World Championship of Online Poker 2003

The second annual World Championship of Online Poker is in the record books - and records were shattered in this 11-event tournament, by far the largest in online history. The turnout for every event was huge, marked particularly by the 1,358 players who competed in the $300 buy-in No Limit Hold 'em event (total prize pool $407,400) and the $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold 'em Main Event, with a staggering 891 players (total prize pool $891,000).

Event 1: $100 No Limit Hold 'em Heads-up

Players: 512
Prize pool: $51,200

THE WORLD COMES TO POKERSTARS TO BECOME MONEYMAKERS
The Second Annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), and the first after the startling win at this year's World Series Main Event by PokerStars own Chris Moneymaker, has brought throngs of players to PokerStars.com looking to duplicate Chris' feat of turning a very little into a whole lot.
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Event 2: $100 Limit Hold 'em

Players: 1,301
Prize pool: $130,100

THE NUMBER TELLS THE STORY
One Thousand Three Hundred and One Entries! What a mind-boggling number. And there is the entire story in one line. One player has to beat 1,300 to win the title and the $32,525 first place money.
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Event 3: $300 Pot Limit Omaha High/Low

Players: 368
Prize pool: $110,400

HAVE THEY MADE A DEAL, YET?
The only question more frequently asked at poker tournaments than "Who knocked Russ out?" is "Have they made a deal, yet?
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Event 4: $300 No Limit Hold 'em

Players: 1,358
Prize pool: $407,400

PARADIGM SHIFT
"Pair a dimes," one player explained to another. "That's $2,000."
"Wow," his buddy said. "That means first place is paying over 50 'pair a dimes' today."
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Event 5: $300 Stud

Players: 285
Prize pool: $85,500

CAN AMERICANS STILL PLAY STUD?
One of the many wonderful things about the Internet is that there are no national boundaries in cyberspace. It's just a question that comes to mind when seeing today's Final Table.
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Event 6: $500 Pot-Limit Hold 'em

Players: 546
Prize pool: $273,000

BRILLIANT WORK, UNDONE
Our winner in this event played brilliantly for over nine hours, leading much of the time. Then, for reasons we will never know-and perhaps he will never know, our winner left his brilliant work undone.
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Event 7: $500 Omaha Hi/Lo

Players: 318
Prize pool: $159,000

THEY ALL LAUGHED
You'd have to be crazy to guarantee $1,000,000 in total prize money on the Internet. Well, the $1,000,000 threshold was crossed after only six of the eleven events. With Event #7 the total tops $1.2 million.
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Event 8: $500 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo

Players: 283
Prize pool: $141,500

POWER GRID
When Adam&Suz went out in 9th what was left was the power grid for this event. Three of the players were especially grateful to be here as they reside in states contiguous to New York State (one from Massachusetts and two from New Jersey) that we're not taken down in the Northeast blackout.
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Event 9: $500 Pot Limit Omaha

Players: 308
Prize pool: $154,000

SHARING THE WEALTH
It took nine events, but finally a player returns to the Final Table for a second time in this event. This is unusual in multi-event poker tournaments, where it's no surprise to see several players make more than one Final Tables. On the contrary, it's expected that the best players will return again and again.
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Event 10: $500 Limit Hold 'em

Players: 626
Prize pool: $313,000

HOW TOUGH WAS THIS FIELD?
You got an idea of how tough this field was when none, zero, nada, zilch of the 626 starting players were eliminated in the first hour. In fact everyone had at least 680 chips at the first break. AMAZING!
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Event 11: $1,000 No Limit Hold 'em

Players: 891
Prize pool: $891,000

MANY, MANY NEW MONEYMAKERS
The world's largest online poker event capped the eleven days of the world's largest online poker tournament series.
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