It's been about fifteen years since I last visited Berlin; my former life,working in Frankfurt and we decided to train it over there for the weekend. I can't remember much other than really hot days and very sore feet from all the walking we did.

Oh, and the beer was very good.

Cut to 2010 and the EPT has found a new German base. First prize was a guaranteed one million euro's and I think every seasoned EPT player expected a big field. With 945 players showing up, PokerStars added 50,000 euro so that the first place money wouldn't compromise the payout structure.

The tournament started off very slowly for me and it wasn't until we returned from a break at the beginning of Level 5 that I actually got out of the blocks. As often happens, I think we were only three or four-handed as most hadn't made it back in time for the re-start. With the blinds absent, first to speak limped for 300, and with 9-9 I made it a 1,100 to go.

The player called and I bet 2,000 on the 10-6-5 flop. The turn was an eight and this time he check-raised my 2,000 bet to 6,000. Folding here normally wouldn't present too much of a problem, but given the short-handed nature of the table, my raising his limp could easily be a right out steal. I just really sensed he didn't think I had anything. So I called and hit my gutshot on the end when a beautiful 7 arrived. He led for 4k, I made it 10k and he eventually called with 10-7, an unlucky two-pair.

I made it through the rest of the day with an above average 70k. Day 2 went pretty smoothly as well, despite an early dip down to 16k. With the help of some aggressive play around the bubble, I finished with a double average 410k.

Day 3 saw me get off to reasonable start, taking out short stack John Kabbaj, but after that hand I just couldn't manufacture a hand for rest of the day.The real problems started when I moved tables to uber-stacked Ketul Nathwani's right.

Card dead, sometimes you just have to make a play and hope for the best. Ketul had raised, someone called, and I took a look with 9-10 from the BB. Ketul bet something like 36k on the K,7,3 flop and it was folded to me; I had about 340k in front of me and 3-bet him to 110k. Unfortunately after a short dwell, he called and a ten hit the turn.

Now a couple of years back I know I would have followed through with an all-in push....but I'm in my forties now and those moves, well, I just find it a lot harder to pull the trigger these days. So I checked, Ketul bet enough to put me in. Hating life, I folded.

That left me in a bit of bother and when the next level began I was down to ten big blind territory. I pushed 10-8 suited smack into the big blind's aces.The 8-9-10 flop was most pleasing, but the dealer messed up the turn and put an ace out there. I was done.

Tournaments can be really hard work at times and my 44th place finish was a much needed boost to my confidence. In the following day's 1,000 side event, I got off to great start but, unfortunately, what initially looked like a scuffle in the corner of the ballroom turned out to be an armed raid. Whilst no one was hurt, it did cause five minutes of chaos as everyone ran towards the nearest exit.That resulted in the 1k being cancelled and we all got our money back. I'm hoping that's not the end of my upswing!

Dutch Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis has a good friend named Bart Spijker. They've known each other for a couple of years and it's hard to find better buddies.

They also like to hurt each other.

As Veldhuis tells the story, he once went broke in a big live game. Not momentarily cash poor. In Veldhuis' words the damage made him "literally broke." As in, no more money. Busto. Left with nothing more than the rubber band that held his cash. It was an experience that could humble the proudest of men.

Veldhuis stood, walked away from the table, and only stopped when he heard his friend's voice.

"Lex, you forgot something!" Spijker called from the table.

Veldhuis turned around, and Spijker was dangling the rubber band in front of his face.

"That goes to show," Veldhuis said."It's pretty ruthless."

While it may be ruthless, Veldhuis says it's all in good fun and has helped him develop a thick skin. It's also resulted in a series of grudge matches between the two friends. It started off with Veldhuis putting a hurt on Spijker. It was satisfying, to say the least. Then something bad happened. Spijker started winning, even as much as 10-15 buy-ins per session.

"I told him everything he won was based on luck and he proposed a challenge," Veldhuis said.

And it was on

The challenge: Veldhuis and Spijker will play 30,000 hands. Whoever has profited at the end will get to keep their winnings, plus get a 50,000 euro bonus from the loser.

"This will be the sweetest thing to ever win in my poker career," Veldhuis said. "I can constantly remind him of it and brag about it. No doubt he will do the same if he were to win This is a true heads-up grudge match."

The two have private $10/$20 NLHE tables set up on PokerStars and are already fighting. Three thousands hands into the grudge match, Veldhuis is up by $30,000.

So, if you're the type of person who likes to see two friends eviscerate each other, this is your chance. But bring a poncho, because it's likely to get bloody.

So much has happened since the WSOP Main Event, it's a little hard to remember it all. There hasn't been as much poker as I would like. But how can I complain? Immediately after the main event, I went with my agent, Dan, to spend a few days in New York City. Letterman, CNN, CBS, front row at a Rangers game, WWE Raw, and my birthday in New York - all amazing, just not as much poker as I would have liked.

I did manage to squeeze in some poker on my trip to LA where I was featured on the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge with Vanessa Rousso and Daniel Negranu, and I was rooted on by my new friend (and fellow Team PokerStars Pro) Dennis Phillips.

By the time the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure came around, I was ready for a few weeks of nothing but poker. PokerStars is really turning its Bahamas event into a mini-WSOP. There are events that start every day, and they do something a little different than the American poker tours, where they have the main event happen closer to the beginning. That way if you bust, there's still plenty of action to look forward to.

I was happy with my play in the PCA Main Event. I got a little too involved in a hand where I knew I was beat, and I was out within the first few levels.

I played a few more events, including the AmFAR Celebrity Charity Tournament, which was pretty cool. Boris Becker, Montel Williams, Nelly, Kelly Rowland, and even Tony Almeida from "24" all played! I also played the six-max and another event with no results, but I was able to get a cash where it mattered most - in the $25,000 buy-in High-Rollers event.

