If the main WCOOP buy-ins are still a bit rich for your blood, there will be a concurrent series running known as the mini-WCOOP, where players can enter events from as little as $1.10 up to $11, with the mini-Main Event being the only outlier at $50 buy-in. Slick explained of the 1/100th buy-in version.
Well that was fast. Less than a week after we posted an article about the fourth iteration of a tentative schedule for the 2016 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), PokerStars has unveiled the final, official schedule for the massive tournament series, set to run September 4th through September 26th. And massive is an appropriate word here; as we previously mentioned, there will be 82 events, up from 70 last year.
The WCOOP isn't a cheap tournament; most buy-ins range from $109 to $700, with some climbing into four, five, and even six digits. Yes, there is one event that will cost $102,000 to enter, twice the buy-in of last year's Super High Roller, which was billed as the most expensive online poker tournament of all time. Looks like we'll have a new title holder.
The WCOOP Main Event, Event #78, will cost $5,000 and will be held on September 25th. It will have a $10 million guaranteed prize pool with $1.5 million guaranteed to the winner.
- The PokerStars WCOOP has survived grumbles about payouts and re-entries (or lack of) to end with a bang. The 2016 online showpiece finished this week with a Main Event worthy of the series. The latest World Championship of Online Poker ended with a $5000 Main Event, following 81 tournaments of varying buy-ins and talent pools.
- While the Main Event was certainly the highlight of the final day of WCOOP 2016, there were two other events that wrapped up on Tuesday as well. Shyam ‘G's zee' Srinivasan beat out 473 other players, including Australian online legend James ‘Andy McLEOD' Obst who finished second, to win Event #80 and $102,747.49.
Wcoop Main Event 2016
While there are dozens of different events that will be of interest to players, two that specifically stand out are the two Players' Choice events, Events #48 and #50 on the schedule. During a nomination period, all players will be able to nominate up to two different types of poker tournaments by e-mailing PokerStars. PokerStars will then tally the nominations and create 'Voting Booth' tournaments in the WCOOP lobby for the top vote getters. Those nominees will be narrowed to the two winners by players actually registering for the $215 events. After a week, the two events with the most registrants will be added to the WCOOP schedule. At that point, the 'Voting Booth' tourneys will be removed and all buy-ins will be refunded so that players can register for the actual Players' Choice events.
The schedule announcement, made on the PokerStars blog by Senior Manager of Online Championships for PokerStars Bryan Slick, was accompanied by the introduction of the Mini-WCOOP. Former Full Tilt players may remember the Mini-FTOPS that was usually contested sometime after the FTOPS poker series; Mini-WCOOP is very much like this. Slick explained how it will work:
The schedule for Mini-WCOOP will follow the schedule for WCOOP, with the buy-in for each Mini-WCOOP Event being at 1/100th that of the corresponding WCOOP Event in most cases, except when the WCOOP Event eclipses $1,000, at which point the Mini-WCOOP Event is capped at $11. We're running this companion series to give everyone the chance to take part in the WCOOP experience, while rightfully keeping a respectable distance from the Events of WCOOP proper. Meanwhile, within WCOOP and at the extreme high end of the buy-in scale, we're running a $102,000 Super High-Roller Event, which is the largest buy-in online tournament in history and right at home, I believe, in the most prestigious online poker series found anytime, anywhere. Fantasy basketball for dummies.
Slick also said that there will no longer be 'second chance' tournaments at the WCOOP.
'As WCOOP has expanded over the years, both in number of Events as well as length and availability of late registration, the need for 2nd Chance tournaments has diminished significantly. Removing the 2nd Chance tournaments has been something that we've been considering for a few years, and with the expansion to 82 Events, it's a decision that we've finally taken,' he explained.
Also gone are WCOOP bracelets for the winners of each event. That decision was made for cost reasons, as well as from the result of feedback from players, who said that the bracelet really wasn't a motivating factor for participating in the WCOOP.
We won't copy and paste the 2016 WCOOP here like we did last week, as it is largely the same. For the official schedule, visit the PokerStars blog until it is on the official WCOOP site.
The WCOOP Main Event ended this week as Jonas 'llJaYJaYll' Lauck held firm on his ICM deals and took down the first prize. (Photo: WSOP)
Top bonus betting sites. The PokerStars WCOOP has survived grumbles about payouts and re-entries (or lack of) to end with a bang. The 2016 online showpiece finished this week with a Main Event worthy of the series.
The latest World Championship of Online Poker ended with a $5000 Main Event, following 81 tournaments of varying buy-ins and talent pools. And it was Germany's Jonas 'llJaYJaYll' Lauck who capped off a great series with the Main Event trophy.
