Find out everything that happened in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP 2024).

FINAL WCOOP 2024 STATS

Tournaments completed: 379
Entries: 1,052,851 (inc. 286,874 re-entries)
Prize pools: $95,156,479
First-place prizes: $15,033,204 (inc. $3,043,865 in bounties)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3

This thrilling series came to an end on Wednesday, October 2. Here’s a recap of what went down on the final night of WCOOP 2024.

Vousden victorious, banks $1M: The largest prize of a WCOOP series is almost always reserved for the $10K NLHE Main Event, and this year was no exception. The 502 entries created a $5.02 million prize pool, and a fifth of that went to the winner: Finnish crusher Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden, who clinched his second title of the year and the $1,007,059 first-place purse. Vousden, who now has five WCOOP titles, defeated Pascal “Pass_72” Lefrancois heads up after four days battling through one of the toughest poker fields one could assemble. The final hand saw Lefrancois flop trips only for Vousden – who held a monster chip lead – to turn a flush. There was no getting away and the Canadian’s consolation prize was worth $659,900. This is by far Vousden’s biggest online score on PokerStars and a feather in the cap of his incredible career.

Other Main Event winners: Brazil’s “stek94” was also crowned a Main Event champion on Wednesday, taking down the $1K Medium edition for $441,809 after a three-way chop with two Brits: “Riverbanged” and Andy “BowieEffect” Wilson. This version had 3,856 total entries and ended up with a maiden WCOOP title for stek94 and yet another for Brazil, who broke their all-time title record with 82. In the enormous $109 Low edition it was Ukraine’s “777ANTONY777” who outlasted the 25,075-entry field. They won $209,747 after a three-way deal with fellow Ukrainian “psyhoagromor” and Brazil’s “Muringa.SP” and also clinched their first WCOOP trophy. Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro had a great run in that event, finishing sixth for $46,895.

Final event winners: Two notable names picked up titles in the series’ closing events. Estonia’s Juanki “B4NKR0LL3R” Vecino emerged victorious in the $530 Hyper Series Wrap-Up for $20,966 and his second career title, while Fernando “JNandez87” Habegger also won his second career WCOOP after an 11-year wait, topping the $1K PLO 6-Max for $25,179.

That’s a wrap from WCOOP 2024, and what a series it has been. For a full statistical breakdown, check out our number-crunching final report.

COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Brazil topped their own record tally from a “regular”-sized WCOOP series, landing 82 titles. They tied their previous best on the series’ penultimate night, with a final day double pushing them into new territory.

Final standings:

82 – Brazil
33 – UK
24 – Austria
18 – Sweden
16 – Canada
15 – Belarus, Bulgaria
14 – Argentina, Romania
13 – Poland
12 – Hungary
11 – Ukraine
10 – Finland
9 – Estonia, Malta
8 – Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Thailand
5 – Latvia, Lithuania
4 – Andorra, Slovenia
3 – Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Vietnam
2 – Albania, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Luxembourg, Moldova
1 – Belgium, Chile, Ecuador, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Slovakia, Uruguay, Uzbekistan.

PLAYER OF THE SERIES

There was no catching “FAL1st” after their sensational five-title series. The Thailand-based Russian topped the Overall leaderboard and banks $25K, while also finishing third and second on the High and Mediums, respectively, for some additional prizes.

Swedish superstar Niklas “Lena900” Astedt finished first in the High after winning four titles in 2024. Meanwhile, Albania’s “king153246” enjoyed a breakout series, going from Boot Camp winner to WCOOP crusher. They finished first on both the Medium and Low boards, an incredible result.

Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav from Slovenia was the only player to finish in the top five of all leaderboards.

Final Overall standings
1 – “FAL1st”, Thailand – 2,945 pts
2 – Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav, Slovenia – 2,640
3 – Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi, Brazil – 2,485
4 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski, Brazil – 2,470
5 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK – 2,325

Final High standings
1 – Niklas “Lena900” Astedt – 1,300 pts
2 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski, Brazil – 1,220
3 – “FAL1st”, Thailand – 1,100
4 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK – 1,090
5 – Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav, Slovenia – 1,040

Final Medium standings
1 – “king153246”, Albania– 975 pts
2 – “FAL1st”, Thailand – 910
3 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski, Brazil – 865
4 – Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi, Brazil – 745
5 – Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav, Slovenia – 735

Final Low standings
1 – “king153246”, Albania– 1,005 pts
2 – “So00oSick”, UK – 885
3 – “regina83h” – 850
4 – Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav, Slovenia – 830
5 – “lyren154”, Brazil – 785

Look at the full Leader Boards here.

MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

A full list of players who won more than one title during WCOOP 2024.

FIVE
Parker “Tonkaaaa” Talbot (Canada) – PokerStars Ambassador
FAL1st (Thailand)

FOUR
Niklas “Lena900” Astedt (Sweden)

THREE
flerrehuve (Sweden)
Stevan “random_chu” Chew (Indonesia)
PIPON777 (Estonia)
Felipe “ultraviol3nt” Olivieri (Argentina)
Joao “Naza114” Vieira (UK)
Leqenden (Belarus)
Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi (Brazil)
Voca94 (Ukraine)
Alex “I Attack95” Kulev

TWO
CPUrul0r (Austria)
Karllofff (Moldova)
Dennys “dennysramos2” Ramos (Brazil)
Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav (Slovenia)
GodOf.com (Austria)
DingeBrinker (Estonia)
Darapan (Poland)
Rochinha2011 (Brazil)
kZhh (Hungary)
Sintoras (Germany)
ibotown (Austria)
Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo (Andorra)
king153246 (Albania)
One Poor Bum (Dominican Republic)
|gammi|€120 (Belarus)
thimbex (Finland)
DrawinDead (Poland)

NUMBER CRUNCHING THE SERIES

That’s it for the 2024 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), another terrific three weeks of action at the PokerStars tables.

Here’s a statistical breakdown of WCOOP 2024, including a look at the biggest tournaments, the most dazzling individual performances, the continued dominance of Brazil and plenty of other fascinating tidbits.

WCOOP stats: Number crunching the 2024 series

COMPLETE RESULTS

WCOOP LEAGUE 2024

One team stormed to victory in the inaugural WCOOP League, with two of its players topping the Overall, Medium and Low Leaderboards.

Check out the final standings here.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2

PLO domination for “d.apollo777”: We’ve seen some incredible feats throughout this series, but what the UK’s “d.apollo777” pulled off on Tuesday might be the most jaw-dropping. Not only did they take down the 77-entry $10K World Championship of PLO Main Event for $164,627, but they did so at the same time they were battling to victory in the $109 edition, where they banked $92,442 after battling through 521 entries. These are the first two WCOOP titles for d.apollo777’s career, both of which are Main Events. Sensational.

Three hat tricks won: Three players picked up their third title of the year on Tuesday, led by Sweden’s “flerrehuve” who banked the biggest prize. They won the $1K PKO Series Saver for $139,759 total, having already won a $109 6-Max Turbo and $320 Bounty Builder this year.

