PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Begins Sunday
The 2013 World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) kicks off on Sunday at PokerStars. WCOOP is the world’s premier online poker festival, and this year's edition promises to be the biggest and best yet. Running from Sept. 8 through Sept. 29, the 2013 WCOOP features 66 events and guarantees to award no less than $40 million in cash prizes. Last year’s WCOOP offered a similar guaranteed prize pool and ended up paying a staggering $55,522,590 instead!
The full 2013 WCOOP schedule can be found here.
Although each of the WCOOP events pay out a huge sum of money, it is the Main Event that everyone wants to win. This year's two-day $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event begins on Sept. 29, and features an $8 million guarantee — $3 million more than last year. The first-place prize of the WCOOP Main Event will be at least $1.25 million.
Past winners of the Main Event include JC Tran, Carter King, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Tyson Marks, Thomas Pedersen, and who could forget last year’s champion Marat “maratik” Sharafutdinov, who famously said, “I WONT MILLION” during the final table deal negotiations.
Along with the WCOOP bracelets, PokerStars awards prizes to the top performers in the series. The top prize on this year’s leader board is a trophy, a 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure package, and 2014 Turbo Championship of Online Poker, Spring Championship of Online Poker, and WCOOP Main Event tickets, with a combined value of more than $33,000. The other players in the top 10 will receive TCOOP, SCOOP, and WCOOP tickets depending upon their specific finishing position.
To help boost your WCOOP excitement, we've put together some facts, figures and statistics to whet your whistle with! Enjoy.
Past WCOOP Main Event Champions
| Year | Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool | Winner Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | $1,050 | 238 | $238,000 | MultiMarine |
| 2003 | $1,050 | 891 | $891,000 | Joseph “DeOhGee” Cordi |
| 2004 | $2,600 | 843 | $2,104,500 | Edgar “Ragde” Skjervold |
| 2005 | $2,600 | 1,494 | $3,735,000 | Jordan “Panella86” Berkowitz |
| 2006 | $2,600 | 2,510 | $6,275,000 | JC “area23JC” Tran |
| 2007 | $2,600 | 2,998 | $7,495,000 | Kyle “ka$ino” Schroeder |
| 2008 | $5,200 | 2,185 | $10,925,000 | Carter “ckingusc” King |
| 2009 | $5,200 | 2,144 | $10,720,000 | Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko |
| 2010 | $5,200 | 2,443 | $12,215,000 | Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks |
| 2011 | $5,200 | 1,627 | $8,135,000 | Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen |
| 2012 | $5,200 | 1,825 | $9,125,000 | Marat “maratik” Sharafutdinov |
Multiple WCOOP Bracelet Winners
| Player | WCOOP Bracelets |
|---|---|
| Dan “djk123” Kelly | 4 |
| Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo | 3 |
| Anders “Donald” Berg | 3 |
| spawng | 2 |
| Kyle “kwob20” Bowker | 2 |
| Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier | 2 |
| spencerman3 | 2 |
| Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb | 2 |
| Jaime “Xaston” Kaplan | 2 |
| Joel Adam “2FLY2TILT” Gordon | 2 |
| Bryan “Brryann” Ruiter | 2 |
| Quentin “MiPwnYa” Lae | 2 |
| George “GeorgeDanzer” Danzer | 2 |
| Eugene “E. Katchalov” Katchalov* | 2 |
| mikal12345 | 2 |
| Ti0373 | 2 |
| Jason “JasonMercier” Mercier | 2 |
| Darreta | 2 |
*Eugene Katchalov won one WCOOP bracelet playing as MyRabbiFoo before he became a Team PokerStars Pro.
Most WCOOP Final Tables
| Player | WCOOP Final Tables |
|---|---|
| James "Andy McLEOD" Obst | 8 |
| Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier | 8 |
| Steve "Rabscuttle" Cowley | 8 |
| Dan "djk123" Kelly | 7 |
| Anders "Donald" Berg | 7 |
| Thor "osten" Hansen | 7 |
| Joel Adam "2FLY2TILT" Gordon | 6 |
| Sergey "gipsy74" Rybachenko | 5 |
| Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn | 5 |
| Dan "Lenny" Heimiller | 5 |
| MOJOEX1 | 5 |
| Ti0373 | 5 |
Most WCOOP Cashes
| Player | WCOOP Cashes |
|---|---|
| Jon "PearlJammer" Turner | 59 |
| Thor "osten" Hansen | 46 |
| Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier | 43 |
| George "Jorj95" Lind | 41 |
| James "Andy McLEOD" Obst | 40 |
| Anders "Donald" Berg | 39 |
| Kevin "ImaLuckSac" MacPhee | 39 |
| Jon "LUFCBas" Spinks | 39 |
| Dylan "ImaLucSac" Linde | 38 |
| Steve "Rabscuttle" Cowley | 36 |
| Ami "UhhMee" Barer | 36 |
| villepn | 36 |
You can get in on the WCOOP action only at PokerStars. For new customers who download PokerStars via PokerNews, enter the marketing code POKERNEWS.COM and the bonus code STARS600 to receive a 100% match up to $600 first deposit bonus. In addition, customers who sign up to PokerStars via PokerNews will be able to compete in all future promotions PokerNews and PokerStars hold together.
There is currently a reload bonus available, but for a limited time. Enter the bonus code "WCOOP" when making a reload before 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 6 and PokerStars will match your deposit amount by 25% up to $150. Players must earn 20VPPs per $1 of bonus and have 30 days in which to clear as much of the bonus as they can.
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