The 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) begins on September 3rd. Mac poker players are encouraged to download the OS X native client from the PokerStars website, which is fully compatible with both the Leopard and Snow Leopard operating systems. The WCOOP is a collection of 45 online poker tournaments with over $40 million in guaranteed prize money.
The first event that kicked off the 2008 WCOOP was the Six-Max No Limit Hold’em event won by “shane147,” who took down $200,856 for first place. Other huge events included the High-Roller No Limit Hold’em event won by “dorinvandy” for $617,925, the High-Roller Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em event won by “stevesbets” for $560,000, and the Main Event won by “ckingusc” for $1,265,432.
Even with his amazing $1.26 million score in the WCOOP, King is not the top all-time money winner in WCOOP history. That distinction belongs to “ka$ino,” who has won $1.379 million, which is just $1,000 more than the player in second place, “liberace.” Many people forget that Team PokerStars Pro member Vanessa Rousso ranks fifth all-time in WCOOP money with $880,295. Rousso’s second largest career score was in the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event in 2007 for $700,782.
This year’s WCOOP kicks off with a $215 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em event with a $1.25 million guarantee. On the same day, a $215 Razz event with a $200,000 guarantee will take place two hours later. The first weekend of the WCOOP will feature several huge events with six- and seven-figure prize pools. On September 4th is a Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max event with a $215 buy-in and on the 6th is the $109 No Limit Hold’em event with a $1 million prize pool.
Sunday also has $109 No Limit Hold’em event with another $1 million prize pool, with a $215 No Limit Hold’em event taking place the next day. Sunday will also feature two mega-tournaments, the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em High Roller event with a prize pool of $2 million and a $530 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day tournament that has a mind-boggling $3 million guarantee.
Other tournaments that have guaranteed prize pools of a half-million dollars or more include the September 7th $215 No Limit Hold’em Four-Max event, the September 8th $320 No Limit Hold’em event, the September 9th $530 No Limit Hold’em Triple Shootout (10-max), and the September 11th $215 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys.
There are plenty of events that have a $1 million prize pool to participate in, including the September 17th $530 No Limit Hold’em Rebuy, the September 18th $530 No Limit Holdem Cubed, the September 20th $215 No Limit Hold’em, the $10,300 HORSE High Roller, and the $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day event starting on September 13th, which has a $3 million prize pool.
The 2009 WCOOP concludes with the $5,200 Main Event, which will be played over the course of two days. This event will feature one of the largest guarantees in the history of poker at $10 million. PokerStars has capped the number of entrants at 4,000, which would make for a $20 million prize pool should it sell out.
For players who don’t wish to pay the buy-ins to many of these events, but still want to participate, there is an extensive set of satellites available to each one of the WCOOP events. For example, there are ongoing $8.80 rebuy turbo tournaments to Event 1 and FPP buy-in satellites to the $215 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max event.
Over $100 million has been awarded in 121 events in WCOOP history. This year’s 45 event tournament series promises to be the biggest yet. Visit PokerStars for details.
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