With greater than 35,000 entries into the PokerStars Americas Cup of Poker, the pre-event favorites have pulled out to a commanding lead.

As you've likely heard, the Americas Cup is pitting people from far and wide North and South America against one another in a battle for bragging rights and large money on the end of the arena. At stake, an opportunity on the live final within the Patagonia region of Argentina and a heck of a ski trip in September.

A snow boarder at the slopes in Argentina -- Photo by Palmiro Bedeschi

After one round of play, several of the divisions have seen serious blow outs. In Group A, the us and Mexico have crushed Equador and preliminary qualifier Guatemala 8-0 in early action. Canada and Colombia have done the similar thing to Uruguay and Panama in Group B. In Group D, Argentina (host of the live final) and Brazil skunked Paraguay and Honduras.

It's only in Group C where things have stayed exceptionally tight. All four countries are still well within sight of creating live final. As of right now, here's how the teams win/loss records look.

Costa Rica (6 - 2)Chile (4 - 4)Venezuela (4 - 4)Peru (2 - 6)

The top two teams in each group can be headed to the live final. This week, PokerStars announced that every one teams that finish in third place gets an opportunity to play for the $10,000 ninth place playoff. That suggests that even those teams that did not fare well within the early going still have a reason to fight.

To see the entire results so far, take a look at the Americas Cup results page.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Americas Cup]