Lamb’s A-K offsuit on the 51st hand. Holden pushed all-in with A-J suited, but Lamb had the better kicker when an ace came on the flop. The turn was a queen, giving Lamb a flush.

Anton Maklievskyi was then booted just eight hands later. He initially seemed strong when a K-J-J flop improved his K-Q offsuit. Pius Heinz was holding pocket nines, however, and another 9 on the turn created a full house. The elimination gave Heinz an enormous chip lead that would end up lasting through the remainder of the night.

Bodih Bounahra, the oldest competitor at the final table by a wide margin, was next to go. He brought A-5 offsuit to showdown against Staszko’s A-9 offsuit. The board provided no help to either player, sending Bounahra to the rail $1.3 million richer.

Next up was Ireland’s Eoghan O’Dea, who pushed all-in with Q-6 offsuit before the flop. Staszko called with pocket 8s. Another garbage board failed to improve any hands, an O’Dea hit the rail with $1.7 million.

Fan favorite Phil Collins of the U.S. dropped out on the next hand when he pushed all-in with A-7 suited. The flop came down 6-5-4 rainbow, giving Collins some hope for a straight. Heinz once again held pocket 9s however, and a 9 on the turn gave him a set. An 8 on the river would have secured the pot for Collins, but a 7 came instead. Collins received almost $2.27 million.

The final elimination for the night was delivered to Matt Giannetti, who held A-3 offsuit against the pocket kings of Ben Lamb. Lamb scored quad kings on the K-K-Q flop, forcing Giannetti to settle for fourth place and $3 million.

Heinz, Lamb and Staszko will resume play on Tuesday to compete for the $8.7 million first-place prize and the most prestigious title in poker.

It looks like my recent prediction that the live feed of the World Series of Poker Main Event will spell the end of the November Nine is coming to fruition. World Series of Poker Communications Director Seth Palansky recently told PokerListings.com that “if you’re doing something live do you really need to delay it for four months?”

The November Nine format has been in place since the 2008 World Series of Poker, ostensibly to allow players to watch the final table without knowing the outcome (although anyone with a computer knows that a one or two day delay is like six-months in Internet time) and to allow for the players and ESPN to better market the final table. However, ratings have been up and down over the years, and it seems that people tune-in based on the particular players and their love of the game, and not because the telecast is “Almost” live.

Palansky didn’t go so far as to say that the November Nine was out, instead he hedged his bets by saying: “If you’re doing something live do you really need to delay it four months and try to build this anticipation to get people to watch? It doesn’t quite work.” Followed by, “We’re committed to it but I think what we learned over the summer with the live and taped programming is that we’re going to have to revisit the concept after this November,”

Basically, it seems that the fate of the November Nine depends entirely on whether or not ESPN feels the live-feed ratings are superior to the November Nine ratings.