BY TOM SOMACH

The chance to be the next Chris Moneymaker or Greg “Fossilman” Raymer is officially up for grabs as pre-registration has begun for the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP).

The WSOP, of course, is best known for its main event–the $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament–which Moneymaker won in 2003 and Raymer won in 2004.

That tourney, however, is just one of 55 separate tournaments that will make up the 2007 WSOP.

So if hold ‘em’s not your game, you can always try your luck at Omaha, HORSE, stud or any of the other poker variations that will have a tournament presence at the next WSOP, which begins June 1 at the Rio casino in Las Vegas.

And if 10 grand is too rich for your blood, don’t fret–buy-ins for some ‘07 WSOP events are as small as $1,000 (though some are as high as $50,000).

In conjunction with the start of WSOP pre-registration, WSOP officials have announced a change in policy regarding what WSOP participants can wear.

Because of the unclear legal status of online poker in the U.S., at last year’s WSOP, participants were not allowed to wear any sponsorship logos on their clothing for any online poker rooms that allowed real-money play (rooms with a .com URL).

Participants were permitted, however, to wear the logos of online poker rooms that only allowed for-fun play (rooms with a .net URL).

This led to the bizarre scene before the last WSOP began of players rushing around looking for tape to, for example, cover up part of a pokerstars.com logo and make it into a pokerstars.net logo.

At this year’s WSOP, logos for poker rooms with .com URLs will be allowed, if those online rooms do not service the U.S. market.

So under the new rules, logos for rooms such as partypoker.com or mansionpoker.com will be allowed, while logos for rooms such as pokerstars.com or fulltiltpoker.com will not.

“In recognition of the endorsement agreements that provide income to many poker players, we’ve liberalized our policy to allow tournament entrants to wear apparel with multiple logos and patches,” said WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

“There are some reasonable restrictions on what is permissible, but this is definitely a far more liberal, accommodating and player-friendly policy,” he said. “We encourage all players and their sponsors to review the rules well in advance of the tournament.”

For more information about 2007 WSOP pre-registration or WSOP rules, visit the WSOP website at www.worldseriesofpoker.com.