It was a very tough field that included some of the best players in the world: Justin Bonomo, Lex Veldhuis, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Elky, Barry Greenstein, Nick Schulman, Dario Minieri, and Mike Matusow to name just a few.

On day one, I was lucky enough to river a straight with my pocket eights, even though Jani Sointula had pocket tens and rivered a set. The board came out 7-6-4-9-10. It's always a tough spot when the card that makes your hand makes a better hand for your opponent, and in this case, I was lucky enough to be on the positive end of that. I was able to make it through the day with around 100k.

I made it all the way through day two, and ended with 130k in chips, and I was feeling pretty good. Lately I had been busting out early. So I had a good feeling about this one to make it to day three. There were some guys with some monster stacks, but I wasn't that worried about it. I still had plenty of chips, so I was just going to keep playing my game, and keep letting other people make mistakes.

On day three I was able to add a bunch of chips to my stack when Brett Richey and I got it all in pre-flop. I raised on the button with pocket queens, and Brett re-raised me from the big blind. It's hard for him to put me on having a hand here since I usually play so aggressively. I moved in over the top, and he called for about 150k. He had pocket tens. My queens held up, and I had close to 375k after the hand.

It was a tough level, though, and before I knew it I was down to around 200k and then back up to around 400k. I made it through the money bubble (finally!), and then, unfortunately, due to math, I was forced to give Matt Marafioti a courtesy double-up because he had so few chips. My 10-8 was dominated by his A-10. It was a fairly standard play, but I didn't really need to take the 50k hit. After that, I got into a fairly huge pot with Brummelhuis where I was forced to fold on the river in a hand where I had invested almost 100k. I don't want to say what I had, but obviously I thought I was beat. This put me around 300k.

This tournament is very top heavy, and I was playing to win, and not necessarily to keep moving up prize places, so not too many hands later, fellow Team Poker Stars Pro Sandra Naujoks, raised from the button, and I shipped over the top with A-8. She ended up having me dominated (barely!) with A-9, but it was good enough to knock me out in 11th place. I'm not going to lie, though, it felt pretty good to cash.

The rest of the trip was fantastic. PokerStars puts on a great event, and as a Team Pro, they really know how to give you the royal treatment. I got to hang with a lot of cool celebrities, and I don't know if I'll ever get used to the fact that they are as excited as me to be in pictures. I'm just happy that I get an excuse to get my photo taken with them.

The worst part of the PCA was losing to fellow Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan on the giant water slide. Even worse, it's going to be televised on ESPN. He beat me by five lengths. He is a monster!

Next up for me is the NAPT Venetian. I'm very excited to be a part of this new PokerStars tour. I'm sure it's going to crush. Hopefully I'll see you there!

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...

Watch UKIPT Manchester S1: Julian Thew is signed to Team PokerStars Pro on PokerStars.tv

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."

Daniel Negreanu in more familiar surroundings

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....

Watch PCA 2010: Golf with Daniel Negreanu on PokerStars.tv

"It's been a long time since I rock and rolled.
It's been a long time since I did the stroll.
Oh baby, let me get back, let me get back,
Let me get back, Baby where I come from"
-Led Zeppelin

Two years. Seriously, two years! It's been that long since I have won a tournament either online or live that wasn't a sit n go or the $215 NL 2-7 single draw on Poker Stars. That's the type of thing that can really mess with someone's head. I used to be a closer. My stats in that regard were ridiculous. In fact, zeejustin posted a blog about it on his website. If I got to the final 27 of a tournament, I won almost every time. Obviously some of that was running well and some of that was playing well. I certainly didn't lose heads up. Including my win at the Borgata two years ago, I only had two 2nd place finishes in online tournaments and zero in live tournaments.

So, what happened? Did I lose it? Am I just running poorly? Am I even good at poker anymore? What am I doing wrong? Did I get cursed for joining Team Poker Stars Pro Besides that last one, these thoughts can plague all of us who play tournaments. One of the things I realized is that I wasn't putting in enough volume, live or online. I know I'm more than capable of crushing in tournaments, I just have to put in the commitment and not be lazy. Play every Sunday that I'm not playing a live event or have another commitment, and stick it out to the end. Don't give up after the first 5 tournaments bust. Play some of the smaller LA live events, they have tons of value.

Second of all, examine your game all the time. Don't get complacent. Work with the tools that are afforded to you, experiment with different playing styles, examine your hand histories after each session and see if there were some spots where you could have played better. I had let myself get confident with my game and wasn't working hard to improve all the time. It's not hard to do really. I had just won some pretty major tournaments. It's easy to presume that you don't need to get better when you've won a tournament on the three biggest tours in the world.

Finally, I realized that people are getting better at poker. Whereas I used to sit down at a table and presume people were bad until they show me that they aren't, now I play and presume people are good until they prove otherwise. I try to learn from the best players both live and online. What is moorman1 doing that I'm not doing? What is charder30 doing that I'm not doing? What is nanonoko doing that I'm not doing? How can I get to be as good or better than those guys? You can even learn from the people who aren't very good. They may still have some ideas about poker that are relevant and they misapply or they may do one thing that is useful. They can even teach you by doing something that's really bad and giving you an idea of what not to do.

I guess what it boils down to is that hard work is always a good thing and no matter what your results are, you can always get better. Players like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu are trying to get better, why shouldn't I? The last thing I want to say is thank you to my wonderful fiance Amy. She puts up with me being whiny on Sundays and after live tournaments and though it's tough on her, she does her best to make me feel better after a long day of tournaments.

Gavin Griffin finally broke his not-winning streak this past weekend when he took down the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand.

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.

And just in case you have forgotten what got Cada this far...here's what he looked like about five weeks ago.