Poker players around the world are gearing up for what promises to be the most exciting online poker festival of the year, the 2015 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) on PokerStars from September 6-27.
The year's WCOOP marks the 14th edition of the poker series and promises to be the biggest in history featuring 70 events with a combined $45 million in guaranteed prize pools. This represents a sizable increase from 2014, when the WCOOP schedule consisted of 66 events with a combined $40 million in guaranteed prizes.
The highlight of this year's schedule is the $5,200 buy-in Main Event on September 27, where thousands of players will compete for a piece of the advertised $10 million guaranteed prize pool. Last year, Germany's Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz etched his name into the history books after shipping the WCOOP Main Event for a life-changing $1.3 million.
Over the years, we have witnessed many players become overnight millionaires by shipping the WCOOP Main Event. American poker pro Tyson "POTTERPOKER" Marks holds the record for largest first-place prize after winning the 2010 WCOOP Main Event for a whopping $2,278,097.50. Marks' record should be safe this year and in years to come, as when he shipped the Main Event, it was the last WCOOP before Black Friday rocked the poker world.
Other household names to win the WCOOP Main Event include high-stakes poker pros JC "area23JC" Tran, winning $670,000 in 2006, and Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko, who won $1,715,200 in 2009.
While the first events don't start until Sunday, many players have already begun their journey to the WCOOP by playing in the many satellites, including the Mega Path satellites. In fact, records are already being broken thanks to Czech Republic's "DomMarty" qualifying for this year's WCOOP Main Event for just 12 FPPs, the fewest ever spent in the WCOOP's history.
Additionally, many players have begun to earn their seat to the two-day flighted WCOOP-01: $109 NL Hold'em, with the first flight starting last Sunday and continuing throughout the week until the second day begins on September 6 at 13:30 ET.