Barry Greenstein is giving us a monthly peek into his books and being honest about how his tournament year is going. Read: January's update.

by Barry Greenstein

There were no airfare or hotel room costs for me in LA since I live there. I wasted good starts in the NAPT and WPT, nearly bubbling each of them. I was overly aggressive which isn't necessary in big fields, since there will be enough weak spots dumping money.

I'm already down enough in tournaments this year that most players would be looking for backing or would have given up.

Fortunately, I have a day job: playing poker in side games.

5. Commerce 1k rebuy
Buy-in: $4,100
Airfare: 0
Room and Board: 0
Cashout: 0
Cumulative Profit: -$128,100

6. NAPT Venetian
Buy-in: $5,000
Airfare: $200
Room and Board: $600
Cashout: 0
Cumulative Profit: -$133,900

7. NAPT Invitational
Buy-in: $25,600
Airfare: 0
Room and Board: $200
Cashout: 0
Cumulative Profit: -$160,500

8. Commerce WPT
Buy-in: $10,000
Airfare: 0
Room and Board: $0
Cashout: 0
Cumulative Profit: -$170,600

I have a really nice job.

It's part of my job to wear a PokerStars patch whenever I play in a live tournament. To give you an idea of how many events PokerStars is sponsoring, I heard that they are planning to introduce their tenth poker tour, the JPT, on the planet Jupiter.

In order to get this job, I established a reputation for making final tables of televised events, so that my PokerStars patch could be viewed by potential customers for the online site. Without this extra money, poker tournaments are a very dicey proposition as a way to make a living. I have a ROI (return on investment) of about 100% with seven million dollars in tournament winnings on entries of about half of that, but that doesn't include expenses. When you factor in expenses and lost opportunities from making money in side games, the live tournament trail is usually financially worthwhile only if it leads to an endorsement contract. However, many recreational and professional players like to take a few shots at a big score and the extrinsic value of fame and the satisfaction of accomplishment.

I will detail my progress in tournaments for the year in 2010, and I'll include my expenses. I'm already more than $100,000 in the hole as I start this project, having bubbled the High Roller event in Australia, but that's OK. I would rather face a challenge than be like most players who only start keeping records once they are ahead.

I'll add the economy plane ticket cost and $200 for every night I have to stay in a hotel, since this is approximately the average a young aspiring tournament professional on a budget would spend per day over the course of the year.

1. PCA Bahamas Main Event
Buy-In: 10,300
Airfare: 1,000
Room and Board: 1,000
Cashout: 0
Cumulative profit: -12,300

2. PCA High Roller Event
Buy-In: 25,500
Airfare: 0
Room and Board: 400
Cashout: 0
Cumulative profit: -$38,200

3. Aussie Millions High Roller
Buy-In: 91,000
Airfare: 2000
Room and Board: 600
Cashout: 0
Cumulative profit: -$131,800

4. Aussie Millions Main Event
Buy-In: 9,500
Airfare: 0
Room and Board: 1,000
Cashout: 18,200
Cumulative profit: -$124,100

January Summary: Success and failure are not always far apart in tournaments. I got knocked out just short of the money with Aces all-in preflop in the PCA Main Event, but even if I had won that hand, it would have only taken me back to slightly under average chips. I flopped a set early in the PCA High Roller, but lost most of my chips to John Duthie's flush on the river.

In the Aussie Millions High Roller, I was the chip leader with seven to go, paying five spots, but I lost with Kings against Jacks in a pot that would have given me almost 40% of the chips in play. The one million dollar first prize looked likely until a Jack on the turn doomed me to a bubble finish. I cashed out 50th in the Aussie Millions main event after becoming one of the chip leaders early the second day, but then struggling until I busted.

by Joe Hachem

Summer truly is the sporting tournament season for Aussies and poker is no exception. Just days after a hugely successful Aussie Millions, we looked forward to the very first tournament in the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tournament (ANZPT). This is the second year of the tour and it has a special place in my heart as my brother Tony is the reigning champion.

