Winners and Losers: PCA Winners, Criminal Court Losers, and Rebellions (sort of)

Topics: Epic Poker League, Winners and Losers, Jonathan Duhamel, Kassem Deeb, Steve Brecher, PCA [+]

With PCA in the rear view mirror, the poker community turns its attention Down Under, toward the Aussie Millions. Formerly a Full Tilt sponsored event, the tournament series is the biggest in Australia, with a prize pool that last year resulted in a $2 million first prize for their Main Event. Before that tournament really gets underway though, we get the opportunity to look at the winners from PokerStars annual poker festival. In other news, it seemed like a lot of legal issues continue to linger, but it’s not exactly what you think. You’ll have to look at this week’s losers to figure out what went on.

Winners

John Dibella – PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is fueled by online qualifying, and it showed this year when PCA saw a drop of over 30% in its turnout. That said, the Main Event still drew over 1,000 players, and the (post-deal) payout is still over a cool $1.75 million, so let’s not proclaim the tournament dead quite yet. John Dibella ended up being the king of that hill, defeating fellow American Kyle Julius heads-up to take down the 2012 PCA Main Event. Dibella is a little different from the previous winners of the event in that he’s well…not under 30. That said, the stock trader from New York proved he could beat all those young guns, so congratulations to him for the big score!

Freddy Deeb (and the World Series of Poker Circuit) – I won’t lie; one of the main reasons WSOP Circuit has gotten as much coverage as it has from this column was that it’s first stop, the Bicycle Casino, is practically on my doorstep. That said, for a tournament just springing into existence, the Circuit stop’s Main Event certainly delivered, with 537 entrants putting up the $1,600 to play the tournament. Of course, only one can stand above the rest, and in this case, Freddy Deeb stood above the rest to win the event, a Circuit ring, and $171,810. What’s better is that Deeb didn’t even buy in until the second day of the event, so he was able to win the tournament despite starting with only 20 big blinds. Kudos to him for winning the tournament, and also to the WSOP and the Bike, for putting on a great tournament series that shows that the LA poker scene is indeed amenable to a WSOP series on its home turf. (Sorry Rincon!)

Jonathan Duhamel – As if karma was swinging around in his favor (see one of this week’s Losers), the 2010 WSOP champ is tearing it up to start the year. He final tabled a whopping 4 times at PCA, including a victory in a $5,000 side event and a runner-up finish in the $25,000 High Roller. Jonathan has earned $1.2 million in 2012, with 11 1/2 months to go. Currently the only players to be higher on the money list are Super High Roller winner Viktor Blom, PCA winner John Dibella, and runner-up Kyle Julius. Someone must be thinking Duhamel needed a break, and if this continues Duhamel may become this year’s Erik Seidel.

Losers

Joran van der Sloot – 28 years in a Peruvian prison for the “poker pro”/psycho for murdering a young woman in a Lima hotel room. Enough said.

Jonathan Duhamel’s Ex-girlfriend (again) – Last week we reported that Duhamel’s ex-girlfriend, Bianca Rojas-Latraverse (I’m going to get tired of writing that last name), was arrested in connection with the home invasion Duhamel endured at the end of 2011. Well, a judge in Quebec has determined she should remain locked up while the trial takes place, having been denied bail mid-last week. There seems to be some sort of feeling of justice that she remains behind bars while Duhamel himself racks up over a million in the Bahamas, and I’m sure the poetic justice is not lost on Bianca while she awaits trial. (If it is, maybe someone will let her know.)

Sometimes there are stories that are difficult to place. These “bubble” stories have some redeeming qualities, some not-so-redeeming ones, and while they may later develop into full -looded winners and losers, they just aren’t there yet. This week in particular there seemed to be a lot of them so, on the theory that sunshine helps things grow, here goes:

On the Bubble

Steve Brecher (Epic Poker League Card Holder) – For commenting on the “nearly live” concept that is sweeping tournament poker. On the one hand, the information gap in these formats is certainly an issue, and pros are known to have “scouts” watching nearly live feeds. On the other, in the case of The Bike, they had been streaming live tables for quite some time now, so to say that one wouldn’t have expected this to happen during the WSOP Circuit event does seem slightly…uh…silly? It was pretty common knowledge, if you looked on the internet anyway, that the Bike was doing this, so it seems odd to argue about it now.

MGM President James Murren – For stating that internet gaming legislation “will pass in 2012” on CNBC. If December 31, 2012 rolls around and (pending the Mayan apocalypse), Murren is watching this interview, he may recognize it as hubris. I for one hope he’s right, but anything can happen in an election year, and it could go either way.