PokerStars Announces Regional Championships of Online Poker

Expanding on their popular World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), PokerStars has announced a new tier of championship tournaments – the Regional Championships of Online Poker (RCOOP). These tournaments will offer a total of $7 million in guaranteed prizes for tournaments that are restricted to players from specific parts of the world.

The first tournament series will be the Russian Open Championship of Online Poker, taking place from October 31 to November 7, and guarantees over $200,000 in prize money to players from Russia and many former Soviet republics.

The 13 tournament series will take place between October and February, some overlap from region to region. However, this shouldn’t affect most players, as players should only be eligible to play in one region. Some of the other regional championships include:

• The Nordic Championship of Online Poker, which will include players from Denmark, Finlane, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and several other nations;
• The Baltic Championship of Online Poker, for players in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia;
• The USA Championship of Online Poker, which features a total of $3.3 million in guaranteed prizes in 11 different events;
• The Canadian Championship of Online Poker, which also features 11 events.

Later events include The Germanics Championship of Online Poker, the Asia-Pacific Championship of Online Poker, the Mediterranian Championship of Online Poker, the U.K. and Ireland Championship of Online Poker, the Central and Eastern European Championship of Online Poker, the Latin American Championship of Online Poker, the Iberian Championship of Online Poker, and the Benelux Championship of Online Poker.

By far, the largest prizes are available in the USA Championship, which culminates on November 28^th with a $530 buy-in Main Event that features a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. However, each series will feature a similar structure, with smaller events leading to a Main Event with the largest guarantee and buy-in.

The Regional Championships of Online Poker is not PokerStars’ first entry into the world of regionalized poker events. PokerStars is also the organizer of many regional live poker tours, such as the European Poker Tour and the North American Poker Tour.