PokerStars WCOOP

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) was established in 2002 and is widely considered one of the largest and most prestigious online poker tournament series.

Established in 2002, with just nine events, the 2021 edition features 306 events spread across Low, Medium and High buy-in levels.

Some of the best poker players in the world have won WCOOP titles, with former WCOOP Main Event winners going on to become some of the biggest names in poker, including J.C. "area23JC" Tran, Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko and Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz.

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Finished Tournaments

Winner Winning Hand Prize Runner-up Losing Hand
2024 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker

WCOOP Events

When the WCOOP was launched, there was originally one tier of buy-in. At the very first WCOOP the buy-ins ranges from $109 to $1,050.

By 2016, the largest buy-in event was $102,000 - the very first six-figure online buy-in tournament. The event was won by Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle for $1,172,361.

The following year, WCOOP introduced a second tier of buy-ins. While the High events continued to have buy-ins ranging from $1,050 to $10,300, the low tier had buy-ins from $11 to $1,050.

In 2018, the WCOOP expanded to the three tier format it retains to this day: the Low tier ($2.20-$215), Medium ($55-$2,100) and High ( $215-$10,300) tiers.

Year# of Events
20029
200311
200412
200515
200618
200723
200833
200945
201062
201162
201265
201366
201466
201570
201682
201782
201862
201973
2020102

WCOOP Games

Every year, the WCOOP schedule features hundreds of events for various poker games. Although predominantly No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha, the WCOOP schedule often features several mixed games.

YearEvents Added
2002Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo
2003Seven Card Stud, Stud Hi-Lo
2006Razz, HORSE
20075-Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw
20088-Game, 2-7 Single Draw
2009Badugi
2019Short Deck

WCOOP NLHE Main Event-H Winners (2002-19)

YearBuy-inPlayerCountryPrizeEntriesPrize Pool
2002$1,050MultiMarineSweden$65,450238$238,000
2003$1,050Joseph "DeOhGee" CordiUnited States$222,750891$891,000
2004$2,600Edgar "Ragde" SkjervoldNorway$424,945843$2,104,500
2005$2,600Jordan "Panella86" BerkowitzUnited States$577,3421,494$3,735,000
2006$2,600J.C. "area23JC" TranUnited States$670,1942,510$6,275,000
2007$2,600Kyle "ka$ino1" SchroederUnited States$1,378,3312,998$7,495,000
2008$5,200Carter "ckingusc" KingUnited States$1,265,4322,185$10,925,000
2009$5,200Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" TimoshenkoUnited States$1,715,2002,144$10,720,000
2010$5,200Tyson "POTTERPOKER" MarksUnited States$2,278,0982,443$12,215,000
2011$5,200Thomas "Kallllle" PedersenDenmark$1,260,0191,627$8,135,000
2012$5,200Marat "maratik" SharafutdinovRussia$1,000,9071,825$9,125,000
2013$5,200David "PlayinWasted" KaufmannGermany$1,493,4992,133$10,665,000
2014$5,200Fedor "CrownUpGuy" HolzAustria$1,300,000*2,142$10,710,000
2015$5,200Kristof "Coenaldinho7" CoenenBelgium$1,300,000*1,995$10,000,000
2016$5,000Jonas "llJaYJaYll" LauckGermany$1,517,5412,091$10,052,880
2017$5,200Steven "SvZff" van ZadelhoffNetherlands$1,624,5022,183$10,915,000
2018$5,200Ezequiel Waigel**Argentina$1,529,000 2,044
2019$5,200BigBlindBetsUnited Kingdom$1,665,9622,236$11,180,000
2020$5,200Andre "PTFisherman23" MarquesPortugual$1,147,271*1,977$10,000,000

*denotes deal

**in 2020 it was discovered that original champion "wann2play" had their account frozen, with 2018 WCOOP winnings redistributed. Runner-up Ezequiel Waigel was awarded the win instead.

WCOOP Player of the Series

YearPlayerCountry
2009Dan "djk123" KellyUnited States
2010James "Andy McLEOD" ObstAustralia
2011Joel Adam "2FLY2TILT" GordonSpain
2012Mikal "mikal12345" BlomlieNorway
2013Yngve "Skyoen" SteenNorway
2014Alan "Mr Negreanu" GoldUnited Kingdom
2015Shaun "shaundeeb" DeebMexico
2016Fabrizio "SixthSenSe19" GonzalezUruguay
2017Maksim "ImluckNuts" PisarenkoRussia
2018Denis "aDrENalin710" StrebnkovRussia
2019Jussi "calvin7v" NevanlinnaFinland
2020Rinat "Zapahzamazki" LyapinRussia