There's so much to enjoy about the ANZPT because it capitalises better than any other tournament on the opportunity to combine travel with poker. PokerStars.net put together such a comprehensive year-long tournament schedule, covering not only some of the toughest events and most challenging competitors, but also the best in sightseeing and local activities ranging from the beauty of the Adelaide hills and wineries, to my home town casino Crown, and the adventures (and extreme sports) of Queenstown.

At the opening Adelaide event, which is happening right now, there is the chance to compete with some great local and international talent (the proximity to the Aussie Millions means many players stay in Australia to compete in both) and to take peaceful afternoon trips through the local vineyards - a very pleasant way to spend a week.

Players taking advantage of the trips through the local wineries should bear in mind though that this is not an event to let down your guard, or indulge in a little too much vino. Because the ANZPT has a truly unique structure in the poker world, meaning a serious player needs to bring his best performance to every single event.

Unlike other tours the ANZPT is designed to reward consistency throughout the year- long calendar of events. While most tours are a collection of individual tournaments, the Pokerstars.net ANZPT operates on a points system that runs throughout each event. The overall winner is declared, not on performance in one particular event but is based on their consistent performance throughout each state heat of the tournament.

It's a unique structure for a poker tournament, to reward consistent performance across a year and one that I personally encourage, as it very simply dispels the myth that poker is about luck. By claiming the overall ANZPT tournament championship a player has to prove that they can achieve high results again and again, against a wealth of different challengers, when they are faced with great cards or when they're hit with a bad beat.

The ANZPT structure proves one of the things that I firmly believe about poker, that it is a game of consummate skill, not a game of luck. Unless you take into account the chance to travel the world, visiting beautiful tourist spots, playing a game that you love. That's pretty lucky after all.

So until Adelaide is over, pass the sugar.

They say you can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats dogs and bloggers. While I'm not entirely sure about how English poker pro Julian Thew would feel about my little blind mutt, I am happy to report Team PokerStars Pro is signing a pretty good guy.

The man from Nottingham has been on the poker circuit for what seems like forever. I met him during the first season of the EPT and he's been both a familiar and tough player on the tour ever since. Today it was announced Thew has been signed to poker's most elite stable of players.

"I'm thrilled to have been offered a spot on Team PokerStars Pro and I look forward to promoting the brand on my travels throughout the year," Thew said.

Thew is one of the most respected players around. He's won nearly $2.5 million during his career, a big chunk of it coming during season 4 of the EPT. That's when he took down EPT Baden for €670,800. Since then Thew has become the leading British player on the EPT tournament leader board. He currently sits in 12th place overall.

Thew joins four other members of Team PokerStars Pro UK: John Duthie, Vicky Coren, Jude Ainsworth and JP Kelly. Look for Thew tomorrow when the UKIPT hits Manchester.

Meanwhile, a few countries away, the Germans have signed up another familiar face for Team PokerStars Pro Germany. Michael "The Doc" Keiner is now playing with a Team PokerStars Pro badge on his shoulder.

Keiner has been active on the international tournament scene since 1997. One of his biggest wins came in 2007 when he won a WSOP Seven Card Stud bracelet. He is also one of German poker's most respected experts.

"PokerStars and I pursue the same goal," he said. "We need to get poker recognized as a strategy game in the minds of the public."

Keiner is expected to make his Team PokerStars Pro debut in Berlin when the EPT arrives there early next month.

Congratulations to both Keiner and Thew for making the team. We dogs and bloggers look forward to covering your action in the coming months and years.

* Our video team caught up with Thew at the start of the UKIPT Manchester event. Here's what he had to say...

The forthcoming Manchester UKIPT event will be the first tournament I play on this exciting new British and Irish tour, and I'll be very interested to look at the style of play. The buy-in (£500) is sized to make it possible for recreational players to try a significant tournament - plus of course there will be Stars qualifiers who come in for much smaller amounts - and I'm wondering how much they'll want to gamble.

Historically, recreational players always played tighter than pros in chunky live events. They have paid proper money - or won a great opportunity to make proper money - and don't want to go out too early. People used to say this made them soft targets, but not necessarily. It's absolutely fine to play tournaments tight at the beginning, while the blinds are too small to be worth stealing, then gradually loosen up as the field reduces and the pre-deal pots get bigger.

