The World Championship of Online Poker is a premier series of tournaments held every year on Poker Stars. This years edition is already underway culminating in event #66 starting on September 29th. The main event cost $5,200 to enter. The game is No Limit Hold’em. An eight million dollar prize pool with a $1.25 million prize guaranteed to the first place finisher.
The entire series lasts for almost a month. The cost of entry can range anywhere from the one hundred dollars to upwards of $10,000. A variety of disciplines and formats are spread. Omaha, stud, mixed games, and of course no limit hold’em are just a few of the variants featured. Reputations are made when a player wins a WCOOP event. The accomplishment is immortalized in the signature bracelet that is awarded for first place in each event.
2013’s First Dual Bracelet Winner
This editions first double bracelet winner was Russia’s Yoo4. A pot limit omaha tournament which was event #16 was the first score he took down. On his march to victory, he eliminated the ever popular dutch player Marcel Luske. This was Yoo4’s first bracelet win in his career.
Imagine his chagrin when he scored a second title later on in the series. Event #35 was a rebuy omaha tournament. What happened at the final table rarely occurs online these days. Yoo4 took less than a half hour in the complete dismemberment of the final table. The doors were blown off of the car via the sheer domination shown in capturing a second bracelet.
High Roller event #23
The highest single entry fee to an event eclipsed over $10,000. Coupled with this is the factor that any player could rebuy before a certain level resulted in only the elite entering this event. The guaranteed prize pool was once again shattered as 276 entries/reentries choose to participate. In the end, there was a two player deal that resulted in a near split of first and second place prizes. With the bracelet still at stake, Germany’s MauriceSch took down the final eight handed table for over $533,000.
There is still time for anyone to pony up and enter the upcoming WCOOP main event. Skill and the buy in are all that separates the entrant from the likes of past main event winners like Yevgeniy Timoshenko and other online poker legends.