Indonesia-based Aussie Stevan “random_chu” Chew also clinched a hat trick, adding a $215 NLHE title and $62,422 to his $1K PKO and $109 NLHE titles. Meanwhile, Estonia’s “PIPON777” got their third of the year in the $109 PKO Series Saver for $56,438 total, their other two titles coming in a $530 Turbo Fenomeno and $109 5-Card PLO. 

Huge score for cash game legend: The biggest prize of the series so far (we’ve still got the Main Events ending today, remember) went to the mysterious “DavyJones922”, widely considered to be one of the best cash game players online right now. The Brit took down the $25K Super High Roller for $449,610, defeating as tough a field as one could assemble. The event attracted 59 entries from the game’s best, including runner-up ‘Leqenden’ who was denied their fourth win of the year. Another cash game beast Linus Loeliger finished third, while four-time winner in 2024 Niklas Astedt was the unfortunate bubble boy.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1

Legendary Lena900: There’s no rest for Swedish superstar Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, who added a fourth title of the year just one night after winning his third. This time it was a $530 PKO that Astedt conquered, besting a 1,388-entry field to win $83,541, $37K of which came from bounties. The fact that this incendiary series performance is coming right after he won millions by making the World Series of Poker Main Event final table shows this isn’t just a talent at the very top of his game, but a player who truly loves the competition. If it’s not about money any more then it’s about legacy, and even if he stopped playing tomorrow Astedt would leave one of the best of all time. He’s up to 11 WCOOPs overall.

Leonard adds to his legacy too: Another crusher at the very top is Patrick “pads1161” Leonard and the Brit won his second title of the year on Monday. Leonard, who is playing from Vancouver, took down the $2K PKO Sunday Warm-Up for $103,349, including $62,547 in bounties. The event had 241 entries and to get the job done Leonard beat popular Spanish streamer Elias “SinKarma” Gutierrez heads-up, having already overcome a final table that included Kelvin Kerber, PokerStars Team Pro Lex Veldhuis, and Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi. Veldhuis banked $20,322 plus $5,750 in bounties for his fourth-place finish.

Double for DrawinDead: Poland’s “DrawinDead” added their name to the double champions list by winning their second $1K Turbo title of the series, and both wins were for $36K. This is DrawinDead’s third WCOOP title overall, having won another $1K Turbo (PKO) last year.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

tonkaaaa yet again: Parker Talbot‘s sensational WCOOP grew ever more brilliant on Saturday night when the PokerStars Ambassador claimed a fifth title of the year. He did so in the World Championship of Badugi, a relatively small (45-entry) tournament that nonetheless made him the hold of two Championship titles from this series. He had previously won the World Championship of HORSE, alongside wins in a $1K PKO NLHE, the $10K 8-Game and a $215 FL Triple Draw event. He also has two runner up finishes. This is by far and away “tonkaaaa“‘s best performance in a PokerStars series, and by far and away the best ever by a PokerStars Ambassador. He had another $18,804 prize for this, but it’s the prestige that will count even more. Five titles in a single series is the kind of achievement that only the very best can accomplish, so hats off to tonkaaaa for this brilliance.

FAL1st moves to five as well: Parker Talbot enjoyed precisely one day as the only player this year to have five WCOOP titles, because the irrepressible “FAL1st” matched him on Sunday night, taking down the $530 buy-in 7-Max Sunday Supersonic. This became FAL1st’s first hold’em title of the year, and earned them $21,213, but piled more points onto their Player of the Series total, not to mention Team Peace&Loove’s WCOOP League tally. FAL1st and Talbot now both have five wins this year. Incredible stuff.

Lena over Pads for heaps: Poker’s superstars packed into the $10K Thursday Thrill High Roller to build a $650K prize pool, resulting in a heads-up battle between two of the very best. Niklas “Lena900” Astedt outlasted Patrick “pads1161” Leonard to claim a third title of the year, and a prize of $188,989. The bounty portion of that payout weighed in at $102K, underlining Astedt’s clear dominance of yet another brilliant field. For Leonard, it’s a second second place of the year, to go with his one title, but it puts Astedt’s career WCOOP haul into double figures. He now has 10 titles.

Pardo goes back-to-back: A late arrival this year, Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo has quickly made his mark on WCOOP 2024, landing a second title in consecutive playing days (ignoring Friday’s rest day). Pardo took down the $1K PKO Thursday Thrill, which concluded on Saturday, picking up a $74,765 score, including bounties. Pardo’s first victory came on Thursday night in the Mystery Bounty Builder. That’s five in total through Pardo’s glittering career.

Finally a first — and a second! — for Albanian Boot Camp crusher: After losing four heads-up battles in search of a maiden WCOOP title, Albania’s “king153246” finally got over the line in spectacular fashion on Saturday night, landing two titles almost at once. This WCOOP Boot Camp graduate, who plays on Seb Huber’s “Team peace&loove”, had been one of the breakout stars of this series, even before they took down the $1K Stud 6-Max event AND the $11 NLO8 tournament on Saturday. These two events, at either end of the buy-in spectrum, finished within 90 minutes of each other, both with the same result. The stud had a small field of 34 entries, paying $16,589 to its winner. The NLO98, meanwhile, had 1,662 entries, with a first prize of $2,477. These are not only the first wins for king153246 but for the country of Albania. (king153246 also finished third in the $109 buy-in NL08!)

Dominican double: Matching the achievement of Albania, the Dominican Republic got on the scoreboard for this year’s WCOOP in similarly emphatic style at the weekend. “One Poor Bum” won not one but two titles, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, landing a combined $60K. The first win was in an $11 Turbo over a field of more than 7,000 entries. And One Poor Bum beat 1,481 entries to win a $320 PKO event on Sunday as well.

TJS denies Glaser: Brit played Brit heads up at the end of the $1,050 8-Game tournament, which wrapped on Saturday, but last year’s dominant force, Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, had to settle for second place behind countryman “The TJS“. The TJS landed a second title of the year, adding this win to a previous success in a $1K 5-Card PLO event, leaving Glaser still looking for a first win this year (to add to his 15 previous WCOOP successes). For their part, The TJS is now a three-time career winner having won a first WCOOP title in an $11 Badugi event in 2021. This win came with a first prize of $21K.

Another big one for |gammi|€120: Belarus’ “|gammi|€120” also became a double champion on Sunday night, winning the $2K PKO event for a score of $82,450, a week or so after picking up an even bigger win of $189,478 in the Super Tuesday High Roller. That’s the first two WCOOP titles of their career, and they’ve started off with a couple of big ones.

