The PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) culminates on December 21st. Prizes for the top 100 finishers include PokerStars Caribbean Adventure packages, European Poker Tour trips and tournament entries, and buy-ins into the Spring Championship of Online Poker, or SCOOP. Although no details have been released, the event has now been indirectly announced by the world’s largest online poker room.
The WBCOOP’s website merely states the following about the new tournament series: “SCOOP is the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker. The event takes place early 2009 – more details will be announced soon. Event name is also subject to change.” One facet of the SCOOP that is known is that its Main Event will carry a $1,500 price tag. One Main Event entry will be awarded to the sixth place finisher in the upcoming WBCOOP and the top prize in the Blogger Championship is a $14,300 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure package. Last year, over 1,300 players took to the virtual felts for the WBCOOP.
In September, PokerStars held the Main Event of its most recent World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP. Carter King (ckingusc) took down the tournament, which drew 2,185 entrants and had a buy-in of $5,000. The event was actually chopped when there were five players left standing. The finalists then went on to play for $200,000 and a coveted WCOOP bracelet. King’s payday was $1.2 million, but the second place finisher, liberace, pocketed nearly $1.4 million due to the chop.
Many other PokerStars players scored big in the 2008 WCOOP. One of the top online poker players in the world, Alex AJKHoosier1 Kamberis, finished third for $782,000. Belarus native Markush13 took fourth for $961,000 and American ShoesRDurrty finished in fifth place for a healthy $801,000 payday. The top 325 spots paid out in the WCOOP Main Event and the top nine players cashed for at least $100,000, or 20 times the buy-in.
This year marked the seventh installment of the WCOOP, which began in 2002 and has served as the marquee online tournament series. The WCOOP has received considerable competition from rival site Full Tilt Poker, which runs the highly-popular Full Tilt Online Poker Series several times a year. Contrastingly, PokerStars runs its tournament once per year, typically in September. The FTOPS just completed its tenth installment and the $535 buy-in Main Event was won by Julian Verse. Other online poker rooms, including Ladbrokes and Bodog, also run multi-day tournament series which have become a favorite among players.
It’s currently unknown how many events will comprise the SCOOP. There were nine events that made up the first WCOOP, capped off by a $1,050 No Limit Hold’em tournament that saw 238 players battle it out; MultiMarine grabbed the win and pocketed $65,450 in the process. The WCOOP has come a long way since then, as the 2008 tournament series generated 55,758 total buy-ins and nearly $40 million in prize money. There were 119 countries represented and, of those, players from 80 finished in the money.
Two high-stakes tournaments debuted during the 2008 WCOOP. The first was a $10,300 No Limit Hold’em event which was taken down by PokerStars member dorinvandy. A $25,500 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em tournament, one of the richest ever held online, was won by stevesbets. Bertrand Grospellier (Elky) finished second in the former tournament and Chris Moneymaker made a pair of final tables during the 2008 WCOOP, proving once again that his game remains at a high level.
PokerStars officials stated that more details would be forthcoming on the SCOOP, which will debut sometime in the first half of 2009. As soon we get more information, we’ll publish it right here on Poker News Daily.
