Beginning in a little more than eight hours, PokerStars is going to start the process of giving away 27 $15,100 prize packages to the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Listening now?

Alright, here's how it works. You will have to put forth a little effort, but absolutely no money (unless you just want to) to have a chance to attend the best poker festival in the world.

Beginning Saturday, October 17 and running through December 5, PokerStars will be running tournaments every hour, all day long. At twenty and forty minutes past the hour-- every hour--players will have a chance to enter one of two tournaments. The first is absolutely free. The second costs $1.10. Make the top nine players in any of those tournaments and you'll get a seat in the PCA Fantasy Freeroll Main Event.

Then on December 6, players who won their seat will have a chance to play in one of three freerolls. The top nine players in each of those tournaments will get their $15,100 package to this place.

Not so bad, huh?

In case you can't see past all the blue water, we'll fill you in on what's going down at the PCA this year. In brief: Fifty events with buy-ins ranging from $200 to $25,000, including the $10,300 main event that last year earned winner Poorya Nazari the $3 million first prize. To get a full look at what everybody is in for, check out the 2010 PCA schedule.

So, there ya go. Your chances start just after midnight tonight. You have about six weeks to make it happen. Here's all the information you need: PCA Fantasy Freerolls.

Now, get to work.

This year the family is getting bigger. Much bigger. What we're going to see January 4-14 will rival just about any poker event you'll find on the planet.

Over the last few years, PokerStars has offered a small selection of side events for players who had a day off or had already busted out of the main event. This year, the people behind the biggest poker tournament in the Caribbean have decided that a few side events simply aren't enough. With that in mind, they have released a schedule of literally dozens of poker tournaments that will compete with the biggest poker festivals in the world.

Just looking at the 2010 PCA schedule boggles the mind. Not only will the PCA host the $10,300 Main Event, but it will also offer an eleven-day schedule of tournaments that will tempt just about any poker player.

We simply don't have enough space on this page to list the whole schedule, but you really need to see the whole thing to understand what we're talking about here. Here are some highlights.

All of this takes places in one of the most luxurious resorts in the Caribbean. The Atlantis Resort and Casino is an expanse of beaches, lagoons, and water slides like few you'll find anywhere else. Just a short ride across the bridge from the heart of downtown Nassau, Paradise Island's three-tower Atlantis hotel is home to a casino, a marina full of yachts and restaurants, and just about anything else you could ask for. If you're looking for more, it's not hard to find fishing charters, parasailing, and dolphins with which you can swim. Even if you don't take the poker into account, it's not a bad little vacation.

This will be the seventh PCA since it kicked off in 2004. It's grown every year and we expect this year's schedule to draw more people than we've ever seen.

Last year, first prize came in at $3 million. When the last river fell, the title went to Poorya Nazari. You can watch him win below.

It doesn't take having more than $15,000 in extra cash laying around to get to the PCA. As always, PokerStars is offering a wide variety of satellite qualifiers beginning at $2.22 or 111 Frequent Player Points.

You can find all the satellites in the PokerStars tournament lobby under EVENTS and PCA.

So, get to work on qualifying. We here at the PokerStars Blog never miss the PCA and over the years we've met some great people there. If you get your seat, shoot us an e-mail to blog@pokerstars.com and tell us your story. We may just do a story about you here before we pack our bags for the Bahamas.

You can get full details on the PCA at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure page.

Good luck. We'll see you on Paradise Island.

The first ever PCA PokerStars Poker Camp kicked off this morning. Poker Camp is a three-day seminar featuring top notch instruction in both tournaments and cash games from several Team PokerStars Pros including Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Vanessa Rousso, and Chris Moneymaker. Additional Poker Camp instructors included Nick Brancato, Alex Outhred, two-time bracelet winner Bill Chen, and former FBI agent Joe Navarro.

Chris Moneymaker discussed about the positives and negatives of showing hands.

"A guy like Humberto Brenes is an extremely tight player, so for him showing hands does not give him an advantage. However, a guy like me loves to show hands because I want people to think I'm a total nutzoid at the tables."