Red Spades profit in Women’s Event: Three PokerStars ambassadors made deep runs in the $109 NLHE Women’s Event on Sunday, with Georgina “GJReggie” James (17th), Marle “MarlzTV” Spragg (14th) and Lali “LaliTournier” Tournier (3rd) all turning a significant profit. Germany’s “jzzca” bested the field of 137 entries on the same night that “UniQuEkum” of Hungary won the official Women’s World Championship event, for $4,750.

More multiples: A special shout out to Finland’s “thimbex” who won a second title of the series on Sunday night and became the only player so far to win two “low” buy-in events. These are always by some measure the biggest fields, so outlasting them becomes incredibly difficult, but this Finnish player beat 6,393 entries to the $22 7-Max Supersonic title on Sunday after previously winning the $5.50 WCOOP Kickoff on the opening weekend, beating 13,093. Austria’s “ibotown” also won a second title of the series this weekend, while Alex “I Attack95” Kulev won a third. Kulev added the $1K Sunday Cooldown title to his enormous haul and moved ahead of “FutureOfMe” with his new identity. I Attack95 has three WCOOP titles to FutureOfMe’s two.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27

Pardo breaks cover with win: Last year, Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo won the biggest WCOOP prize outside of the main event when he took down the $25K High Roller for close to $500K. He’s played much less this year and has consequently troubled the scorekeepers less, but broke cover on Thursday night to win a career fourth WCOOP title. It came in the $530 Mystery Bounty Builder High Roller and earned the Andorra-based player $42,379, including $23,359 in bounties.

Hat-trick for Voca94: WCOOP 2024 has been a true breakout year for Ukraine’s “Voca94” who is now a three-time champion for this series. Previously, Voca94 has only won once in WCOOP, back in 2022, but on Thursday added a $1K PKO title to earlier success in the $530 Bounty Builder and another $530 NLHE 8-Max. That’s three big wins in three very well populated tournaments. Keep this up and a call to next year’s draft may be incoming.

Three for Owen: Mexico-based Brit Adam “adamyid” Owen bagged his first title of the year in the $22 5-Card PLO. Owen beat a field of 1,569 entries for $4,773, which was the third time he’s finished top in a WCOOP event. Owen previously won a $22 buy-in NLHE tournament plus a $109 Stud Hi/Lo. He’ll play all the games at all the limits, and play them consistently well.

Sintoras on the double champ list: As can often be the case towards the end of these major online series, two players who had already won titles went heads up for another when Germany’s “Sintoras” downed Brazil’s Dennys “dennysramos2” Ramos to win the $1K 7-Max Daily Cooldown. Sintoras had already picked up a title on the opening weekend, while Ramos already had two other 7-Max titles this year. But Sintoras returned to the top table in this one, taking a bounty haul of more than $25K in a total score worth $40K and change. Ramos had collected only $843 in bounties, so finished with $16K total.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

Huber makes Spraggy eat his words: Benjamin Spragg probably had trouble sleeping last night after eating so much late-night humble pie. His rival WCOOP League captain Sebastian “peace&loove” Huber had posted a pic of the $11 HORSE lobby to Twitter early on Wednesday, for which Spraggy teased him for the insignicance of the run. But in the early morning hours Huber took it down, beating 1,386 entries to win $2,098 and his second WCOOP title. Huber’s team already had a huge lead in team points but it’s bolstered further with this victory.

Bruschi hat trick bolsters PoY push: Overall Leaderboard competitor Renan “internett93o” Bruschi added some much-needed points by winning the $1K HORSE for $22,498, his third win of the year. Patrick Leonard had a good run finishing third, as did Niklas Astedt who placed fourth. But it’s Bruschi who now has the 2024 hat trick.

Double for Flerrehuve and kZhh: Three more double champions were crowned on Wednesday, the biggest winner of which was “kZhh”. The Hungarian took down the $1K Super Tuesday for $86,674, topping the 488-entry field and adding more silverware to the $1K Turbo trophy they won earlier this series. Likewise, Sweden’s “flerrehuve” already had a $109 Turbo title but added a $320 Bounty Builder trophy yesterday, banking $50,913, half of which came from bounties. Flerrehuve has won a title every year since 2022 and to win this third one they beat Pavel “silentm0de” Plesuv heads-up. kZhh also now has three WCOOP wins.

Another double champ on the night was Brazil’s “Rochinha2011” who won the $215 NLHE for $38,278 having already won a $215 Turbo. This is their third career title, too.

Delight for Darie: Wednesday’s biggest score went to Romania’s Vlad “dariepoker” Darie as he clinched the $5K Super Tuesday title, earning $132,608. The event got 121 entries and the final table was just ridiculous. Darie denied Alex Kulev his third title of the year by beating him heads-up, having already seen of Simon Mattsson, DingeBrinker, Juan Pardo and Samuel Vousden on the final table. This is Darie’s maiden WCOOP win.

Another win for Danchev: Finally, Dimitar “KuuL” Danchev captured the third WCOOP title of his career in fast fashion, winning the $1K 6-Max PKO Turbo for $50,784 total. The Bulgarian’s previous titles came in 2020 and 2023.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

Fourth title for Tonkaaaa: “Hold my beer.” We imagine that’s what Parker “Tonkaaaa” Talbot said the minute he heard that “FAL1st” had won their fourth WCOOP of the year on Monday because the PokerStars Team Pro came out swinging and immediately matched it on Tuesday. Talbot’s fourth victory – in what is undoubtedly one of the best series performances from a red spade we’ve ever seen – came in a $215 FL 2-7 Triple Draw event, which the Canadian won for $6,392 after topping the 158-entry field. All of Talbot’s 2024 titles have come in different poker variants (HORSE, NLHE, 8-Game and 2-7) showing just what an exceptional all-round talent this guy is. He now has eight career WCOOP wins, but how many will he have when this series wraps up? 

Two $5K wins in two days: Another player enjoying a rush of form is Estonia’s “DingeBrinker”, who took down the $5K Bounty Builder HR for $116,327 (including $65K in bounties) just one day after winning the $5K Titans for $135,895. As you’d expect this was no easy task, as the final table included runner-up “Grozzorg”, Vlad Darie, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Daniel “starwins :)” Petersen, Adrian Mateos, Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo and Patrick Leonard. DingeBrinker now has three WCOOP titles overall.

Chew headlines new double champs: On Tuesday Stevan “random_chu” Chew picked up his second win of the year with a victory in a $109 NLHE event for $43,227, besting a final table that included Fintan “easywithaces” Hand. The Indonesia-based Australian’s earlier win came in a $1K PKO for $45K and he now has three titles for his career. He wasn’t the only new double champ, though, as Ukraine’s “voca94” added a $530 Bounty Builder HR title and $64,052 to their $1K NLHE win earlier this year. Meanwhile Andorra’s “GodOf.com” won a $109 Turbo for $22,631, having already won a $1K PKO.

