It’s not been too many weeks ago that PokerStars sent out word it was kicking off satellites to the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

With the announcement came the news the event would once again be held on Paradise Island in the Bahamas (January 5-10 of 2009). This time, however, the event would have a bigger buy-in, this year ringing in at $10,000 buy-in.

Since that time, we’ve started to hear word about players who are winning their seat for no more than Frequent Player Points. Among those players is PokerStars’ modfan.

Modfan started playing on PokerStars in 2006. That year, he won his seat to the World Series on PokerStars.

“I didn’t cash,” he said, “but it was great and PokerStars treats their players so well.”

With that in mind, he started trying to win his next seat. This one was a 1,000 FPP qualifier on PokerStars. Modfan won his seat after a tournament bubble that lasted for 111 hands.

“I can’t tell you how thrilling it was to win in the first FPP PCA satellite event and how great it is that PokerStars gives back to the players through the VIP program,” he said.

Now, modfan will be headed off to the PCA for hundred of other qualifiers. Nearly 200 people have already won their seat with more than two months to go before the event.

Last year, the PCA became an event on the European Poker Tour and Team PokerStars Pro Betrand “ElkY” Grospellier won the title for $2 million (see the whole episode below).

Watch PCA 2008 - Final Table (Full Episode) on PokerStars.tv

The 2009 PCA prize package is worth a whopping $14,300. Everybody who wins one will get a buy-in to the main event, a sweet hotel room, and some cash for travel expenses. You can win your seat for as little as $7.50 or 500 FPP credits.

To check out the whole array of satellites, look under the EVENTS and PCA tabs in the PokerStars lobby.

For more information on the PCA, visit the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure page.

We all know there is an economic downturn happening worldwide. We also know that gambling and gaming are taking a hit right along with every other commercial sector. In Las Vegas, gaming revenues were down 8% in August compared to last year. But in the poker rooms of Las Vegas, there appears to be some strange moves going on in response to this downward trend.

New rooms are opening, old rooms are being closed and quality rooms are being squeezed out of comfortable, prime casino locations. It would seem the powers that be are unsure of the state of poker in Las Vegas.

PARIS CASINO, Las Vegas: The poker room at the Paris Casino has finally been closed. Rumors about the demise of these admittedly weak room have been around for over a year. Finally, last week after months of shortened hours, the room quietly disappeared and the space was absorbed into the sports book.

PLANET HOLLYWOOD, Las Vegas: In a somewhat stranger move, the seemingly successful poker room at Planet Hollywood was transformed overnight into a high roller lounge and gaming area. The former classy poker room has shrunk by half the number of tables and is now out in the middle of the casino with cheap velvet ropes separating it from the din and smoke of the rest of the gamblers. This was an unexpected and much regretted loss to the Vegas poker community.

HARD ROCK, Las Vegas: The much awaited “Poker Lounge” at the Hard Rock is a very nice poker room but that’s it. The “Lounge” simply means there is a bar right outside the room. Unfortunately, management of the room are trying too hard to be all things to all players and have not defined themselves either by games or limits. Even more unfortunate, the room seems to be pushing too many gimmicks, like the Mississippi Straddle and some ill thought out poker league concept. Also everyone from the dealers to the players thinks the music is just too damn loud but management just keeps the hard rock booming and players walk away to play at other quieter rooms.

EASTSIDE CANNERY, Las Vegas: The brand new Eastside Cannery opened last month with a brand new poker room. Off the strip, this new “locals” casino decided to brave the poker waters with a medium size room in an area of town with only minimal competition for poker players.

ALIANTE STATION, Las Vegas: The newest of the Station Casino chain is scheduled to open in November and rumors that they would open either without a poker room or with an electronic room have been denied. We are told that Aliante will have a medium size room with live dealers.

We expect more fallout as the gaming revenues decrease over the next several months. We will keep an eye out of the infamous disappearing poker room.

When Alex Kravchenko made history at the 2007 World Series of Poker by becoming the first Russian native to win a bracelet, little did he know of the effect this victory would have on his fellow countrymen writes Matthew Pitt

Kravchenko had an amazing World Series. Not only did he win a bracelet in an Omaha high/low event, he cashed a further five times, including a fourth place finish in the $10,000 Main Event, worth in itself over $1,800,000.

One up and coming poker player who was inspired by Kravchenko’s amazing run at the WSOP, was 27-year old, Ivan Demidov. Ivan ‘Soul’ Demidov was born and lives in Moscow, Russia and plays most of his poker online due to the lack of tournaments and cash games in Moscow.
Being successful in an online environment is nothing new for Demidov as he, like many other top online players, played Starcraft and Warcraft 3 professionally before turning to poker.

After fine-tuning his skills online and in a dozen tournaments in Europe, Demidov flew to Las Vegas for the 2007 Five Diamond Poker Classic but did not cash in any of the tournaments he participated in. However, the experience he gained was worth much more than the cash he could have won.

Demidov secured the financial backing of a Russian businessman, and returned the Las Vegas for the 2008 World Series of Poker. After playing in over twenty events, Demidov only had one cash to his name; $39,854 for his 11th place finish in Event #44, the £1,000 No-limit Hold’em with rebuys.

His backer will be more than pleased with his performance in the $10,000 Main Event, as Demidov battled his way through 6,835 players to reach the final table and become on of the ‘November Nine’

With a minimum of $900,670 secured, Demidov entered the £10,000 Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe, looking to become the first player to win bracelets in the Main Events of both series in the same year.

