Gearing up for the World Cup of Poker

The World Series of Poker is finally over, but not the competition. Several of the regional qualifying events have been completed for the Fourth Annual World Cup of Poker at PokerStars. There are 57 countries competing for the cup, claimed by Poland at the World Cup of Poker 3, last year. The finale will be held in Barcelona, in the end of September.

Teams representing each of the 57 countries compete in poker combat for $250,000 in cash prize for this year's World Cup of Poker. Three countries --- the United States, Canada and Germany --- have completed an additional opening round of play, with the regional teams for each being finalized now. The next step for these countries will be Divisional Qualification events, where teams representing United States and Canadian and German provinces will play on July 22nd to narrow the playing field for those countries, each with a significant Poker Stars representation. Because of that, those three countries have two teams each, bringing the number of World Cup Poker 4 teams to 60 total.

After the Divisional Qualifications, the National Team qualifying tournaments for each of the countries, during the last week of July. The lineups for the World Cup itself will be finalized during the first week in August. The final team for each country will have 4 players, broken down as follows: Two from the Qualifying Tournaments; 2 from the Highest Performers on PokerStars Tournament Leader Board, 2006; in the final event Poker Stars will add a fifth player.

There will be 8 national teams that will qualify for the finale in Barcelona. September 4th through 7th will cut the group in half, splitting the cash pool between the four teams. First place will pay a prize of $100, 000 to be split between each member of the team at $20,000 each.

The World Series may have ended but the competition has not. Building up to the World Cup of Poker, and fighting for their countries bragging rights, the poker world is a buzz with continued anticipation.