2023 WCOOP Main Events Will Run From Oct 1 With $12.5M In GTS

Summary:

• The three NLHE Main Events get underway on October 1
• The trio of tournaments is headlined by the $10,300 buy-in Main Event
• There’s $12.5 million in total guarantees on offer across all three events

With the 2023 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) in full swing on PokerStars, all eyes are on the trio of Main Events which kick off on October 1. This falls on a Sunday, the busiest day of the week for online poker players.

WCOOP Main Events Begin on Oct. 1

This year, all three NLHE Main Events on the WCOOP schedule begin at 5:30 p.m. BST on October 1. Players may choose from buy-ins of $109 (L), $1,050 (M), and $10,300 (H).

There’s $12.5 million guaranteed across all three tournaments, with the high edition featuring $6 million in guaranteed prize pool. This $10,300 buy-in tournament is expected to attract the most attention, with the winner set to take home a seven-figure payout which has been the case since 2006.

Participants in the $10,300 NLHE Main Event start the action with a 250,000 chip stack played to 30-minute levels. Day 1 concludes at level 15 and play resumes on Day 2 on October 2 until just 40 players are left. Day 3 is scheduled for October 3, with the finale set for October 4.

As usual, PokerStars is giving everyone the opportunity to enter the tournament for a fraction of the price via satellites starting at $0.55, with tickets also up for grabs through the Power Path promotion.

PLO fans will also have their own Main Events to enjoy, all three of them getting underway on October 1 as well.

Previous Winners of WCOOP NLHE Main Event

The NLHE Main Event has always been the cream of the crop of the WCOOP series each year since its debut in 2002. The first-ever WCOOP Main Event champion was a player who went by the name “MultiMarine”. That player took down the inaugural Main Event for $65,450. That year, the tournament cost just $1,050 to enter.

From 2004-2006, PokerStars upped the buy-in to $2,600 before doubling it to $5,200 from 2008 through 2021. In 2022, the operator set a new buy-in of $10,300 for the main highlight of the series and it was won by Luis “luis faira” Faria for $1,293,825.

The largest top prize awarded thus far in the WCOOP Main Event was won in 2011 by Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks. That year, the tournament attracted 2,443 entrants to generate a massive $12,215,000 prize pool. Marks walked away with the largest slice worth $2,278,097.

German poker superstar Fedor Holz also has a WCOOP Main Event title to brag about. He earned it in 2014 with a $1,300,000 top prize.