The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) returns for another edition at PokerStars, with the 2003 WCOOP schedule of events being released today. This year's edition of the WCOOP, the grandaddy of all online tournament series, will offer $80 million in prize-pool guarantees through its nearly four weeks of action.
PokerStars' 2023 WCOOP begins on September 10, 2023, and runs through October 4. This 22nd edition of the WCOOP offers 110 events, with each of those events, as has long been part of the WCOOP, to be offered in high, medium, and low buy-in versions.
Buy-ins range from as little as $5.50 for several of the "Low" events to $25,000 for the WCOOP's priciest "High" high-roller, with plenty of qualifying opportunities feeding into these events as well. Satellites begin at just 55 cents, and even the WCOOP main events will offer plenty of affordable seats in special-edition Spin $ Go's (priced at $20, $4, and $0.75, respectively), WCOOP Champions Freerolls, and Fast Track qualifiers.
Power Path the newest qualifying channel
Besides all those pre-existing ways to qualify for WCOOP events, PokerStars is also introducing Power Path, a steps-based offering. According to the PokerStars Blog, where additional details and the entire 2023 WCOOP schedule are now available, $285,000 in WCOOP tickets will be made available as added value in Power Path Step 3 & 4 tourneys.
For the first time ever, the Stars Blog has shared, Power Path Qualification will be available to players, with $285,000 in WCOOP tickets to be added. Players will be able to exchange passes for WCOOP events and ticket bundles, too, in these ways:
- Bronze ($109 buy-in events)
- Two options of $2,500 Silver Pass bundles
- A $10,300 Gold Power Pass can be used either for a buy-in to the Main Event High, or exchanged for a ticket bundle.
The Silver and Gold bundles allow players to enter several different WCOOP events, and those bundles break down as follows:
Silver Pass ticket bundle 1
- 1 x $530 WCOOP ticket
- 3 x $215 WCOOP tickets
- 6 x $109 WCOOP tickets
- 8 x $55 WCOOP tickets
- 10 x $22 WCOOP tickets
Silver Pass ticket bundle 2
- 2 x $1,050 WCOOP Main Event-M tickets
- 2 x $109 WCOOP Main Event-L tickets
- 8 x $22 WCOOP ticket
Gold Pass bundle
- 1 x $5,200 WCOOP ticket
- 4 x $1,050 WCOOP tickets
- 4 x $109 WCOOP tickets
- 6 x $55 WCOOP tickets
Gold Pass bundle winners can also take that value and enter directly into the "High" main event, which carries a $10,300 buy-in.
Three main events offer combined $12.5 million in guarantees
The $10,300 "High" main event is one of 12 WCOOP events to be designated as WCOOP World Championship offerings. It carries a $6 million prize-pool guarantee. When added to the $4 million guaranteed in the $1,050 "Medium" main event, plus another $2.5 million guaranteed in the $109 "Low" main, $12.5 million is assured to be paid out in the three WCOOP mains. All three main events begin on Sunday, October 1.
Along with the "High" main event, the 11 other World Championship WCOOP events are spread throughout the series' 25-day run. Those include a women's NLH championship, razz, 8-game, H.O.R.S.E., PKO no-limit hold'em, 2-7 triple draw, no-limit 2-7, 6-max NLH, heads-up NLH, PLO-8, and PLO. The PLO World Championship also begins on October 1, in the final weekend of the series.
Several special WCOOP achievement honors return this year as well. The WCOOP Player of the Series leaderboards will award a combined $100,000 in the Low, Medium, High, and Overall categories.
Featured image source: PokerStars
