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Starting on September 5th, the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) will play out on PokerStars. A total of 62 events will be held and, while the guarantees have not yet been announced, over $50 million was given out last year when 45 tournaments were run.

Three events get underway on September 5th. What normally is a busy Sunday online will now also include a $215 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event starting at 13:00 ET. Two hours later, look for a $10,300 No Limit Hold’em High-Roller tournament. Also taking place on the opening day of the 2010 WCOOP is a $215 Two-Day event.

The $5,200 2010 WCOOP Main Event is penciled in for September 26th at 17:00 ET. Last year, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko banked $1.7 million for taking down the WCOOP’s featured tournament, one of the largest prizes awarded in the history of online poker. Also at the final table was newly minted DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Dan “djk123” Kelly, who took down a HORSE tournament the day before for a WCOOP bracelet. Kelly added $643,000 for his performance in the WCOOP Main Event.

As you’d expect from a major tournament series on PokerStars, the 2010 WCOOP schedule has a variety of games and formats including Badugi, Five Card Draw, Omaha, Razz, Eight Game, Stud, Triple Draw, Single Draw, Razz and HORSE. Three High Roller events are on tap and will take place each weekend during the WCOOP.

Here is the preliminary schedule of events released by PokerStars on Thursday. A final version is expected within a week after the site solicits feedback from online poker players on forums like PocketFives.com:

Sunday, September 5th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max
15:00 ET: $10,300 No Limit Hold’em High Roller
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day

Monday, September 6th
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Shootout Six-Max
20:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Turbo with Rebuys

Tuesday, September 7th
14:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Five Card Draw
17:00 ET: $215 TBD
20:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels

Wednesday, September 8th
12:00 ET: $265 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout
14:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em Ante Up
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Two-Day

Thursday, September 9th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
14:00 ET: $265 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Knockout
17:00 ET: $215 Razz

Friday, September 10th
14:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Single Draw
20:00 ET: $109 Eight-Game 10-Minute Levels

Saturday, September 11th
13:00 ET: $109 No Limit Hold’em 10-Minute Levels
17:00 ET: $215 Limit Hold’em

Sunday, September 12th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
17:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day

Monday, September 13th
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Four-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Stud
20:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Turbo Cubed

Tuesday, September 14th
14:00 ET: $320 Mixed Hold’em Six-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Limit Badugi
20:00 ET: $1050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels

Wednesday, September 15th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Cubed
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Triple Shootout 10-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Eight-Game

Thursday, September 16th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max Cubed
17:00 ET: $320 Limit Triple Draw 2-7

Friday, September 17th
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $530 Limit Omaha High/Low
20:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em 10-Minute Levels

Saturday, September 18th
13:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Two-Day
15:00 ET: $25,500 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up Two-Day
17:00 ET: $320 HORSE

Sunday, September 19th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
17:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day

Monday, September 20th
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em 2X Chance
20:00 ET: $265 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Knockout

Tuesday, September 21st
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha
17:00 ET: $530 Stud High/Low
20:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels

Wednesday, September 22nd
12:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Big Antes
17:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha High/Low

Thursday, September 23rd
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Turbo
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $2,100 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max

Friday, September 24th
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Cubed
17:00 ET: $1,050 Limit Hold’em Six-Max
20:00 ET: $215 No Limit Omaha High/Low 10-Minute Levels

Saturday, September 25th
13:00 ET: $530 Pot Limit Omaha Heads-Up Match Play
17:00 ET: $2,100 HORSE

Sunday, September 26th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
15:00 ET: $10,300 Eight-Game High Roller
17:00 ET: $5,200 Main Event Two-Day

Visit PokerStars for more information. Remember, the site happily accepts players from the United States.

