April 25-30, the Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino in Cebu, Philippines will host the final event of the APPT's fifth season. Last season, Vivan Im beat out 236 players for the PHP 5.81 million first prize. Since then, she's become a Team PokerStars Pro. She'll be back in April to defend her title.

The APPT Cebu PHP 100,000 (US $2,350) buy-in main event will be an official Asia Player of the Year event.

All of PokerStars qualifiers will once again get a room in Cebu's best hotel, the Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa.

Satellites for free APPT packages kick off on Monday of next week.

For all you need to know about the event, check out APPT.com.

On my way to the 2010 World Series tournament, my goal was simple: to do the best that I could. I didn't expect to win at all. Of course, I dreamt about it, and in my wildest dreams I won it, but the reality is that I only wanted to take part to the tournament, and play the best poker of my life, making the right decisions, and letting the rest follow. And you all know what happened next: I managed to win the tournament! It was madness everywhere, especially in Quebec!

In this situation, you must be able to adapt, fast. There is media everywhere, you become instantly famous, and everybody recognizes you. It is essential to become extremely disciplined in order to perform the many tasks expected from you. I think I've been able to adapt quickly, for which I feel very lucky. There are so many requests all at the same time that you don't have time to deal with them all!

After winning the Main Event, I couldn't play poker for one month due to the high volume of requests from international and Quebecois media. Not a very big problem you'll say; yes, in most cases. To be recognized and congratulated by the public is heartwarming. You become proud. Proud of your achievement, proud to represent Quebec and Canada on the international stage but at the same time, you become a target. Some people are waiting the smallest mistake from you to shout from the rooftops that you are not perfect.

Nobody's perfect, everyone can make mistakes; the most important is to know how to deal with them and how to recover afterwards.

One month after my victory, I signed a contract with the giant PokerStars.com. Wow! Another dream which became reality - getting the chance to represent the biggest poker room in the world is just fantastic.The tournaments and promotional activities are organized. Interviews, TV show, press conferences, you name it!

Once again, it is essential to be able to adapt, as now you have to be able to adhere to a strict schedule, to be present, and in good shape, for all activities requested. But more than anything else, it is essential to enjoy the present moment. You won't win the WSOP Main Event every year. So for me it was very important to appreciate every moment and to have fun. I enjoyed the present moment, had fun with interviews, and smiled to the cameras.

This approach has been highly motivating. I knew that I had to play several tournaments in early 2011, starting by the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, so I was really motivated to make a good result again, to win another tournament if possible, to become the best poker player that I could possibly be.

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It's been a busy January on PokerStars with tournaments in the Bahamas and France the past few weeks. Throw in the first TCOOP series and it may make you forget about the regular major events on the schedule. The calendar states that this is the first Super Tuesday in February, and 445 players put down their $1,000 (plus $50) to create a $445,000 prize pool distributed to the final 54 players. Tonight's winner will earn over $85,000, an impressive sum no matter when it happens.

Six members of Team PokerStars participated in the festivities with Team Canada Pro Pat Pezzin once again having the highest finish of the group, the only player to make the money. Team UK and Ireland Pro Liv Boeree finished a few positions short of a min-cash, better than the efforts of Greece Challenger George "gkap13" Kapalas, Team Spain Pro Ana Marquez, Team Nordics Pro Johnny Lodden and Team Romania Pro Toni Judet.

More notables picking up a four-figure score: Rick "ThEcLaiMEer" Trigg (18th), Benjamin "delaney_kid" Delaney (20th), Peter "twirlpro" Turmezey (35th) and Alex "Assassinato" Fitzgerald (36th).

The field was down to ten players as hand-for-hand play began, none of them wanting to bubble the final table. Eventually, after over 15 minutes of play, with the blinds at 2,400/4,800 and an ante of 600, PhilRoyal888 decided to make a move. Action started with 99NvrLosez opening from UTG to 10,200, then PhilRoyal888 shoved for 108,492 chips with [5d][5c]. 99NvrLosez looked down at [Ac][Qs] and called to set up a race situation. This time, 99NvrLosez could change their username to AQNvrLosez as the flop came [Ad][Jh][7h] to move out in front. The turn and river brought no help for PhilRoyal888, coming [3s][8c] to earn $5,785.00 and set up the final table.

Pezzin is joined by 2010 EPT Barcelona winner Toby "810clubs" Lewis (below). As for the rest of the table, here's how it looked when play resumed:

Seat 1: Scott" scott96dl" Glenn (381,910 in chips)
Seat 2: jalman69 (129,074 in chips)
Seat 3: Toby" 810ofclubs" Lewis (300,591 in chips)
Seat 4: vvirtue (376,484 in chips)
Seat 5: pampa27 (142,213 in chips)
Seat 6: thecornerAA (237,006 in chips)
Seat 7: danskemann (155,683 in chips)
Seat 8: Pat Pezzin (109,092 in chips)
Seat 9: 99NvrLosez (392,947 in chips)

The first hour had its share of all-in moments, but every time it was the short-stacked player doubling up to stay in the tournament.

