As the saying goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” While the online poker industry has been attempting to weather a serious storm over the last few months, one constant still remains: the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). The world’s largest online poker room (smaller, but still the largest) has released the schedule for this year’s WCOOP, the tenth annual running of the internet’s most popular poker series.

The festivities start in just over a month with three tournaments on September 4th: a $215 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max event, the $10,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller event, and a standard $215 No-Limit Hold’em event. Like last year, there will be 62 events in total, spread across three weeks. As always, PokerStars will guarantee a minimum prize pool for each event, though because U.S. players are no longer in the fold, the guarantees are lower than in 2010. Last year, there total guaranteed prize pool was $50 million, whereas this year it is “only” $30 million.

As one would expect, most of the tournaments feature No-Limit Hold’em, but there is something for everyone, as varieties of Stud, Omaha, Draw, mixed games, and even Badugi, can be found on the schedule. There are three High Roller events, both with $10,300 buy-ins: the aforementioned No-Limit Hold’em tourney on opening day, a Heads-Up event, and an 8-game tournament. The 2011 WCOOP culminates on September 25th with the $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event.

Last year’s Main Event fielded 2,443 entrants, creating a $12,215,000 prize pool. Winning the title was “POTTERPOKER,” who became $2,278,097 richer. Across the entire 2010 WCOOP, the total combined prize pools hit $63,157,150.

Original article here