World Cup of Poker

A new edition of Poker Stars World Cup of Poker (WCP) it’s about to begin. This year’s tournament will run differently, all players having the chance to represent their country at the Main Event. A total of 54 countries will fight for a $290,000 prize pool, the winning team at the live Grand Final in The Bahamas receiving $100,000 first place prize money.

The previous WCP Champions are Costa Rica (WCP I and II), Poland (WCP III), USA (WCP IV) and the last year’s winners, Germany.

WCP VI will start online at Poker Stars and is scheduled to run August 20 – September 13. The Live Final will be played in The Bahamas from January 4 to January 14, 2010. The WCP is structured in three stages: Stage I – qualifications for the National Teams, Stage II – Regional Play-offs, Stage III – Live Final.

USA, Canada and Germany have special qualification tournaments for each state or province. All other countries have two National Team Decider Freeroll Tournaments running for the Stage I qualifications. Those two freeroll winners will be joined by the country’s top two Tournament Leader Board (TLB) players, completing the team of four that will represent the country in the Stage II.

The Regional Play-off consists in a series of Team Play-off tournaments between the 54 countries divided in nine Divisions. Only the best team from every Regional Division will go to the Live Final. The Team Play-off tournaments contain one player from every national team in the Division that according to his finishing position will receive points. All tournaments will start at the same time. The first team in every Division with the biggest total score accumulated by its players will win the Stage II.

The players that qualify to the World Cup of Poker Grand Final receive a prize package including travel and accommodation at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in The Bahamas. Before the Final Table each team will be assigned a Poker Stars selected celebrity captain and all members will play a single table tournament to determine the starting chip stack of the team.

At the Final Table all members of the nine teams will rotate in and out of play until one team takes the overall victory. The winning team will cash in $100,000 and will win the famous title of World Cup of Poker VI Champions.

The Grand Final end when only one team remains but all teams qualified to the Event will receive cash prizes as follows:

- 1st place $100,000 - $20,000 each player;
- 2nd place $70,000 - $14,000 each player;
- 3rd place $50,000 - $10,000 each player;
- 4th place $30,000 - $6,000 each player;
- 5th - 7th place $10,000 - $2,000 each player;
- 8th - 9th place $5,000 - $1,000 each player.

For more information regarding qualifications and the tournament schedule visit Poker Stars official website www.pokerstars.com