Poker Stars is holding both FPP qualifiers and freeroll qualifiers for entry into the Just For Laughs tournament. The freerolls run between June 23 and July 6 and the FPP qualifiers (costing 10 FPPs to enter) run from June 27 to July 4. All qualifiers start at 8 pm ET. Additional tickets into the tournament are being given out to all PokerStars players in Canada who either make their first real money deposit or a reload deposit of at leat $10 between June 23 and July 7.

The top 9 finishers in each Summer of Laughs Freeroll and the top 45 finishers in each Summer of Laughs FPP Qualifier advance to the Summer of Laughs Final Tournament, which takes place on Wednesday, July 7 at 7 pm ET. One Just For Laughs prize package will then be awarded to the winner, plus a $500 prize pool split amongst the top finishers.

Now Poker Stars will be the title sponsor and have exclusive in-show branding in any Season VII World Poker Tour event that is hosted by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, and is broadcast in Canada, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Such localized World Poker Tour broadcasts have already been done successfullyin the U.K., France, Macedonia, South Korea, and the Philippines.

PokerStars and the WPT are also helping each other to branch out further in Latin America, with Spanish and Portuguese language broadcasts to localized areas in Latin America.

This isn’t the first collaboration between Poker Stars and the World Poker Tour. Until the 2006 passage of the UIGEA, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was part of each year’s World Poker Tour Schedule.  Read more about the PokerStars WPT news here.

One of the main differences between these two great online poker series is the fact that the PokerStars WCOOP occurs only once per year, while Full Tilt usually offers up their FTOPS series a couple times per year.

Both online poker championships offer huge guaranteed tournaments.  The WCOOP in 2008 guaranteed $30 million in prize pool money.  The FTOPS series has anywhere from $15 million and more in guaranteed prize money per FTOPS series.  The May FTOPS series will feature $18 million in guarnanteed tournament prize money.

One of the great features of the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS is that each tournament is hosted by one of the many professional players who play at Full Tilt Poker.  Players include former online pro’s Jordan Morgan and Cole South as well as some of the most famous poker pro’s in the world Erick Lindgren and Howard Lederer to name a few.

Both online poker tournament series offer players many ways to get involved in each tournament.  Satellite tournaments run on both poker rooms in the weeks leading up to the tournament series and players can qualify for each tournament series via satellites as cheap as $2.

PokerStars WCOOP and Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS tournament series offer players a great way to get involved in large tournaments when they can’t make it to the largest tournaments of them all the World Series of Poker.

CLICK HERE to play in the next Full Tilt FTOPS XXII in May, 2009.  Use bonus code PAW114 to make sure you receive your full $600 bonus when signing up at Full Tilt.