There are numerous ways to detect the imminent arrival of the World Series Main Event: The opening of poker lounges in busier corridors at the Rio, a longer line of reporters at the media desk collecting credentials, and the slow to a crawl of hotel internet services as online tables sap bandwidth. The most obvious, however, is the stealthy arrival at the Palms Hotel of the PokerStars logo, which has spread like measles across the casino in the past 48 hours. (Nice measles, but extremely virulent.)

The supporting pillars beside the roulette wheels and slot machines are now sheathed floor to ceiling in the familiar star and spade of the best online card-room around, while the tables in the bricks-and-mortar Palms poker room also carry PokerStars on their felt. This city, ordinarily impervious to outside interference, is bracing itself for the arrival of a battalion of PokerStars qualifiers who will, if past years is anything to go by, soon become the dominant poker force in town.

If you’re among them, congratulations. You’re probably reading this en route to the airport, or already snugly nestled in your room at the Palms. That’s where we’re all staying: staff and players alike, including most of the megastars on the Team PokerStars Pro roster.

For some of you, this will be your second, third, fourth visit to the World Series. But for others, this is your debut in the big time–and this is your brief guide to getting the best out of your stay. Ideally, you’re going to win the tournament and blaze a trail through poker for the coming decade. If you don’t, why not just have some fun?

Arrival
Once you’ve arrived and checked in (I’m not providing a crib-sheet for that process), you will probably want to head to the Rio (see How To Get There below) to check out the World Series arena. Gorp at the bracelets in the display cases; check out the merchandise stalls; buy a Coke at the poker kitchen; get your ears accustomed to the clickity-clack of a million chips.

With all that done, head for the cash desk and buy in to the Main Event as soon as possible. There’s no two ways about it, there will likely be a long line and the earlier you get there the better. Don’t delay on this one. You could save yourself a couple of hours by buying in early and avoiding the mayhem later.

How to get there
The Palms Casino is just across the street from the Rio, although in Vegas nothing is all that close by. During the Main Event, a free shuttle bus runs daily from the Palms to the Rio for PokerStars players, but there are other options too. You could splash the roll and take a cab (a bus is available) or you could even walk (a bus is available).

If you decide to walk (a bus is available) your best bet is to cross over Flamingo Road directly outside the Palms, go through the parking lot of the Gold Coast, and delve into that establishment at the first opportunity (a bus is available).

The Gold Coast–nicknamed the Old Coast for reasons that will become apparent–does not trouble itself with too much glitz. (A bus is available). We sometimes have a bet on how many people we will see smiling in the place and usually set the line at one. (Take the under.) However, make a right and head out the main entrance/exit and into the covered parking lot. Walk through the lines of Ferraris and Porsches (a bus is available) until you reach South Valley View Blvd. There’s no official crossing point here, and there are six lanes of traffic, but anyone familiar with Frogger won’t have a problem. (A bus is available.) Get yourself through the Rio parking lot and inside the casino before your skin starts to blister.

You enter the Rio beside the poker room in the main casino, and you need then to make another right and walk past all the slots (on top of which some people may be dancing) and keep going until you see Buzio’s Fish Restaurant. Take a left there.

Walk down the long, long corridor (a bus is available), past Starbucks and the Penn and Teller Theater, until you get to the Pavilion Room. You have now walked about half a mile and will feel grrrrrrreat. Or you could just take the bus. (A bus is available.)

Getting your player bag
All the way back at the Palms, PokerStars has an office at the Key West Suite, which is conveniently beside the poker room. Its opening hours are:

July 2-3: 10:00AM – 1:00PM; 2:00PM – 6:00PM
July 4: 9:00AM – Midnight
July 5-7: 9:00AM – 11:00PM
July 8: 9:00AM – 6:00PM
July 9-16: 10:00AM – 6:00PM

A smiling staff will be on hand to cater to your every need (not that one), just as long as the vast mountain of PokerStars player bags hasn’t avalanched onto them. You can help reduce that possibility by claiming your own player bag, which is stuffed full of the kind of swag you usually exchange FPPs for.

