Every year on December 31st, we look back at the previous twelve months and think, “There is no way PokerStars will be able to outdo itself after this year.” Every year, we are proven wrong.

In 2008, PokerStars broke nearly every record on the books. It topped itself in as many ways as it could. Its Team PokerStars Pro members continued to astound, winning events on the EPT, WPT, and at the World Series.

At this point, we could be tempted to proclaim that PokerStars will never have another year that is this good. However, as we have been proven wrong time and again, we think it best just to say, “Wow, what a year.”

Here’s a look back at what happened at PokerStars in 2008.

JANUARY

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier wins 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

It was not uncommon for a winner of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to become a member of Team PokerStars Pro. John Gale did it. So did Steve Paul-Ambrose. It was something entirely unique to see somebody do it in reverse. In January Team PokerStars Pro Betrand “ElkY” Grospellier won $2 million in the PCA.

Dustin “neverwin” Woolf sinks everyone’s battleship

Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf beats out 64 players to win $48,000 in 2007 PokerStars World Championship of Battleship Poker.

At the time, he said, “I’m not cocky; I’m in the zone.”

Dustin Mele wins PokerStars Passport

Doing well on the PokerStars Tournament Leader Board has always been a significant point of pride. Starting in January 2008, it became something worth quite a bit of money. Just ask Dustin Mele who won the PokerStars Passport. It afforded him the ability to–for nothing out of his pocket–go to ten big buy-in events around the world. For more on Dustin, read his autobigraphical post HERE.

FEBRUARY

18 year-old Mike McDonald becomes youngest ever EPT winner

It had to happen eventually and no one was upset to see nice-guy Mike “Timex” McDonald become the youngest person to ever win an EPT title. It happened in Dortmund, Germany and earned McDonald more than a title. He also picked up €933,600.

Mike “Timex” McDonald

Bigjoe2003 buys house with FPPs

In past years, we saw people buy books, trips, and cars with FPPs. In February of this year, we saw an FPP first. Well-known Supernova Elite Bigjoe2003 bought a house with his Frequent Player Points.

“I grew up in a trailer park, so being able to live in a million dollar house was always a dream of mine,” bigjoe2003 said. “I greatly appreciate PokerStars’ help in allowing me to reach that goal.”

Big Joe’s big house

Tim Vance, a PokerStars qualifier from St Louis wins EPT Copenhagen

In what will probably be the poker tournament quote of the year (”It’s been nice playing with you sir, I call…”), Tim Vance won his first major event. The PokerStars qualifier from St. Louis, Missouri won €834,590.

.net qualifier goes to NBC heads-up event

It’s a wild ride going from a freeroll on PokerStars.net to the $20,000 NBC Heads-Up Championships. That is exactly the ride Alisha Kunze got to take in February after winning a qualifier.

Alisha Kunze

MARCH

Victor Ramdin opens New York Stock Exchange

It’s not uncommon to see a Team PokerStars Pro around a lot of money. It is less common to see one opening the world’s biggest stock exchange.

That’s exactly what Victor Ramdin did in March. And, in his defense, that was a long time before the market crashed, so don’t go blaming him.

Michael Schulze wins EPT Warsaw

Michael Schulze successfully overcame Ricardo Sousa heads-up and was crowned EPT Warsaw Champion. For his efforts he won €609,782.

Michael Schulze

Frequent Player Points turn to gift horse

Just a month before, a PokerStars player turned his FPP points into a house. In March, PokerStars player blego151 decided to take a different path. He turned his points into a pretty good looking horse for his daughter.

The gift horse’s honest to goodness registered name?

Midnight Gambler.

jorj95 becomes 2008’s first Supernova Elite

The race to Supernova Elite only lasted until March when George Lind III, also known as jorj95, became the first player in 2008 to earn a million VIP Player Points. Like all Supernova Elites he earned free entry into the World Championship of Online Poker main event, as well as two big buy-in live events.

