None of the emotion in the room fazed Juanda, who earned his fifth career World Series of Poker gold bracelet by besting Hellmuth in the game’s world championship event.

“You show him a couple of bluffs here and there and he can get thrown off his game,” Juanda said after the event. “I don’t know if that really happened tonight, but I just decided to do it and see what happens.”

For at least the first half of the 42nd World Series of Poker, Juanda has been the best player at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

A victory in the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball World Championship on June 9 earned Juanda $367,170. He also turned in a sixth-place finish in the $2,500 buy-in Eight Game Mix event, winning $42,897 less than a week later.

After 28 events, Juanda, 40, was atop the World Series of Poker’s Player of the Year standings.

In addition to his five career World Series of Poker bracelets, Juanda has earned almost $4.5 million at the tournament since 1999. According to poker databases, Juanda’s career tournament winnings top $12 million.

Juanda, a native of Indonesia, moved to the United States in 1990 to attend Oklahoma State University, where he earned a degree. He later earned an master’s of business administration at Seattle University and was a salesman before pursuing poker full time.

In his first five years at the World Series of Poker, Juanda reached 16 final tables and won three gold bracelets. Before the Deuce-to-Seven event, Juanda’s last victory in Las Vegas came in 2003 in a Pot Limit Omaha event.

At the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe No-limit Hold’em Main Event, Juanda earned a victory in one of poker’s most memorable matches. The final table lasted 19 hours and 10 minutes and 484 hands. Juanda earned more than $1.7 million.

“I still remember it like it was yesterday,” Juanda said. “It felt like the dog chasing the cat. I finally won and I was like, ‘We have to quit now?’ ”

Juanda’s latest victory landed him in a tie with seven other players who have won five gold bracelets; the late Stu Ungar, Berry Johnston, 2000 World Series of Poker champion Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Jeffrey Lisandro, Allen Cunningham, the late Gary “Bones” Berland, and 1998 Main Event winner Scotty Nguyen.

Besides Hellmuth, Juanda had to get past a field of 126 players and a final table that included seven past World Series of Poker gold bracelet winners that had a combined 20 individual event titles.

“There were a lot of great players, so I didn’t expect it to be easy,” Juanda said.

The heads-up action gained the interest of the Rio’s Amazon Poker Room, with Hellmuth looking for career World Series of Poker bracelet No. 12. His 11th came in 2007 and Hellmuth was seeking to give himself a little extra distance between Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson, who each own 10 gold bracelets.

But Juanda, who at one point trailed Hellmuth by a 2-to-1 margin in chips, came through at the end.

For Hellmuth, who won the World Series of Poker’s Main Event in 1989 at the age of 24, second place marked his World Series of Poker all-time best 80th career cash and earned the poker professional $226,907. Hellmuth’s career World Series of Poker earnings are more than $6.4 million.

Both players were complimentary.

“You know, a lot of people said (Hellmuth) couldn’t play anything besides hold’em,” Juanda said immediately after winning. “But tonight he played really well. If the cards had fallen his way, he could be standing here doing the interview instead of me.”

Hellmuth congratulated Juanda after the final hand, shaking his hand and saying, “Well played, buddy. Well played.”

Juanda is hoping he’ll have a few more final table interviews before the World Series of Poker concludes.

That’s an easy answer for any serious poker player. How about returning the following year to the WSOP, and winning a gold bracelet.

Today, Matt Jarvis did exactly that. Seven months after his uber-impressive eighth-place finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event Championship, he returned to the arena of his former glory and heartache and ended up winning his first WSOP title.

Jarvis won the $5,000 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em championship, held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Jarvis overcame a brutally-tough field totaling 732 players. More of a challenge perhaps than the sheer volume of runners, was the fact that this was as stacked a field as has ever been assembled for any live six-handed competition. Indeed, the best online poker players in the world mingled amongst a few hundred world-class touring pros creating a gauntlet for any aspiring champion. After three long days and nights, plus an unscheduled fourth-day afternoon, Jarvis alone proved up to the challenge.

Matt Jarvis is a 27-year-old poker pro from Vancouver, B.C. He won $1,045,743 by outlasting 7,311 players in last year’s championship. Jarvis added a whopping $808,538 to his bankroll for this victory, which was one of the biggest cash prizes of the year so far at this year’s WSOP. Jarvis now has more than $1.8 million in winnings over the past two years, which places him among the top ten performers in that category.

“It’s been a really crazy year,” said Jarvis. “I did win two (live) tournaments. I also won a major tournament online. It’s been a really good year for me, so far. I just hope it keeps going.”

Jarvis becomes the fifth Canadian poker champion so far at the 2011 WSOP. In fact, the last four gold bracelet events have all been won by non-Americans. Players from Russia, France, Ukraine and Canada have won the last four tournaments in succession.

Speaking of Canadian poker champions, last year’s Main Event winner didn’t fare too badly, either. Jonathan Duhamel, the reigning world poker champion from Montreal, finished in 15th place. Four-time gold bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, originally from Toronto, also went deep, finishing in 20th place.