Recently, players of all kinds have got in the habit of playing super-aggressive right from the off, even in the biggest events. They make oversized raises, they re-raise with suited connectors, they bluff hard when they miss the flop. It's an excellent way to play in the later stages of a tournament, but dangerous and often pointless at the beginning. You'd be amazed how fast some players knock themselves out of the $10,000 PCA tournament in the Bahamas.

If your table features super-aggressive players like this, you need to be even more disciplined and determined to get their chips. It's too easy to start calling raises with anything, just because you're bored of passing while everyone else has fun. I favour keeping it solid. But what you can do is upgrade hands like 99 or AJ: if others are playing rubbish, medium hands become stronger.

When you find a strong starting hand, re-raise heavily to isolate one maniac, rather than risk seeing a flop with five of them. Conversely, with little pairs and suited connectors, you WANT several runners to give you good odds on hitting, so (if you want to play these hands early), limp in to keep the pot small. When you hit the flop, trap-check to use the maniacs' own strength against them. Be prepared to make big, difficult calls on the river. Let them hang themselves.

In other words, I don't mind tight play in the early stages of a tournament at all (assuming you're doing it for strategic reasons, rather than because you're scared of getting knocked out) but it must be focussed and committed as well as tight. Be disciplined, but don't miss valuable opportunities to increase aggression and mop up the loose chips. It's absolutely fine to wait for a hand, as long as you make sure to get paid when it comes.

The PCA was not just about poker. There was plenty of other stuff going on, including a golf match between Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu and some lucky freeroll qualifiers. One of them, Michael Jensen, tells the story here...

by Michael Jensen

I'm the type of golfer that'll drive the ball straight and long off the tee only to chunk the approach in the following shot. I'll drain a putt when it's for double bogey, but when it's for par, the outcome isn't quite the same. I made a birdie putt during the '07 WSOP. Gbecks can vouch for me. Finally, when there's money on the line, I'm destined to play my worst. I'm terrible under pressure. It's not that much of an issue on the green felt, but I'm a lock to choke with a club in hand with $20 on the line.

Even so, I still enjoy to play here and there and when I saw that there was to be a freeroll to play with Daniel Negreanu that was definitely something that I wanted to win. I said that I was going to practice and even get a lesson, but neither of those actually happened. I came out to the Bahamas with a pair of golf shoes that would make you think I was an actual golfer and hopes that I wouldn't embarrass myself too much.

We met up with Daniel and the other qualifiers in the lobby before we took the shuttle to the course. Ironically, Erik had knocked me out of the main event the day before. So, when he knocked me out, I said: "Ill see you tomorrow for golf."

It was a cold and windy day, but the tab was on PokerStars and it was also a good excuse to get out of the hotel. Daniel brought his caddy. I just had that nice pair of golf shoes. I had a couple nice drives followed by endless sporadic shots that went every which way but straight. I wouldn't typically mind except that it was 'cart paths only' which makes it a real drag when you spray it in the exact opposite direction of the cart path. It was exercise, I suppose.

Daniel played pretty well, but it's easier to hit it straight when your caddy is there. No worries, Daniel. I wish I had a caddy myself. Daniel hits the ball straight. Once he puts a little more into his drive, he'll be quite the golfer.

Shortly before we finished up, I yelled out a warning to Daniel. Normally he wouldn't be in harms-way, but this me playing here. I sliced it dead right and twenty feet or so over Daniel's head. That would have been one way for him to have been knocked out of the main event!

Thanks for the round, Daniel. Let's negotiate terms to play Big Two. You're a hell of a poker player, but I'm a favorite here. Maybe you'll learn a few things.

Want to take a look at the golf match with Daniel? Here it is in glorious moving pictures....

Two thousand people applied. Only 1% ended up with a spot. That 1% makes up the inaugural lineup for the brand new Team PokerStars Online.

The online Team PokerStars Pro group joins the dozens of live pros who have made up the team for years. Now 23 online pros have joined the PokerStars ranks. The world's biggest online poker site chose 20 men and three women from a wide range of games, stakes, and countries to fill out the new spot under the PokerStars flag.

