2012 WCOOP Now Underway At PokerStars

The 2012 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is currently underway at PokerStars, having kicked-off its 65 event schedule on September 2nd with the series then running all the way until the 23rd.
The popular tournament series offers buy-ins ranging from $215 to $10,300 in a variety of poker formats, including Hold’em, PLO, Seven-Card Stud, Draw, Heads-Up, HORSE, Shootout and Razz. The WCOOP then culminates in the $5,200 NLHE Event won last year by Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen, who outlasted a 1,627 player field to take down the $1.2 million first place prize.
The 22-day WCOOP has been running for 10 years now and since 2002 has handed out $200 million in prize money over 228 events. It also produces a good-natured sense of national rivalries as different countries compete to earn the biggest number of WCOOP bracelets. The record is currently held by the USA with a massive 136 bracelet haul, followed by Sweden (14), Canada (10), Germany (8) and the UK (8). Despite Black-Friday in the US it is still difficult to see the Americans being overtaken anytime soon.
Not surprisingly, US pro Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks currently sits at the top of the all time money list with $2,285,759 in winnings, courtesy of his taking down the 2010 WCOOP Main Event. He is followed by the Ukranian born US citizen Yevgeniy “JovialGent” Timoshenko with an impressive $1,733,944 in WCOOP winnings, and a total of $4,718,965  won online to go with his $4.4 million playing live.
Other notable names high up the money list include Dan “djk123” Kelly in 9th ($1,058,336), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier in 12th ($1,016,586), Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso in 15th ($883,023) and Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis in 16th ($833,345).
This year, another huge turnout involving most of the top players is also expected, including Daniel Negreanu who in 2011 cashed in 15 separate WCOOP events for a total of $119,193. The Canadian pro has already made his way to his native country in order to compete online, and as he tweeted the other day:
“On my way to Toronto today to get settled in for the #wcoop grind. I plan on taking zero days off and going for the Player of the Series..Amazing to me that I have to actually travel to play online poker. I’d have the freedom to play in Moscow or Afghanistan but not the US?”