Other notable wins: WCOOP Boot Camp winner and WCOOP League player “So00oSick” from the UK has added their name to 2024’s winners, taking down the $5.50 PLO8 for $1,634 and picking up some points for Team easywithaces. We also saw perennial ‘COOP performer “FONBET_RULIT”, a Russian player currently based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, capture their fifth WCOOP title with a win in the $530 PLO8 for $15,323.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

Four for FAL1st: Back in May it was a final-day nailbiter that saw “FAL1st” miss out on the SCOOP Player of the Series award when Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov pulled off a miracle cash to pip him by just five points. But ‘COOPs are FAL1st’s bread and butter and the Thailand-based Russian is not only leading the WCOOP Leaderboard but has now become the first player to win four titles in 2024. Their latest triumph – just two days after winning their third – came in a $2,100 NLO8 event for $39,822, meaning all of their titles have come in different variants (FLO8, 2-7 Single Draw and 8-Game). FAL1st now has seven WCOOP titles for their career.

More multiple champions crowned: FAL1st wasn’t the only player to add another trophy to their 2024 haul on Monday. Argentina’s Felipe “ultraviol3nt” Olivieri joined the triple champions list by winning the $530 6-Max Turbo PKO for $30,170, making it three wins in no limit hold’em – very impressive indeed. Meanwhile, “PIPON777” of Estonia clinched their second title by taking down the $109 5-Card PLO for $9,307, and Austria-based “CPUrul0r” also added another trophy – their fifth overall – by winning the $55 Mini Sunday Million for $74,965. 

All hail the PKO champ: We have an official World Champion of PKO NLHE and its Mexico-based “SerVlaMin”, who triumphed over a whopping 1,368-entry field in the $1K event to bank $188,815, including $97K in bounties. This is the fourth WCOOP win for SerVlaMin who won two in 2022 and another last year. To win the largest prize of the weekend they overcame a stacked field and a final table that included one of NLHE tournament poker’s all-time greats, David Peters. 

Mateos the master: He might have missed part of WCOOP 2024 to attend the wedding of a fellow Spanish super high roller, but it was only a matter of time before Adrian Mateos made his way to the winner’s circle, having finished runner-up earlier this series. Mateos (“Amadi_017”) took down the $1K 6-Max NLHE for $61,643 and his fifth WCOOP trophy, defeating a final table that included Jonathan Proudfoot, Andy Wilson and Ole Schemion.

Spare a thought for Spraggy: It was a bittersweet day on the tables for Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg who enjoyed multiple deep Day 2 runs, but was also dealt some brutal beats to end them. The Team Pro finished eighth in the aforementioned $1K 6-Max won by Mateos, earning himself $8,267, and also finished 10th in the $215 Sunday Warm-Up for $3,356, among other results. It feels like it’s only a matter of time until he breaks through for that third WCOOP title. It was Bulgaria’s “FeriBo” who claimed victory in the Warm-Up for $70,627.

Sunday Millions: Joining “CPUrul0r” as a Sunday Million champion this week are “DingeBrinker” and “Jbiancolini”, who took down the $5K Titans and $530 Medium editions, respectively. Estonia’s DingeBrinker topped the 124-entry Titans to bank $135,895, beating Pedro “PaDiLhA SP” Padilha heads-up to win their second WCOOP title. Brazil’s Jbiancolini denied Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden his second win of the year in the $530, besting 2,412 entries and earning a massive $177,226 payday. This is Jbiancolini’s first WCOOP title.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

Hat-trick for tonkaaaa: No one has ever doubted Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot‘s poker skills, but few could have predicted just how brilliant he has been during this year’s WCOOP. On Saturday night, Talbot completed a third victory of the series, his seventh overall, and this one came with a $102K first prize. It was the $10K 8-Game High Roller event — aka, one of the very toughest on the whole schedule. But even with a last five comprising Denis Strebkov, Yuri Dzivielevski, Joao Vieira and Jens Lakemaier, Talbot was best. And that’s not all. Talbot was also heads-up in the $1K 5-Card Draw, aiming for a double title-winning night. Unfortunately for him, Latvia’s “fpsik” won the last pot in this one, banking $16K and leaving Talbot with a second runner-up finish of the series as well. (Talbot also finished sixth in a $1K turbo. But does that even register in this amazing week?)

Three time for FAL1st and Leqenden too: One of the most reliable ‘COOP players on the planet scored another memorable victory on Saturday night when the Thailand-based Russian “FAL1st” picked up a third triumph of the year. That’s as many as they have won in previous years combined, taking their career tally to six. This success came in the $1K buy-in 8-Game, and over a final table that also featured Dzmitry Urbanovich, Benny Glaser and Jens Lakemaier, among others. But the $22K first prize headed to FAL1st this time, as well as the valuable WCOOP League points.

On Sunday night, Leqenden became the fourth triple champion of the series, taking down the $530 PKO Saturday KO, for $54K, including bounties. Another regular crusher, the player from Belarus added this title to their $10K PKO victory and the World Championship of Heads Up success. In all, that’s six for Leqenden’s career. So far.

Kulev’s new name matches old: For many years, Alex Kulev was best known by his PokerStars alias “FutureOfMe”, and he landed two WCOOP titles through the years among his many other accolades. Owing to licensing issues out of everyone’s control, Kulev changed his screen-name to “I Attack95” and he now has two under that alias as well. On Saturday, Kulev won the $1K 4-Max Turbo for $35,139, including bounties, picking up the final scalp of Luke “lb6121” Schwartz. Argentinian Team Pro Alejandro “[Papo]AR” Lococo was third. But this one was, as is often the case, all about Kulev, whatever you call him.

Bruschi double to lead big names in title rush: As has been the case throughout this entire WCOOP so far, the established big names of online poker dominated through the weekend. On Saturday night, Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi found himself among the champions for the first time this series but not, of course, for the first time in his career. Triumph in the $530 PLO 6-Max earned Bruschi a fifth career WCOOP title, as well as $23.3K. He followed it up on Sunday night, landing a brilliant second in consecutive days. This one came in the $1K NLHE Deep Stack, and brought another $40,859 after a heads-up deal.

Sweden’s “ShipitFTW911” won the high version of the PLO, landing an $86,261 first prize after a heads-up chop with Dante “dantegoyaF” Goya. That was ShipitFTW911’s third career title, and another win for Parker Talbot’s WCOOP League team. On the same night, Espen “Hymn2Ninkasi” Jorstad won the $1K NLHE Turbo, taking a second career win.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20

Vieira wins battle of the doubles: We have our first triple champion of WCOOP 2024: it’s Joao “Naza114” Vieira, who goes to 13 victories for his career after winning the $5K 6-Max Turbo played start to finish on Thursday night. Already a two-time champion this year, Vieira squared off heads-up with Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot, who had similarly claimed two wins already. Therefore certain that there would be a three-time winner, these two titans slugged it out for the best part of $25K, with Vieira landing the final blow. Vieira’s prize was $94,468; tonkaaa took $70,616 for second. Yet more brilliance from both of them, with the UK-based Portuguese claiming bragging rights this time.