Wcoop Main Event 2016 September
Lauck won $1,517,541.25 for his troubles after a protracted and complicated ICM deal. And it looked at the final table as though Jonas Lauck wouldn't be following in the footsteps of compatriot Fedor Holz, the 2014 WCOOP Main Event champion. 'llJaYJayll' was on around 8.3 million chips going into the final nine, some way behind 'Gambler4444' on 16.8 million and 'uknowProsky' on 32.3 million chips.
And the German was in trouble early on when he ran his A-K into 'Olorionek'‘s A-Q. A queen on the river doubled the short-stack and crippled Lauck even more. He was left with just nine big blinds.
Aces Save 'llJaYJayll'‘s Day Again
Lauck was thrown a lifeline when he found aces against 'Gambler4444″‘s queens. 'Let's start from the beginning,' the winner quipped as he regained his FT starting stack.
After 'deadfizh' and 'gorodski' departed in 9th and 8th, things started to get exciting. Again, 'llJaYJayll' picked up aces and shoved after a re-raise from 'uknowprosky' with jacks. The board ran in the German's favour and he found yet another timely double-up.
'llJaYJayll' finished the player off with a flush a few hands later, and took the chip lead to boot. With five players left a deal was attempted but 'R_Scientist' was the lone voice wanting to carry on playing. Even after 'axpitos_86' bust in fifth, a deal wasn't made. Even after a four-handed deal was close, 'llJaYJayll' decided he had the momentum to keep going. And soon he was up to 50 million chips.
'Gambler4444' fell in fourth to cap a great online series for him. The player recorded three final tables in all over the 82 events. And 'llJaYJayll' would dispatch 'R_Scientist' soon after with K-J against 8-8.
'llJaYJayll' Makes Heads-Up Count
The decision not to make a deal turned out to be a good one for 'llJaYJayll' as he headed into the heads-up phase with a 61 million-to-42 million chip advantage. After an hour's play, the advantage had nearly been closed before a key pot emerged.
After a raise, three and four-bet, and all-in, the chips were in the middle as 'llJaYJayll' flipped over A-K. '0409479' was in slightly bad shape with A-Q, and the king on the flop was enough to leave '0409479' with just a single big blind.
Predictably, the final bb was in the middle on the next hand, 'llJaYJayll' sealing the deal with A-7 against 4-8. A $1,101,278.90 payout was still a huge consolation for the runner-up.
Wcoop Main Event 2016 Calendar
For Lauck, the win added to what is already an impressive live haul. The German pro has over $1.3 million in live tournament cashes. Just this year he has racked up cashes on the EPT, LAPT and WSOP.
WCOOP Sets Record For Turnouts
2,091 runners (including re-entries) had turned out online to battle for the $1,517,541.25 Main Event first prize this year. 224 players shared out the prize cash, with everyone at the final table guaranteed a six-figure payout. The runner total was 100 up on last year's (1,995) but slightly down on the year before. Poker all stars.
'llJaYJayll' finished the player off with a flush a few hands later, and took the chip lead to boot. With five players left a deal was attempted but 'R_Scientist' was the lone voice wanting to carry on playing. Even after 'axpitos_86' bust in fifth, a deal wasn't made. Even after a four-handed deal was close, 'llJaYJayll' decided he had the momentum to keep going. And soon he was up to 50 million chips.
'Gambler4444' fell in fourth to cap a great online series for him. The player recorded three final tables in all over the 82 events. And 'llJaYJayll' would dispatch 'R_Scientist' soon after with K-J against 8-8.
'llJaYJayll' Makes Heads-Up Count
The decision not to make a deal turned out to be a good one for 'llJaYJayll' as he headed into the heads-up phase with a 61 million-to-42 million chip advantage. After an hour's play, the advantage had nearly been closed before a key pot emerged.
After a raise, three and four-bet, and all-in, the chips were in the middle as 'llJaYJayll' flipped over A-K. '0409479' was in slightly bad shape with A-Q, and the king on the flop was enough to leave '0409479' with just a single big blind.
Predictably, the final bb was in the middle on the next hand, 'llJaYJayll' sealing the deal with A-7 against 4-8. A $1,101,278.90 payout was still a huge consolation for the runner-up.
Wcoop Main Event 2016 Calendar
For Lauck, the win added to what is already an impressive live haul. The German pro has over $1.3 million in live tournament cashes. Just this year he has racked up cashes on the EPT, LAPT and WSOP.
WCOOP Sets Record For Turnouts
2,091 runners (including re-entries) had turned out online to battle for the $1,517,541.25 Main Event first prize this year. 224 players shared out the prize cash, with everyone at the final table guaranteed a six-figure payout. The runner total was 100 up on last year's (1,995) but slightly down on the year before. Poker all stars.
In all, however, the 2016 WCOOP managed to pay out over $73.5 million across its 82 events. That marked a record for PokerStars and sets them up well for next year's series.
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