The two Team PokerStars Pros got heads-up for $5,000 Big Event main event title. After working through a field of more than 400 players, the two men found themselves across the table from each other, tipping a couple of beers, and battling for the half-million-dollar first prize.

Each man has had his share of successes, and $500,000 wasn't going to be either's biggest win, but there was some matter of pride on the line. It's not often you see two Team PokerStars Pros heads-up for a big title.

As they reach the final hand, Ramdin had a decent lead on Hachem, got it in behind with ace-jack to Hachem's ace-king, and managed to flop a hook for the win.

Hachem pocketed $300,000 for his runner-up finish.

Ramdin, meanwhile, picked up the $500,000 first prize. That money finally takes him over the $3 million mark in career live tournament winnings. It is also Ramdin's biggest live finish since 2006 when he won more than $1 million at the WPT Foxwoods event.

Congrats to both Hachem and Ramdin for representing Team PokerStars Pro so well. We'll plan on seeing you gentlemen down the road. You're buying the drinks.

Photographs © Joe Giron/Joe Giron Photography

I made the trip out with Joe Cada, Dennis Phillips, and my agent, Dan Frank. As for the tourney, I made the final two tables, but no cash for me. Too bad. I was really looking forward to adding that to my Hendon Mob stats (lol).

After Wichita it was off to Las Vegas to cheer on my good friend Grinder at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Grinder, who I had a small piece of, ended up going out fifth: gg,Grinder. PokerStars had a good showing there, as usual, with Duhamel flying our flag and taking home another championship bracelet to Stars.

I was impressed with Duhamel's play overall. So many past world champions have made some goofy play or gotten really overtly lucky to win the thing, and to be honest, I don't think I saw Duhamel make a bad play since he busted Matt Affleck before the final table.

After that it was off to a PokerStars event - NAPT Los Angeles! I played three events there - the $5k Main Event, the $5k Heads up, and the $5k Bounty Shootout. In the heads up, I won my first match, but against my second opponent, it was probably the worst heads-up match of my life. I didn't last too long.

For the main event, I ran into a super-cooler to knock me out, and it was a bummer because I had a decent amount of chips! With three hours left at the end of day one, I was cruising along nicely with about average chips. The blinds were 200-400, and I had about
35,000. Action folded around to the cut-off who made a min-raise to 800. The small blind called, and I called in the big blind with [As][8s].

The flop came down A-A-T. The small blind checked, I checked to play in flow, and to let the original raiser take a shot at a continuation bet. But he didn't. He checked as well. It might have looked suspicious if I were not so strong myself.

The turn came an 8, and also put a flush draw on board, but what did I care, I just boated up. The small blind checked, and I checked again, hoping he could now fire as it had been checked around twice. This time he did bet, 2,200 into a pot of about 3,000. But then something weird happens - the small blind makes it 7,100.

At this point, I know the SB has an ace for sure, and the only hand
that's beating me on the entire planet is A-T. Pocket eights are also possible, but not all that likely. I re-pop because I want to make sure I can get the money in now before a bad card comes on the river that might make him want to get away from his big ace. I raise, and basically commit my stack. He puts me all in, I call, and yup - A-T. What a cooler!

The $5k Bounty Shootout was pretty fun as well It was a winner take all event, with$1k bounty bonuses on anyone you knock out, so you have to play it a little faster than a normal tournament. I had basically what you would call an internet table, with only a few live pros present, one of them being Hassan Habib on my left. I busted the first three players at the
table, and then somehow went out with five players left.

I just happened to tangle with the only other player with a lot of chips. I ended up getting all my money in with Q-J on a Q-J-9 board, but unfortunately, my opponent had flopped the joint with K-T and that crippled me.

From Los Angeles, I went home to play in the USA Coop, which is PokerStars' new tournament series open only to US Residents. There were great overlays on all the events, and since I cashed in three out of the eight I played (and broke even), I considered it to be a success.

The USA Coop had much softer fields than the Sunday Million. I should have done better, but didn't.

Coming up, I'll be playing a charity event in NY to benefit research for Muscular Distrophy. I won't travel at all during Christmas,because I love Christmas in New York. There is no place in the world I would rather be. Times Square. The Rockettes. Rockefeller Center. It's amazing and incredible - and I love New York!

During the holidays, I'll be resting up in order to get prepared for the PokerStars marquee event of the year: The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

I'll be playing the big four events there: the $5k shoot out, the $25k High-Roller, $5k Horse - and, of course, the $10k main event. I had a decent showing there the last four years, so let's see if I can go deeper this year.

Happy Holidays!

I was really looking forward to the month of September. You've got the WCOOP on PokerStars, and things usually tend to finally cool off just a bit here in New York City. I was all set to take all the things I had learned about online poker this year, and apply them to the WCOOP, when a bit of tragedy struck.

