The young Dutch poker professional, 22 year old Joran van der Sloot, was arrested yesterday in Chile and held for his involvement in at least one murder involving a Peruvian woman last week. Van der Sloot slipped across the border after he allegedly killed Stephany Flores Ramirez in a hotel room in Lima. Her body was found the following day and the police immediately issued a warrant for van der Sloot after the room was found to be registered in his name and hotel staff confirmed that they were last seen together.

Van der Sloot’s name may be familiar to many due to him being a suspect in the murder of Natalee Holloway in 2005 – exactly five years to the day of the new murder case. At the time, camera footage shows Holloway leaving a bar with van der Sloot in Aruba. However, although the teen never showed up to rejoin her group the following day, her body was never found and van der Sloot managed to be released after being arrested and questioned twice, simply through lack of evidence.

In 2008, van der Sloot was caught by an undercover investigator selling Thai women into sex slavery after duping them into believing that they were going to become exotic dancers in the Netherlands. He made $13,000 per woman yet somehow avoided arrest on these counts as well.

Van der Sloot is well known on the live poker circuit and was in Chile to attend the PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). He is known to be a sharp and talented young player.

Yesterday, van der Sloot’s lawyer tried to portray his client as a victim of the media and said: “He’s a popular suspect, he’s someone who people believe – people have very strong opinions about this – that he got away with murder, literally, in Aruba which, the evidence says otherwise, the judges have said otherwise. But he’s someone who is easy to point the finger at, he wears a bulls-eye on his back.”

One of the hottest poker players in the industry, Lacey Jones, has been keeping speculation high regarding her future plans, after it was announced that she is to leave her position on Team Absolute Poker and UB.

The player has been one of the most influential members of the site that makes up one half of the Cereus Poker Network and hasn’t left so much as a clue as to why she is leaving.

Jones’ announcement came just before the beginning of this year’s World Series of Poker event, when all eyes are on the poker world, so it seems that she definitely wanted to make an impact when she cut the cord with Absolute Poker.

Lacey Jones’ departure from the controversial online poker site prompted a wave of rumors and speculations as to why she was going her own way.

A recent Tweet (after days of silence), certainly didn’t clarify things when she wrote saying: “Today is a new chapter of my life and I’ve never been more excited! Get ready for some BIG things everybody!”

Absolute Poker, for its bit, has stressed very firmly that Jones’ departure has been done in an amicable manner and that there were no hard feelings from either side. This has led to speculation that Jones is simply ready to move on to something bigger, despite the fact that Absolute Poker is well placed on the list of popular online poker sites.

Some of said that her departure is due to the fact that Absolute Poker has been linked once again with a cheating scandal, being the sister site of Ultimate Bet where a security breach was recently reported. However, others have dismissed this rumor. It remains to be seen whether Lacey Jones will make another announcement in the coming days regarding her future on the circuit.

Poker fans looking for live poker action got more than they bargained for when they attended the European Poker Tournament event in Berlin this weekend. The poker tournament was the scene of an armed robbery, already dubbed the Berlin Poker Robbery, where $1 million was stolen from under the very noses of the organizers.

The EPT Berlin leg was being held in the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Saturday attracted nearly 1000 players who flocked to the European city to enter the 5 day tournament.

According to eye witnesses, at around 2.15 pm on Saturday, a mask gang burst into the hotel and prompted panic after they threatened security staff.

A police spokesperson said: “Several masked, armed individuals entered the Grand Hyatt and fled with a haul of money.”

While no specific sums were given, it generally believed that the gang headed to the $1 million being offered as prize pool in the competition. Staff were ordered to hand over the money under threat by the gang who wielded hand guns and a machete.

Chaotic scenes during the gang’s raid were broadcast live on TV as the poker tournament is considered a popular live poker event. Viewers saw their poker heroes hiding under tables and attempting to escape the gang, with furniture being overturned and heightened sense of panic in the ten minutes of the raid.

An earlier report said that the robbers had got away with the entire prize pool, however it was later reported that due to being tackled “very bravely” by a security guard, the group lost a bag that contained a significant amount of the money. Most of the prize, therefore, was left behind by the robbers.

Among the popular celebrities due to take place in the poker tournament was Boris Becker, who was eliminated before the robbery took place.

Due to the panic that ensued and the scuffles that took place, several people were lightly injured in the raid.