Pads on the board: As usual, Patrick “pads1161” Leonard has been firing at everything during this WCOOP, and as usual one of online poker’s most reliable talents hit the bullseye on Thursday night. Leonard is the new World Champion of Razz, taking down the $1K buy-in, 78-entry event for a $19,414 score. It’s his 10th career WCOOP win, a run that started in 2015 and hit a high note last year when the Brit won four titles. By those standards, it had been a slow start* (“only” 41 cashes through the first 165 events, and “only” a chop in the 6-Max World Championship, rather than an outright win), but Leonard is now on the board — and a World Champion to boot.

*the kind of slow start that most can only dream of.

Career second for Wilson: A tweet this week from Andy “BowieEffect” Wilson suggested that he hasn’t always run especially well in WCOOP (he posted a screenshot of an automated message from PokerStars inviting him to review his WCOOP record. “Let’s not,” Wilson replied, drily.) But the British pro now has reason for at least some celebration: he’s the champion of the $1K NLHE 8-Max held over Wednesday and Thursday nights. Wilson beat a field of 257 entries and banked $49,418. That’s on the record now, Andy, alongside a win in the “Final Freeze” tournament from 2021.

Two near misses for Lex: He’s already won one title this year, but Lex Veldhuis came close to a second on Thursday night, falling in fourth place in the $1K 6-Max PKO and third in the $2K PLO8. In the former, Velduis and Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot were both representing PokerStars into the second day of a 251-entry tournament, but Talbot fell in eighth, just shy of the final table. Veldhuis ground it out with a short stack, finishing behind Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro, who came third, “PeroQmaloSoy”, the runner up and Hungary’s “kZhh“, who became a three-time WCOOP champion thanks to this win. At the same time, Veldhuis was battling to the final thee in the four-card hi/lo game, eventually yielding to Germany’s “Shadissimo“, who won, and Finland’s “XD89lol<3”, who came second. Veldhuis’ WCOOP team certainly needed the points, and once again they’re thankful to their brilliant leader.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

Night of the double champs: Wednesday’s WCOOP action is jam-packed with interesting stories, including not one, not two, but five double champions (two of which are among the series’ best overall performers). In other news, we saw the Super Tuesdays wrap up, plus a bunch of deep runs for PokerStars Team Pros, some of which are still ongoing. Let’s dive into the headlines.

Super Tuesday for Kulev: The biggest prize on Wednesday went to Alex “I Attack95” Kulev who took down the 119-entry $5K Super Tuesday for $130,416 and his third career WCOOP title. The high-rolling Bulgarian’s previous two wins came under the name “FutureOfMe” in 2021 and 2022 before he had to change his name for licensing reasons. It was at EPT London in 2022 that we first spoke to Kulev about his meteoric rise up the poker ranks, and he hasn’t slowed down since.

Meanwhile Austria’s “MLS20” also won their third career WCOOP title by taking down the $530 Medium edition of the Super Tuesday, defeating a final table that included Niklas “Lena900” Astedt and Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren to win $72,205. “Unodostresquack” of Malta won the $55 Low for $27,348.

Another victory for Vieira: Several times throughout the series Lex Veldhuis has pointed out how nuts it is that nobody drafted Joao “Naza114” Vieira for their WCOOP League teams, and the Portuguese crusher is showing just how right Veldhuis is. Vieira won his second of the year – and 12th overall – on Wednesday, topping the 2,360-entry $109 NLHE for $34,844. His earlier win came in a $2K NLHE event.

Team Pro Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg also made the final table in this one (7th for $4,571) and almost final-tabled the $530 edition too, busting in 10th for $2,862. Spraggy also finished third in the $109 NHLE 2-7 FOR $2,042. Feels like his time will come soon.

Oh happy day, O’Driscoll: London-based Irishman Conor “ccOOnnOOrr” O’Driscoll had a wonderful Wednesday, winning the $22 NLHE for a whopping $17,675 after outlasting 6,217 entries. Moreover, O’Driscoll also made the final table (alongside Vieira and Spraggy) in the $109 Medium edition of the same event, finishing fourth for $12,620. This is O’Driscoll’s maiden WCOOP victory.

FAL1st headlines four more double champs: Joao Vieira wasn’t the only double champ crowned on Wednesday. The legendary “FAL1st” picked up their second title of the year with a win in the $1K NLHE 2-7 Single Draw, banking $19,490 – a couple of grand more than they won for their $1K FLO8 title earlier in the series. The Thailand-based player now has four WCOOP wins and is currently second on the overall Leader Board – great news for Team Peace&loove in WCOOP League.

Belarusian beast ‘Lequenden’ also won a second 2024 title, becoming the official World Champion of Heads-Up NLHE. They beat 193 entries to earn $44,000, less than a quarter of the $208,637 they won earlier this series with their Sunday Million High Roller victory. Lequenden now has five career WCOOP wins.

The final two double champs are “Karllofff” and “ultraviol3nt”, who won the $55 and $215 Mini Bounty Builder High Rollers, respectively. Moldova’s Karllofff banked $27,779 including bounties, having previously won the $11 Mystery Warm-Up at the beginning of the series. Argentina’s ultraviol3nt earned themselves $53,405 including bounties; their first win of the year came in a $109 6-Max.

Make sure you tune in tonight: Both Parker “Tonkaaaa” Talbot and Lex “L.Veldhuis” Veldhuis remain in the hunt for the $1K 6-Max PKO title and both will be streaming it tonight. Just 18 of the 251 entries remain with Talbot in third and Veldhuis in seventh. The rest of the field is comprised of crushers and there’s $21K plus bounties up top. On’t miss it.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18

Victory for Vousden takes him to four: The biggest prize on Tuesday went to Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden who took down the $2K Bounty High Roller for $73,322, including $41K in bounty prizes. The Fin had three WCOOP titles heading into this series but hadn’t won one since 2021, and this fourth trophy wasn’t easy to come by. The final included Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, hoping to become the year’s first triple champ, and Estonia’s Juanki “B4NKROLL3R” Vecino, who Vousden vanquished heads-up.

Final table for Wistern: The $215 medium edition of that event saw PokerStars Ambassador Lasse Jagd Lauritsen, better known as “Wistern”, stream a deep run that took him all the way to the final table. Unfortunately for his Twitch audience, Wistern’s epic run ended in seventh place out of 2,427 entries and he collected just under $6K. “PANVLAD” went on to win it for $47,156, including bounties, giving Kazakhstan its first title of the series.

Third titles for Elgstrøm and Stakelis: Two players picked up their third career WCOOP wins on Tuesday, one a mixed game master and the other a no limit hold’em specialist. Denmark’s Christian “CMoosepower” Elgstrøm won the $1K Stud Hi/Lo for his second trophy in the discipline, earning $21,154 by beating a 67-entry field, while Lithuania’s Audrius “Stakelis24” Stakelis took down a $530 NLHE deep stack with 579 entries for $50,946.

