PokerStars WCoP heads to the Bahamas

Greg Raymer: 2008 WCoP winning team captain.

After weeks of online qualifying tournaments, the PokerStars World Cup of Poker has its nine teams ready to take to the felt on the fifth of this month.

Its unique format means the WCoP is a team-based tournament using a "team score round" system to determine a winner. In this round of play, there are five single-table tournaments played, each with one player from each of the nine teams. Teams score points depending on what place each player finishes in on their table of play.

The team finishing with the most combined points take home the first-place prize of $100,000 (split evenly among all five players on a team) and the prestigious trophy and bragging rights that go along with winning the World Cup of Poker.

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Each team is made up of four qualifying online players and one PokerStars pro, to be announced. Last year's winning team came from the U.S.A., with Greg Raymer taking the role of team captain.

Surprisingly, one of the qualifying players from last year's winning Team U.S.A. was Shaun Deeb, who has made it through the thousands of other hopefuls to qualify for Team U.S.A. for the second year in a row.

With eight other teams looking to take away first place from Shaun Deeb and his U.S. team, the action should be intense in the Atlantis Resort and Casino. Each division had multiple teams one could compete for a spot on, with each team fighting for the rights to represent the division. The roster looked like this after the online qualifying dust settled.

For your shot at making a team to represent your country next year, sign up to PokerStars now and get yourself in the action.