Mr Demidov performed some heroics during the five gruelling days and found himself at his second Main Event final table in a year!

Unfortunately, Demidov could not quite take the whole tournament down, instead he had to make do with a more than respectable third place after his Qd Td could not outdraw eventual winner, John Juanda’s Ad Ac on a board that read 8s 5d 3d Jc . Demidov received £334,850 along with the knowledge that he was the first-ever player to reach the final table of the WSOP and WSOPE in the same year.

Demidov will restart play at the 2008 Word Series of Poker Main Event final table, on November 9, second in chips with a stack of 24,400,000 and will be one of the favourites to claim the $9,119,517 first prize.

‘All it takes is confidence‘ - Bryn Kenney, professional poker player and winner of over one million dollars in online cash games and tournaments.

OK, maybe you need a little more than just confidence (sorry Bryn), and you will need to learn about the ins and outs of the game to a high level, but what Bryn is saying is actually very close to being true. Confidence is a huge part of any poker players game, and if you start to lose it you will quickly start losing that other all important part of poker - money.

This is particularly true in ‘big bet’ games such as no limit hold’em and pot limit Omaha, where your confidence levels have to be consistently high due to the razor edge decisions you frequently have to make. If you are not confident in your game then you will not feel able to make those all important big bluffs and calls which separate the winners from the losers and break even players in these games.

When your confidence is running high it can feel like any game on earth is beatable, with a player able to consistently bully and read their opponents with an aggressive and confident style. When you lose your confidence the opposite is usually true - you feel like a fish at every table you sit down at, seem to lose part after pot when you lack the courage to fire that last bullet or make that key call, and generally just haemorrhage money in every direction.

The hardest thing to deal with about confidence is that is extremely hard to get back. Sports psychologists in all fields of sport are paid millions and millions of dollars each year by managers and sports stars in ana attempt to help the regain confidence and form - and still no single coherent answer has been found. In poker, probably the first step to regaining confidence is to take a break. Losing lots more money will simply make the problem worse - by moving your mind and your money away you will often be able to start regaining your confidence immediately.

Once you have taken a break one of the best way to regain confidence is to study. It may be that your confidence is down because a leak has developed in your game and your not winning at your usual rate - by reading as much as possible or using any other of the myriad of resources available to improve your game you may well be able to not only regain your confidence, but also plug a leak in your game. Never stop learning, take a break when things are going badly and let your confidence levels rise as high as possible.

AFC First-Round Byes:
Tennessee Titans

Pittsburgh Steelers

Other AFC Divisional Champions:
Buffalo Bills

San Diego Chargers

AFC Wildcards:
Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

NFC First-Round Byes:
New York Giants

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Other NFC Divisional Champions:
Arizona Cardinals

Green Bay Packers

NFC Wildcards:
Washington Redskins

Carolina Panthers

Hated to Leave You Out:

Denver Broncos.
Alright, I didn’t hate to leave you out, but you’re still close enough that you
deserve an explanation. I think the Chargers are better than you, which leaves
you battling for a wildcard spot. The Colts get one because they’re the Colts
and they just uglied the Ravens, and I don’t think there are more than a couple
of NFL teams who are even capable of that. The other wildcard spot came down to
you, Jacksonville, New England, or the Jets. New England was just humbled in
about every way against San Diego, the Jets struggled with the Bengals, and
Jacksonville … well, they
had a pretty successful Sunday, yes?

Chicago Bears.
Good news for you, Bears fans. I almost did it! I’m getting closer. I very
nearly put the Bears in ahead of the Packers. My mouse pointer thingie was ready
to drag you in, because I don’t believe that beating Seattle by 10 is any
greater accomplishment than losing a heartbreaker like that to the Falcons. The
reason Green Bay held on is because Aaron Rodgers is still playing well. If he
were to have stumbled significantly, the Bears would’ve jumped in. But we’re
making progress!

Dallas Cowboys.
And for the first time all year, the NFC East has fewer than three teams in the
playoffs. The Romo injury concerns me, Terrell Owens’s state of mind concerns
me, secondary injuries concern me, Pacman Jones feeling the thump of the Goodell
hammer concerns me, and the depth of the NFC East concerns me. What might
concern me most of all, though, are these
words from safety Keith Davis:

"Yeah, I’m fed up, because there’s no reason," Davis said. "Everybody wants to talk, ‘Oh, the Cowboys are the most talented team.’ Talent’s never won nobody nothing. Nothing. It’s got to be a complete team.

"Talent’s not getting it done. Want-to gets it done. Focus gets it done. Busting your tail every single day, starting on Monday, is going to get it. Not just lining up thinking we can roll the ball out there and take it to these guys."

And we’ve had three weeks in a row now where talent has not gotten the
Cowboys anywhere close to where it should have. Putting a sense of focus, hard
work, and "want-to" into a team isn’t something that happens overnight.
It’s not a switch you can flip. And with injuries mounting, potential excuses
piling up, and playoff spots being scarce, it really wasn’t that hard of a call
to leave the Cowboys out.

Here’s the upside, though: The Romo injury could be something that forces the Cowboys to heal a little bit. If they’re going to win without him, it’s not going to be because Brad Johnson stepped in and was mind-blowingly sensational. It’ll be because everyone else found a little bit of focus and started playing like men. The injury to Romo provides the perfect opportunity to do that.