Hevad Khan wins Sunday Warm-Up

Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan kicked off his 2008 rush with a win in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for nearly $100,000. The link above takes you to a full interview he did with the PokerStars Blog after his win.

APRIL

Hevad Khan wins again…this time at Foxwoods

Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan let his rush carry him from March to April. Just a few weeks after winning the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up, Khan took down an event at the Foxwoods Poker Classic for more than $100,000.

Battle of the Planets begins

In April, PokerStars introduced its first SNG Tournament Leader Board. The Battle of the Planets is a weekly competition that pays out more than $3 million a year to SNG players. It will begin its first full year in 2009.

Jason Mercier wins EPT San Remo

The second-to-last EPT event of the season gave way to an American PokerStars qualifier from Florida winning the title in San Remo. This was the first year the European Poker Tour had held an event in Italy. Mercier won €869,000.

Gavin Griffin and Chad Brown join Team PokerStars Pro

Team PokerStars Pro grew a lot in 2008. The big time growth began with the introduction of Gavin Griffin and Chad Brown. Both new team members joined just in time for the EPT Grand Final, the same event Griffin had won the year before.

Glen Chorny is crowned the new EPT Grand Final Champion

In an affair fitting of its Grand Final name, the season-closing EPT event in Monte Carlo drew the world’s best players. Canadian Glen Chorny took down the title and the monster €2,020,000 first prize.

Victoria Coren joins Team PokerStars Pro

After many years as a successful player, writer, and broadcaster, Victoria Coren took the next logical step. She signed on with Team PokerStars Pro.

MAY

Julien Nuijten wins first LAPT event

In May, the Latin America Poker Tour kicked off its first-ever event. The event in Brazil marked the beginning of a tour that would see its second season before the end of the year. Nineteen year old Julien Nuijten won the event for $228,000.

Turbo Takedown added to permanent tournament schedule

In February, PokerStars ran a trial version of what would eventually become the Turbo Takedown. The 5000 Frequent Player Point event now runs once a month with a $100,000 prize pool and guaranteed $20,000 first prize.

PokerStars continues support of Life Ball

PokerStars, a longtime supporter of AIDS research, once again helped sponsor Life Ball, a giant fund raiser and gala for the study of an AIDS cure. PokerStars and its players gave their hard-earned money to Life Ball 2008 to the tune of more than €150,000.

PokerStars opens Macau’s first poker rooom

In May, PokerStars once again broke new ground by opening PokerStars Macau, Macau’s first live poker room. The Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino card room kicked off with space for for 160 players. It continues to offer cash games and boast of a pretty nice weekly tournament schedule. See the ribbon cutting on the event HERE.

Valdemar Kwaysser wins LAPT San Jose

He had to travel from Hungary to San Jose to do it, but PokerStars qualifier Valdemar Kwaysser took down the Season 1 LAPT event in Costa Rica. His efforts earned him $280,000.

PokerStars celebrates Moneymaker anniversary

May marked the five-year anniversary of Chris Moneymaker’s revolutionary achievement that set the poker world on a new course. As everyone remembers, Moneymaker used a $39 satellite entry to get into the World Series of Poker and win the entire thing for $2.5 million. To celebrate the anniversary, PokerStars created Team Moneymaker–a special crew of players to go to the 2008 World Series and play for $39.

JUNE

PokerStars players donate to China quake relief

After the tragic earthquakes in China, PokerStars and its players banded together to raise money for quake relief. PokerStars matched every dollar donated by its players and gave it all to the Red Cross to aid the suffering in China.

PokerStars lobbies get new look

Everybody was familiar with PokerStars old lobby and tables. At the same time, there comes a time in everybody’s life when a little change is good. With that in mind, PokerStars began offering a new slick theme for its lobby.

Daniel Negreanu wins fourth bracelet

It was only a matter of time before Daniel Negreanu did it again. He’s won tournament after tournament, and he knew he would pick up his fourth bracelet eventually. He did it during the 2008 World Series. Negreanu won the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event for more than $204,000.