Lewis noted this shortly after the break going into the 10th hour:

810ofclubs said, "been like an hour since a bust"
810ofclubs said, "sicckkk"

Here's the counts when the second hour of the final table started, blinds now at 4,000/8,000 with an ante of 1,000:

Seat 1: scott96dl (396,810 in chips)
Seat 2: jalman69 (112,550 in chips)
Seat 3: 810ofclubs (239,248 in chips)
Seat 4: vvirtue (391,442 in chips)
Seat 5: pampa27 (133,356 in chips)
Seat 6: thecornerAA (451,862 in chips)
Seat 7: danskemann (92,286 in chips)
Seat 8: Pat Pezzin (125,009 in chips)
Seat 9: 99NvrLosez (282,437 in chips)

An additional 15-minute level was played before we lost the first player, Pat Pezzin from the final table. The blinds are now at 4,500/9,000 with an ante of 1,125 as vvirtue min-raised from early position and Pezzin re-raised all in for 76,884 holding [8c][8s]. Vvirtue called and turned over [kh][qs]. The flop gave vvirtue an open-ended straight draw: [Js][td][3c], but the [qh] on the turn was enough to put them past Pezzin into the lead. Pezzin's hopes for a chop didn't pan out on the [7d] river, giving the Canadian ninth place winnings good for $7,387.00

Eighth place at tonight's final table would go to Norway's danskemann, picking up a payday worth $10,012.50. Pampa27 started the hand with a raise to 18,000 as danskemann moved in for their remaining stack of 44,411 chips. Folded back to pampa27, calling with [ad][th] to dominate danskemann's [js][ts]. Both players flopped a pair on the [kc][tc][6d] board, but danskemann would not hit their kicker on the [9c] turn and [as] river, leaving seven to contend for the title.

Toby "810clubs" Lewis cashed in seventh place, earning $14,462.50. 99NvrLosez lived up to that name, opening to 19,000 with [9h][9c]. Lewis shoved for 205,373 with [as][kd] as 99NvrLosez called. The board ran out [Th][6h][2d][8h] [3c] and the nines held up, leaving half a dozen alive for the first place prize.

Pampa27 was hoping to follow the lead of 99NvrLosez, but their pocket nines were no good when up against thecornerAA. Here's how that hand played out as blinds moved to 5,000/10,000 with an ante of 1,250:

Pampa27 received an email to let them know they'll receive $18,912.50 for their sixth place finish.

The carnage continued a few hands later as 99NvrLosez and vvirtue tangled in a 800,000+ chip pot. Vvirtue min-raised to 20,000 as 99NvrLosez three-bet to 62,225. That bet was met by a four-bet shove from vvirtue to 427,095 as 99NvrLosez called. The cards were turned over and once again 99NvrLosez held the dominating hand, showing [Ac][Kc] to vvirtue's [ad][jd]. Once again, the board ran out all low cards: [9c][7h][4c][4d] [3h] as vvirtue settles for $24,920.00 and a fifth-place result.

The final elimination in the flurry of coinflips and dominated hands had the short-stacked jalman69 finally succumbing in fourth. Their patience was rewarded for $35,600.00. Scott96dl opened with a raise to 21,000 with [ad][9h] as jalman69 put their remaining 98,175 into the middle with [kc][th] as scott96dl called. The flop kept scott96dl in front: [9s][3c][2h] as scott96dl remained the leader after the [6c] turn and [qh] river sending jalman69 earning the Last Canadian Standing declaration.

The three remaining players were relatively close in stacks, so talk of a deal occurred. Here's the chip counts and money breakdown at the time of the chat about dividing the loot ($3,000 was set aside for the eventual winner):

99NvrLosez: 790,670 - $65,330.80
thecornerAA: 716,985 - $63,596.86
scott96dl: 717,345 - $63,605.34

There was an immediate squabble on players wanting just a bit more, and that ended the deal debate.

