PokerStars Release 2017 WCOOP Schedule

Online poker players who have been waiting for PokerStars to post this year's World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) schedule need wait no more.

The top-ranked poker room published the times and dates of its 81-event WCOOP that will run from Sept. 3-26 and feature a $5,200 Main Event with $10 million guaranteed. The action gets underway at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday the 3rd with a $215 Kick-Off that will be followed by at least three events every single day through the 24th.

The Highs and Lows of WCOOP Poker

That $215 entry fee is the lowest buy-in amount on the entire WCOOP schedule, perhaps a bit pricey for the recreational players that PokerStars so unabashedly covets. For that reason, a Low Stakes tier will run alongside the High Stakes action with buy-ins as low as $11 and promoted by PokerStars as being "1/20th the size of their High counterparts."

The Low tournaments will commence 24 hours after the High events in most cases and promise more than $11 million guaranteed in all. The Low events replace the mini-WCOOP seen in the 2016 festival.

Other changes in the 2017 WCOOP include "all new structures" that feature starting stacks of 25,000 in Low events and 50,000 in High, excluding re-buy events. The blind levels are also set to be shorter with smaller increases, a change that PokerStars insists "will provide the same deep play experience" that players have been accustomed to in the past.

"We want players to feel like they're entering a truly special tournament when they take their seat," stated the PokerStars Blog.

Plenty of Tournaments to Choose From in September

The WCOOP has developed a reputation as perhaps the best online poker series the world over, running annually since 2002. Over $73 million in prize money was paid out last year over 82 events.

WCOOP will have considerable competition from other poker sites this September. Party Poker is hosting a new Powerfest from Sept. 3-24 that guarantees more than $35 million in prize money, while 888 Poker will run its XL Eclipse festival that promises $8 million GTD.