World Cup of Poker 2006 - Team USA

STEP 1 - Selecting the 51 State Teams

Each state team will initially be three players: the TLB winner from that state for the calendar year 2005, and the winners of two FPP satellites. The TLB champion will be the state team captain.

Win your way in!

To register for your state's 50 FPP buy-in qualifying event, please visit your PokerStars game client and click "WCP" then "USA States". Once in the "USA States" lobby find and click on your state's tournament and then click "register". If the "WCP" tab does not appear in your Lobby then please contact PokerStars Customer Support. For a schedule of USA qualifying events, visit the Team USA Schedule page.

STEP 2 - Round-robin tournaments to narrow the 51 state teams to 16

The 51 state teams will be broken down into 16 regions (13 regions with three teams, three regions with four teams).

Each team will play a "team match" against the other teams in its group. A "team match" is a set of heads-up contests between corresponding members of two teams. For instance, if Maryland is playing Delaware, then the TLB winner from Maryland plays the TLB winner from Delaware, FPP #1 winner from Maryland plays the FPP #1 winner from Delaware, and the FPP #2 winner from Maryland plays the FPP #2 winner from Delaware. The team that wins two of those three matches is the winner.

The team that wins the most matches advances to the STEP 3. In the event of a tie between two teams, each team captain will nominate one player and there will be a "Single Match Shootout" to determine the group winner. In the event of a tie between three teams, each team captain will nominate one player and those three players will play in a one-table freezeout to determine the group winner.

STEP 3 - Final 16 state teams play down to the final 4

Each of the remaining 16 state teams will play a team match to narrow the field to eight.

The final eight will play a second round of team matches to narrow the field to four. The final four teams advance immediately to Step 6.

STEP 4 - The Final Four State Teams

The final four state teams remaining advance immediately to Step 6 to compete against Team USA #1 and Team USA #2 for the right to represent the United States at the World Cup of Poker live competition in Barcelona. WCP teams consist of five players. Therefore, the TLB runner-up for the four winning states will become part of those state teams, along with a player who will be designated by PokerStars.

STEP 5 - Team USA Qualifying

If you missed your chance to qualify on your state team, you still have a chance to play in the World Cup of Poker on one of two USA Teams. Team USA #1 will consist of the TLB winner for the U.S., the number three TLB player for the US, two winners of nationwide FPP satellites, and a fifth player named by PokerStars. Team USA #2 will consist of the TLB runner-up for the U.S., the number four TLB player for the U.S., two winners of nationwide FPP satellites, and a fifth player named by PokerStars.

STEP 6 - World Cup of Poker

Once the two Team USA groups have been established, they will play in a round robin tournament with the four remaining state teams. The top two teams in that round robin event will then compete. The winning team in that contest will travel to Barcelona to represent Team USA in the World Cup of Poker.