The names are going to be familiar. If you have played on PokerStars for any length of time, you already know Anders "Donald" Berg. The Norwegian has been around the PokerStars scene for years, served on his country's World Cup of Poker team, and has been a familiar face on the EPT. Now, he is a founding member of the newest version of Team PokerStars.

Berg is not the only man who has risen to fame online. Germany's Thomas "Boku87" Boekhoff turned $100 into $10,000 just to win a prop bet and is now working to turn a similarly small amount into $100,000.

Steve "stevesbets" Jacobs is a name everyone should know by now. Not only has he been around the online scene for a long time, he beat ElkY for the championship in the 2008 WCOOP $25,000 heads-up event.

And then there is Boumaaza "Chiren80" Bachir, one of the fan favorites and an internet TV star in his own right. He's been broadcasting his attempts to get PokerStars' attention for the past several weeks. Today, when the Team PokerStars Online announcement hit the web, he and his friends threw a party to celebrate.

Here's the full list of the new Team PokerStars Online:

1. Andres Alisievicz --- lobojiji
2. Jorge Arias --- JorgeArias
3. Boumaaza Bachir --- Chiren80
4. Anders Berg --- Donald
5. Alvaro Blanco --- VARICO
6. Thomas Boekhoff --- Boku87
7. Diego Brunelli --- vgreen22
8. André Coimbra --- acoimbra
9. Mathew Didlick --- chipstar1
10. Ta-Chih Geeng --- socutiesf
11. Andrew Goetsch --- Kid Nebraska
12. Martha Gonzalez --- marene
13. Keiran Harris --- K_Man2307
14. Steve Jacobs --- stevesbets
15. Randy Lew --- nanonoko
16. Karlo Lopez --- elmagopr
17. Alexey Makarov --- LuckyGump
18. Kristian Martin --- CharismA3
19. Grzegorz Mikielewicz --- DaWarsaw
20. Nichoel Peppe --- NicP
21. Grayson Physioc --- spacegravy
22. Sebastien Sabic --- Seb86
23. Amanda Thomas --- ROXY24

The folks behind the team tell us this is just the beginning, and more players will be get a spot during 2010.

Congratulations to the new team members. We'll see you online!

Like us, you might be wondering what Joe Cada's life has been like since he made an improbable comeback at the World Series of Poker final table, won the Main Event, and subsequently joined the elite ranks of Team PokerStars Pro.

Frankly, that should be enough for one year, no?

Cada is making the most of his time right now, apparently. We've got advance word we should expect to see him at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in a few weeks. He's been making the rounds on Letterman, CNN, FOX and the like.

Now, he's back over in Bristol with our good friends from ESPN's Inside Deal.

Check out the newest episode of the show below.

There wasn't much clamoring in the poker world for Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate to prove himself after his WSOP win. That said, if anybody still needed some proof that the man from Denmark had some pretty serious poker chops, they only needed to be tracking Eastgate's progress last week during EPT London.

We thought it would be a good idea to check in with Eastgate now that the fog has cleared. Here's how he's feeling today.

by Peter Eastgate

As some of you might know, I managed to do pretty well last week in the Pokerstars.com European Poker Tour London Poker Festival Main Event. The event with a big name had an even bigger field. I finished second out of 730 player which made me £530,000.

When you do not win, you lose--even when you finish second. This is the way most poker players feel, and this goes for me too.

Psychologically I am over the 'loss'. Sometimes you make the wrong decision like I did on the last hand of the tournament, where I moved all-in with A9 and get called by Aaron Gustavson's AQ. [Read about the hand in the EPT London Season 6 report].

In the unbearably clear light that is called hindsight, I could have done differently, but when I analyze the play, I still feel that it was the right thing to do at that time. He could have had a worse ace or a pair smaller than 9's, or he could have folded a slightly better hand, at which time my move would have been great. It is a thin line between looking bad and brilliant.

I have thought a little about what I could have done differently. Should I have limped on the button instead of playing aggressive? Possibly, but in poker there are often times many strategies that can be successful in the same situation. Sometimes you pick the right one and you win, other times you don't.

I would rather focus on the positive. For most of the tournament I made the right decisions. Not to forget, even though my financial situation is taken care of due to my big score winning the WSOP, I won £530,000!