You will also sign a terms and conditions document there, which will release the bonuses on PokerStars players. The full details of bonuses will be explained to you at the office, but suffice to say, that logo on your sleeve can bring you untold riches.

Playing
You’ll learn your starting day when you buy in to the Main Event. Day 1A is Monday July 5, 1B is Tuesday July 6, 1C is Wednesday July 7 and 1D is Thursday July 8. You’ll almost certainly lose track of the real day once you’re in town and quickly lapse into WSOP time, where the day is defined in terms of the tournament.

For the record, day 2A is on Friday July 9 (and will feature survivors from days 1A and 1C) and day 2B is on Saturday July 10 (and will feature survivors from days 1B and 1D). Please note: this is different from previous years, and different from what was published here about an hour ago. But it’s right. Days 1A and 1C combine on day 2A; days 1B and 1D on day 2B.

You’ll have a day off on Sunday July 11, although don’t plan anything because…

PokerStars Party
It’s not often the entire poker world unites as one seething mass of excitement but the PokerStars World Series party is always one of those times. From Dita Von Teese, through Nelly, and now Snoop Dogg, the entertainment at the Rain Nightclub in the Palms is always top drawer.

And even if the scheduled act is not to your liking, you’re also pretty much guaranteed to see at least three poker pros in compromising positions, another nine or ten throwing down some humiliating shapes on the dance-floor, and 99 percent of reporters with dribble on their chins. OK, so the last one isn’t that appealing, but who doesn’t have to cut loose once in a while?

AND FINALLLY…. POKERSTARS BLOG NEEDS YOU!
Last but not least, here’s a cry to our readers. PokerStars Blog will be at the World Series Main Event in great force. Well, not that great, but there will be three writers and a terrific photographer in town just for the English language side of operations–and we want to hear from you. Yes, YOU. (Especially you if you’ve read this far down the page.)

If you want to keep your family and friends updated on your progress through the Main Event, the best bet is to come and introduce yourselves to us and we can keep you on our radar throughout. We’d like to hear your story of qualifying; we’d like to learn a bit about you and put some flesh on the bones of a chip count. We can put your picture on the blog and make you a person with their picture on a blog famous.

In 2008, we featured both Darus Suharto and Ylon Schwartz on their first day of action–and tracked them all the way to the final table. We’re good luck charms and even if you don’t fancy rubbing our magic lamp, just give us something to write about.

The four of us are Brad Willis (look for Ecco shoes, bags under the eyes, Diet Coke and a few stacks of red at the $2-$5 no limit tables); Stephen Bartley (red hair, crisply-ironed shirt with a maximum of one button unfastened, “Bobbie” sandwich and a rage just beneath the surface), Joe Giron (dextrous camera skills, earrings, tales of rock-star debauchery, bump on the head) and Howard Swains (tall). If you see any quartet answering that description and sitting in a media gantry, that’ll be us. We’d love to hear from you.

And if you’re following this from afar, please get in touch at blog@pokerstars.com and tell us who you want us to follow. It would really help us out if you could tell us a bit about your friend/family member and maybe find out their table assignment. Then we can begin our stalking of them into the deep stages.

See you all soon!

*****

AROUND THE TABLES

The Main Event is close, but it’s not here just yet and there’s still the not-insignificant matter of four more preliminary events to get through. This post might have been The Daniel Negreanu Post – at the start of writing, KidPoker was cruising into the very late stages of the $25,000 six max no limit hold ‘em event, the tournament with the second-highest buy in of the Series.

By the time it was three-quarters done, however, Negreanu was out.

Eighteen players reconvened yesterday afternoon, spread across three tables, and it all went swimmingly for Negreanu in the early stages. He won a decent pot from Frank Kassela with top pair kings, and broke through the million chip mark. But his next two notable skirmishes both went against him. He called Michael Thuritz’s three-bet pre-flop with [qs][js] and then re-raised Thuritz all in on a flop of [6s][3d][2s]. It was Thuritz at risk, but his pocket kings held to take a pot of more than 1.2 million and leave Negreanu with the short stack.