Fourth double champion crowned: Brazil’s Dennys “dennysramos2” Ramos is the latest player to win two titles this year. Ramos defeated Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos heads-up to win the $1K 7-Max PKO for $37,318 total, having already won a $530 7-Max Turbo earlier this series. He joins Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, Parker “Tonkaaaa” Talbot and Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav on the multiple champions list.

Other notable winners on Tuesday: Finland’s “Aku1206” is the latest World Champion, winning the $1,050 PLO8 World Championship for $33,578. The night ended with some fast-paced action and saw Jonas “donut604” Mackoff clinch his maiden WCOOP in a $55 7-Max turbo for $17,339 including bounties. Bulgaria’s “olelemaiko” won the $320 edition for a total prize of $33,653.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

Two in a night for Astedt: The brilliant Niklas “Lena900” Astedt joined the WCOOP 2024 party as a winner on Monday night, taking down not one but two titles and bringing his career total to nine. Astedt won both the $1K Sunday Kickoff for $48K and the $2K 5-Card PLO for $50K, both modest scores for someone who was recently at the WSOP final table. However, Astedt literally never rests and this two-in-a-night achievement is only what we expect of a player who is undisputedly one of the greatest, if not the greatest tournament players of all time.

Nerd Guy up to nine: Just as Niklas Astedt moved to nine WCOOP wins, Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski matched the tally when the brilliant Brazilian made it nine for his career in the $215 5-Card PLO 6-Max, winning close to $20K. Dzivielevski is brilliant across all formats, with wins dating from 2015 in numerous variants. This latest adds another chunk of points to Andre Akkari’s WCOOP League total, and more silverware to his own aching trophy cabinet.

Three-way chop for 6-Max champ: The latest World Championship event to finish on Monday night — the $5,200 buy-in World Championship of 6-Max NLHE — resulted in a three-way chop between three of the best: Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, the former SCOOP Main Event champion “kZhh“, and the Lithuanian high-stakes player Dominykas Mikolaitis, otherwise known as “Mikensonas“. This came about after David “MissOracle” Yan was knocked out in fourth. After arranging the deal, Mikolaitis went on to beat kZhh heads up, with Leonard taking slightly more than the second-placed finisher in cash. Mikolaitis won $172,982, kZhh took $133,919 and Leonard banked $150,646. Only Mikolaitis can call himself World Champion of 6-Max for the coming year, however.

Sunday Million showdown: More big money on Sunday/Monday changed hands in the WCOOP version of the Sunday Million, which had a $10K High Roller attached to a $1K “medium” and the standard $109 version, this time designated the “low” event. No matter the title, the players come in their thousands and the UK’s “wozzle9” became the latest Sunday Million champion, banking $95,605 for beating a field of more than 12,500 entries.

Latvia’s “LevitateLV” won the medium event, taking the most from a prize pool of $1.084 million. The Latvian player won $164,213. As for the High Roller, that went to the Belarusian crusher “Leqenden“, who picked up a fourth WCOOP title alongside a payout of $208,637. More than half of that came in bounties.

Near miss for Moraes: PokerStars Ambassador Rafa “GM_VALTER

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16

Two for Tonkaaaa: He’s done it again and this time, he had company. Parker “Tonkaaaa” Talbot picked up his second title of the year and sixth overall on Sunday, winning a $1K NLHE PKO for $72,803 (including 38,346 in bounties) after already becoming the World Champion of HORSE. This result is extra special for the PokerStars Team Pro because of the people he beat along the way. The top three finishers – Talbot, “ShipitFTW911” and Niklas “Lena900” Astedt – are all part of Team Tonkaaaa, Talbot’s WCOOP League squad. That’s a huge points pick-up – check out the latest League standings here.

Talbot is the second double champion of the year after Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav, but we also saw WCOOP all-timers add new trophies to their collections over the weekend.

11th victories for Vieira and Strebkov: Two perennial COOP performers picked up the 11th WCOOP titles of their incredible careers. Joao “Naza114” Vieira took down a $2K NLHE event for $54,358 on Sunday, topping a 124-entry field and a final table that included Michael “imluckbox” Addamo and Patrick “pads1161” Leonard. The UK-based Portuguese crusher’s previous titles have come in a range of poker disciplines, from 2-7 triple draw to PLO Main Events.

Another all-round beast, Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, picked up his 11th WCOOP by winning the $1K World Championship of 2-7 Triple Draw for $19,664. Strebkov becomes the second World Champion after Talbot’s HORSE victory and picks up some points for Team Veldhuis in WCOOP League.

Other notable weekend winners: Another Veldhuis League pick Roman “RomeOpro” Romanvosky captured the second-largest prize of the series so far on Saturday. The Ukrainian won the $5K Thursday Thrill PKO for $154,071, including a whopping $94K in bounties. That’s title number three for Romanovsky, having won two last year.

Speaking of the 2023 series, last year’s Low Leaderboard winner “FAL1st” clinched their first trophy of the year with a win in the $1K FLO8 for $17,365 and their fourth career title. Seb “peace&loove” Huber picked the Thailand-based player with their first WCOOP League pick and it’s proving to be a great one.

Christian “eisenhower1” Jeppsson now has five WCOOP titles after his victory in a $215 turbo freezeout for $26,505, while Denmark’s “starwins :)” did exactly that, topping the $5K Sunday Cooldown High Roller for $106,225, including $53K in bounties.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

Five in a row for tonkaaaa: Arise Sir Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot, World Champion of HORSE. Yes, it’s true. A matter of days after Team PokerStars Pro celebrated its first winner in this year’s WCOOP, Parker Talbot — known to all as “tonkaaaa” — followed Lex into the winner’s circle, and did so in the first World Championship event of the year. Talbot beat a field of 88 entries in the official World Championship of HORSE, defeating Austria’s “huiiiiiiiiii” heads up and claiming a $22K first prize. It’s the prestige that will mean more, however.

This is Talbot’s fifth career WCOOP title and continues a magnificent streak. He has won a WCOOP tournament every year since 2020, three in NLHE, one in 8-Game, and now one in HORSE too. It’s a marvellous record, and adds a bunch of points to his WCOOP League team too.

Zerjav continues sparkling start: No one has started WCOOP so brilliantly this year as Slovenia’s finest Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav. Already a winner from the opening exchanges, Zerjav was leading the Player of the Series race going into Thursday’s action. And he entered Friday as the first double champion of the year.

Zerjav added a win in the $2K NLHE PKO Bounty Builder to his earlier triumph in the $530 NLO8 event, banking another $65,837, including bounties. (He also finished fourth in a $1K PLO 6-Max event).

Before this year, Slovenian players had only ever won five WCOOP titles (including one for Zerjav). They now have nine after Zerjav’s double and one for countryman “porsh11” who also prevailed in an $11 PLO event on Thursday night.

