The latest instalment of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker started yesterday on the virtual felts of PokerStars as thousands converged to play for the three bracelets on offer yesterday. The Series kicked off for the online poker community with a $200 No Limit Hold’em Six max event with a guaranteed prize pool of $1,250,000.

The PokerStars WCOOP features 62 events over the course of twenty three days of September. With three events on most days all with hugely varying buy-ins there is a tournament for any aspiring poker player. The first three tournaments which started yesterday have all surpassed the guaranteed prize pool and with so much interest in the series we aren’t expecting any overlays.

The World Championship of Online Poker has been running at PokerStars since 2002 and has set some huge records with $150,000,000 in prize money awarded to players from all over the world over the course of the 166 events so far. The US dominates the number of bracelets won but surprisingly it is Austrian, “copi”, who has the most number of cashes in WCOOP events.

This year there is a guaranteed $50,000,000 up for grabs but with the turnout expected we wouldn’t be surprised to see $70m awarded over the course of the 62 tournaments. Last time out online poker pro Yevgeniy Timoshenko captured the Main Event to add $1,729,509 to his live winnings. Timoshenko has proved himself as a world class poker player over the last few years picking up the Season 7 World Poker Tour Championship in 2009 as well as seven cashes at the World Series of Poker.

Heading into this year’s event the United States has an historical dominance over these tournaments having won 103 of the 166 bracelets that have been up for grabs over the last nine years. Sweden are in second place with 14 bracelets with Canada in the top three with 11. Five players have won multiple bracelets including Daniel Kelly and Bertrand Grospellier.

For those wanting to take part in the biggest online poker championship will need to have an account at PokerStars. If you don’t have an account then sign up clicking here: PokerStars .