For many years I worked with a fellow named George who was in charge of a lot of my building construction for the various properties I own and manage in New York. We eventually became very good friends. Within the past few years, George took what money he had and decided to move to Florida to try to make a better life for himself and try some real estate speculation of his own. To make a long story short, he lost everything in the recent real estate failure in Florida, got frustrated, and last month he took his own life.

Not only was I upset to hear the news, and for the loss of my friends, I was also very upset I wasn't there for him in the end to talk to him. I was out of the country at the time, and I don't know that my input would have made any difference, but I can't help but feel awful about the fact that I wasn't there.

This led to me being a bit distracted at the WCOOP began just after I heard the news. I would say I'm ok with my performance, especially given the circumstances. I lost about $12k overall, which I consider to be a victory considering my mental state and the fact that I spent way more than that amount in buy-ins. I only had two cashes, but I was lucky enough to satellite into a lot of events, and that kept my overhead low as well. Considering I played some of the bigger events, and especially the re-buy events, I'm totally ok with this figure. I played 18 events total including the Main Event, several second chances, and the $2200 HORSE.

I found a particular hand from the WCOOP Main Event to be pretty interesting, and I'd like to share it with you.

For the Main Event, you get a lot of chips. So I was playing in what I like to call my "Deepstack Mode." For me, this means I try not to go broke in the early levels in marginal spots. I will still push my edges, but before I do, I want to make sure I've given myself the biggest edge possible. I broke away from that strategy in the hand crippled me.

Blinds were at 250/500 and I had about 60,000 in chips. 40,000 was about average, and I had over 100 big blinds. As you know, this is a glorious sized stack to have, and something I should have been working hard to protect. I was in middle position with pocket kings. My standard raise had been to 1200. It was folded to me, so that's what I made it. I had three callers so already I was a bit on edge.

The flop came K-5-4 with two spades. I led out into the three opponents. One player called, and the player on the button raised. A big raise. There was about 4k in the pot, and I had led out for 3100, so with the caller, there was about 10k in the pot. The player on the button made it 13k to go. There's no way I can be beat in this spot (yet), so the only conclusion I can come to is that he's on a flush draw. This is where "deepstack mode" comes into play. A lot of players would love to push their edges here and let the guy stack off on a flush draw, but for me, I prefer to let the turn come off. If it's not a spade, I'll then push an edge twice as big, and if it is, I can decide to either get away from it, or try to get a cheap river and maybe boat up.

I didn't follow my own strategy, and I ended up jamming there on the flop. Well, as it turns out, I really didn't have much of an edge at all, as he was holding 8s-7s, and we were basically a coinflip considering he had so many outs. This is not my style of play, and of course the turn came a blank and the river came a spade. If I had followed my original strategy, I would have been able to get him off his hand (probably) when the blank hit the turn. If I had shipped the turn instead, the pot would have been laying him for worse odds. I'm not beating myself up too bad, since I got it in with a set, but I'm just upset that I didn't listen to myself. Good poker players correct their own mistakes and this is the second blog in as many months where I went against my own style and I regretted it.

On a personal note, I started going to Bikram Yoga. For those of you who don't know, Bikram Yoga is yoga done in a room where the keep the temperate at well over a hundred degrees. You sweat your ____ off, and it brings all the toxins out of your body. I'm not going to lie - some of the views in the room ain't bad either. It sounds crazy, but the whole thing makes you feel really good and energized. I'll probably start doing it twice a week soon. Here's a word of advice though: if you start to feel dizzy or lightheaded, do not close your eyes. Let's just say I may know this from experience. And let's just say that I also know from experience that being revived by a yoga instructor, while pleasant, is somewhat embarrassing.

Other than that, I'm really looking forward to NAPT Los Angeles in November, and thoroughly enjoying the PokerStars.net Big Game on FOX. It comes on around 2am, but if you don't get it in your neighborhood, you can always watch it online. Really great cash game action. If you can't make it out for the NAPT, I'll be playing on PokerStars every Sunday from now until the foreseeable future. I play at least four tourneys a week on there - The Sunday Million, The Quarter Million, The Daily Nightly Grand, and the $100 Rebuy. Come say hello!

Talk to you soon!

On the poker-for-profit front, I made it to day two of the PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian, but unfortunately I didn't make it any further. I got it all in with two kings on a jack-high board and was called by pocket sevens. A seven came on the turn, and that was it for me.

The good news is that I did satellite in through PokerStars, and I've already won my seat for the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun. That makes my two for two for satellites to NAPT events.  You can satellite in for as little as a few dollars on PokerStars, so I'm basically free-rolling.  I'll take it.

I did want to share one hand that I played online with you guys though. I was playing in the PokerStars Sunday 500 one weekend.  I am really starting to enjoy playing online, and it's become even more enjoyable now that I've realized a) how easy it is to tilt people and b) how badly they want to give you their chips.