The final Slovenia triumph goes next to the name of Arsenii “josef_shvejk” Karmatckii, who has relocated to Slovenia from Russia. Karmatckii won the $530 Turbo PKO on Thursday night, denying “Sintoras” heads up. Karmatckii now has four WCOOP titles, dating from 2018.

More Red Spade success: There’s no time to rest on your laurels in WCOOP and Lex Veldhuis was back to the grind immediately following his spectacular win this week. On Thursday night, Veldhuis was back at another PKO final table, this time placing fourth in WCOOP 20-M: $530 NLHE PKO Bounty Builder, which earned him another $12K including bounties. It was won by “Faboulus888” from Austria, who claimed $62,049. Spraggy, trailing in the WCOOP league, also made it to fourth on Thursday night, in a $109 PLO 6-Max event. Spraggy the four-card maestro? It could happen…

Other notable winners on Thursday:

Canada’s “ISmellToast“, who won two WCOOP titles in 2022, including the World Championship of 2-7 Single Draw, picked up a third career WCOOP title in the $11 Razz event. This one was comparatively tiny, with the first prize worth $1,644. But they all count, and that’s a third for this player.

“Stumpfed” won the $1K NLHE 7-Max, getting off the mark for WCOOP after claiming two titles in SCOOP this year.

Regular COOP winner Gabriel Baleeiro — aka “pinguinho” — is another two-time champion from 2022 who also added a third victory of their career. Baleeiro took down the $109 Razz event, beating into second place Albania’s “king153246“, who earned another ton of points for Seb Huber’s WCOOP league team. That’s the second runner-up finish for the Boot Camp qualifier, while Baleeiro’s march to greatness continues with a $5K s

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

You might be surprised to learn that Aleksejs “APonakov” Ponakovs had not won a WCOOP before yesterday. Latvia’s all-time money winner had a close call last year, finishing runner-up to Joao “Naza114” Vieira in a $3K Super Tuesday, but went one better this time, topping the $1K Super Tuesday for $72,728. Brazil’s Rodrigo “seijistar1” Seiji came second, while the red-hot Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav finished fourth, extending his lead atop the overall WCOOP Leaderboard.

Wednesday’s biggest winner was “|gammi|€120” of Belarus who took down the largest buy-in event of the series so far: the $10K Super Tuesday High Roller. |gammi|€120 defeated a 76-entry field made up of poker’s elite to win $189,478 after a heads-up chop with Rodrigo “SELOUAN1991” Selouan, who earned $169,297. Ole “wizowizo” Schemion (3rd), “SerVlaMin” (5th), Ponakovs (6th), Artur “marathur1” Martirosyan (7th) and Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski (9th) also made the final table.

Elsewhere, Sweden’s Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren clinched his third WCOOP title with his victory in the $1K Bounty Builder High Roller, good for $64,777 exactly half of which came from bounties

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

An arena-size audience tuned in to watch Lex Veldhuis battle for his maiden World Championship yesterday, and the PokerStars Team Pro didn’t disappoint. Veldhuis defeated Alex “Pwndidi” Theologis heads-up in the $5K Bounty Builder Super High Roller to win $130,081, just one high roller buy-in shy of the $140,279 he earned for his first SCOOP title in May. And he did it while dressed as Ali G (cheers to his mods for that one).

Imagine indeed. https://t.co/gAz6KkmlOq pic.twitter.com/BlOYl5gWtl

— Lex Veldhuis (@LexVeldhuis) September 10, 2024

The $5K wasn’t Veldhuis’ only Day 2 on Tuesday as he also returned in the $1K PKO Freezeout, but fell in 13th. That event was won by Steven “random_chu” Chew who banked $45,780, picking up his second WCOOP title after a win in 2020.

Other notable winners on Tuesday included Dzmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich. The Polish prodigy, who burst onto the live high roller scene back in 2015 before becoming an EPT champion the following year, took down the $2K HORSE for $30,732 and his seventh WCOOP title. 

Ognyan “cocojamb0” Dimov won three WCOOPs in 2022 and another last year. The Bulgarian is now on the 2024 board following a victory in the $55 NLHE 8-Max for $28,604. The high edition of that event had a $320 buy-in and was won by last year’s Medium leaderboard winner, Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen. The Swede won four titles last year alone and took down this one for $28,165 and his seventh WCOOP trophy – not to mention some League points for Team Tonkaaaa.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10

The most fascinating final of the night took place in the $1K Mystery Warm-Up event, where Guillaume “Nolet20” Nolet, “Sintoras” and Samuel “go4gunners” Muller were the final three players. Sintoras had already won an event on WCOOP’s opening night; Muller was deep in the $530 Kickoff, which he eventually won, and Nolet was going for a second WCOOP title having won his first last year. This one ended with Muller perishing in third, but taking the most in bounties, Sintoras departing in second, making it a first and a second from the opening two nights of WCOOP, and Nolet landing the title, which came with a $57,580 payday. These three are all clearly very much on form already.

There were no Brazilian winners on the opening night of WCOOP this time, but the South Americans came roaring to the party on Monday night when each level of the Sunday Million event headed to a player based in Brazil. The biggest winner of them all was “n1cetomeetyou“, who took $116,811, including bounties, in the $215 buy-in “medium” event. Countryman “danieldl7” won the $1K version, for $96,634, while “rabbi789” took $43K in the $55 “low” edition. Of them, only “danieldl7” had won a WCOOP title before, back in 2021. That was a $22 “low” event, so here’s clear proof of someone climbing through the WCOOP ranks.

The first high buy-in PLO event of the series went to one of the four-card game’s best players: Chris “lissi stinkt” Frank, who downed the similarly gifted Andras “probirs” Nemeth heads up. Frank has won two titles previously in WCOOP, one in a four-handed PLO tournament and one in a PLO/NLH mix. This time it was straight PLO 6-Max, with 173 entries and a first prize of $34,506. Frank now has that ready to reinvest this WCOOP.

Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav got off the mark for this year’s WCOOP, adding to the title he won in 2021. The highly rated Slovenian beat Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov heads up in the $530 NLO8 event for a $15,373 score. Zerjav will surely win much more. He’s a clear young hotshot climbing rapidly through the ranks.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

Three of WCOOP’s best-known unknown players hogged the headlines on the Series opening night, with Poland’s “Tr!pleeeee“, Austria-based “CPUrul0r” and Germany’s “Sintoras” all winning titles. No real name is known for any of these players, but Tr!pleeeee was a two-time winner last year, CPUrul0r won a fourth career WCOOP and Sintoras is now a double WCOOP champion having crushed high-stakes tournaments for a long time.

The details:

Poland’s “Tr!pleeeee” started where they left off last year, bagging a title on the series’ opening night. Last year, Tr!pleeeee won two WCOOP tournaments, both in high events, and this year’s success came in the $530 NLHE Turbo PKO Sunday Cooldown, for $28,407 including bounties.

