In its third year, the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker set the bar for WCOOP events to come. Attracting 10,085 total players, including 843 in the Main Event, the 2004 WCOOP was held during the reign of PokerStars qualifiers winning World Series of Poker Main Event titles. Chris Moneymaker captured the 2003 WSOP Main Event crown and was promptly outdone by Greg Raymer in 2004. Both qualified for the World Series on PokerStars, giving a ton of exposure to the blossoming poker site. The direct result was a massive tournament field for the 2004 WCOOP. The PokerStars website notes that the event was the second largest online or live poker tournament held in the year leading up to it, sitting behind only the 13,036 players who entered the 2004 WSOP. Three of its tournaments finished in the top four of the number of players entering, with the largest tournament being the 2004 WSOP Main Event. In addition, at just over $6 million, the prize pool of the 2004 WCOOP was the sixth largest for a poker tournament over that time period. It ranked ahead of the Kentucky Derby, Tour de France, and FIDE World Chess Championships in prize money. Needless to say, there’s a lot to talk about.
The $2,500 buy-in Main Event attracted 843 players. Norwegian Ragde emerged victorious, taking home a WCOOP bracelet and just under $425,000. Coming in second place was mr. steal, a Danish player who took home nearly $400,000. UK player iamlucky was lucky enough to win $189,675 for third place and Sealand, another Danish player, finished in fourth place for $136,987.50. The highest American to place was sonofjws, from Wyoming, who finished fifth and took home $113,805. A total of six countries were represented at the final table of the Main Event, reminiscent of many final tables held in the wildly popular WCOOP.
Two tournaments boasted a $500,000 guarantee and each event shattered this figure. The $530 no limit hold’em tournament attracted 1,642 entrants and shelled out nearly $70,000 to its winner, Sporto623. Hailing all the way from Norway, chipremover finished in second place for $99,212.05, reflecting a deal made among the final seven players of the tournament. nycpokerguy9 finished third, but took home $88,660.26. luckybs, from London, finished fourth, but took home the second largest amount of money, $98,964.44. katastrafika (fifth), rayan (sixth), and txhammer (seventh) were also part of the deal made at the final table.
The other $500,000 guarantee was a $1,050 buy-in limit hold’em tournament. Another final table deal gave second place finisher Dead Cat the largest payout at the table ($114,073.70). In the end, Michigan native Mandelbrot captured the gold bracelet and took home $62,296.87 in the process. The four-way deal resulted in third place finisher KillerKop cashing for $61,460.87 and a big payday being awarded to kingori, who cashed for $95,122.56 and fourth place.
Players from every single one of the United States and 40 countries around the world gathered at PokerStars for the 2004 WCOOP. The best online poker tournament series available to Mac Poker players would grow tremendously in size in the 2005 WCOOP.