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PokerStars Gears Up for $100M WCOOP Aug-Sept

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
PokerStars WCOOP 2021

It’s that time of year. It’s the time that PokerStars hosts its longest running annual online poker tournament series, the one that set the standard for all who came after. It is almost time for the start of the 2021 World Championship of Online Poker, known to poker players around the world as WCOOP.

This is its 20th anniversary, a milestone untouched by most poker sites. To celebrate, this 2021 WCOOP is going to be kind of a big deal. The 102 events will create 306 individual tournaments, and the combined prize pool guarantees will exceed $100M.

Even further, this particular WCOOP will take the lifetime prizes awarded in the series’ history past the $1B mark. Yes, one billion dollars. That’s quite a milestone.

Of course, players in the United States are unable to compete on the PokerStars-dot-com site, but a quick trip to Canada or Mexico will do the trick. Let’s see what the site will offer.

2021 WCOOP Highlights

Action will officially kick off on Sunday, August 22. The weeks that follow will deliver 102 events, each with three buy-in levels to accommodate a range of players. Buy-ins for the 306 tournaments in total will span $5.50 to $25,500, with satellites available for all. We’ll get to that in a minute.

The 2021 World Championship of Online Poker will run through Wednesday, September 15.

And the series will guarantee $100,805,000 in prize pools. That means the grand total in the end will likely surpass that. As just one example, last year’s WCOOP guaranteed $80M and paid out $99,939,230. This year offers more tournaments and more guarantees.

This year also offers new trophies, one for the Main Event winners and another for all other WCOOP event winners.

PokerStars WCOOP 2021 trophy

There will also be the WCOOP leaderboards, as happens each year. In addition to an overall leaderboard, there will be more specific ones just for low buy-in, medium, and high buy-in tournaments. And in total, they will award $100K.

The 2021 WCOOP will also hit a special milestone for the series’ 20-year history. As the series begins, it has awarded $972,894,033 in total prize pools since it started in 2002. With this year’s series guaranteeing at least $100M, this will surpass the $1B mark.

Multiple Main Events

As has become the trend, the 2021 WCOOP will offer six Main Event tournaments, though only one will be considered the main Main Event. That one is highlighted here:

-Event 91-L: $55 buy-in NLHE 8-Max Main Event ($1.5M GTD)

-Event 91-M: $530 buy-in NLHE 8-Max Main Event ($2.5M GTD)

-Event 91-H: $5,200 buy-in NLHE 8-Max Main Event ($10M GTD)

-Event 92-L: $109 buy-in PLO 6-Max Main Event ($275K GTD)

-Event 92-M: $1,050 buy-in PLO 6-Max Main Event ($750K GTD)

-Event 92-H: $10,300 buy-in PLO 6-Max Main Event ($1M GTD)

All of these tournaments take place on Sunday, September 12. The No Limit Hold’em events start at 13:05 ET, and the Omaha events start at 15:05 ET.

To check out the entire schedule, which is also searchable and will show results as tournaments reach completion, check out this PokerStars blog page.

Low Stakes and Bargains

Most players want to get the most for their dollar in a series like WCOOP. For those players, there are 23 tournaments with $5.50 buy-ins. There are a total of 62 tournaments with $11 or lower buy-ins.

One of the best ways to find one’s way into a massive tournament is to give oneself a few tries. The Phase tournaments offer multiple attempts to make it to the final day of a tournament. Event 1 is that opportunity. The schedule lists them as follows:

-Event 1-L: $5.50 NLHE ($1M GTD)

-Event 1-M: $22 NLHE ($1M GTD)

-Event 1-H: $109 NLHE ($1M GTD)

They show up on the schedule with Phase 2 taking place at the end of the series – Monday, September 13. But the tournaments actually begin well before then…and even before the series starts on August 22. Players can enter as many days as they’d like, even making Phase 2 multiple times. They will then simply choose the highest stack to bring into Day 2.

Satellites are already running. Players can get in on a tournament like the $11 Sunday Storm for as little as $0.11 through satellites. There are also some special promotions.

-Road to WCOOP: Opt-in, choose a task, complete the challenge, and earn points to win a ticket to a weekly prize draw each Sunday.

-WCOOP Fast Track: Play daily Steps tournaments at any level, starting at $1 for Step 1 and $11 for Step 2, to win a ticket to the next level. Players can buy in at any level.

-WCOOP Spin & Go: Buy in to 3-player fast SNGs for $1.50, $4, or $22 to win tournament tickets.

PokerStars has all of the details for satellite opportunities.

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