For more than five weeks, everyone in the Amazon Room has been focused on one thing: winning as much money as possible and putting it in a pocket.

Now, the players are going to spend their day winning money to give away.

Today marks the third annual Ante Up For Africa charity tournament. It's an event that draws the likes of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Don Cheadle and has all the glitter of a Hollywood opening night.

Nelly and Dennis Phillips--The Lou representing

The $5,000 turbo no-limit hold'em event draws some of the biggest poker and Hollywood names to the Rio. None of the money is being pulled directly from the prize pool, but the players are being encouraged to donate at least 50% of what they win to the Ante Up For Africa efforts. You can be sure, most of the players in the field will donate everything they earn to the struggle to end genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Frank LeBoeuf and Isabelle Mercier

As always, this red carpet affair is packed with PokerStars players and PokerStars-loving celebs. Among the people flying the PokerStars flag today: Brad Garrett, Montel Williams, Sarah Silverman, Jason Alexander, Nelly, Barry Greenstein, Peter Eastgate, Isabelle Mercier, Jason Mercier, Victor Ramdin, Chad Brown, Joe Hachem, Dennis Phillips, Luca Pagano, Humberto Brenes, J.C. Alvarado, Ylon Schartz, Alex Kravchenko, and Gavin Griffin.

Joe Hachem, Ben Affleck, and Barry Greenstein

The crisis in Darfur has been going on for six years and killed more than 400,000 people. Hundreds of thousands live without healthy food or decent medical care. Humanitarian groups are being kicked out. It is an international crisis of epic proportion.

In the past few years, Ante Up For Africa has raised more than $2 million to aid the suffering in Darfur. PokerStars players have been giving to cause from the very beginning.

In a poker world that is often depicted as beset with greed, it's nice to have a reminder that many of the players are more charitable than you'd ever realize.

To learn more about the crisis in Darfur, visit the Enough project website.

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Since this is a celebrity and charity event, it lends itself to few mote photos than usual. Here's a selection of shots from our crack photographer Joe Giron/IMPDI Worldwide.

Brad Garrett on the red carpet

Norman Chad interviews PokerStars player (and rapper) Nelly

Friend of PokerStars Jason Alexander

Luca Pagano and Ylon Schwartz at the feature table

No stranger to charity, Barry Greenstein

That's all, folks. There are no more preliminary events at the World Series of Poker. If a player hasn't cashed in one yet or still have a seat in one of the two events running today, he is going to have to make his nut in the Main Event.

This is the first day since May that a new WSOP event has not started and most people are taking that day off from the Rio. After several weeks of hard core poker play, everyone is in need of a bit of a break.

The penultimate day finished off with a bit of a splash last night as Chad Brown and Daniel Negreanu racked up a couple more big cashes. Here's a look back at Tuesday.

There are still a few PokerStars players left in their seats. Lex Veldhuis, Bill Chen, Grant Levy, and Alexander Kravchenko all made Day 2 of the $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event are still working to get their piece of the $1 million first prize.

Thursday hosts the $5,000 Ante Up For Africa charity tournament. Then, one day later, we're in the thick of it. The Main Event begins on Friday and will run for the next two weeks.

Good luck to PokerStars players who still have a chance at some prelim event money. And to the rest of you, get some rest. It's going to be a big couple of weeks.

Last night at this time we were reporting that Daniel Negreanu had just hit his seventh cash of the year.

Now we can report he's posted his eighth.

Negreanu has been multi-tabling the 2-7 game and $5,000 short-handed event all day long. Just a little bit ago, Negreanu made it into the money on the 2-7 game.

Kid Poker has now made it down to the final three tables and is gunning for another final table. We'll let you know how he makes out.

Good luck, Daniel.

Update: Shortly after we posted this report, Negreanu was eliminated in 16th place.

We all know Gavin Griffin has game.

Griffin was at one time the youngest person to ever win a WSOP bracelet. He was the first person to ever win poker's triple crown--WSOP, EPT, and WPT titles. He continues to be one of poker's top players.

But, did you know he's got game off the table?

Watch WSOP 2009: Griffin hits a home run... on PokerStars.tv

It was not to be, apparently, for Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown.

Seeking his first-ever WSOP bracelet to mix with his more than $2.3 million in lifetime tournament winnings, Brown came into Day 3 of the $1,500 Stud-8 event with the chip lead and a plan to take it down. He was still among the chip leaders when they reached the eight-handed final table. From there, nothing good happened.

Bricks, big limits, and second-bests ground Brown's stack down to a do-or-die situation. Before long, he was forced into a hand with Costa Rican stud kingpin Max Stern. By the river, Stern had made two pair with no low to Brown's ace-high with no low.