PokerStars sends man to top of the world

PokerStars’ headquarters sits on the Isle of Man in the UK. In June, a police officer from the Isle found himself at the highest point in the world–with a little help from PokerStars. The link above is his story, in his own words.

Barry Greenstein wins World Series Razz bracelet

Barry Greenstein already had two World Series bracelets to his name, but that wasn’t enough. He tore through the Razz at the World Series and picked up his third bracelet.

William Thorson, Marcin Horecki join Team PokerStars Pro

Just in time for the World Series Main Event, two of Europe’s top poker pros joined poker’s most elite team of players. William Thorson and Marcin Horecki hit the ground running in late June.

JULY

PokerStars launches PokerStars.tv

PokerStars has long been an innovator, but in July it did something so spectacular it needed a whole new website. PokerStars launched a brand new web TV platform for video blogs, live coverage of PokerStars events, and replays of online events. You can watch at PokerStars.tv.

Brazil’s Alexandre Gomes joins Team PokerStars Pro

Alexandre Gomes, a 25-year-old lawyer from Curitiba, Brazil, had been leaving behind his profession in law and slowly but surely gravitating toward poker. He finally made the decision to join Team PokerStars in the middle of the World Series. He was the second Brazilian to join the Team (Andre Akkari was the first).

PokerStars throws massive World Series party

PokerStars has always been known for its huge parties, but this year’s World Series party took the cake. Burlesque celebrity Dita von Teese was the star of the show for the thousands of people in attendance.

The PokerStars Six make World Series final table

The World Series had a name for its four-month-delayed final table players: the November Nine. Two thirds of those players came straight from the PokerStars ranks. The PokerStars six left Vegas for four months with $900,000 in their pocket and a chance to play the final table in November.

AUGUST

Jose Miguel Espinar wins LAPT Punta del Este

The first season of the Latin American Poker Tour came to a close in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Spaniard Jose Miguel Espinar took down the final event.

SEPTEMBER

Mats Sundin hits the PokerStars ice

PokerStars has built a great team of poker professionals. In August, it added a hockey legend to its ranks. Mats Sundin signed on with PokerStars as one of its ambassadors.

PokerStars launched biggest WCOOP ever

The World Championship of Online Poker gets bigger every year. 2008 was no different. PokerStars guaranteed at least $30 million in prize money over the 2 1/2 weeks of tournaments. What’s more, tournament organizers added new events this year, including some big high-roller events with event buy-ins as high as $10,000 and $25,000.

Eddie Sabat wins APPT Macau

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour kicked off its second season in Macau. Eddie Sabat helped celebrate by taking down the event and winning $453,851.

British claim first WCOOP bracelet

Folks from the UK have played a lot of WCOOP events. A lot. But they had never won a WCOOP bracelet until Shane147 took down Event #1 of the 2008 WCOOP.

Nam Le wins APPT High Roller event

Everybody in American professional poker knew the name Nam Le. Now, everyone in Asia knows it after he won more than $3.7 million Hong Kong dollars in the high roller event of the APPT’s second season in Macau.

Sebastian Ruthenberg wins EPT Barcelona

Sebastian Ruthenberg was a Shooting Star from Germany before he went to Barcelona. He came out as an EPT champion, winning €1,361,000.

Stevesbets defeats ElkY in $25,000 heads-up event

It’s not very often one finds a $25,000 event online. When PokerStars’ WCOOP ran the the heads-up event for the first time, it saw online phenom stevesbets go up against Team PokerStars Pro Betrand ElkY Grospellier. Stevesbets took it down and won more than half a million bucks.

ckingusc wins WCOOP championship bracelet and $1.26 million

The World Championship of Online Poker was one for the books–the record books–with nearly $40,000,000 in prize money. The biggest money went to ckingusc who picked up $1.26 million for the championship win.

Yoshihiro Tasaka wins APPT Seoul

The second event of the second season on the APPT saw Yoshihiro Tasaka picking up $80,155.

