PokerStars guarantees $30 million for WCOOP

LONDON, England -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The world’s most prestigious annual online poker festival is returning to PokerStars in September. The PokerStars.com World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) – celebrating its tenth year– is the highlight of the online poker tournament calendar. The 2011 WCOOP will take place from September 4-25, feature 62 separate events, and guarantee $30 million in prizes, including a $5 million guaranteed No Limit Hold’em Main Event, which will award the winner at least $1 million.

The 2011 WCOOP offers a range of tournaments and buy-ins to suit every player, and big guaranteed prize pools throughout. The 62-event schedule features nine tournaments with guarantees in excess of $1 million, and buy-ins ranging from $109 up to the $10,300 High Roller events.

Team PokerStars Pro, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, who won two WCOOP bracelets in 2009, is excited about the prospects of adding to his haul this year. ElkY said: “I can’t wait to start playing WCOOP. It’s the only online tournament series in the world that gives such amazing structures and prize pools! It’s time to take a shot at my third WCOOP bracelet. Join me!”

2011 WCOOP schedule

The action gets under way on September 4 with a two-day $215 NL Hold’em [6-Max] event ($1 million guaranteed), a $10,300 NL Hold’em High Roller tournament ($1.25m guaranteed), and a two-day $215 NL Hold’em event ($1.25m guaranteed). There are more than ten different poker games incorporated into the schedule, including Hold’em, Omaha, Draw, Stud, Razz, Badugi, 8 Game and HORSE, along with tournament formats that include heads-up, shootout, knockout, 4-max/6-max, big antes and turbos.

One significant change to this year’s WCOOP is the greater range of starting times, reflecting the growth of poker all over the world. Events now take place at six different start times: 06.00, 10.00, 11.00, 12.00, 14.00 and 17.00 (all ET). Here is the full schedule:

Satellites

Online satellites to all the events will be available on PokerStars.com starting from just $1. Players can register for satellite qualifiers or events directly by logging into the PokerStars client and clicking Events > WCOOP > All.

WCOOP statistics

The 2010 WCOOP featured 141,126 buy-ins with 18 different countries represented on the WCOOP bracelet honours list. The winner of the 2010 WCOOP Main Event was ‘POTTERPOKER’, who won the first-place prize of $2,278,097.50 – still a world record for the single biggest online poker tournament cash.