2010 WCOOP Preview: Highlights from the 2002 and 2003 WCOOP
With the PokerStars 2010 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) set to begin on September 5, we decided to have a look back at the WCOOP from the start. Let's be honest, most of us didn't know what the WCOOP was back in 2002 before Chris Moneymaker changed poker as we know it. Since then, the WCOOP has become the cream of the crop when it comes to online poker tournament series. Even Phil Hellmuth has been in on the action in WCOOP series past, so lets go back to the beginning and see the highlights from when it started.
2002 WCOOP
9 Events
2452 - total entrants
$799,050 - total prize pool
Largest Cash - MultiMarene ($65,450)
Most Final Tables Made - Pete "The Beat" Giordano (3)
Giordano's three final tables were capped with a seventh-place finish in the $1,000 Championship No-Limit Hold'em event for $8,330. In addition, his final tables all came in consecutive days, helping to earn him the title of PokerStars' Best All Around Player of the series.
Notable Results
Dan "Lenny" Heimiller: Sixth place out of 135 entrants in a $500+$30 Limit Omaha H/L event for $3,375
Brock "t soprano" Parker: Third place out of 256 entrants in a $100+$9 Limit Hold'em Heads-Up Match Play event.
2003 WCOOP
11 Events
6796 Entrants
$2,716,100 - total prize pool
Largest Cash - Joseph "DeOhGee" Cordi ($222,750)
Most Final Tables Made Dave "El Blondie"Colclough and "Big Cy" (2)
Colclough's fourth-place finish in the $500 PLO and ninth-place finish in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event were good for $12,320 and $13,810.50, respectively. "Big Cy" took seventh place in a $500 Stud H/L for $4,952.50 and followed that up with a win in the $500 PLO for $38,500.
Most Notable Finish - Phil "#1_Lucky_One" Hellmuth: Seventh place out of 891 in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event for $30,294.
It isn't very often that we see the biggest names in poker grace us with their presence in one place on the virtual felt, but the WCOOP has not become the world’s premier online poker tournament series by accident. It attracts the best players in the world and the Championship Event in the 2003 WCOOP was no exception. The $891,000 prize pool was the largest ever at the time, and none other than Phil Hellmuth highlighted the final table, finishing in seventh place.
Other Notable Results
Pat "TorontoToro" Pezzin: Sixth place out of 1,301 entrants in a $100 Limit Hold'em event for $5,594.30.
Dan "Lenny" Heimiller: First place out of 368 entrants in a $300 PLO H/L event for $27,600.
Erik "Erik123" Sagström: First place out of 1,358 entrants in a $300 No-Limit Hold'em event for $101,850.
Gavin "birdguts" Smith: Sixth place out of 318 entrants in a $500 Omaha H/L for $7,155.
Brett "get crunk" Richey: Fifth place out of 636 in a $500 Limit Hold'em event for $17,215
For full details on the 2010 WCOOP schedule, check out our 2010 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Page.
There is still time to qualify for our exclusive $10,000 WCOOP Freeroll on PokerStars, where one lucky player will walk away with a $5,200 WCOOP Main Event seat and a further 23 players will win $215 WCOOP tickets.