Later this evening, the participants will play in an actual Poker Camp Tournament, where they can apply several of the lessons that they learned earlier in the day.

This, however, is a group of poker players. While they may not give a hoot about traditional studies, they are constantly on the hunt for the latest and greatest in poker theory. Enter the PCA PokerStars Poker Camp.

Starting tomorrow, the people here at the PCA will have a chance to learn from some of the game's best players. Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker and Vanessa Rousso will be heading up some one-of-a-kind training sessions. The campers will also have a chance to play a live multi-day tournament with some big PokerStars event packages on the line.

Players can buy directly into the three-day camp for £1,250 or take a shot in one of the $250+$25 Sit and Go tournaments tonight. You can get a full schedule of camp events at the PCA Poker Camp homepage.

Six players had made it here after gallant routes through a progression of tournaments on PokerStars. Daily "Battle Boris" events ran into November before weekly finals through October and into November that culminated in a grand final online, with the top finishes brought here to the Bahamas. For the victors today, a seat in the PCA; for the vanquished, chance to spend a week with sand between their toes on the shores of Paradise Island, trying to forget what could have been. Faced with such an either/or, some would say everyone's a winner...

Michel Dion went first. The Quebecois withstood a Becker advantage before turning the tables on the German, a first win for the contenders, Dion becoming the most recent addition to the day 1B line up.

Lone winner Michael Dion

But any thought that we would be adding another five new names to the player list (and their buy-in to the prizepool) were quickly forgotten. Boris Becker, the winner of six tennis grand slam titles and countless others across a glittering tennis career, was about to turn up the heat.

Next up was Namik Ajlan who did well to keep himself in the game during some relentless Becker pressure before being eventually sent to the beach empty handed, Becker's tens full of jacks seeing off his fellow German. It was a similar fate for Isaak Oknin of Israel.

Oknin came out raising from the start, the equivalent of a booming serve that Becker returned, unharmed. The lead switched between the two for some time before a breakthrough, and again it was Becker on top, seeing him off with an ace-high flush for three in a row.

2-1 Becker...

Next up was Piotr Malinowski, from France. Despite heroic efforts his battle with Boris lasted a little more than ten minutes.

3-1 Becker...

Next up was Stefan Edberg. No, I mean American Keith Anderson, sportingly dressed in a white headband, shorts and a t-shirt, reminiscent of Becker's Swedish nemesis. Only the open sandals gave Andersen away. Their clash would not be too dissimilar from the Becker-Edberg battles of yesteryear.

Becker and Edberg, a.k.a. Keith Andersen

Becker worked his way into a 2-1 chip lead putting Anderson on the base line. After a pocket deuces hand Becker had left his opponent with a little more than 400 chips. But to Edberg's Andersen's credit he fought back, doubling up twice to level the scores only to stumble again, before everything flipped, putting Becker on the back foot in true Wimbledon epic style.

But Boris was proving resilient, turning on the aggression again to seal the match, beating Andersen's pair of threes with his own pocket fours, putting this one to bed.

4-1 Becker...

It would soon be 5-1. Italian player Stefano Busolin completed the display, down to the felt in just ten minutes, completed a Becker run that few had predicted.

The PCA will be boosted by just one player tomorrow. Becker headed off to play cash ahead of his Day 1B appearance.

That's the wordy version. Now hear it from the man himself...

Watch PCA 09: Boris Becker on Battle Boris on PokerStars.tv

As you might already be aware, Boris Becker has been spending a lot of time with the PokerStars folks these days. Now, he's decided to play some PokerStars players heads-up in the Bahamas. The winners will end up with seats to the hottest tournament in the islands.

PokerStars has just started running a series of daily freeroll tournaments that feed directly into the weekly finals. The final table players from those events will make it to the November 16th grand finals. The top three players from those two tournaments will go to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and play heads-up with Boris Becker. Win that match and proceed directly to your PCA seat across the room.

To learn more about the Boris Becker event, visit the Play Against Boris Becker page at PokerStars.

To get started, click on TOURNEY and ALL in the PokerStars lobby and look for the "Battle Borris" freerolls.

Good luck!