Getting Set For The WCOOP
Every online poker player has the dates circled on their calendar. It’s like Christmas, except hand knitted sweaters from your great aunt Rose and socks and underwear is replaced with multi-million dollar prize pools and bracelets from the world’s largest poker site.
PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP as the cool kids call it, kicked off September 3 and runs through September 21. A total of 45 events and $40,000,000 in guaranteed prize pools make WCOOP the number one online poker series each year.
For 2009 the good folks at PokerStars have made some changes to the schedule that should make it a unique experience for even the most hardened WCOOP veteran.
“We’re using a parameter called Fast Dealing, which does pretty much what it sounds like - the dealing animation is faster than usual,” said Bryan Slick, PokerStars spokesperson. “Also, the time to act is reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds, which doesn’t seem like a lot, and isn’t for one individual hand, but the cumulative effect is significant. Players get more hands per level, and the tournament moves along at a faster pace.”
Along with improving the pace of play, PokerStars also brought in some new game types that players have asked for.
“We have some event types which we’ve never had: NL Omaha Hi/Lo, Badugi, and a particular type of NLHE tourney called “big antes,” the format of which is probably easy to guess,” said Slick.
You can follow all the 2009 WCOOP action on Bluff- Magazine.com with daily recaps and interviews with some of the biggest winners right through until the $5,200 Main Event on September 20.
ALL TIME WCOOP LEADERS
Lifetime Winnings
Kyle “ka$ino” Schroeder- $1,379,661.70
“Liberace” - $1,378,928.01
Carter “ckingusc” King - $1,267,186.59
Vadim “Markush13” Markushevski - $965,661.82
Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso - $880,295.24
Most Final Tables
Dan “Lenny” Heimiller – 5
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – 4
Christoph “Sassenage” Wolters – 4
Steve “Rabscuttle” Cowley – 4
Ten players tied with 3
Most Cashes
Bernd “copi” Stadlbauer - 20
Stuart “thedonator” Patterson - 20
Scott “emptyseat88” Fischman - 20
Steve “Rabscuttle” Cowley - 19
“doidovarrido” - 18