“There are so many great players coming out of Canada, especially in Vancouver,” said Jarvis. “It’s amazing to be part of that group that is doing so well here this year.”

Prior to winning this event, Jarvis was zero for ten in cashes at the 2011 WSOP. Jarvis had an incredible story prior to last year’s WSOP Main Event. He was planning to come and play. But a few months prior to the tournament, his father was diagnosed with cancer and began treatment. Jarvis was prepared to skip playing at the WSOP. But instead, his father talked him into coming to Las Vegas and encouraged him to go ahead and play. The rest, as they say, is history. Jarvis’ father remains in good health today.

“He’s doing really well,” said Jarvis. “I actually just got off the phone with him a few minutes before we started back. I heard from (someone else) that he had tears in his eyes. He’s really good. He’s doing much better now in his recovery. I am really proud of him for the effort he’s put into everything.”

The runner up was Justin Filtz, from Stevens Point, Wisc. He is a 24-year-old poker pro who was making his second top-three finish at the WSOP. Filtz previously finished third in an event at the 2008 WSOP. He collected $499,855 for second place.

The final duel was a real test for both players. The see-saw battle lasted four hours in real time. In fact, play was interrupted at the end of Day Three, requiring an extra day of action. Both players had the chip lead at various times and had their respective opponents all in and drawing for help. Filtz was ahead by 3 to 1 in chips at one point. But he could not deliver the final blow to his opponent. Jarvis had the chip lead a majority of the time, but it took all he had to ultimately defeat his final foe.

After play was suspended after the third day of play, the two heads-up finalists returned for an unscheduled day four. The last day lasted only six minutes. Jarvis had a 4-to-1 chip lead and won the last hand with ace high (A-8 versus K-9 all in pre-flop).

Wesley Pantling, from Marina Del Rey, Calif., was third for $317,136, Robert Merulla, from New York, N.Y., was fourth for $208,281, Tore Lukashaugen of Norway was fifth for $141,125, and Matthew Vengrin, from Henderson, Nev., was sixth.

The top 78 finishers collected prize money. Former gold bracelet winners who cashed in this tournament were the following: Duhamel (15th), Negreanu (20th), David Singer (29th), Phil Hellmuth (36th), Kevin Song (50th), Angel Guillen (54th), Daniel Alaei (58th), Lisa Hamilton (66th), Nenad Medic (72nd) and Jason DeWitt (78th).

Hellmuth’s 36th-place finish marks his 82nd time to cash at the WSOP. He continues to separate himself from the pack and is now ten cashes ahead of second-ranked player Men “the Master” Nguyen. He also took back the lead in the WSOP Player of the Year race.

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The Term Lender Steering Group filed a motion in Miami’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court that the Chapter 11 case be converted to a sales process that would be supervised by a trustee.

Friday’s filing represents an about-face for the term lenders, which had previously supported Fontainebleau’s reorganization effort.

“Although more than $16 million of the Term Lenders’ cash collateral has already been depleted, no meaningful progress has been achieved by the debtors and there is no reasonable likelihood of their rehabilitation,” the lenders said in their motion.

“With completion of the project by the debtors not possible, a sale of the project to a third party and liquidation of the remaining assets is the only viable course to realize any meaningful value for creditors,” the lenders said.

While Fontainebleau has disclosed it has been in talks with potential investors — which the Sun reported last month included Penn National Gaming — observers have been skeptical of a deal anytime soon given the enormous costs to complete the project, the demands of creditors seeking to be paid and the depressed state of the Las Vegas gaming market.

The term lenders — participants in more than $1 billion in term loans to the project — noted Fontainebleau had pinned its hopes on a lawsuit seeking to force another group of revolving-loan lenders to provide $656 million in funding for the project. That lawsuit has not been successful for Fontainebleau.

It was the revolving lenders’ decision this spring to halt funding for the project that caused construction to stop, with 70 percent of the resort completed, sending it into bankruptcy. The revolving lenders cited cost overruns and other problems with the project and said Fontainebleau had defaulted on a key credit agreement.

Fontainebleau has not yet responded to Friday’s motion that the case be converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation and it has stopped commenting to the media on its bankruptcy case.

In their motion Friday, the lenders also said progress has been hindered in the case because of “pervasive conflicts of interest that exist among the debtors on the one hand, and their principals, officers, managers, affiliates and related parties on the other hand.”

Miami developer Jeff Soffer and Fontainebleau Chief Restructuring Officer Howard Karawan, for instance, serve in a variety of other capacities for Fontainebleau affiliates including some not in bankruptcy, the lenders said. At the same time, Soffer and other entities related to the debtors are liable to third parties, including the term lenders, under various guaranty and indemnity agreements.

The term lenders said that unless the case is converted to a Chapter 7 and a trustee is appointed to supervise the company and the sales process, “conflicts faced by the debtors will poison any sale process.”

The lenders said Soffer has recently discussed with certain term lenders a transaction in lieu of a sale.

