World Team Poker Championship 2011 Starting in May

Last year's World Team Poker Championship has been won by the Chinese team lead by 10-times WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan. The event took place at the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas.

This year, the event is scheduled to kick off in May with the participation of the following teams:

Team Australia, Team Brazil, Team Canada, Team China, Team Cyprus, Team England, Team Germany, Team Greece, Team Iran, Team Israel, Team Italy, Team Korea, Team Lebanon, Team New Zealand, Team Pakistan, Team Russia, Team Spain, Team Ukraine, Team Vietnam, Team USA and a Wild Card team of celebrities lead by Dr. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Other teams like Caribbean Islands, Costa Rica, Denmark, India, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, and Wales also expressed their interest the event and are currently drafting their teams to be able to participate. The rosters are impressive, take for example the US team: Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel.


Last year's rules allowed captains to coach their team members and could substitute players during the tournament as well. 3 games were played, Limit Hold'em, No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha. Captains had to assign players to each round according to their skills and table dynamics. This is bound to stay the same this year.

This is a very interesting format that, not surprisingly, caught the attention of Fox Sports Net, who decided to air last year's event a few weeks before this year's event takes place. They plan to air the tournament in 13 consecutive weeks. It will be very interesting to see not just good poker from the top pros from all over the world, but the team format will also make it a must-watch.


According to official information, World Team Poker will hold tournaments in 4 geographic regions after the Las Vegas event: the Pacific League match in Macau taking place in the fall, then the Americas League match in Brazil, the Mediterranean League match in Greece and the European League match in London.

If any more new information surfaces, we'll keep you updated. How do you like the idea so far? Would you be interested in the show?