I know a lot of poker players are caught up in winning trophy's and titles. To me the title means very little, I play poker for the money and because I like the complexity of the game. If there should still be doubters, then it was nice to show them that the WSOP was not a fluke.

I am very pleased to have made another deep run in a big tournament and made the final table. I have gone deep in six live tournaments now, finishing better than top 30. Four times I have made the final table, with two wins and a second, a result I am pretty pleased with.

When playing a tournament, it is important to get on a rush later in the tournament. It is not important to be chip leader in the early going. I have found that I do best coming from behind in these big field tournaments.

The second place finish has made me want to play more tournaments and has had a positive impact on my motivation to play poker. My motivation has not always been there since winning the WSOP. Last summer in Las Vegas it was not there and I should not have played in many of the tournaments. It was not until defending my title in the Main Event that I found myself motivated to play poker. But with the deep run there and this second place finish, I feel I am really motivated.

Unfortunately, I was not all that motivated to play the day after my second place finish. I played in a heads-up tournament in London and still feeling blue from my 'loss' heads-up to Aaron Gustavson, I played some terrible poker. I lost to Vicky Coren in the first round. I had played for 5 straight days and heads up the day before for more than £800,000. This tournament had a $10,000 buy-in, 32 players and money for the top 8, which is a too flat pay-out structure for my taste.

My next stop is EPT in Warsaw, then I go to Tallinn and PokerStars Baltic Festival. If I have to be totally honest, I wish that the buy-in of 1,100 Euro for the Baltic Festival Main Event was a little higher, as I think 2,000 Euro would have been able to attract the same amount of players. I do think it is great that there is a tournament for those who cannot afford the high buy-ins that most other live tournaments have.

Luckily for me, there will also be a highroller event with a buy-in of 10,000 Euro, where I have heard that Tony G and his Russian friends will be participating. In any event, I am looking forward to spending some days in Tallinn with my fellow Team PokerStars Pros Johnny Lodden and William Thorson. I have heard that Tallinn is a nice place, so I am sure it will be a good trip.

Finally, it looks like I am going to Las Vegas for High Stakes Poker season 6 around the time of WSOP Main Event Final table.

Peter Eastgate is a member of Team PokerStars Pro and the reigning WSOP champion.

You might have seen a little less of Chad Brown at the WCOOP tables in recent days. That's because he was busy padding his bankroll by several hundred thousand dollars in live events. Now that he's done with that, he's ready to move on to WCOOP, where he's suggesting you better watch out for him.

Here's what he had to say upon his return from the American Gulf Coast.

by Chad Brown

Taking a short break from WCOOP, Vanessa and I were the hosts of the Gulf Coast Poker Championship. Vanessa was also teaching a poker boot camp the day before the main event. So I decided to play in the PLO rebuy tourney.

I arrived in Gulfport at 4:45pm. I called my friend Mark Davis and asked how much time I had left to enter the tourney. He told me only 10 minutes. I asked him to buy me in and that I should be there in 30 minutes. He did and I arrived and started to build my stack back up.

At the end of the rebuy period, I had not rebought, but decided to do a double add-on. It was a good decision as I coasted to the final table as the chip leader and was never challenged. I won the event and received $32,000, a white gold bracelet, and a Beau Rivage trophy. It was my 2nd straight final table in Mississippi. The month before I made the final table in the World Poker Open in Tunica, with fellow PokeStars Pro teammate Chris Moneymaker. I finished fourth place in that and Chris came in third.

Feeling great about my chances going into the main event, I had a goal of doing something I had never done in my poker career: win back to back events. I had made three final tables in a row before. In 2006 when I won Bluff Magazines' Player of the Year, I made the final table in the EPT London, won the 5k WCOOP HORSE event on PokerStars and then final tabled the 5k no-limit hold'em at the Bellagio.

The day didn't start out well as I took beat after beat and lost numerous pots on the river. But with good pot management and a great structure I was able to survive. A key to this tournament was when I had about 13 big blinds left and I had raised under the gun with A-J suited.

An older man who was at my table and not doing anything crazy, min-raised me from early position. Everyone folded to me. Now normally I would just go all-in in this spot, but felt I was behind and decided to call. I missed the flop and the old man pushed all in. I mucked, thinking I could find a better spot.

