I really enjoy Christmas. It is the time of the year I get to spend with my family, and after traveling all over the world, it's great to have a couple of weeks to just chill. Now, after having two weeks of relaxing, I'm really looking forward to going to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

This year they have many more side events, more then ever before. If you're playing poker day in day out, it can burn you out - it can take away the winning edge. These two weeks help to rest up and re-energize.

The PCA is a great way to start of the New Year on the right foot. And if i get knocked out of the main event, I can jump right into another tournament the next day.

I wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year - and hope to see you all in the Bahamas.

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.

by Chad Brown

Going into this event I felt very confident about doing well. I started the day at the gym and got in a nice workout before the tourney. I arrived on time and feeling good after my work out. I bought a chicken wrap and started the tournament. After two hours of play I was 1,000 above chip average and I started to feel ill. I believed it was from the chicken wrap. I made a couple of visits to the bathroom and thought I would start to feel better, but I only started to feel worse.

We were approaching the dinner break and I asked a floor man if I could resign from the tournament and get my buy-in back, since I was 1,000 above average. He checked for me, but said they couldn't do anything. I figured on the dinner break I would go out to the pool, rest, and hopefully feel better afterwards.

As I was walking back, I felt like I could pass out. My friend Mike Ross saw me and thought I looked so bad he wanted to take me to the hospital. I declined, determined to finish what I started. I was at the table with my head down between hands trying to rest. When we got to the 400-800 level, I started to get the chills badly. I text a friend of mine who was staying in the Rio and asked him to bring me sweat pants and jacket. I decided my best option was to skip this level (even though I was only chip average ) and go out to my car and rest with the heater on to warm up. Thankfully, this plan worked and I felt well enough to continue. I got back and was now half chip average, but was able to pick up a couple of pot and come back on Day 2 in the top five in chips.

I felt much better on Day 2 after what I still think was food poisoning. After getting into the money, I felt I had a really good shot at winning the tournament. There weren't many good players left. One of the really good players was Phil Ivey, but he was a little below average. We re-drew when we were down to 16. I had Carlos Mortensen at my table. I think Carlos is one of the best No-Limit Hold'em players in the world. In OE, I like having him at my table.

The first hand I played with Carlos was in Stud-8. I raised on third street with a five door card. I had aces in the hole and Carlos re-raised me with a king. Everyone folded and I just called. I caught an ace on fourth giving me three hidden aces. I bet out and Carlos called.

On fifth. I pulled a jack and checked. I wanted to disguise my hand to get the most value on it. Carlos also checked. On sixth, we both caught an eight. I bet and he called. Going into the river, I bet blind and he called blind, leading me to believe he was drawing dead. I told him before I looked that I had three aces. He said he had two kings and two eights. He squeezed his last card to find the case eight. I checked my river, realized I hadn't filled up, and conceded the hand.

We moved to Omaha, and without describing each hand, suffice it to say I lost the next two hands in row to Carlos and he had to once again hit runner-runner to beat me. I finished in 14th place. Phil Ivey went to the final table short and was able to capitalize on an easy final table to win his 2nd bracelet for the 2009 WSOP.

It was almost a storybook finish, but I was happy to do as well as I did in light of the circumstances from the night before.

WCOOP will be starting Friday, and I for one will be looking forward to it.

Two years ago in the then biggest buy-in of online poker history--the first $5,000 HORSE event--I was fortunate to come in 1st place, winning about $225,000. It was very exciting moment in an already-great year. I went on to win Bluff Magazine's Player of the Year. I think that was the year that PokerStars really started to separate itself from everyone else as the best in the world in online tournaments.

I cashed in the WCOOP Main Event in the following year. Better than that, my fianceé Vanessa Rousso came in 2nd place winning more than $700,000. What was memorable about that was we were in Phoenix, AZ for a baseball tournament I was playing in. Outside of poker, baseball is my passion. During part of the tournament, Vanessa was actually playing in our dugout and all my teammates were rooting her on. My team made it to semifinals, falling short of our goal of winning the championship, but to all my my friends there,it was amazing how much money Vanessa won playing part of the time in the dugout. They thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

So with WCOOP coming up, whether you're playing in a baseball tournament or your passion is safaris in Africa, bring your laptop and don't miss out on PokerStars' new record-breaking buy-ins this year. Who knows? Maybe you will impress your friends and bring home a big check.

