With the 2009 Pokerstars WCOOP starting on Wednesday (Sept. 3rd), now is the time to be playing in satellite tournaments and winning your seats. On top of that, there is a brand-new Pokerstars sign up bonus that gets new players a 100% bonus up to $600. If you don’t already have an account at Pokerstars, now is the perfect time to get one.
If you aren’t familiar with the WCOOP, it’s the online equivalent of the World Series of Poker. The schedule has been expanded in 2009 to a total of 45 events. Day one kicks off on 2:30 pm ET on Wednesday the 3rd, with a $215, $1,250,000 guaranteed, 6-max NL Hold’em tournament.
During the 18 days of the WCOOP, either two or three events will be held each day. This years tournament selection offers the widest variety of game choices ever, including some very interesting tournaments for players that are skilled in non-Hold’em games.
For example, starting just two hours after event #1, there is a $200,000 guaranteed Razz tournament. How often do you get a chance to play in a $200k Razz tournament? Probably never.
On September 8th at 4:30 pm ET there is a $100,000 guaranteed Badugi tournament. If you have any skills at Badugi, you should be playing in this event. The field will be weak at best, offering good Badugi players a very realistic opportunity to win an event.
There are also 2-7 Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw, 8 Game, HORSE, 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud, and several Omaha tournaments scheduled.
Most events have direct buy-in costs that range from $109 – $320, but some are much bigger. There are 3 ‘High Roller’ events that will attract the biggest names in poker. On September 6th at 2:30 pm ET there is the $10,300 NL Hold’em tournament. It has a $2 million guaranteed prize pool, and the winner will take down enough cash to buy the Lamborghini of their choice (and a good looking passenger as well).
On September 13th there is a massive $25,500 High Roller NL Hold’em Match Play event. The final High Roller event will be held on the final day of the WCOOP, and it’s a $10,300 HORSE event. This event has a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000, and the winner earns bragging rights for winning possibly the most difficult tournament online.
The Main Event is a 2-day NL Hold’em tournament that begins on Sunday, September 20th at 4:30 pm ET. It has a direct buy-in of $5,200 and a guaranteed prize pool of….wait for it…..ten million dollars! The best part is, you can win a seat for as little as a buck! The winner is going to take home over $1.5 million…isn’t it worth $.50 to try to win a seat? Deposit $20 and try it 40 times!
Pokerstars WCOOP Satellite Tournament Choices
Satellite tournaments for the 2009 World Championship of Online Poker start at just $.50, or 3 Frequent Player Points. Satellite tournaments for several of the 45 different events are running non-stop, every day. Lets take a look at the different types of WCOOP Satellite tournaments running now.
WCOOP Steps Satellite Tournaments
If you aren’t familiar with Steps tournaments, they are just what they sound like. They are 10 player, single-table sit-n-go tournaments where winning players at each level move up to the next level. At each level the stakes get higher and players get closer to winning a seat. One of the benefits of playing in the Steps satellites is that unlike regular 10 player, single-table sit-n-go’s, you don’t have to finish in the top 3 at each table.
For example, at Step 1, the top two players move on to Step 2, while the third place finisher wins another free seat to replay Step 1, and fourth place wins $1.50. At Step 2, the top two players move up to Step 3, while 3rd and 4th get to replay Step 2. The fifth place finisher wins another seat into a Step 1 tournament. This continues throughout the Steps, giving players a lot of chances to stay in the Steps tournaments without having to start over. At Step 4, even the 6th place finisher gets to replay starting at Step 2.
Depending on the event you are shooting for, the Steps can vary a bit. If an event has a $215 buy-in, obviously not as much money needs to be generated to produce a seat as it does for a $5,200 event. So, the cheaper the event, the easier it is to win a seat in the Steps tournaments. To see the Steps tournaments running now, download Pokerstars, click on ‘Events’, then ‘WCOOP’, then ‘Steps’ in the Pokerstars lobby. This will show you a complete breakdown of all the Steps tournaments available to play.
Step 1 has a buy-in of $7.50, but for as little as 3 Frequent Player Points, players can win a free seat into Step 1. Players can also choose to buy-in directly into a higher Step, you don’t have to start at Step 1 if you don’t want to. Although it costs more to buy-in to higher Steps, you don’t have to win at as many levels.
Sit-N-Go Satellite Tournaments for the 2009 WCOOP
There are so many different sit-n-go satellite tournaments available for the 2009 WCOOP that I don’t even know where to start. To simplify things, sit-n-go satellites start at 600 FPP’s or $3.30 in cash. They are offered in heads-up, 6-max, full-table (10 players) or multi-table variations. They also come in deepstack, turbo, and hyper-turbo structures.
For players with large bankrolls, simpler satellites with larger buy-ins are available as wwll. While these cost more to play, the odds of winning a seat are much better than cheaper satellites.
Sit-n-go satellite tournaments are offered in just about every game choice, including Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha hi/lo, 3 Card Stud, 2-7 Triple Draw, Razz, Badugi, 5 Card Draw, 8 Game, HORSE, Yahtzee and Go Fish. Okay, no Yahtzee or Go Fish, but just about everything else.
Large-Field Satellite Tournaments
Like the sit-n-go satellites, there are so many large-field satellite tournaments running that it’s difficult to provide all the details. There are literally hundreds of these satellites running every day, and as satellites for more events start to open, the variety of satellite tournaments is constantly changing.
Large-field satellites for the 2009 WCOOP start for as little as $.50 or 100 Frequent Player Points. They are offered in just about every game choice, and blind structure. Anything you can think of, they have it available.
Play in the 2009 Pokerstars WCOOP!
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