WCOOP 2011 Kicked Off on Sunday

PokerStars introduced the WCOOP series in 2002 and a mere 9 events with a total prize pool of $730,000 comprised the first tournament. 238 players entered the $1,050 Main Event that had a prize pool of $238,000 and the first prize that went to Swede player ‘MultiMarine’, along with the first online world champion’s title, was $65,450. ‘MultiMarine,’ however, did not make a stellar career out of his success, eventually; he produced a number of minor results until 2004 and completely vanished after that from the online poker scene, at least with this screen name.


The Championship has evolved over the years with more and more events and greater and greater prize pools. In 2010, a total of 62 events were open for registration and the prizes totalled over $63 million.

WCOOP statistics:

WCOOP 2002
Events: 9
Total prize pool: $730,000
Main Event Champion: ‘MultiMarine’ ($65,450)

WCOOP 2003
Events: 11
Total prize pool: $2.7 million
Main Event Champion: Joseph ‘DeOhGee’ Cordi ($222,750)

WCOOP 2004
Events: 12
Total prize pool: $6 million
Main Event Champion: Edgar ‘Ragde’ Skjervold ($424,945)

WCOOP 2005
Events: 15
Total prize pool: $12 million
Main Event Champion: Jordan ‘Panella86’ Berkowitz ($577,342)

WCOOP 2006
Events: 18
Total prize pool: $18.6 million
Main Event Champion: JC ‘area23JC’ Tran ($670,194)

WCOOP 2007
Events: 23
Total prize pool: $24.2 million
Main Event Champion: Kyle ‘ka$ino1’ Schroeder ($1,378,330)

WCOOP 2008
Events: 33
Total prize pool: $40 million
Main Event Champion: Carter ‘ckingusc’ King ($1,265,432)

WCOOP 2009
Events: 45
Total prize pool: $51.6 million
Main Event Champion: Yevgeniy ‘Jovial Gent’ Timoshenko ($1,715,200)

WCOOP 2010
Event: 62
Total prize pool: $63.1 million
Main Event Champion: Tyson ‘POTTERPOKER’ Marks ($2,278,097)

WCOOP 2010 Main Event Final Table:


Tyson ‘POTTERPOKER’ Marks won the biggest ever online MTT first prize with his 2010 Main Event victory, which also gave him the biggest overall cash in the history of the championship.

Biggest cash prizes of the WCOOP:


A list of countries that have the biggest total winnings in the WCOOP series would be led by the USA:


Ryan ‘g0lfa’ D'Angelo is the player to have won the most events, three to be precise. The most in-the-money finishes (37) belong to Thor ‘osten’ Hansen.

The most WCOOP ITM finishes:


A total of $200 million has been given out in the Championships so far; the guaranteed total prize pool of this year’s 62 events will be $30 million.

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