Final 8 online player teams decided

The World Cup of Poker organised by Poker Stars.com is nearing its grand finale, with eight 4-man international teams left in the hunt from team entries that totalled some 75 000 players.

The eight teams will travel all expenses paid to Barcelona at the beginning of September this year to contest the semi finals of the Poker Stars World Cup of Poker and a crack at the $250 000 prize.

The eight winning teams managed to prevail against 49 competing teams drawn from online qualifying games on the giant website over the past few weeks. This week it took 13 hours of play and an extra two-team playoff to whittle the field down to the eight semi finalist teams, who will compete against each other in Barcelona between 4th and 7th September.

The top four teams from that confrontation will play a final four-handed, tag-team tournament to determine the World Cup of Poker IV Champions.

The eight winning semi finalist teams reflect the international nature of Poker Stars with USA National Team 1; Canada Province Team 1 (Newfoundland); Bayern - Province Team 3 from Germany; Team Ireland; Team Iceland; Team Portugal; Team Hungary and Team Mexico.