For the past 13 months, we have shared a friendship with Dustin Mele, the first-ever PokerStars Passport winner. Mele won the PokerStars Passport in December 2007, and during 2008, he and his girlfriend Tracy became friends and part of the PokerStars family. As we traveled around the world to PokerStars events, the couple came with us on Mele's worldwide passport.

Mele's trip around the world is complete for now, but we have some brand new PokerStars Passport winners to introduce.

This year, PokerStars decided to hand out more than one set of papers. In fact, eight people will be traveling the world on the PokerStars Passport.

Recently, PokerStars held three tournaments with some big time prizes on the line. Not only did the events award thousands of dollars worth of cash, they also gave away the coveted PokerStars Passports. The top 100 TLB players played in one event. The top 101-200 and 201-500 played in two other events.

The following people walked away with the top prizes.

Top 100 TLB

1. phillyJbizee (United States) -- 5-Stamp Passport
2. delfino74 (Italy) -- 4-Stamp Passport
3. Bruno GT (Brazil) -- 1-Stamp Passport

Top 101-200 TLB

1. AOthegreat8 (United States) -- 1-Stamp Passport

Top 201-500 TLB

1. jus2awsum (United States) -- 1-Stamp Passport

There are also three other PokerStars Passport winners who won their visas via the yearly Tournament Leader Board. Powerhouse Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb won the five-stamp passport. A three-stamp passport went to derek8. BreakRibs will be traveling with two stamps on his.

For each stamp in their passports, the players will get a free prize package to a live PokerStars event. That means they can go anywhere anywhere from the PCA to the LAPT to the EPT to the APPT to the RPT to the WSOP. That's a lot of letters and a lot of different cities. There aren't many better prizes out there.

Congratulations to all of this year's winners. We look forward to seeing you on the road.

Dustin Mele had a pretty cool year. The guy went just about everywhere in the world and played in the biggest tournaments around for exactly zero dollars out of his bankroll. How? He won the 2008 PokersStars Passport. From there, he took PokerStars' cash and jet-setted around the world as a poker celebrity.

Now, it's your chance to roll like Mele.

The PokerStars Passport is the biggest reward a player can get for a great Tournament Leader Board performance. This year, PokerStars is giving away more than $200,000 in cash and prizes to the winners. You could end up going to Rio, Vegas, or halfway across Europe. It's up to you, as long as your traveling and playing poker (not a bad way to spend your time if you have the means).

If you're not already aware, here's how the PokerStars Passport compeition works. The top 1,000 finishers from the December PokerStars will get a chance to play for a single-stamp PokerStars Passport and thousands of dollars in cash. The top 100 finishers will be playing for an even bigger prize. On top of the cash prizes, there are single-stamp, three-stamp, and six-stamp Passports up for grabs. Every stamp gets you an entry into the main event of an live PokerStars-sponsored tournament or the main event of the World Series.

For complete details, schedules, and prize structures, visit the PokerStars Passport webpage.