I always hated September as a kid.
The return to school.
Seriously, the eight-week summer holiday was better than Christmas, Dungeons and Dragons, and Bros rolled into one.
If only online poker existed back then.
I would have loved September.
PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) owns September, and as you would expect, this year, the plan is to make it better than your mother’s macaroni cheese.
Up to 15 tournaments, daily.
Six Platinum Passes await.
Three tiered buy-ins, alas SCOOP, for the first time (Main Event exempt with a $55 buy-in $1m GTD and $5,200 buy-in $10m GTD only).
It’s an online poker player’s wet dream, and for the duration, you can bet your favourite seashells that our high rolling darlings will be locking themselves in a bedroom crammed with Renton comedown goodies.
WCOOP: An Online Series for the High Rollers
The glory of winning a WCOOP event, not to mention a sum of money that will make you miss your specimen bottle, means players of notable ilk invest an incredible amount of time in this tournament series.
When WCOOP began, 17-years ago, there were nine events and $730,000 in guaranteed prize money. September’s meat grinder contains 61 events, 182 tournaments, and over $116m in guarantees.
Two of those 182 tournaments will curry favour with the high rollers:
Sep 5, 13:00 (ET) – $1m GTD $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max
Sep 12, 13:00 (ET) – $2m GTD $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
The History of WCOOP High Rollers
There have been seven events in WCOOP’s history that have carried a buy-in of $25,000 or more.
The first, a $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em event, happened a decade ago and ran for three successive years. Steven “stevesbets” Jacobs defeated 64 entrants, including Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier in the final to take the $560,000 first prize in the first. Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe beat 36 entrants, including Allan “Sifosis” Baekke to take the $315,000 first prize in the second one. And Phil “RaiseOnce” Ivey beat 31 entrants, including Rachid Ben “SkaiWalkurrr” Cherif, heads-up, to take the $348,750 first prize in the third and final year.
Stars removed $25k+ buy-in events for the next four years until they broke the world record for an online buy-in, hosting a $51,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max Super High Roller in 2015. 46-entrants created a $2.3m prize pool and Ben “Ben86” Tollerene defeated Jose “Cejakas14” Angel Latorre, heads-up, to claim the $616,518 first prize after cutting a three-way deal that included the back-to-back Triton Poker Series Main Event star Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski.
The following year that $51,000 buy-in looked positively peanuts as Stars pulled out all the stops to host a $102,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max Super High Roller. The event attracted 28 entrants, and bencb789 beat Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz in heads-up action to take the $1,172,361 first prize after the pair cut a deal that saw Holz also bank a million bucks.
And then, last year, for the first time, PokerStars held a $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller. Pedro ‘Zagalo87’ Zagalo from Spain topped a field of 71 entrants (52 entries, 17 re-entries) to win the PLO 6-Max version for $419,038.62 after cutting a three-way deal with Venividi1993 ($325,649.51) and Ravenswood13 ($339,240.95). And Nick “caecilius’ Petrangelo won the 149 entrants (120 entries, 29 re-entries) NLHE version banking $624,676.53 after a three-way deal with Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney ($559,694,73), and bartek901 ($636,113.64).
PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) takes place 2nd – 17th September.
PokerStars Partner With Hugo Boss
From a PokerStars product for the High Rollers to a clothing line for the High Rollers.
PokerStars will roll out a pop-up Stars merchandise store during the European Poker Tour’s return to Barcelona this week, and to overcome the average Joe’s aversion to wearing all manner of clothes emblazoned with the Red Spade, the online poker room has partnered with the German clothing line Hugo Boss to produce a range of co-branded products.
The store is open from August 21 – September 2, and players can purchase products using cash or card. The products will also be available through the online Stars Store, which will also launch during EPT Barcelona.