World Championship of Online Poker

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is an online poker tournament series sponsored by PokerStars.

Established in 2002 as the online equivalent of the World Series of Poker, the WCOOP tournament series is the largest of its kind on the Internet. [ [http://online.casinocity.com/news/news.cfm?ArticleId=69609 Casino City] ] [ [http://poker.about.com/b/a/200388.htm About.com] ]

The fifteen WCOOP events in 2005 generated $12,783,900 in prize money, making it not only the biggest ever online poker event, but the third biggest poker series (live or online) in all of 2005.

Keeping with the tradition of the World Series of Poker, the WCOOP is a series of tournaments in which players compete in a variety of different poker games. The games featured are Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, Pot Limit Omaha High and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, and HORSE. In 2007, 5 Card Draw and 2-7 Triple draw were added. The main event is No Limit Hold'em.

In addition to the cash prize, the winner of each WCOOP event receives a personally engraved 14 karat gold bracelet from PokerStars.

2002 Events

The 2002 World Championship of Online Poker consisted of nine events with over $730,000 in combined prizes. The events, buy in and winners are listed below.

2005 Events

The 2005 World Championship of Online Poker consisted of 15 events with a total prize pool of over $12 Million. The events, buy in and winners are listed below.

¹"Original winner, TheV0id, disqualified." [ [http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/10/WCOOP-main-event-winner-disqualified.htm WCOOP Main Event Winner Disqualified After Lengthy Investigation] ]

2008 Events

There will be 33 events played in the September 2008 WCOOP. [ [http://www.pokerverdict.com/Poker-News/Online-Poker-News/85215/wcoop_2008_tournament_schedule.html 2008 WCOOP Schedule] ]

Each day will have two events. The first event listed will start at 14:30 (U.S. Eastern Time) and the second event will start at 16:30. The Main Event (Event 33) will begin at 16:30.

First-prize listings in "italics" are tentative and based solely on the size of the tournament field and prize pool. Each first prize is subject to change via final-table chop deals in each tournament.

¹"Holds the record for the largest WCOOP field ever. ² "the player known as "liberace" who was the runner-up of the $5,200 No-Limit Hold'em Main Even, won more than the winner due to an earlier chop while five handed of $1,375,249"

WCOOP Main Event Winners

* 2002: MultiMarine (Täby, Sweden) - $65,450.00
* 2003: DeOhGee (Indian Wells, California , USA) - $222,750.00
* 2004: Ragde (Oslo, Norway) - $424,945.26
* 2005: Panella86 (Eddystone, Pennsylvania, USA) - $577,342.00
* 2006: area23JC (Sacramento, California, USA) - $670,194.00 [ [http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_news/article/3249 Cardplayer] ]
* 2007: ka$ino (Omaha, Nebraska)- $1,378,330.50
* 2008: ckingusc (Columbia, South Carolina, USA) - $1,265,432.00

WCOOP Bracelet Winners by Country

Below is a breakdown of the login countries of all bracelet winners in the history of the WCOOP:

# USA - 78
# Sweden - 12
# Canada - 9
# Norway - 4
# Denmark - 3
# Netherlands - 3
# Austria - 2
# Germany - 2
# Australia - 1
# Finland - 1
# France - 1
# Hungary - 1
# Israel - 1
# Republic of Ireland - 1
# United Kingdom - 1

References

ee also

*World Cup of Poker
*Full Tilt Online Poker Series

External links

* [http://www.pokerstars.com/wcoop/ Official site]
* [http://www.pokerstars.tv/pokerstars/channels/34509.html Pokerstars.tv live WCOOP broadcasts]
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/13/entertainment/main708860.shtml CBS News] Story about a group of friends who played on one account together in the WCOOP and made decisions jointly.