OCTOBER

Chris Moneymaker wins Million Dollar Men TOC

The three PokerStars World Series champions faced off against the PokerStars Six in a single table event for bragging rights. The first of the champions, Chris Moneymaker, took it down.

Michael Martin wins EPT London

Everybody’s favorite nice guy Michael Martin came tantalizingly close to winning the EPT Grand Final in March. In London, he actually took down the title.

Jason Mercier wins…again

Jason Mercier, winner of the EPT event in Italy just a few months earlier in San Remo, went to London and won the Million Pound Showdown for £516,000.

Daniel Craker wins APPT Auckland at home

It’s one thing to win a big event. It’s another thing to win a big event with your hometown crowd around you. That’s exactly what Daniel Cracker did at the APPT event in Auckland.

ElkY wins on WPT

ElkY may not have won a WSOP bracelet this year. He came close to winning a WCOOP bracelet several times. That said, he won an EPT title in January. And then in October, ElkY won on the WPT. He took down the Festa al Lago event for $1.4 million after beating out a field of 368 people. He wrote about it HERE.

Hevad Khan wins $1 million at Caesars

We talked a lot about how Hevad Khan had a great year. It got even better at the end of October when he won $1 million at the Caesars Palace Classic.

NOVEMBER

Ryan Fee wins LAPT San Jose

The second season of the LAPT came before the first season was even a year-old memory. American player Ryan Fee took the short flight to Costa Rica and blitzed his way through the tournament for a victory he called “easy.”

Peter Eastgate wins 2008 World Series

After waiting for months to play the final table of the World Series, Peter Eastgate took down the Main Event bracelet. Eastgate, at 22, became the youngest ever Main Event winner. He won $9,152,416.

Van Marcus wins APPT Manila

Van Marcus has racked up his share of big cashes on the APPT, but he had yet to achieve the title of champion. He did it in Manila.

Joao Barbosa wins EPT Warsaw

Joao Barbosa was already a rising star on the European Poker Tour, but that wasn’t enough. So, he won EPT Warsaw and €367,141.

Negreanu takes down British Columbia Poker Championship

ElkY won a couple of big titles. So did Hevad Kahn. Daniel Negreanu is not one to be outdone. So, he went home to Canada and took down the British Columbia Poker Championships for $371,000. You can read about his victory in his trip report.

DECEMBER

PokerStars sponsored Thiago Camilo

PokerStars is pretty well known for sponsoring some pretty big events. It happened again in Brazil when PokerStars raced around the track with Thiago Camilo.

PokerStars introduces Russian Poker Tour

PokerStars has tours in almost every part of the world, but its empire has not reached capacity. Enter the Russian Poker Tour, a brand new series kicking off in 2009.

Martin Rowe wins APPT Grand Final

The APPT concluded a successful second season in Sydney, Australia. The title went to hometown hero Martin Rowe who won AUD $1,000,000.

Vanessa Rousso wins APPT Tournament of Champions

In mid-December Vanessa Rousso took some time out of her day to take down the APPT TOC and win some big cash for the No Limit, No Profit Initiative, a charity set up to aid cancer research.

World Cup sets live final teams

After a month of qualifying and battle, the PokerStars World Cup of Poker V set its live final teams. They will meet Janaury 6 in the Bahamas to determine the World Cup of Poker champion. For a look at recent World Cup news, click here.

Salvatore Bonavena wins EPT Prague

The EPT season would go on into 2009, but the last event of the year came in December in Prague. The title went to Salvatore Bonavena who won €774,000.

Imric_est wins World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

For the first time, PokerStars turned the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker into a series of events. This year, Imric_est took down the championship title and will be playing at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2009.

PokerStars breaks tons of records

PokerStars hosted World Record week and shattered just about every record it could find. From the biggest ever poker tournament, to the biggest number of players online, to the biggest Sunday Million, to the biggest Sunday Warm-Up, PokerStars broke them all.

