Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, you may have heard about their journeys towards the World Series of Poker Main Event Championship. They started at home behind an avatar at a PokerStars WSOP satellite, and ended at Benny's Bullpen in Downtown Las Vegas with bricks of hundred dollars bills raised above their heads.

The dream can start with just a few Frequent Players Points (FPPs) at PokerStars and end with a $12,000 package to start your journey towards the platnum bracelet and a spot on the wall of champions at Binion's.

With all the uncertainty surrounding the online game in the US, Lee Jones has announced at two plus two there will be satellites offered for this summer's World Series of Poker Main Event.

Here's one of Lee's statement from this thread at two plus two:

Hi folks -
Our customer service rep was a bit confused. We are definitely running satellites to the WSOP for all our customers, [1] and we plan to get them started before the end of this month.

Start hoarding your W$, the season is about to open.

Best regards,
Lee Jones

PokerStars Poker Room Manager

[1] "What's a WSOP without PokerStars satellites?"

and another quick statement from PokerStar's cardroom manager...

While things may be slightly different this year, [1] the above reference is a good starting place. We'll get the schedule out shortly, but it should look pretty darn similar to what you saw last year.

In answer to a couple of other questions:

What about satellites to events other than the $10K final?

We have traditionally limited our actual satellites to the main event because that's where the heavy media coverage is and (surprise) we want to get full branding value for our players there. If we send in the winner of the (e.g.) $10K PLO, it's like "Hmm, that's nice." If we send in the winner of the main event, it's like jackpot! However, we usually permit SilverStar and up players to enter televised preliminary events with W$ , and SuperNovas can use FPPs.

How are you going to buy us in?

The details are still being worked out (see footnote [1]). But we'll get something worked out and if you win a satellite, you will play in the 2007 WSOP main event.

For the guy who said he's never played a satellite before, well, I just have one warning: the first one, little boy, is free. Literally. You can use your FPPs and play a WSOP satellite for free. And if you win, you're going to the WSOP. We've had many people stay in Vegas for a week on our tab, and take home cash from the WSOP after putting up not a single dime of their own. But man, once you get a taste of WSOP satellites, it's hard to put them down. Consider the case of one Greg Raymer, who played and lost a whole bunch of WSOP satellites on PokerStars in 2004. Couldn't win a damn thing. Then finally played, and won, one final last-gasp double shootout - the very last one we ran in 2004. The rest, as the pundits love to say, is history.

On your marks, get set...

Best regards,
Lee Jones

PokerStars Poker Room Manager

[1] Like, what is not different from a year ago?