The top online poker tournament series in existence is the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP for short). Held each year on the top online poker site, PokerStars, the WCOOP brings in the top tournament poker players plus thousands of fish lining up for their chance at scoring the millions of dollars that are up for grabs. The 2007 WCOOP was, by far, the largest tournament series ever offered online. The event consisted of 23 tournaments and guaranteed $15 million total. No, this isn’t Powerball; it’s the most prestigious poker series offered. In the end, after a disqualification of the first place finisher for multi-accounting, ka$ino emerged victorious in the $2,600 buy-in Main Event, winning a whopping $1.4 million. Again, prize amounts like that are unheard of online. Every WCOOP event winner, just like champions of the World Series of Poker, takes home a shiny bracelet; ka$ino’s just happened to come with a check for $1.4 million.
The WCOOP Main Event brought in 2,998 entries, a phenomenal number. Many qualified through a series of satellites that had been running on PokerStars for months leading up to the Main Event. Finishing as the runner up in the 2007 WCOOP was poker pro Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso, who made final tables during the 2005 and 2006 WSOP tournaments. She’s also a PokerStars pro. HelmetSky, hailing all the way from Israel, finished third after his queens lost a race to TheV0id’s A-K. TheV0id would later be disqualified as the WCOOP’s winner, boosting everyone up a spot in the final rankings. Other top finishers in the 2007 WCOOP Main Event included mpg1000 (fourth) and nitbuster (fifth). The top eight finishers walked away with over $100,000. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements finished 11th for $41,222.50. Online poker pro jcamby33 finished 21st and my favorite player name in the tournament, aaaaaaaa, finished 68th. The top 414 spots paid out.
Other high-profile WCOOP events included a $1,050 buy-in no limit event that drew a rousing 3,325 players. Won by American mig.com, the event awarded a $580,212.50 first prize. Imagine firing up your PokerStars cashier and seeing that kind of money. Korean chulwoo finished second, taking home nearly $300,000, and Canadian Trickybstrd placed third for $210,472.50. Top 10 finishers in the event included players from seven different countries.
PokerStars pro Greg “Fossilman” Raymer took home victory in Event #6, a $320 Pot Limit Omaha tournament with rebuys. Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champion, beat out a field of 772 total entrants. He’d struggle with internet connection issues early, but finished by beating UK native O.Mustang heads up. Raymer walked away with $168,362.40; O.Mustang took home $97,022.40.
Another big winner at the 2007 WCOOP was ruthan. The Swedish player took home $198,125.66, besting a field of 2,188 entrants, each coughing up $215 plus rebuys to enter. Well-known pro LUHMAN finished second, winning $109,241.35. Four Swedes finished in the top six of the event, a remarkable feat given the large number of players involved.
Other bracelet winners at the 2007 WCOOP included jalla79, copi, OnlyPlayRagz, BigLL, and hairos. The latter won $202,921 in the $5,200 buy-in HORSE event. Talk about high stakes! 177 people entered and, in the end, two Danes battled it out for the title; svesken finished second.
As you can tell by reading this, the 2007 WCOOP was a truly international affair. In fact, there were 107 countries represented, with the United States taking home nearly $13 million total. That should help the economy. Players from Sweden, Canada, Denmark, the UK, and Germany nabbed at least one million dollars for their home countries. There were 17,353 players total that battled for a piece of the total prize pool that amounted to $24,218,600.