Three-handed play featured 99NvrLosez and scott96dl distancing themselves from thecornerAA over the ensuing hands. Eventually 99NvrLosez would corner the remaining chips of thecornerAA, receiving third place earnings of $46,725.00. The blinds moved to 6,000/12,000 with a 1,500 ante as the hand played out below:

Heads-up play started with 99NvrLosez holding a nearly 2-1 advantage over scott96dl, expanding that to almost 4-1 after the first heads-up hand. Surprisingly they were still going at it over an hour later. Scott96dl was able to get an early double-up when their A-7 held against K-J, narrowing the gap even further with another huge pot on the next hand. The momentum was clearly in scott96dl's direction when he doubled again on this hand to hold nearly 90 percent of the chips:

All seemed lost for 99NvrLosez at this point, but the duel continued as they clawed their way back into contention, retaking control of the chip lead after this hand:

As the Super Tuesday went into the 12th hour, scott96dl doubled up to nearly even up the chip stacks once again when their 4-3 made a pair on the river against K-10. Alas, the tournament was over four hands later. The blinds had now moved to 10,000/20,000 with a 2,500 ante as scott96dl held [Ad][As] and was trying to trap 99NvrLosez. Unfortunately, the trapper was the trappee when the river proved disastrous:

Scott "scott96dl" Glenn collects $63,412.50 as 99NvrLoses pockets a Super Tuesday victory, good for $85,395.50 and likely a good night's rest after an extended final table and heads-up match.

February 7, 2012 Super Tuesday final table results:

1st: 99NvrLosez - $85,395.50
2nd:Scott "scott96dl" Glenn - $63,412.50
3rd: thecornerAA - $46,725.00
4th: jalman69 - $35,600.00
5th: vvirtue - $24,920.00
6th: pampa27 - $18,912.50
7th: Toby "810clubs" Lewis - $14,462.50
8th: danskemann - $10,012.50
9th: Pat Pezzin - $7,387.00

February 12th on PokerStars you'll be able to fill your eyes and maybe your pockets as Double Vision hits the site. Your favorite Sunday majors (Kickoff, Storm, Warm-Up and Million) will have a second edition starting 30 minutes after their regularly scheduled times.

As you might know, the LAPT will host the Season 4 Grand Final next week. The big event coincides with Brazil's biggest party of the year, Carnival. Today the LAPT revealed that it has invited and received RSVPs from every Season 4 champion.

The five previous winners from the season will be sponsored players when the LAPT Grand Final main event kicks off at the World Trade Center Sheraton in Sao Paulo. Alex Manzao (Sao Paulo champion), Murilo Figueredo (Vina del Mar), Kemal Ferri (Lima), Alex Komaromi (Punta del Este), and Julian Menendez (Medellin) will all be in their seats February 17 for the Grand Final kickoff.

The Carnival party is pulling people from far beyond the Latin American borders. The word from Brazil indicates Eugene Katchalov, ElkY, Daniel Negreanu, and Chris Moneymaker will all be showing up for the big event.

And, of course, we here the PokerStars Blog wouldn't miss the festival. Several of us are packing our Carnival clothes as we speak and planning a full week for in-depth reporting.

Be sure to join us next week from Sao Paulo as we hook up with Team Pro, all of the Season 4 champions, and the rest of the traveling LAPT circus.

Last week, in Melbourne, Australia, a few of the members of the media, myself included, ventured out to dinner with two Team PokerStars Pros, Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier. The venue of choice was Ichi Ni Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant down by the water in St. Kilda. The conversation was lively, the sake was flowing and everyone was feeling good -- maybe too good.

One of the members of the PokerNews team, Remko Rinkema, brought up the idea of challenging someone to a best-of-seven sports competition. Maybe it was the ego, maybe it was the sake or the vodka cranberries, maybe it was just something in the air; whatever it was, Rinkema decided to challenge Mercier.

Now, before we get into more specifics of the bet, let me give a little background on where the bet stemmed from. Rinkema made a bet last year against former Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken while at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. It was a weight-loss bet and at the time Rinkema weighed in at 128.5 kilograms. The details of the bet were that for every kilogram over 100, Rinkema had to pay $500 and for every kilogram under 100, Boeken owed him $500. Rinkema had just under one year before the final weigh-in took place during the 2012 PCA. When it was all said and done, Rinkema weighed 95.2 kilograms. Partial kilograms didn't count, which meant Rinkema lost four kilograms total and earned a payment of $2,000 from Boeken. That's quite the effort given that he had to drop 28.5 kilograms just to break even. Not too mention, Rinkema earned a nice little payday.

Given that background story, Rinkema would like to keep up his healthy, weight-losing ways and though this would be another reason for him to keep on the right track in getting in the best shape he's been in since his teenage years. Both he and Mercier discussed the terms of the bet and settled on a wager of $5,000. Yes, this was a little high for Rinkema's liking, but it was decided that it would ultimately give him the most drive to win. The amount also had to be enough that Mercier would actually want to try and win. After all, the guy has earned over $7.6 million in live tournament earnings and probably several million more in cash games.

After some debating and banter back and forth, it was decided that I would arbitrate the bet with Rinkema selecting four sports to Mercier's three. For each sport picked, I would decide the competition within that sport that the two would engage in. For example, if one of them selected basketball, I could decide that the competition would be a game of one-on-one with the first player to seven winning.

For the rest of the night, the two went back and forth a little bit about the bet. They even sought out the opinions of others in the party before taking to Twitter to get even more views. Right away, Mercier seemed pretty confident about the bet and tweeted the following.

