Summary:
- The latest edition of WCOOP gets underway on September 10
- Players may qualify for the WCOOP Main Event via the new Power Path system
- The total guarantee for the 2023 WCOOP could range from $80 million to $90 million
PokerStars finally released the dates for one of the world’s biggest and most popular online poker tournament series, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). The festival is back for another edition in 2023 and kicks off on September 10.
WCOOP 2023 – Initial Details
WCOOP usually takes place as a month-long festival running throughout September. But this year, it gets underway on September 10 and will run through the first week of October, moving away from its traditional schedule.
PokerStars has yet to announce the full schedule of the series but the operator has confirmed that the Main Events will kick off on October 1. Players will be allowed to qualify for WCOOP events via the new Power Path system, which is a first for the festival.
Launched in late June, Power Path is a four-step qualification route with the same format as previous promotions like MegaPath.
Players can win Bronze, Silver, and Gold passes to major festivals sponsored by PokerStars. Through this new promotion, players can secure seats to some of the biggest events on the WCOOP schedule, such as the $10,300 WCOOP Main Event.
While details are still scarce as to the total guarantees that will be up for grabs, looking at the previous editions, players are expected to compete for between $80 million and $90 million in guaranteed prize money across the series.
Since its launch in 2002, WCOOP has so far awarded more than $1.2 billion in prizes and attracted 7.8 million entries.
2022 WCOOP Recap
In 2022, WCOOP was disrupted by a DDoS attack which resulted in some of the events being rescheduled. Nevertheless, the festival, which marked its 20th year, still managed a strong showing, with the total prize pool reaching $108.5 million.
The schedule featured 367 events, including the $10,300 Main Event which was won by Portugal’s Luis “luis_faria” Faria for $1,293,825.
Each year, PokerStars runs multiple leaderboards for WCOOP covering the low, medium, and high buy-ins. These all count towards an overall leaderboard where the player who finishes at the top is crowned the WCOOP Player of the Series. In 2022, that prestigious title went to Brazilian poker pro Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira.