I got moved to another table and was down to 2,500 in chips with the average at about 38,000. I got lucky and doubled up a couple of times. With me now holding 20,000 in chips, a wild player limped in under the gun and the next player min-raised. It was folded to me on the button and I woke up with pocket kings.

I decided to slow play, knowing there was a chance the under the gun player could come back over the top. He just called and we saw the flop. It was 5-5-2 rainbow and was checked to me. I bet half the pot, and the wild player shoved 45,000 all-in. The other player mucked and I called to see my opponent's A-2 offsuit. My kings held up and I was on my way to my third final table in a month.

A very talented young player named Tyler Smith became the monster chip leader at the table. After he busted most of the players there, we were heads up and I was playing for a chance at my first back-to-back victories. He held a 2.5 to 1 chip lead on me.

The key hand of the match was a hand that went like this:

He raised on the button and I called with K-9 off. The flop came 9 high and we both checked. The turn was a [Qs] putting up 2 spades. I checked and he bet. I raised him and he re-raised. I called.

The river was an ugly [As]. I checked and he bet around the amount of the pot 400,000. If I called and lost, the match would be essentially over. He would have had a 2.4 million to 400,000 lead.

I studied the situation for about three minutes and decided to go with my instinct that he was on a move.

I was right.

He had T-2 offsuit and now I had the chip lead.

After I chipped up to a dominating chip lead, the last hand went like this: Tyler limped on the button and I checked. The flop came 3-5-6 rainbow. I checked and he bet. I min-raised ( something I did often in this match) and he went all-in. I called...because I had the nuts: 4-7.

Tyler turned over 9-4 clubs. There was a club on board, but the turn and the river blanked out. I won the Gulf Coast Poker Championship and achieved my goal of back-to-back victories. Tyler played well and I believe we will hear a lot more from him.

Now, with another several days of WCOOP left, I plan on doing some serious damage.

Chad Brown is a member of Team PokerStars Pro

Among the best writers--if not the best--on Team PokerStars Pro is Ms. Vicky Coren. We're very happy when we get a submission from the lady who wrote the book on poker (or, a book at least, titled For Richer, For Poorer), not to mention who wrote the book on pornography (you'll have to Google that one yourself). Alas, her time to write has been better spent playing in WCOOP. Or has it it? As of right now, the answer may not be as easy as it seems.

by Victoria Coren

There you are: immediate punishment.

For my opening WCOOP events, my stats were: played 4, cashed 3. And you know what I did? I COMPLAINED.

I complained because in Europe, cashing in the WCOOPs means being awake overnight. I was up til 7 in the morning playing the $530 NLH, the $215 4-max NLH and the Badugi, cashing for about $800 each time. And I moaned about it on Twitter.They weren't so much tweets as whines. I moaned about not getting deeper in the tournament, about being tired, about it being not enough money for a whole night without sleep.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

There is literally nothing better in this world than staying up all night playing Badugi. Never mind "eating foie gras to the sound of trumpets", my personal heaven is Badugi til dawn. It's all I ever wanted. I have carefully constructed my entire life around creating space to play poker all night. All I want to do is play poker all night. I have AVOIDED HAVING CHILDREN because it might stop me playing poker all night.

So what's to complain? And $800 is not to be sneezed at. $800 is a lot of money in the real world. It's a lot of nice dinners, it's a weekend in the country, it's redecorating the bathroom.

But I was punished for my ingratitude, don't worry about that. Two nights ago, I was in the $1050 NLH until 7 in the morning for no money at all. 608th out of 3268, when 495 get paid.

Boy, that was a long night. It's the fourth one that hurts. While playing, I watched three films, read an entire book and drank approximately 840 cups of tea. Anything to stay awake. And you know what? When I went out, bang, for no money, I soon realized the joy of winning $800 on previous occasions.

But this is not a moan. I have decided to be honest with myself and accept what makes me tick. The best thing in the world is playing poker all night and winning some money, any money at all. But the second best thing is playing poker all night and not winning.

Sleep?

Pah, that's just a waste of time.

Vicky Coren is a member of Team PokerStars, not to mention a writer, presenter, and all-around nice person.

