The World Championship of Online Poker, also frequently known as the WCOP, is an online poker tournament which is sponsored by PokerStars; one of the most popular online gaming sites. The tournament was established in 2002 to act as an online equivalent of the highly publicized World Series of Poker. Today, the WCOOP is the largest tournament of its kind on the Internet.

World Championship Of Online Poker History

In 2005, there were fifteen WCOOP events; the total of which generated $12,783,900 in prize money. This made the 2005 WCOOP the largest online poker event in history. It was also the third largest poker series in all of 2005; both online and live.

Since the WCOOP was designed to act as an equivalent of the World Series of Poker, the tournament follows the tradition of the WSOP where a series of tournaments are held in which players compete throughout a variety of different poker games. Featured games include Seven card Stud, No Limit Texas Hold’em, Limit, Pot Limit, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, Pot Limit Omaha High, Razz, Horse and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. The main event; however, is No Limit Hold’em.

The first winner of the WCOOP was MultiMarine of Sweden, who managed to win $65,450 in the main event. The following year, DeOhGee won a whopping $222,750 in the main event. In 2004, Ragde brought home an amazing $424,945 in a championship win while the 2005 winner, Panella86, won a cool $577,342. Pro player J.C. Tran won the 2006 WCOOP event, beating out 2,510 other players, to pocket more than $600,000. Each year the WCOOP has become more and more popular and as a result each event grows larger, offering even more prize money.

Play in the WCOOP at Poker Stars.com

Today players from around the world compete for the coveted WCOOP gold bracelet and the massive cash prize that goes along with it. Anyone with an account in good standing at PokerStars is eligible to enter the WCOOP. Options for entering include a direct buy-in as well as winning a satellite. Players may also get in the game free by earning Frequent Player Points through the PokerStars VIP Club program. PokerStars currently puts up $1.5 million toward free entries for frequent players earning points through the VIP Club program.

Poker Stars WCOOP 2007

The 2007 Poker Stars WCOOP was played in September and had 23 events. The main event was a no limit hold-em game that was held on Sep 30 16:30 ET and had an astounding $5 million dollars guaranteed. Close to three thousands players played (2998) in the tournament that lasted nearly 24 hours. The winner of the tournament was TheV0id but he ended up being disqualified after an investigation by poker stars turned up that used multiple accounts during the tournament. This then moved up everyone one place in the standings and the new winner was ka$ino from the US and the poker player won $1,378,330.50!

Poker Stars WCOOP 2008

The Poker Stars WCOOP tournament will likely be held in September 2008. The schedule has not been released but come back soon as we will have all the details on the events, how to qualify and the many satellites where you can win your way into the 2008 WCOOP.

Poker Stars.com WCOOP Prizes

The winner of the WCOOP event receives a substantial cash prize along with a personally engraved 14 karat gold bracelet, similar to the bracelet issued to the winner of the World Series of Poker.