***

Thank you all for a great year and your visits to the PokerStars Blog. Happy New Year. We’ll see you in the Bahamas to kick off what is sure to be a fantastic 2009.

Team Ireland landed in the finals of the World Cup of Poker IV, England did it the year before, and Scotland did it the year before that. 2009, however will see these nations gathered together under the banner of Team United Kingdom as they go for the gold in the Bahamas.

Under World Cup of Poker regulations, Team U.K. received an automatic berth in the finals and will be represented by Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren, two freeroll qualifiers, one TLB leader, and one magical mystery player whom as of press time, is still to be determined.

To those of you who follow the tournament scene on PokerStars, the name “allinstevie” should be extremely familiar. Hailing from Omagh, Northern Ireland, 26-year old Stephen Devlin is one of the U.K.’s top online players, having notched victories in the $109 NLHE freezeout, the $55 NLHE deep stacks, and the $25k guaranteed in 2008. His largest online score this year, however came when he final tabled the Sunday Warm-Up on August 31st, finishing 7th for $21,000. A huge Manchester United fan, Devlin brings a good deal of live tournament experience to the table for Team U.K., having played in a slew of EPT and WSOP events in addition to playing the PCA Main Event last year.

The thing Devlin (seen left in photo below) is most excited about in the Bahamas, though? The weather, obviously. “It’s frickin’ freezing here at the moment” he reports of the Irish winter.

Freeroll qualifier Sean “N!GHTMAR3″ Flaherty loves nothing more than to go out with his mates, have a laugh and play some online poker. Flaherty caught the poker bug after watching a televised tournament and made his way to PokerStars, where he taught himself the game. The World Cup finals will mark Flaherty’s first live tournament experience.

Also earning his way in on a freeroll is Derek “Purr of Aces” Morris. A veteran online player, Morris has twice represented Great Britain at the World Cup of Poker. The 39-year old lives in Lancashire, England and works as a bookmaker’s assistant when he’s not making final tables on PokerStars (he claims over 400 of them). Like his teammate Stephen Devlin, Morris brings a significant amount of live tournament experience with him, having competed in two EPT events, a WPT event, and countless tournaments on the Grosvenor U.K. Poker Tour.

Morris with a Bahamian local he met at his last PCA

When asked about the prospect of spending a week on Atlantis, Morris said “I’m looking forward to the weather, trying the new dolphin cay, and sipping a few cocktails to be honest. My daughter is pretty devastated that the Jonas Brothers are playing in Atlantis two weeks before we arrive. Shame on you Stars!” he teased.

I recently had someone e-mail me a question about a hand they were involved in; this hand really shows the importance of being aware of what your image is and what the other players on your table are doing. If you stay aware of the way that they play in hands you are not involved in, it can give you a lot of information about a hand you do tango with. The e-mail begins as follows:

I’m playing 5/10 NL Hold’em and the small blind is a professional player who is a regular at the casino I am playing at. He knows a lot of the players in the high limits, so it gives me the impression that he has been playing for a living for some time. He is tighter than most pros. I’ve seen him fold AQ suited, AQ off suit, and A10 suited in early position to a raise 2-2.5 times the BB. Middle Position is very loose. I’ve seen her raise 10 7 suited in early position and make similar loose plays.

In this hand middle position opens for $30, and I raise to $80 with 7s 7h. It folds around to the tight guy in the small blind and he makes it $180 to go. Middle position calls, I call. Flop is 5s 5c 2s. Small blind bets, middle position calls, what should I do?

The first clue on how to proceed with this hand is knowing that SB is a smart player who does not like to play hands out of position. This being the case, we can conclude that he has a big hand like a high pocket pair or AK which he is raising with in early position. The fact that he bets the flop lets us know he thinks he is ahead and/or he is trying to protect his hand from a flush draw. At this point, I would definitely put SB on an over pair. Since MP is known to play a big range of hands for a raise, and seems to like suited cards, it is important to make her pay for a flush draw, or to get information on what kind of hand she might be on.

