PokerStars Upgrades WCOOP As Summer of Value Reaches Its Peaks

August 21st, 2020 | by Kaycee James

PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is back and, thanks to some tweaks, it’s set to be bigger than ever.

PokerStars WCOOP 2020 will feature an $82 million guarantee, live streams, and special ticket giveaways. (Image: PokerStars)

The 75-event festival will get underway on August 30 and run through until September 23. Each event will feature three buy-in options (low, medium, and high), which means there will be 225 MTTs in total.

With two more events than last year, WCOOP 2020 will feature an $82 million guarantee. When this is added PokerStars’ regular roster of MTTs, there will be at least $200 million to play for in the coming weeks.

PokerStars Pushing Value at All Levels

WCOOP 2020 will kick off with an eight-max PKO event. As per the schedule, the opening MTTs will have the following entry fees:

$109 No Limit Hold’em Eight-Max PKO Sunday Slam – $1.5 million guarantee
$1,050 No Limit Hold’em Eight-Max PKO Sunday Slam – $2 million guarantee
$10,300 No Limit Hold’em Eight-Max PKO Sunday Slam – $1.5 million guarantee

Three additional events will take place on August 30, with buy-ins dropping as low as $22.

As with all online majors, PokerStars will be offering satellites for every WCOOP event. To further incentivize players, there will also be a $100,000 Player of the Series leaderboard.

PokerStars has also introduced a sweepstake promotion. Every player that takes part in a WCOOP event will receive a sweepstake ticket. These tickets give holders entry into an all-in MTT offering free seats in the $5,200 WCOOP main event and the $25,000 Super High Roller.

The organizers have also worked to combat tournament fatigue. With the WPT World Online Championships and WSOP Online still in progress, there’s a danger players (specifically pros) may be on the verge of burn out.

To counter that, Fridays will be designated a WCOOP-free zone. This should give players enough time to rest, regroup, and focus on the weekend’s big-money WCOOP events.

WCOOP 2020 Will Bring Something Extra

The WCOOP main event will be the pinnacle of the series when it gets underway on September 20:

$55 No Limit Hold’em Eight-Max Main Event – $1.25 million guarantee
$530 No Limit Hold’em Eight-Max Main Event – $2 million guarantee
$5,200 No Limit Hold’em Eight-Max Main Event – $10 million guarantee

However, to ensure WCOOP can compete with the WPT and WSOP, there will be high rollers galore. As well as standard $10,300 and $25,000 high rollers, PokerStars will host big-money PKO, Eight Game, and PLO events.

For those that can’t ante up, all the action will be streamed online via Twitch. Expert commentators will add something extra to each broadcast and there will competitions and giveaways throughout.

Poker players have been spoiled for choice over the last three months. Although COVID-19 put a stop to live events, online operators have more than made up for it. WCOOP 2020 will bring the summer of action to a close with, what PokerStars hopes will be, another record-breaking festival.