“Given that the debtors’ shareholders lack any economic stake in the debtors, efforts by Mr. Soffer to formulate a transaction under which he will receive some consideration or benefit will, unless he is forced to negotiate at arms-length with an independent trustee, divert value that belongs to the estate from creditors,” the lenders said.

They cited numerous alleged conflicts including Soffer’s control of non-bankrupt Turnberry West Construction, which has filed a $675 million claim against the project including $63.9 million for its own fee. Turnberry West also asserts its construction lien is superior to that of lenders’ liens.

“The Soffer family will benefit if Turnberry West prevails in those claims against the debtors and the term lenders,” the lenders complained.

When Fontainebleau filed for bankruptcy protection in June, it said the Term Lender Steering Group had consented to the use of the group members’ cash collateral to finance Fontainebleau’s post-bankruptcy operations.

At that time, Fontainebleau said the steering group members held more than $350 million of the outstanding term loans, or about 34 percent of the total. More recent filings indicate those lenders hold about 27 percent of the term-loan debt.

Members of the steering group are investment fund managers Brigade Capital Management LLC of New York, Canyon Capital Advisors LLC of Los Angeles, the Carlyle Group of New York, Guggenheim Investment Management LLC of New York and Highland Capital Management LP/Nexbank Tower of Dallas.

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Experts have warned that if authorities do not clamp down on these clubs, many more are sure to follow.

“The poll, by Riley Research Associates of Portland, found that 54 percent of Oregon voters either somewhat or strongly support the idea, while 40 percent oppose the idea and 6 percent were unsure.

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“The telephone poll randomly surveyed 406 Oregon voters between May 27 and June 2. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points…”

The Betfair Development Centre was built two years ago in Cluj, the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe, in partnership with XoomWorks who helped train and develop staff. This operation has now become an integrated part of the Betfair Group. The company is a licensed betting operator in the UK, and holds licenses in Australia, Germany, Austria, Italy and Malta.

This initiative is one element of an aggressive global recruitment strategy to enable Betfair to grow internationally, extend its market leadership and innovate in terms of customer service and product quality.

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Billions of dollars in funding for public schools is on the line at a time of severe budget deficits.The key sticking points, tribe attorney Barry Richard said Thursday: an increase in the tribe’s annual payment to the state — to $150million — and a provision dealing with the exclusive right of the Seminoles to offer blackjack and slot machines outside South Florida.

Legislators, who approved the gambling deal in May, built in wiggle room for future gambling expansion. Voters or legislators could give racetracks or other facilities games similar to those offered at tribal casinos, without voiding the state’s deal with the Seminoles.

And even if new competition cropped up, the tribe still would be required to make payments, albeit at a potentially reduced rate.
“I feel firmly that the tribe couldn’t live with it, and the [federal] Department of Interior wouldn’t approve it,” said Richard, referring to federal regulators who oversee state-tribal negotiations. The annual minimum payment, an increase over the $100 million negotiated by Gov. Charlie Crist and the tribe in 2007, also “throws the economics out of whack,” he said.

Richard said he hoped representatives from the Legislature, the Governor’s Office and the tribe would negotiate new terms.

“We’re hopeful we can correct those things and send it back,” Richard said. “Hopefully we can come up with something that everyone will be happy with.”

The 15-year, $2.3billion gambling deal crafted by top legislators is now on the governor’s desk, awaiting his signature. After Crist signs the bill, as expected, the tribe and Governor’s Office have until Aug.31 to finalize the details under the parameters set by the Legislature. Then, the Legislature would meet in special session to ratify the final language.

The bill gives the tribe blackjack, baccarat and other table games at two Hard Rock resorts in Hollywood and Tampa, as well as two other casinos in Broward County. Three Seminole casinos elsewhere in the state would be limited to slots.

Reaching a gambling deal not only has major financial implications for education funding but also is atop Crist’s list of accomplishments as governor. Now a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010, Crist spent months pressuring the Legislature to sign off on blackjack at Seminole resorts, after the state Supreme Court tossed out his original 2007 deal with the tribe.

“I think we’ll come to a resolution,” said George Lemieux, Crist’s former chief of staff, who negotiated the original deal. “My experience has been the Seminoles are extremely professional in these negotiations.”

The tribe’s spokesman, Gary Bitner, said the Seminoles wouldn’t add to Richard’s comments until negotiations resume with the governor. “There’s no date set for that,” he said.

But trying to force changes on a Legislature dominated by Republicans reluctant to embrace gambling is politically treacherous.

The leading legislator on the issue, Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said overhauling the gambling deal is not an option. He said the $150million minimum is reasonable, given how much the tribe has expanded its gambling operations.

Rather than reopen the gambling discussions, Galvano said he’d advocate a hardball route if the tribe balks at the Legislature’s deal: lobbying the federal government to enforce the state’s current gambling laws, which ban blackjack. The tribe continues to offer the games at several casinos, including Hard Rock, under a legal cloud.