Joined by Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater, Team Germany made the finals of last year’s World Cup of Poker, but unfortunately had to say “Auf Weidersehen” in seventh place. Now, after plowing through five teams of their fellow countrymen, Team Germany 1 is set to make a repeat appearance with Thater again as its fearless leader.

Yes, you read that right– five teams. The German player base has grown so much that rather than compete within one of the European divisions, Germany occupies its own division like the United States and Canada. Among our four qualifiers are three amateurs and one rising young pro who will attempt to bring the crown home to the motherland.

20-year old Bastian “mados4k” Wulff is the first to admit that he got extremely lucky in the freeroll qualifying matches that earned him a spot on Team Germany. Only having learned the game recently, Wulff primarily plays freeroll MTTs on PokerStars and the World Cup finals in the Bahamas will mark his first live tournament experience.

Like Wulff, Peter “SmArTdOg1970″ Schmidt is another World Cup finalist whose poker experience is largely confined to playing freerolls. The 38-year old auto mechanic from Esslingen is excited not only to play poker on the world stage but to represent Germany in the process.

“I´m very proud to play for my country and who can say in his life (that he had) the chance to win a world championship!” said Schmidt.

40-year old Georg “josha45″ Geissler earned his spot on Team Germany via his TLB status for 2007. Married for 14 years and the father of three daughters, Geissler works as a marketing VP for a high-tech machinery company. He discovered PokerStars in 2006 and also plays in a live game at the Casino Wiesbaden once a week. Geissler is especially excited to travel to the Bahamas–last year he won a seat to the PCA but was unable to play due to health issues. This year, he looks forward to experiencing the warm weather and will represent Germany in the World Cup with someone special on his mind, his grandmother, who recently passed away.

“She would have (been) too excited about it as she always supported me, loved playing cards as well and taught me this when I was young,” Geissler related.

Our final player is TLB qualifier Thomas Boekhoff who first caught the eye of the poker media with his impressive 14th place finish at the 2008 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, for which he took home €76,000. The 21-year old took up poker in 2006 and dropped out of school shortly thereafter to pursue a career as a poker professional. He can often be found playing up to 40 tables simultaneously.

Boekhoff admitted to us that he isn’t too familiar with the island nation he’s about to experience. “(I) don’t know much about the Bahamas, I actually thought it was somewhere around New Zealand to be honest… just looking forward to have some nice relaxing days,’ said Boekhoff.

Sun. Sand. Crystal-blue water. Fruity drinks. Awesome cash game action. That’s all you need to know.

I reported on here awhile ago that the new season of “High Stakes Poker”, which for my money is the best poker TV show available anywhere, had made some changes leading up to their new season, including the minimum buy-in for the game being raised from $100,000 to $200,000. With the details finalized and out of the way, the producers have now announced some of the new faces that we can look forward to on the fifth season.

Some of the fresh meat taking a seat for the first time will include some pretty well known poker celebrities, such as WSOP 2008 Main Event winner Peter Eastgate and Dario Minieri, the quirky Italian professional poker player known for his ultra high-stakes online cash game play. Joining them at the table will be Hollywood TV and Film personalities Sam Simon (Co-creator of “The Simpson”) and Nick Cassavestes (Director of “The Notebook”), both of who are known as avid poker players in their spare time.

Familiar faces making their way back to the felt include Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, and Daniel Negraneu, all of which have played in every season of “High Stakes Poker” thus far. Filming of season five has already wrapped at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.

While you may not be as aware of names like Dario and Eastgate as you are names like Hellmuth and Ivey, the fast, aggressive play styles of these two is something that I am very excited to see added to the mix of the already huge cast of characters. As for the non-pros like Sam Simon, he carries the advantage of being so mega rich that the stakes themselves shouldn’t play into his decision making, and he is widely considered to be one of the best amateur players in Hollywood.

The first episode of “High Stakes Poker” will air on March 1st on the Game Show Network. Check your local listings for exact timings.