After folding a couple of orbits, and chopping one pot with Q-J again, Negreanu was all in with [kc][jc] against Kassela’s pocket eights. Negreanu whiffed the flop, turn and river, and headed to the $2,500 no limit event, which was beginning a few tables away. (He was one of the first eliminations from that event.)

With the six-max playing down to its final, most eyes now shifted to the £10,000 pot-limit Omaha Championship, which was into its second day. With many of the established professionals favouring Omaha over hold ‘em, this was one that plenty had been waiting for.

Certainly the likes of William Thorson, the recent winner of the Omaha prize at the EPT awards, was preparing for a deep run. Likewise Vanessa Selbst, Team PokerStars Pro’s latest addition, who has a bracelet in PLO.

But here’s a familiar story: neither of them made it through the day. Selbst couldn’t beat Vitaly Lunkin’s pocket kings with her queens, and Thorson also fell deep into the afternoon. By that point, Rino Mathis, Greg Raymer, Thomas Bichon and Noah Boeken were also on the rail.

However, Team Pro is still well represented into day three. Alex Kravchenko, who spent much of the day sitting beside the November Niner Kevin Schaffel, progresses – and was responsible for the final elimination of the night.

The EPT tournament director Thomas Kremser was in player-guise in Vegas, and made it into the money in the $10,000 Omaha. That was until Kravchenko polished him off with aces against kings (Kravchenko had [ad][as][kd][jc]; Kremser had [kc][ks][9s][5d]). Expect some dubious rulings next year on the EPT, Alex.

Jason Mercier is also running into form at the right time. He bagged up 213,000 at the end of play – some way behind Tom Dwan’s leading 910,000 but in with a shot. Day four is today.

The final $1,000 no limit hold’em event will play through day two today and we’ll pick up coverage of that as it gets into the money. Likewise the $2,500 event, the final bracelet tournament before the Main Event, which attracted 1,941 players.

At the end of day one, only 585 survived, but Salvatore Bonavena, Angel Guillen, Ivan Demidov, Vicky Coren, Andre Akkari and Veronica Dabul are among them. Let’s see if any of those can win their Main Event buy in on the eve of exchanging it for a ticket to the big one.

*****

TWEETS OF THE DAY

Poker tweets get more articulate and polite. Must mean @victoriacoren is in town: “Thanks for all the lovely messages. It’s bedtime in Las Vegas. We play again in about 10 hours time…. Night night.”

@RaSZI (Lex Veldhuis), movie reviewer: “Airbender was disappointing. Special effects were awesome but the movie was too PG. If it had ninja assassins violence would be best ever.”

A prayer from @NHGG (Gavin Griffin): “15025 first break of #wsop56. Dear poker gods: please keep JJ+ away from me for the next 3 levels unless I get to win with them.”

(It didn’t work. “Busto #wsop56″.)

*****

Previous WSOP Diary entries

WSOP Diary Day 36: Deal me a winner. Meeting the dealers
WSOP Diary Day 35: Vanessa Selbst and David Williams sign for Team PokerStars Pro
WSOP Diary Day 34: The De Meulders and the Hachems. Team Pro’s band of brothers
WSOP Diary Day 33: World Series Rio style
WSOP Diary: Day 32: Bracelets only for Tournament of Champions
WSOP Diary: Day 31: Soccer sickness infects the Rio as WSOP pauses for World Cup
WSOP Diary: Day 30: Climbing the cash ladder with Humberto Brenes
WSOP Diary: Day 29: Mandy “roxy24″ Thomas mixes it with the big boys
WSOP Diary: Day 28: Barry Greenstein eyes final as shark attacks the Rio
WSOP Diary: Day 27: PokerStars party goes Dogg style
WSOP Diary Day 26: Bill Chen: Poker player, wedding planner, bridesmaid
WSOP Diary Day 25: Cutting through the throngs
WSOP Diary Day 24: Last chance to join us in Las Vegas
WSOP Diary Day 23: Anh Van Nguyen, remember the name

Read all WSOP diary entries here.

