Everest Poker is celebrating a record number of entrants during the first year of its sponsorship of the Annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

This year’s World Series of Poker event saw a record breaking 58,720 people participate in the richest WSOP in history, with a prize pool reaching $180,676,248, making the Everest Poker sponsored WSOP the richest event in all of sports.

The deal between Everest Poker and Harrah’s helped the WSOP to attract a record number of non-American players by associating itself with a prominent European poker room. Players from 24 European countries attended this year’s event and Everest Poker provided its largely European player base with satellites to 28 side events and seats to the Main Event. There was a 36% increase year on year of the number of the number of countries participating and for the first time ever, four of the nine players in the Final Table of the WSOP are from outside the U.S.

A record 130 Everest Poker players attended the WSOP this year with four of them hitting the money. Voitto Rintalla, a rock star from Finland and Team Everest member, made the final table of Event 39 and took $57,000 back to Scandinavia. Daan Slutter, from Enchlade in Holland, managed to cash twice making the last 600 of the 6,800 entrants for the Main Event and taking home $31,000. Wooka Kim, Team Everest’s Japanese player also made the money at the Main Event coming 530th and winning $25,000.

The star of the Everest Poker players was Frenchman Sylvain Coeur who made it all the way to 140th in the Main Event, his first ever live tournament which he qualified for at the Everest and cashed in $41,816.

Everest Poker is now building-up to the Finale of the WSOP which takes place on November 9th, and will be broadcast on ESPN to reach an estimated global audience of 370 million worldwide. Everest Poker’s logo will appear on the inner rung of the WSOP feature table during all broadcasting, a first for a WSOP sponsor.

Play for a share of the more than $1 million in guaranteed prize pools on Big Money Sundays by competing in three great events at Full Tilt.

Satellites your way in to all of the FullTilt Sunday events – and our other popular Guarantee tourneys with qualifiers running now starting for just $2 + $.25 or 50 Full Tilt Points.

The Sunday Brawl – The fighting begins at 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT) playing for Knockout Bounties and a share of $100K in guaranteed prize money.

Buy-in to the Sunday Brawl for $240 + $16 and find out if you have what it takes to fight your way to become the champ. $200 from the buy-in goes to the $250K guaranteed prize pool and $40 goes to the Knockout Bounty pool. When you take out another player of the tournament their $40 will be instantly deposited into your Full Tilt account. You can also keep track of your Knockout totals in the Sunday Brawl Leaderboards.

The $750K Guaranteed – Take a seat in FullTilt’s biggest weekly guarantee tournament starting at 18:00 ET (23:00 GMT)

Buy-in direct for the 750k tournament for $216. Or qualify via satellites starting for as little as $2 + $.25. You could also win your way in using just 300 Full Tilt Poker points. What’s more, if you continue to play in our satellite tournaments after winning a seat at our $750K Guarantee tournament, Fulltilt will credit your account with 216 T$ if you win again.

Win your way to the game via as many satellites as you can to playing in the $750K Guarantee Satellite Challenge where 1st place gets $400 and 2nd place gets $200.

One Sunday every month the $750K Sunday Guarantee will be replaced by the $500+$35 $1 million Monthly Guarantee.

The Sunday Mulligan – Tee it up one last time in the popular $150K Guarantee at 19:05 ET (00:05 GMT).

Second chances don’t come around often, unless you play at Full Tilt Poker. If You’ve missed the $750K Sunday Guarantee or get knocked out early, take a do-over and play in the Sunday Mulligan at 19:05 ET every Sunday. For $200 + $16, take a second chance to end your Sunday on a winning note.

The 7th Annual PokerStars.com World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) starts on September 5th with a guaranteed prize pool of $30 million – That’s double the guarantee of last year’s series. The WCOOP is a truly world championship series featuring a schedule of 33 different online poker events in total, covering a wide range of games including Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, Razz, HORSE, 2-7 Draw and several new events at PokerStars including:

· $10,300 High-Roller No-Limit Hold’em

· Eight-Game Mixed Tourney

· Four-Max No-Limit Hold’em

· Mixed Hold’em

· Pot Limit Omaha with one rebuy, one add-on

· $25,500 High-Roller Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em

· Six-Max Mixed Hold’em

· No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw

· Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em w/ rebuys

The 2008 WCOOP is the biggest online poker tournament series in the world, attracting players from around the world – all competing for the coveted WCOOP championship gold bracelets and millions in cash prizes. Each PokerStars event has a guaranteed prize pool, with many having a prize pool in excess of $2 million. Those making it into the money of this year’s Main Event will share in a prize pool guaranteed to be at least $10 million.

“This year’s WCOOP is set to be bigger and better than ever,” said Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. “When playing online, you really have to focus more on playing the game well. Playing in the WCOOP has definitely helped me become a better player.”

Hosted by PokerStars.com, the world’s largest poker room, the WCOOP will run over 16 days, from September 5-22, starting with Event 1, a $215 buy-in Short-handed (6-max) No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000. Last year the WCOOP attracted more than 17,000 players in 23 events. With this year’s WCOOP growing to 33 events, PokerStars predicts a record number of people will be playing in the World Championship event. The series culminates with the $10 million guaranteed No Limit Texas Hold’em Main Event on September 21-22.

The WCOOP is popular with both the established and the up-and-coming poker player. PokerStars satellites to the major events are available with buy-ins starting as low as $2.20 and Frequent Player Point satellites from just 100 FPPs. As a bonus to loyal players, PokerStars will also be investing $1.5 million toward free entries.