By Rocco Havel | July 4, 2009

It was announced today that the two top online poker tournament schedules in existence – PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and Full Tilt Poker’s Online Poker Series (FTOPS) – will be running their events in consecutive months, offering online tournament players the opportunity to gain prestige in the online poker world.

Both tournament schedules have found their niche in the online poker world. The WCOOP is recognized as the online equivalent of the World Series of Poker; in a special touch, PokerStars gives champions of each event a WCOOP bracelet, much like the WSOP. The FTOPS, while not offering the guaranteed money that the WCOOP does, has still worked its way into contention for one of the top online tournament schedules around.

Running from August 5th through August 18th, Full Tilt Poker will begin the thirteenth edition of what has become one of their signature events. Twenty six events make up the schedule and $16 million in guaranteed money are on the line. Each tournament will have one of the professional players from the Full Tilt stable an official “host” and, as usual for the FTOPS, should draw plenty of top professionals (both online and live) to take part in the tournament schedule.

Buy ins for the FTOPS tournaments range from $100 for some rebuy events to the $500 Championship Event with a guaranteed prize pool of $2.5 million. Satellite tournaments are being offered throughout the month of July, which will give many players the opportunity to get into the FTOPS events on the cheap. For a full look at the schedule of the FTOPS XIII, visit Full Tilt Poker to learn more.

Immediately following the close of the FTOPS, PokerStars will be back with the ninth running of the WCOOP. Easily the largest online poker tournament schedule in the industry, the WCOOP will offer a total of 45 tournaments with over $40 million in guaranteed prize pools. The tentative schedule for the WCOOP was leaked by PokerStars in June and, after receiving comments from the site’s players, the schedule was announced today.

Beginning on September 3rd and running through September 20th, the WCOOP will test the skills of its participants. Every discipline in poker will be tested during the 45 tournaments that range in buy in from $100 for popular events through a $5000 buy in to the Main Event, and up to a $10,000 entry fee for the “High Rollers” tournament. Satellites for the WCOOP are also running over the next few months and the full schedule of the WCOOP can be found at PokerStars.

As you can see, even though the WSOP ends later this month, the online poker world will pick up its action with both the WCOOP and the FTOPS XIII as the fall months approach.

Related posts:

1. FTOPS XIII Off And Running; Championship Event Begins August 15th
   The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is off and running with its thirteenth version, with three tournaments completed and...
2. FTOPS IV Wraps Up this Weekend
   The fourth edition of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series is already underway, but there is still time to get...
3. WCOOP Offers $40 Million Guaranteed Prize Pool
   Last year the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) on PokerStars doled out just short of $40 million in prize...
4. PokerStars Offers “Extreme” Route To 2009 WCOOP
   With the 2009 World Championship of Online Poker slightly more than a month away (the first event is September 5th),...
5. FTOPS VII on the Way
   It looks like the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is becoming a quarterly event.November saw the sixth installment of...