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker begins this Friday, September 5 at PokerStars.com. Chad Brown is a member of Team PokerStars Pro.

Chad Brown’s words belie the tone in his voice.

"I'm underperforming," he said of his 2008 World Series performance so far.

Still, there is a hint of optimism in Brown’s voice. And there should be. He’s already made the money in three big events in this year’s World Series. He’s won in the neighborhood of $65,000, including the money he made for an eleventh place finish in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Rebuy event. What’s more, just like last year when he took second place in the same event, Brown took no rebuys and no add-on.

"It's a very rare accomplishment,” he admitted.

Still, despite Brown’s hesitancy to talk big, he’s more accomplished than many of the pros on the circuit. It’s tough to get him to serve as his own PR agent, though, at least in terms of how well he is doing this year.

"I cashed three times and I bubbled twice, which was disappointing," he said.

Disappointing because Brown had his sights set on a record. His own.

Last year, Brown cashed a record eight times in World Series events. This year, he was aiming for nine.

It would have been much more attainable had Brown’s bubble luck gone another way. Take, for instance, what happened in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event.

Sitting with an M of ten, Brown was on the button with a pair of tens. Play folded around to the cutoff who came in for a raise.

"My instinct told me he had a big hand," Brown remembered.

Brown worked out the play in his head. If his opponent had queens or jacks, Brown thought might have the opportunity to push the guy off the hand if an ace or king came, not to mention the possibility of what would happen if a ten fell on the flop.

So, Brown made the call, only to see the small blind push all-in. Before Brown had much time to consider his move, the cutoff re-pushed. It made Brown’s fold easy.

Sure enough, the cutoff held pocket queens. Right fold at the right time, save the ten on the river that would’ve given Brown his set and the win.

And so it happened that Brown picked up pocket jacks soon thereafter against the same player. This time, he got it all-in to see his opponent’s...wait for it…pocket queens. No miracle for Brown and he was out on the bubble.

Brown’s luck didn’t improve in the Seven Card Stud Championship. Near the bubble, he lost five hands in a row where he started with the best hand. The worst of the five was having the chance to four-bet on third street with aces in the hole. He was up against QQ/J and felt good, as one jack had already been mucked. It ended up not mattering. His opponent ran out a flush and that was that.

That’s a problem with goals. A lot of people would be proud and somewhat satisfied with Brown’s performance so far this year. Brown, however, is thinking about the possibility of not breaking his 2007 record. He thinks it’s unlikely he can cash six more times before the end of the 2008 Series.

"But not impossible,” he said.

That’s where you hear that optimism in Brown’s voice. He may be disappointed now, but he hasn’t counted himself out yet.

Good luck the rest of the way, Chad.

PokerStars announced this morning it has added Gavin Griffin and Chad Brown to its stable of elite poker players. Both men are here in Monte Carlo and will be playing in the PokerStars EPT Grand Final.

For Griffin, this announcement comes at an appropriate time. It was just one year ago on this same property that Griffin won the EPT Grand Final title and more than $2 million. He returns this year to defend his title, but this time under the banner of Team PokerStars Pro. Griffin rose to fame in 2004 when, at 22 years old, he became the youngest person ever to win a World Series bracelet. After winning the EPT Grand Final, Griffin went on to win a World Poker Tour title, making him the first player to ever win the "triple crown" of poker (for more on this subject, don't miss the video blogs at the bottom of this post).

"This is the team I want to play with," Griffin said. "I am proud to be a part of this line up.”

Griffin will play at PokerStars under the name ‘GavinGriffin.’

Chad Brown has made a handsome living since 1993 when he first cashed in the World Series. Since then, he's been a major player on the poker scene. Over the years, he's been seen at many a final table, not the least of which was the 2006 World Championship of Online Poker $5,200 HORSE victory for $223,000.

"I'm ecstatic to be with Team PokerStars Pro," Brown said. "I am looking forward to winning a few bracelets and contributing to the Team."

Brown will play at PokerStars under the name ‘ChadBrownPro.’