I was deep in the event when I decided to open ship with two Aces under the gun. The Villain whom I had beaten in a few pots already practically beat me into the pot (for 100k) in the cut-off.  I expected to see no worse than Ace-King, so I was shocked whe he turned over [10h][9h]. 

This is basically a suicide play, based on steam, and tilt.  Villain has to know that he's not ahead of anything with that hand, and he's calling purely to try to get lucky.  Best case scenario, he's up against a smaller pair, and then he's flipping a coin at best.

Well, this kamikaze attack did work in this case, and the USS Ramdin was sunk.  Even though the play ended up working out for him, this is a prime example of why emotion can be so dangerous. 

When it comes to poker, it's ok to take a punch without necessarily having to punch back. 

Sunday night I chopped the $100 rebuy on PokerStars, splitting about $80,000 in prize money, so that was a pretty good score.  This score has got me oh so fired up for the upcoming SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) on PokerStars!

Things went pretty well for me there, so I feel like this is going to be a big year. No, I didn't win the main event at the PCA. In fact, I only min cashed. But any other tournament pro can tell you: you can do a lot worse than starting off the year with a cash.

I did very well in some of the side action as well. Sure, there were the $1k Sit 'N' Goes, of which I won three, and cashed in three others, but I'm talking about the real side action.
ThePokerStars event in the Bahamas is held at the Atlantis Resort, and there's always plenty of fun and games going on off the felt as well. I went 0-2, in heads-up matches racing down the waterslides - losing to both Hevad Kahn and Joe Cada. We (Noah Boeken, Chad Brown, and myself) also narrowly lost the sandcastle-building competition when we were rivered by Vanessa Rousso and Gavin Griffin's last-minute addition of a two-car garage.

Overall, I was very happy with the way I played the event, and I was especially pleased with the cash considering I should have gone broke on day one: very early in the event, I raised under the gun with pocket queens. So much of poker is situational, and about paying attention to your opponents, and I had noticed that there was one fellow at the table who hadn't played very many hands at all. When he did, they were very strong hands. I also noticed he was wearing headphones.

When action came around to him, he tossed out some chips, and then seemed surprised when his action was declared a call. He had not noticed my raise! He also failed to announce "raise" on his end, so instead, he only called my bet. In poker, you have to use everything you can to your advantage, so I already had more information about this guy than I should have.

The flop came an ace with two rags, but also two spades. I already didn't like it, considering I knew he wanted to raise pre-flop. I didn't want to get raised, so I checked. At this point, he bet something very, very small, so I hung around to see if I could peel a queen off on the turn. Sure enough, I turned a set of queens. Now I check again, hoping to check-raise. Only this time, he does not bet small. He bets the entire pot. In any other situation, when I turn a set of queens, I'm going to use this as a way to get all of his chips in, right now. But now, I'm a little suspicious. Is it possible that he has a set of aces? Is he trying to protect his set from the spade flush coming out on the river? I can't raise, but I can't really bring myself to fold either.

Luckily for me, the river was an action killer - another spade. I check again, and "Headphones" makes another small bet on the river that I have to call. As I suspected, he had three aces. I lost about 50% of my stack on that hand, but I think a lot of other people go broke there. I was able to fade that big hit early on, and still cash in the event. I'm hoping I can continue making good, educated decisions for the rest of the year.

After the PCA, I played in 2009 November Niner Steve Begleiter's charity event to benefit the Fallen Heroes of 9/11 aboard the USS Intrepid. The place was full of cutthroat, mathematical geniuses. No, not poker players. Stockbrokers. Some of the best in the world. The event was a blast, and we raised a lot for charity. A win-win. I was joined by friends Dennis Phillips, Kevin Schaffel, and Dan Frank (my agent).

And, even though it's February, I thought I would share with you my New Year's Resolution: play more online poker! I know, it sounds crazy, but I feel like I've finally figured out how to start winning a bit online, and I'm going to put it to the test. If you want a hint: I've already told you - play more. No, not necessarily more often, though practice makes perfect. I've just realized that I can't only play one game at a time. I get too bored. Now, I play at least 3-5 tournaments at a time, and I find that it keeps my adrenaline pumping enough that I can actually focus and not get bored.

I decided I'll be playing all the Sunday tournaments on PokerStars at least three out of the four weekends of every month. This means at least 36 Sunday Millions this year. PokerStars has such great structures, and if I can start winning without ever having to leave the house - fantastic!

I think I've finally broken through online. I'm still learning, but it's a great experience. For the first time in my life, I made it to the TLB for the month of February, and I've set a goal for myself that I'd like to be on there for at least six months out of the year. That means logging a LOT more hours online. Look for me, and say hello!

If you want to say hi in person, after playing the NAPT Venetian this week I'll be at the next NAPT stop at Mohegan Sun. I'm really excited for this new tour. "By poker players, for poker players" - sounds great to me.