Few words muster as much anticipation and excitement as "World Cup of Poker". The ninth running of the Cup begins today, a highlight not just of the PCA schedule, but of the poker calendar in general, for few events can compete in levels of sheer unadulterated complication as this innovative favourite.

It's the tournament that defines complexity, bringing together nine national teams within the Bahamas for 2 days of seat-of-your-pants poker that regularly eclipses the principle event for tension because it goes all the way down to the wire.

The winner of the PCA main event will likely reach the pages of newspapers across the world, but World Cup of Poker winners can enthrall a whole nation. Within the streets of Taipei they still discuss the side that won in Season six, the players given hero's welcomes as they hit the tarmac.

What's the appeal in an event dominated by amateurs in place of any high profile names? Well, something in it transcends regular poker tournaments. We have seen grown men laugh, cry and nearly come to blows. Sure, there's money to be won, an entire $22,500 each to the winners, with prizes for everybody. There's even a $2,500 for probably the most Valuable Player. But no person would say it was a life changing amount. Instead, national pride drives the competition, that is great, as it means people more readily overlook how complicated it sometimes gets.

Rumour has it, that the foundations to the arena Cup of Poker were originally the results of a limiteless choice of monkeys hitting keys at random on an old typewriter for a vast period of time. The outcome, printed in black and white, is the format for this year's cup, which today will play out as follows:

• At 12pm today the five-player shorthanded sit & gos will begin (nine in total)
• At 3pm today nine player full table sit & gos will commence (five in total)
• At 6pm today nine player full table sit & gos (five in total). Two of those might be played in pot-limit Omaha, with team captains choosing the participants.

  Who are those participants? Let's meet the teams:

  Team Canada - Captain Adrienne "talonchick" RowsomeJohn Schindler, Robert Hordejuk, Bradley E.Marsh and Justin Mackay

  Team Brazil - Captain Andre AkkariTiago Cecilio, Victor Hugo Cativo, Douglas Ferreira Souza and Pablo Brito Silva

  Team Germany - Captain Jan HeitmanStefan Ludwig, Matthias Frost, Michael Forster and Pascal Hartmann

  Team Bulgaria - Captain Svetoslav YordanovStoyan Danailov, Velizar Yordanov, Tonyu Tonew and Mihail Stoykov

  Team Belgium - Captain Christophe de MeulderKevin Callebaut, Philippe Daemen, Leandro Gaone and Quentin Dellis

  Team Russia - Captain Ivan DemidovDmitriy Kulikov, Anton Yakuba, Ismael Erkenov and Maksim Tyurin

  Team Tajikistan - Captain Maksimov Andrey DmitrievichParvin Sharifovich Majidov, Akmal Sultanov, Firuz Khasanov and Shamshold Niyatbekov

  Team Japan - Captain Naoya KiharaIppei Nishiyama, Susuma Toge, Yoshiihiko Kanno and Nobuyuki Tanaka

  Team France - Captain Julien BrecardHugo Roger, Jerome Arnoux, Fabien Flahaut and Matthieu Holveck

  The scoring is unassuming. No it isn't. Each player will score points for his or her team dependent on their finishing position. Within the heads-up round a win is worth 5 points with 10 points for a team victory. If a team sweeps another it's worth 15 points.

  In the sit & go rounds points can also be awarded to players in keeping with finishing position, with 10 points to the winner, all the way down to one point for the ninth place finisher. AN ANALOGOUS system works within the short handed sit & gos, with levels in each round QUARTER-HOUR long and starting stacks of 3,000 chips.

  Play will end for the day after all of the three rounds are completed. Players will then return tomorrow to play more rounds so as to determine the brand new champions.

  If it sounds fantastic this is because it's fantastic, without anyone with the ability to nail down why. Either way, it's game on.

  Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: World Cup of Poker]