@JasonMercier: "Booked a 5k prop bet last night against @happyfreaked we play best of 7 sports and he chooses 4 I choose 3 ... Think I'm -260 to win #mash"

Rinkema, though, didn't seem as confident in Mercier, even though he had the edge in sports to be picked, four to three. Here's what he first tweeted about the bet.

@happyfreaked: "So I made this silly prop bet with @JasonMercier tonight. Gotta think of 4 sports I can beat him at in 24 hours. Time to get some sleep now."

Mercier then went on to add even more words of confidence in the following tweet.

@JasonMercier: "@DWBenefield @happyfreaked pretty sure he's drawing dead in the 3 I'll pick, so I just gotta beat him in one of his 4"

In the details of the bet, Rinkema was supposed to pick his four sports first, but he seemed to have a bit of a hard time doing so.

@happyfreaked: "Having a hard time figuring out which 4 sports I will pick. Leaning towards tennis, cycling time trial, speed skating on ice and kickboxing."

After some back and forth banter on Twitter that included Mercier asking for my ruling on Rinkema's time frame for choosing his sports and plenty of players, fans and media members voicing their thoughts, Rinkema decided on his four sports as tug of war, cycling, snowboarding and speed skating on ice. But Mercier wasn't buying those and argued against a couple of them.

@JasonMercier: "@happyfreaked tug of war a sport? Also, assumed since we are supposed to do this in Vegas in the SUMMER snowboarding? @Donnie_Peters Plz"

I have to agree, tug of war was a bit of a stretch by Rinkema and I disallowed it. I also agreed with Mercier on the idea of snowboarding. This bet is supposed to take place during the summer and the World Series of Poker, preferably at the beginning. It's also supposed to be able to be completed within 24 hours. Having to trek up to a mountain and compete in snowboarding more than likely wouldn't be doable. I also disallowed speed skating on ice for the same reason as snowboarding. Speed skating in the summer in Las Vegas? Good luck with that. I also don't think it's overly fair to include a sport that each person much go out and buy some unique equipment for. Finding a basketball or some tennis racquets is one thing, but speed skates? Don't think that's going to happen.

Given all of that, the only sport that actually stood was cycling, leaving Rinkema to have to pick three more. Cue the Jeopardy theme song because this took some time for him to finally decide. Eventually, he chose shot put as another one of his four. Although Mercier tried to argue against shot put, as you can read in his following tweets, it's part of the Olympics, a sport involved in track and field competitions, so I allowed it.

@JasonMercier: "Shotput is just an event in track and field. If u can't make a living at it specifically... It's not a sport!! @happyfreaked @Donnie_Peters"

@JasonMercier: "That's like me picking half court basketball shots. Basketball is the sport. Donnie would choose what we do in the sport"

Sorry, Mercier, there are specific athletes who specialize in shot put and shot put only. It is a sport, although one more unique one, but it's still a qualifying sport.

Another day or so passed before Rinkema added his final two sports. It took him a lot of deliberating, Wikipedia research and consultation from friends, but he finally picked rowing and inline skating. He still wasn't that impressed about a couple of his first selections getting turned down, though.

@happyfreaked: "After long deliberation I pick Cycling, Shot pot, Rowing and inline speed skating. @JasonMercier @Donnie_Peters"

@happyfreaked: "Still not happy about getting turned down on the initial sports, but these are as legit as they get imo."

Then, it was Mercier's turn and he had to select the final three events of the competition. Shortly after Rinkema finalized his four picks, Mercier responded with his three to close out the drafting.

@JasonMercier: ".@Donnie_Peters @happyfreaked I choose basketball, racquetball, baseball guess I just gotta figure out which of Remko's sports I can win at"

With all seven sports now picked, it's up to me, as the arbitrator to decide what these two will compete at for the sports. After a little bit of thought, it's been decided.

For cycling, the two will compete in a 10-kilometer time trial. The person who competes the 10 kilometers the fastest wins this competition. For shot put, it was very simple -- distance. For rowing, I chose to have the two row for 15 minutes of elapsed time and whoever completes the most distance wins. For inline speed skating, the two will have a one-on-one race with the distance yet to be determined.

For the three sports that Mercier selected -- basketball, baseball and racquetball -- the following was chosen. For basketball, the two will play a one-on-one format with the first player to score 15 points winning. You must win by two in this event and all baskets will be worth one point. For racquetball, the two will play another one-on-one format and it will be best-of-three games. The first person to score 15 points wins each game. For baseball, the two will play home run derby with 10 outs allotted per side. A neutral pitcher will be used.

Those are the seven sports and the competitions that will be completed for each. With the event set to take place at the beginning of the WSOP, it's going to be something great to come out and watch if you're in the area. We'll be sure to keep everyone posted about the happenings of the bet and competition, so as always, stay tuned.