Have you ever gone to a party and been so impressed with the host that you just gave him all your money?

Well, that's not exactly what happened in America's deep south this week, but it's close.

Over the past several days Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown have been hosting the Gulf Coast Poker Championships on the majestic beaches of Biloxi, Mississippi. All of it led up to the $5,000 buy-in main event this past weekend. One hundred fifty-three players fought for a prize pool worth nearly $700,000.

And who won?

Well, of course. The guy who just can't stop winning things.

That's your man there. Mr. Downtown Chad Brown, Team PokerStars Pro and a fine, if a little greedy, host.

First, he took down the Pot-Limit Omaha tournament earlier in the series. Then he came in and won $225,567 in the Main Event.

As of those wins, Brown has now cashed for around half a million bucks so far this year. Oh, and he also gets a seat to the WPT Championship, which isn't small change either.

So, take this as a word of warning. Chad Brown can be a very gracious host, and I'd go to his parties if I were you. But leave your wallet at home when you go.

Silly us. We feel sort of bad about this.

Sorry, Steve. But thanks!

by Steve Paul-Ambrose

My WCOOP has been pretty uneventful poker-wise thus far. My now two week old daughter has made sure of that! [Ed. note. Sorry, Steve. Really. Our bad.]

I did however get a chance to host the final table of what will surely be the largest field tournament this WCOOP. Over 15,000 players entered Event 6, with three turning $100 into more than $100,000.

In a lot of ways it was a crazy final two tables. A number of players had big chip leads and saw them disappear. The most ridiculous hand (probably of the entire WCOOP) came heads-up. No deal had been made so they were playing for the bracelet and about $50,000. Not a bad time to get quads against an overfull.

That's exactly what vakAAttack did for all the chips. Seemed a fitting end to a tournament where more than 15,000 players busted in less than 10 hours.

As for the rest of my WCOOP, I've only played three events so far, all of them last Sunday. I had chips early in two of the three before some ill-advised bluffs and running AK suited into AA left me with just a min-cash to show for the day.

Things are starting to calm down at home now so expect to see me at the tables a fair bit the rest of the way. I'll also be hosting a couple more final tables, and hopefully playing at least one as well. Good luck the rest of WCOOP.

See you at the tables!

Steve Paul-Ambrose is a member of Team PokerStars Pro and, apparently, a new father. We're not going to tell him that it doesn't 'calm down' for several more years.

The poker world is set to bestow one of its highest honors to a veteran of the game, and three members of Team PokerStars Pro have been nominated for the spot.

Members of the Poker Hall of Fame voting committee are preparing to decide which of the nine nominees should be named among the people who played a game-changing role in the poker realm. Among the nominees are Team Pros Barry Greenstein, Tom McEvoy, and Kid Poker, Daniel Negreanu.

Among the criteria judges will use to decide who makes it into the Hall of Fame:

It's a question for the ages: If a poker tournament happens in the middle of Mississippi and a television camera isn't there to cover it, did it really happen? The short answer is yes, it's happening right now, and two of the world's best known poker pros are leading the final table.

Heading into the final day of play at the World Poker Open, Team PokerStars Pros Chris Moneymaker and Chad Brown are the top of the leader board. And get this. With nine players remaining, the average stack is around 280,000. Brown is sitting on 433,500. Moneymaker? Well, Moneymaker has more than one million. If you couldn't deduce for yourself, that is good for the chip lead by more than double Brown's second place spot.

Though it may not seem like it anymore, there was actually a day when poker tournaments happened without television cameras around the final table. Frankly, it wasn't too long ago. At one time, the World Poker Open was a World Poker Tour event. As we all have seen recently, the WPT has changed what it covers these days, and the World Poker Open at the Gold Strike became just another place you could win a lot of money without the world knowing about it. Team PokerStars Pros Humberto Brenes and Barry Greenstein have both won this event. Daniel Negreanu has made the final table twice.

Now, Moneymaker and Brown are trying to reclaim the title for Team PokerStars Pro on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Good luck to both Pros as they go to work this afternoon.

Update: This evening, Moneymaker and Brown finished third and fourth respectively. Congratulations to them both.