Contact: blog@pokerstars.com

Poker News Daily can independently confirm that 2010 World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship winner David Williams has signed with PokerStars. Williams’ agency, Poker Royalty, confirmed that a contract was forged in recent days and the former Bodog pro will now join the world’s largest online poker site.

Williams parted ways with Bodog shortly after taking down the WPT Championship at the Bellagio to the tune of $1.5 million. The tournament marked his fourth WPT final table and gave him nearly $3 million in career WPT earnings. Bodog, which has parted ways with Jean-Robert Bellande and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo since 2010 began, promptly introduced Amanda Musumeci as its newest sponsored pro. Musumeci joins Evelyn Ng as the lone Bodog-backed pros.

On July 6th at the Palms, PokerStars is hosting a cocktail event featuring reigning World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Joe Cada, Williams, and North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun Main Event winner Vanessa Selbst. Neither Selbst nor Williams appears on PokerStars’ website as a sponsored pro at the time of writing. Selbst, a Yale law student, banked an even $750,000 by taking down the $5,000 NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event in April, besting a final table that included Scott Seiver and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy.

Williams’ total live tournament winnings nearly top $8 million. The Panorama Towers resident finished as the runner-up to Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP Main Event for $3.5 million. Two years later, Williams landed at the final table of the WPT Bay 101 stop for $280,000. He won a gold bracelet at the 2006 WSOP in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud event and promptly took second in a $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball tournament for another quarter-million dollars.

Williams has been a staple of televised series like the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” GSN’s “High Stakes Poker,” and the PokerStars-backed “Big Game.” He celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this month, noting on Twitter, “Thanks you to everyone for the Happy Birthday messages. 30 isn’t so bad… I guess.”

PokerStars issued a weekly news roundup on Tuesday morning that did not mention Williams’ signing. He’ll join a stable of pros that includes Cada, Raymer, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Peter Eastgate, Barry Greenstein, and the site’s main face, Daniel Negreanu. Year-over-year, PokerStars has posted a 14% increase in online poker traffic according to PokerScout.com and currently owns a seven-day running average of 25,000 real money ring game players.

The PokerStars cocktail reception at the Palms is invite-only and designed for members of the media to conduct one-on-one interviews. It’s one of the many gatherings planned for this week in Las Vegas leading up to the 2010 WSOP Main Event, which begins next Monday, July 5th, with the first of four starting days. The tournament plays down to a final table on July 17th. Then, the nine survivors will disperse from the Rio until the first week of November. You can catch the Main Event, Tournament of Champions, and $50,000 Player’s Championship starting next month on ESPN.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest player signings.

Daniel Negreanu has called many places home. He set up shop in the Canadian pool halls in his youth. Then we saw him spend a lot of time at Bellagio. He called The Venetian home for a bit before signing on fulltime with PokerStars. Now, he’s such a fixture around the world’s biggest online poker site, he now has his own room.

If you take a peek in the PokerStars lobby, you will see Daniel’s Room, a brand new set of exclusive high-stakes cash game tables designed and endorsed by Team Pro Daniel Negreanu. Going forward, Daniel’s Room will be the place for PokerStars’ most elite high-stakes players. Also, we’re hearing that if you play well enough to catch Negreanu’s eye, you might just get a chance to sit down for an upcoming PokerStars TV show.

As of right now, No-Limit Hold’em games are available for six-handed play, a minimum buy-in of 100 big blinds, a maximum of 250 big blinds, and at the following limits.

Look for Daniel’s Room tables listed with a red DR symbol in the Hold’em –> No Limit/Pot Limit –> High section of the PokerStars lobby.

For more information, see the Daniel’s Room home page.