Column: the online version of the World Series
Barry Carter looks ahead to this year's WCOOP and how the festival has become the nearest thing the online game has to the WSOP.
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| JC Tran is on course to be the first WCOOP & WSOP Main Event champ |
This weekend the World Championship of Online Poker returns to PokerStars for three weeks; 66 tournaments guarantee at least $40m in prizes. The Main Event will guarantee at least $1,250,000 to the winner.
I view the WSOP as the end of the poker season - the pinnacle of the sport. In many ways, the WCOOP is the start of the next poker season, and that is fitting because it really is the online version of the WSOP.
The idea that any online poker festival could be considered an 'event' would have seemed quite laughable a few years ago, but that is really what some of these larger online festivals have become.
No, you don't need to leave your house or even put on clothes to play in a series like WCOOP - but people do treat them in much the same way they would the WSOP.
Plenty of people book time off work and in the cases of American players, it actually requires that they travel much further afield than they would if they were going to Vegas.
The closest thing to an online 'festival'
| WCOOP Records |
 Biggest prize: POTTERPOKER - $2,278,097
Most cashes: Pearjammer - 59 Biggest field: Event #3, 2010 - 12,066 entrants Most events won: Dan 'djk123' Kelly (pictured) - 4 |
The WCOOP really is a parallel to the WSOP in the latter's relation to every other online event. There are more events, the buy-ins are bigger, the fields are much larger, the structures are deeper, there are more interesting formats, there is a bracelet at the end of it, and there are simply more bragging rights involved in winning a WCOOP.
Most WCOOPs end with a life-changing prize, just like the WSOP. The average first prize last year was $123,878, which isn't a far cry from some WSOP events.
The fields are much larger than any other field you would encounter, but the pros have a big edge. This is because the structures are so good and the events include formats rarely played like Draw, Stud and mixed games.
There is even a side game culture growing around WCOOP, just like at the WSOP. I know a lot of cash game players who say the cash games around the WCOOP are juicier than any other time of year, just like live cash game players experience during the WSOP. Add to that the 2nd Chance festival that is taking place alongside the WCOOP this time, and the action at PokerStars will be even juicier this year.
The biggest online event of the year
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| All the stars come out for WCOOP |
The Player of the Series title is worth about $31,200 this year and having interviewed several pros about this, there seems to be almost as much interest in this leader board as there is the WSOP POY.
In fact to demonstrate how the WCOOP mirrors the WSOP, we may even have the first double Main Event champion. JC Tran won the WCOOP Main Event in 2006 for $670,194, and he is the odds on favourite to win the WSOP Main Event this year when the November Nine resumes.
Perhaps the biggest parallel I can draw between the WSOP and the WCOOP is that they both now, thanks to last year, have their own fairy tale story. The WSOP had Chris Moneymaker, the WCOOP has maratik.
It was one of the most compelling poker stories in years. Marat 'maratik' Sharafutdinov, a low stakes taxi driver from Russia, turned 40 Frequent Player Points into $1,000,907.26 by first winning a series of WCOOP satellites to the $5,200 main event (an amazing feat in itself) and then winning the Main Event outright.
How can it get even bigger?
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| Is it time for a $100k charity event like One Drop? |
I think it is perhaps time that PokerStars pushed the boundaries again and really made it a spectacle, by emulating One Drop.
There are some $10,300 events this year and there have been some $25,000 heads-up events online before, but I think there would be interest in a $100,000 buy-in tournament, especially when you consider how frequent they are on the live tour.
Not only would it draw a lot of attention, mirroring One Drop's charity donation would also bring with it positive publicity (there should also be a mini-charity WCOOP like the mini-One Drop). The timing seems right for them to consider it for next year.
The WCOOP is becoming an event, and a spectacle, in its own right and it is one of the rare online games I enjoy writing about as much as the live events.
I think ultimately that SCOOP and MicroMillions are better for the game because they are so much more inclusive, but in terms of reaching the summit of the online game, the WCOOP really is unrivaled.
