Every January for the past five years, the poker world’s greatest players have flocked to the warm exotic climes of the Bahamas to compete in what is arguably the hardest poker tournament of the year. And 2009 was no exception.

Just under two months ago, 1,374 top online pros, live poker superstars and internet qualifiers headed to Atlantis – the annual retreat for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – with one thing in mind: being crowned the unofficial best no-limit Hold’em tournament player in the world. For while the World Series of Poker has been the benchmark for tournament success for nearly four decades, over the last three years the PCA has been widely acknowledged as the toughest test of a player’s live tournament credentials, the record-breaking field full to the brim with the best online and live players in the world.