Top online poker room, PokerStars, has brought back their World Cup of Poker and this time around they are bringing together fifty four nations to compete for the top prize. Players will be competing for their share of a $290,000 prize pool and pride for their country, as well as the $100,000 in first place prize money to be offering in the live Grand Final.

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The first thing a player will need to do is qualify for their National Team. To do this, players must go to the WCP qualifying page and click on their countries qualifying link. Each country will have different qualification options and players must be aware of how to qualify for their specific country.

After qualifying, players will then be placed on their National Team. Your National Team will then compete against other teams from around the world to earn a place in the Grand Final, which will be live.

Players will compete in Team Play-offs which are scheduled tournaments that contain one player from each national team in the Division. Players are classified according to football positions: TLB Player 1 is the Striker, TLB Player 2 is the Midfielder, Free roll Qualifier 1 is the defender and Free roll Qualifier 2 is the Goalie. The teams then score points based on the position of each team member in the tournaments. The team that scores the most points will be moving on from the Regional play-off to the next stage of competition.

The next stage is of course the live final and it will take place in The Bahamas. The teams that make the live final will earn prize packages which will include travel expenses and accommodations at the Atlantic Resort and Casino. These teams will be competing in a televised tournament to see who will earn the $100,000 first place prize and be the World Cup of Poker VI Champions.

PokerStars seems to be running out of ideas for ways to promote their online poker room as they seem to be just waiting for Full Tilt to do something then they do it too. First it was the Guinness book of world records attempt which they stole right back after Full Tilt took it away, for about a minute, and now PokerStars is following Full Tilt yet again by announcing a new poker show. The announcement came just weeks after Full Tilt launched their new poker show Face The Ace.

Full Tilt’s show airs on NBC and PokerStars is working with the FOX network. The new show is titled PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge and will be similar to the premise of the Full Tilt show. Players will earn their spot via PokerStars and take on pros of PokerStars as well as celebrities.

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The slight difference in the PokerStars show is that players who take on the challenge can get advice and coaching from PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu. So while the player may face Greg Raymer or Chris Moneymaker, Negreanu can help them in their attempt to move to the next round. But the players should beware that if they make the final round of play they will be facing Negreanu, the pro who has been helping them and watching them play the entire time.

Filming of the show is set to begin on September 30th and the show is scheduled tentatively for October 11th at 4pm. players who would like to be considered for the show must finish in the top ten of either two free rolls that take place daily on PokerStars and then submit a two minute video that explains why they should be the next contestant on the show. Players of the PokerStars show will also be able to bring along two friends for support like similar game shows on the market.

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In a recent PokerStars blog, the online poker giant announced they have another player who made their Super Nova Elite status. Mark Ioli is the latest player to earn the status and he is only the fourth player to be ranked Super Nova Elite this year.

Ioli is a twenty one year old from New York, the Long Island area, and he dropped out of school to focus on becoming a full time poker pro. Ioli had one goal in mind- to become a Super Nova Elite player at PokerStars.

Ioli commented to PokerStars.com that the year before he started playing full time he had made up his mind to get Elite status. He commented: “it’s certainly not something that happens on accident.” Ioli had been attending the University of Maryland and majoring in finance when he began playing the game while in college.

After two years at the university, Ioli made the decision to leave school and focus on poker full time. Ioli moved to Queens, New York and set up an office so he could play full time at PokerStars. Ioli commented: “I knew if I multi-tabled solely on PokerStars full time, I could guarantee myself an extremely profitable year. PokerStars definitely rewards you for putting in hours.”

Players who make the Super Nova Elite status earn major rewards from PokerStars. The players get access to free entries into major international tournaments, FPP Credits faster, massive milestone bonuses and much more.

Ioli has stated that he will be spending the rest of the year earning more bonuses and large amounts of FPP’s as well as competing in the WCOOP Main Event, PCA and the EPT Monte Carlo. He also states that once he becomes financially stable he will have the” freedom to later pursue various environmental and moral pursuits.”

PokerStars Australia New Zealand Poker Tour first season has come to an end with the Main Event concluding in the Queensland stop on the tour. The entire inaugural ANZPT was a great success and the last event had a good showing of players. It was Scott Kerr who managed to outlast the field and earn the first place title.

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When final play began it would be down to eight players. Joel “StrongPlay” Dodds held the chip lead with 30% of the chips in play. Dodds would be followed closely by Scott “Punty” Smith and Phillip Willcocks who also had good chip counts.

Kerr would be down in chips but after a few battles and player eliminated Kerr would earn his share of the chips and face Phillip Willcocks in heads up play. Out of 249 players Kerr and Willcocks were the only two left. Willcocks from New Zealand and Kerr of Australia both qualified via PokerStars so it seemed fitting they would be fighting for the win.

When heads up play began Willcocks held a seven to two chip advantage which did not look good for Kerr. But after a few hands Kerr would gain the lead and make a move which proved to be the final hand. Willcocks went all in with Q-J of spades and Kerr would call with A-Q. Kerr held the better hand and was crowned the ANZPT Queensland Winner.

Scott Kerr will now join the list of other winners from the inaugural ANZPT. The Adelaide winner - Karl Krautschneider, the winner of the Sydney stop- Paren Arzoomanian, the Melbourne stop winner- Chris Levick and the winner of the Queenstown event- Danny Chevalier.

Final Results in AUD:

1st Scott Kerr $168,075
2nd Phillip Willcocks $112,050
3rd Joel ‘StrongPlay’ Dodds $62,250
4th Shoshiro Karita $49,800
5th Scott ‘Punty’ Smith $40,462
6th Danny Joukhadar $31,125
7th Paul Gibson $21,787
8th Lee Fraser $16,496
9th Eric Sclavos $12,450

PokerStars 2009 World Championship of Online Poker is set to begin very soon on September 5th so the online poker giant is getting ready to start satellites for the event. to get players excited about the WCOOP PokerStars has announced their “Extreme Satellites” that takes qualifying for the WCOOP to a whole new extreme.

The “Extreme Satellites” will begin on August 4th and continue to the 16th and offer over $1 million in seats to the 2009 WCOOP. The satellites will begin on the 4th with a $27 buy-in tournament with 100x $215 seats added. Satellites will take place during the time period with buy-ins ranging from $7.50 to $215 and offer hundreds of seats to WCOOP events of the player’s choice as well as some to the Main Event of the WCOOP which has a buy-in of $5,200.

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Players can easily enter one of the lower buy-in satellites and if a seat is won the player can choose which 2009 WCOOP event they wish to use that seat in as long as it has a corresponding buy-in amount. For example if you win a $109 seat then you can choose a WCOOP event which has a $109 buy-in. Players who win a seat must use it for one of the WCOOP events and cannot sell, trade or cash in their seat.

The 2009 World Championship of Online Poker will begin on September 5th and end on the 20th. The 2009 series will feature forty five events in every type of poker variant. H.O.R.S.E., Badugi, Omaha and many others will be featured. The “Extreme Satellites” at PokerStars give players of any budget a chance to compete in the WCOOP and a chance to win a great deal in cash prizes.