The fifth annual PokerStars.com World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), begins on September 16th with a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million.

The WCOOP is truly a “world championship” series of events, featuring a menu of 18 poker tournaments. This year’s WCOOP is expected to attract players from more than 80 nations, providing a real interntional flavour. Players will compete for WCOOP commemorative gold bracelets and millions in cash prizes.

The WCOOP is hosted by the world’s largest tournament poker site, PokerStars.com. The WCOOP will run over the course of 16 days, starting with the $200 buy-in Razz (Seven-Card Stud Low) tournament. The festival will end on October 1st with the single richest tournament in online poker -- the $2,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament, offering a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million.

The 2006 WCOOP will also introduce H.O.R.S.E. for the first time ever in a major online tournament. H.O.R.S.E., a rotation of five different varieties of poker (Hold’em, Omaha High-Low, Razz, Stud and Eight-or-Better) is the ultimate test of all-around poker skill.

With the buy-in set at $5,000, and a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool, the H.O.R.S.E tournament is expected to attract many of the top names in online poker. PokerStars is proud to announce that this special tournament will be hosted by Barry Greenstein (a.k.a. “The Robin Hood of Poker”) who is widely recognised as one of the world’s most successful cash and tournament players.

Barry Greenstein of Team PokerStars said, “Prestigious tournaments such as the PokerStars.com World Championship of Online Poker, are the ultimate way to improve your game and experience the excitement of big tournament play.

The WCOOP is a popular event with the established stars of online poker, and the H.O.R.S.E. tournament is bound to attract the elite. But there will also be plenty of room for regular poker players PokerStars will be running satellites to the major events around the clock, 24 hours a day with buy-ins starting as low as $3.30. As a bonus to loyal players, PokerStars will also be investing $1.5 million toward free entries.”