The success of last year’s World Team Poker seems to have encouraged the officials of the tournament to expand as they have just added 19 countries to the lineup. Now, there will be 30 teams vying for the prize as well as the prestige of bringing home the title to their home country.

An International Event

Last year, it was Team China that eventually won the cup for World Team Poker.  But the time for them to relinquish the crown and pass it on to someone else has finally come, and it seems as if there will now be more countries vying for the first place. The nineteen new countries that will join include: Canada, Pakistan, Caribbean Islands, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Sweden, Austria, Germany, France, India, Philippines, Iran, Korea, Italy, Russia, Spain, Wales, Ireland, and Ukraine.  Among the team captains of these countries are some of the world’s best known pros like Antonio Esfandiari, Greg Mueller, and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka – and that’s just the team captains.

The poker pros within the teams themselves are also pretty formidable.  There are members of the Poker Hall of Fame and WSOP bracelet winners among them. It’s practically an all star cast, a clash between the best of the best. Add these new teams to the existing mix of world-renowned poker teams and we have a truly promising season ahead of us.

As usual, though, a lot of the attention was focused on Team USA. Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Annie Duke, Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel and Chris Ferguson are this year’s members. They’re all famous throughout the whole world, so everybody’s eyes are on them, especially since a lot of them are pretty high profile.

The Tournament

This tournament will take place next month in Las Vegas. The specifics have not yet been announced and no exact date or location has been determined. Last year, the event was held at the Golden Nugget Casino in Downtown Vegas and it was won by Team China, lead by poker pro and 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan. This year, the tournament is going to get more publicity than the last because the show will be aired on Fox Sports Net every Sunday for 13 weeks on January. Perhaps, next year, even more new countries will join the fun, making the mix even more interesting.