The 20th edition of PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) concluded Wednesday and produced the biggest version ever. The festival awarded $126.5 million in prize money, crushing the original $100 million guarantee.
Over more than three weeks, the series attracted 1.4 million entries across the 102-event schedule. The six Main Events awarded a total of $18.4 million.
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Brazilians score big in WCOOP
Players from Brazil have run hot recently in major online poker tournaments. That included the WCOOP with players from the country securing the most wins in the series with 57.
Brazil’s Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski also scored three WCOOP wins. He also became the first ever to win three titles in back-to-back WCOOPs.
Dzivielevski accomplished the feat in 2020 and 2021, and recently spoke with PokerScout about signing as a member of Team partypoker. He spoke about his preparation to remain the world’s No. 1-ranked online poker player.
“I make sure I have some kind of interaction with poker every day, whether playing or studying,” he says. ”I try to play two to three times a week and study on the other days. I don’t have an exact number of hours that I devote to studying, but I study on demand.”
Those efforts certainly paid off. Along with the prize money, every WCOOP champion receives a newly designed trophy.
PokerStars ambassadors grab WCOOP titles on same day
Several other players stood out in the series as well, including some members of the PokerStars ambassador ranks. Ben “Spraggy” Spragg and Parker “Tonkaaaa” Talbot both won the second WCOOP titles of their careers on the same day.
Talbot took down the $5,200 Midweek Freeze (Event 75-H) for $108,729. Spragg won the $1,050 Turbo PKO Freezeout (Event 83-H) for $67,968. The accomplishment produced plenty of excitement from Spragg.
📢 Sound on
“Oh my god I'm a champion.”
An emotional @spraggy seals #WCOOP title number two. 👇 pic.twitter.com/nxKEes1odP
— PokerStars (@PokerStars) September 10, 2021
Some other highlights from the series also included a trifecta of titles for the United Kingdom’s Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi. This player and Dzivielevski were the only two to accomplish the feat.
The Player of the Series also went to Shakerchi. He won the High leaderboard for $15,000. The Medium leaderboard winner went to “FONBET_RULIT” for $10,000 with the Low leaderboard going to “ekvilibryst” for $5,000.
In total, 13 players managed to secure two WCOOP titles. More than $1 million in value was added by PokerStars through giveaways and qualifiers.
COOP action continues in US, Southern Europe
Plenty of action remains for US-based PokerStars players. Championship of Online Poker series are currently underway for players in:
The three series run concurrently through Sept. 27 featuring a total guaranteed prize pool of $4.5 million across the three state championships.
In Southern Europe, the Galactic Series is also taking place in France, Spain, and Portugal until Sept. 26. The series offers 303 events and more than €10 million guaranteed.