The fourth place finish puts another $44,000 in Brown's pocket. It's not a bracelet, but it's not bad.

If anything, we can take heart in the fact Max Stern (seen above next to Brown) is still alive and kicking three-handed in the same event. Stern is a good friend to the PokerStars Blog and we wish him all the luck in the world. If he could win today, it would be his fourth WSOP bracelet.

Ouch. That one had to hurt.

We're keeping close eye on the $1,500 Stud-8 final table where Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown is now fighting seven-handed for his first WSOP bracelet.

Involved in a three-way pot with famed tourney TD Matt Savage and chip leader William Kohler, Brown was showing a pair of sixes and a likely low when he raised Kohler's bet on seventh street.

Savage, who was almost certainly shooting for the bottom half of the pot, tossed in his remaining chips and stood up. The look on his face already had him at the cage cashing in for seventh place money. Kohler said, "I'm only calling. I have three aces."

Brown tabled his cards. He had two pair--no good for the top--but an 8-7-6 low.

Savage screwed up his face and tossed his cards in front of him. They didn't hit the muck, but it was clear Savage was no long interested in them. He turned around to talk to someone on the rail, when an eagle-eye floor person held the dealer for a moment.

By this point, Brown had already pulled back his additional bets and was stacking them up. Savage saw the floor person peering over the cards.

"Wait, what do you have there?" Savage said leaning over the table and studying Brown's holding.

That's when Savage's cards were assembled to make an 8-7...4. Brown was beat both ways, and in a not-too-nice way.

There began the process of Brown having to reassemble his bets and ship them across the table.

Savage was a bit embarrassed. "Give me my ticket," Savage joked of the cash-out cards the eliminated players get. Then he changed his mind, pointed to the pot and said, "Give me half of that."

Brown's jaw set firm. It wasn't an intentional slowroll, but the effect was the same.

Brown is down to around 250,000 in chips and now has some work to do to catch up to Kohler's 600,000 stack.

Challenge!

Find Macedonia on a map. Go on, try. We'll wait.

Back now? Do it?

If you had any trouble, you need to come to Vegas and talk to Dragan Chuchuk. If all else fails you can follow him home. But don't expect him to leave any time soon. He's come a long way to play at the WSOP.

Watch WSOP 2009: Dragan Chuchuk on PokerStars.tv

Team PokerStars Pro announced today that it has signed to its stable two rock stars of the modern poker world.

In one fell swoop, Team PokerStars Pro pulled in longtime tournament veteran Marcel Luske and prolific young gun Jason Mercier.

Known around the world as 'The Flying Dutchman,' Luske is a household name in European poker. Just last year he won the European Poker Awards' Lifetime Achievment Award.

Known for his sartorial elegance and distinctive singing voice at the poker tables, Luske was ranked Europe's top poker pro in both 2001 and 2003. In 2004, Luske went to the World Series of Poker and became an international star after a tenth place run in the main event.

Now, at long last, the longtime friend of PokerStars players and mentor to Team Pro Noah Boeken has come home to roost. Luske is now officially a member of Team Pro. Count on seeing him a lot in the coming season of the European Poker Tour.

Luske is joined by one of the hottest poker players on the circuit today. Mercier, a 22-year-old poker pro from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has put together $3.2 million live tourney cashes since his first tourney appearance at the 2008 PCA.

Known as "treysfull21" on PokerStars, Mercier is a Supernova Elite who has gained the respect of the live tournament world. Mercier first came to the attention of the international poker community when he took down the Season Four PokerStars EPT San Remo event for $1,372,893. Only a few months later, he finished sixth at the PokerStars EPT Season Five event in Barcelona, earning $324,946. Just the next month, he took downPokerStars EPT London £1 Million Showdown High Roller tournament for $944,847.

Yeah. Seriously. He is that good.

As if that wasn't enough, just a few weeks back, Mercier did something people wait a lifetime to achieve. He won his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tourney for $237,415.

After all of that, you would think nothing could make Mercier any happier. Not so.

"Becoming a member of Team PokerStars Pro means a lot to me," he said. "I'm so excited to be playing for the site I first started playing on. I feel like this solidifies my standing as one of the top poker players' around."

The PokerStars Blog would like to welcome both players to Team Pro. We look forward to continuing to cover you for years to come.

Today is Chad Brown's chance.

After more than a decade of playing tournament poker and amassing more than $2.3 million in tournament winnings, Brown has a chance to make something happen that will be brand new.

Chad Brown could win his first WSOP bracelet today.

Brown finished Day 2 of the $1,500 Stud-8 event last night with the chip lead. Fourteen players have just returned to play down to the champion.

It's just been a few years since Brown took second in this this same event. Today is a chance at redemption.

Here's a look back at how yesterday got us to today.