There was a second career title for German COOP crusher “Sintoras”, who won the $55 Kickoff on Sunday night, banking $32K. It was the first tournament to finish of the series.

Austria-based “CPUrul0r” won a fourth career WCOOP title in the $109 Sunday Cooldown, adding victory to previous successes in 2021 and 2022, where they won two. This latest victory was worth $24,344, including $10K in bounties.

WCOOP OVERVIEW

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) — the world’s longest-running and premier online poker series — returns for its 23rd edition this year.

These are the dates to mark on your calendars right now:

Sunday, 8th September to Wednesday, 2nd October, 2024.

That means incredible WCOOP action for 25 days. The WCOOP Main Events will begin on Sunday, September 29, but check out the full schedule below.

123 events. 379 tournaments. Buy-ins from just $5.50 up to $25,000.

A whopping $80 million​ guaranteed.

WCOOP 2024 SCHEDULE

ABOUT THE 2024 SERIES

Twenty-two years after its first running, WCOOP remains the online tournament series that still gets the pulse racing faster than any other. Ask online players for their ambitions, and a WCOOP title is still at the top.

Few could have predicted when PokerStars players first contested WCOOP in 2002, that it would still capture the imagination more than two decades later. Through those first 22 years, players accounted for more than 8.8 million entries and 2,445 champions were crowned from more than 70 countries. In prize money terms that added up to just shy of $1.3 billion.

Online titles don’t get more prestigious or more significant than a WCOOP crown — but these tournaments are open to anyone. Buy-ins start at only $5.50, with numerous ways players can qualify for higher buy-in events for a minimal outlay.

WCOOP 2024 KEY INFO:

Dates: 8 September – 2 October, 2024
Events: 123
Tournaments: 379
Buy-ins: $5.50 – $25,000
Total guaranteed: $80 million

The winner of every WCOOP 2024 event will also win a stunning trophy to commemorate the achievement.

$100,000 in prizes across WCOOP Player of the Series Leader Boards:​

There are $100,000 in prizes across the Low/Medium/High Leader Boards, and the Overall Player of the Series (the coveted Player of the Series Leader Boards will use results from all WCOOP buy-in tiers).​

Please Note: players in Sweden, Germany and Belgium are ineligible for leader board prizes due to regional regulations.

MORE ABOUT WCOOP:
YEAR-BY-YEAR GUIDE | COMPLETE RESULTS | MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

4 WOMEN’S WINTER FESTIVAL PACKAGES ADDED

As if becoming a WCOOP champion wasn’t enough incentive to play the four Women’s tournaments on the schedule, PokerStars is also adding four packages to the Women’s Winter Festival in London this November.

The winners of the four WCOOP Women’s events (shown below) will win a £1,200 package that includes the £400 Main Event buy-in, three nights in a hotel, plus expenses.

The Women’s Winter Festival takes place at London’s iconic Hippodrome Casino from November 21-24, 2024, headlined by a £400 buy-in Main Event boasting £100,000 in guaranteed prizes before a single registration.

There will also be plenty of side events offering participants a thrilling and competitive environment, not to mention tons of off-the-table fun. One such side event is the unique 50/50 male and female event, ensuring there’s something for everyone to get involved.

Here’s a look at those WCOOP 2024 Women’s Events:

Saturday, 28 September

WCOOP Women’s World Championship – $215 NLHE, $20K Gtd – 12:30ET

Sunday, 29 September

WCOOP 109-L: $5.50 PKO Women’s Event, $2.5K Gtd
WCOOP 109-M: $22 PKO Women’s Event, $7.5K Gtd
WCOOP 109-H: $109 PKO Women’s Event, $15K Gtd

Read more about the Women’s Winter Festival here.

USE POWER PATH TO PLAY WCOOP

Did you know you can use your Power Path tickets to play WCOOP events?

You can now play for WCOOP Silver and Gold Pass bundles with Power Path. Worth $2,500 and $10,300, these bundles will be stuffed full of WCOOP tickets so you can enjoy the WCOOP action in style. As always, you can start your Power Path from just $0.50.​

Last year we saw 2,904 cashes in WCOOP and WCOOP Side Event from tickets won via Power Path, totalling an incredible $757K in prizes won.

Get on the Power Path today.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR?

The $10,300 WCOOP NLHE Main Event (#98-H) went to Ivan “ILS007” Stokes, and maiden WCOOP titles don’t come much better than this. He battled through 600 entries from the world’s best tournament players and defeated Sweden’s “ShipitFTW911” heads-up to win $1.04 million and the right to call himself the world champion.

WCOOP 98-H: World Championship of NLHE: $10,300 Main Event

1- Ivan “ILS007” Stokes (UK) – $1,047,257
2- “ShipitFTW911” (Sweden) – $765,389
3- Juan “xPastorcitox” Pastor (Argentina) – $559,385
4- Niklas “Lena900” Astedt (Sweden) – $408,827
5- Leonard “Grozzorg” Maue (Austria) – $298,792 
6- Jamil “jamil11” Wakil (Canada) – $218,372
7- Kelvin “Kelvin_FP:AR” Kerber (Brazil) – $159,598
8- Mario “livinmydream1” Mosboeck – $116,642
9- Kayhan “KayhanMok” Mokri (Norway) – $94,330

GLASER WINS SEVEN

Already one of the most decorated players in WCOOP history, British mixed games specialist Benny Glaser — known online as “RunGodlike” — went on an incredible tear through this series, winning an unprecedented SEVEN titles.

LEONARD TOPS PLAYER OF THE SERIES

Patrick “pads1161” Leonard builds his entire yearly schedule around these big online poker series, always with the same intention: win titles and the Player of the Series Leader Board.

Job done. He’s absolutely smashed it in WCOOP 2023, winning four events and topping the overall Player of the Series Leaderboard, earning himself an extra $25,000.

WCOOP 2023 STAT TRACKER

Tournaments completed: 340
Entries: 1,026,834 (inc. 244,257 re-entries)
Prize pools: $95,513,197
First-place prizes: $15,660,295 (inc. $3,086,617 in bounties)

Countries Leaderboard final standings:

80 wins – Brazil
40 – UK
19 – Austria
18 – Ukraine
14 – Canada, Norway
13 – Sweden
12 – Finland, Germany, Poland
10 – Mexico
8 – Czech Republic, Hungary
7 – Romania
6 – Argentina, Belarus, Lithuania
5 – Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland
4 – Andorra, Greece
3 – Estonia, Peru, Thailand
2 – Belgium, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malta, Uruguay
1 – Armenia, Aruba, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, Slovakia, Venezuela, Vietnam.

Dive deeper into last year’s series here.

ALL-TIME WCOOP STATS (2002-2023)

Winners of WCOOP events have banked more than $200 million between them, while just shy of $1.3 billion has been awarded in prize money.

No. of Tournaments: 2,445
Total Entrants: 8,835,603
Total Prize Pools: $1,299,316,484
First Place Prizes: $200,132,701

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