The 2021 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is in the books, meaning online poker’s most prestigious tournament series has completed 20 iterations. Incredible really. And it’s still going strong.
No doubt over the coming weeks and months, we’ll take a look back at the full 20 years, the start of a countdown to the 21st renewal in 2022. But in this post, we’re keeping our focus narrow, specifically on the series that has just wrapped up.
Here are all the facts and figures, stats and silliness from the past three weeks of WCOOP competition. We’ve been trying to keep track of all the most significant numbers throughout it all, and here’s where all the calculations will end up.
This series featured 102 events with a high, medium and low buy-in in each, meaning 306 tournaments in all. There was a $100 million guarantee on the whole thing, but an expectation, borne of experience, that that would be comfortably eclipsed. So it proved. Here are the final headline stats from WCOOP 2021:
Tournaments completed: 306
Entries: 1,428,869 (inc. 294,277 re-entries)
Prize pools: $122,340,165
First-place prizes: $18,342,344 (inc. $3,102,427 in bounties)
The high buy-in NLHE Main Event came with a $10 million guarantee this time around, and that was always certain to be the biggest tournament of the series, at least in terms of prize pool. But here’s the top five tournaments from WCOOP 2021, by prize pool, field size and winner’s prize and then the five smallest events too, by the same metrics.
Top five prize pools
$10,000,000 – WCOOP 91-H: $5,200 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
$3,891,500 – WCOOP 91-M: $530 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
$3,000,000 – WCOOP 34-H: $25,000 NLHE 8-Max, Super High Roller
$2,014,550 – WCOOP 91-L: $55 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
$1,930,000 – WCOOP 63-M: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, PKO
17 other tournaments had prize pools of $1 million or more
Top five biggest fields (by number of entries)
141,219 – WCOOP 01-L: $5.50 NLHE Phase event
45,743 – WCOOP 01-M: $22 NLHE Phase event
40,291 – WCOOP 91-L: $55 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
27,906 – WCOOP 94-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Series Saver
22,966 – WCOOP 67-L: $11 NLHE PKO
Note: Phase events feature multiple starting flights. Entry numbers include all phases
Top five biggest winner’s prizes
$1,499,942 – CrazyLissy – WCOOP 91-H: $5,200 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
$657,557 – kZhh – WCOOP 34-H: $25,000 NLHE 8-Max, Super High Roller
$549,008 – festen x – WCOOP 91-M: $530 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
$331,495† – Bruno “great dant” Volkmann – WCOOP 63-H: $10,300 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, High Roller
$308,556 – Andras “probirs” Nemeth – WCOOP 92-H: $10,300 PLO 6-Max, PLO Main Event
† – inc. bounties
Smallest five prize pools
$10,937 – WCOOP 46-L: $11 FL Badugi 6-Max
$13,426 – WCOOP 15-L: $11 NL 2-7 Single Draw
$15,000 – WCOOP 21-L: $11 FLHE 6-Max
$15,000 – WCOOP 58-L: $11 NL 5-Card Draw
$15,000 – WCOOP 72-L: $11 Stud
Smallest five fields
40 – WCOOP 41-H: $2,100 FL 2-7 Triple Draw
44 – WCOOP 52-H: $10,300 8-Game High Roller
46 – WCOOP 58-H: $1,050 NL 5-Card Draw
48 – WCOOP 09-H: $2,100 HORSE
53 – WCOOP 46-H: $1,050 FL Badugi 6-Max
Smallest winner’s prizes
$1,582 – Valaquaz – WCOOP 21-L: $11 FLHE 6-Max
$1,766 – The TJS – WCOOP 46-L: $11 FL Badugi 6-Max
$1,954 – Twiggie1990 – WCOOP 54-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, Freezeout
$1,997 – CnlSayWanker – WCOOP 15-L: $11 NL 2-7 Single Draw
$2,112 – HetlsJeBoy – WCOOP 11-L: $5.50 NLO8 8-Max, PKO
WCOOP always delivers some incredible individual performances as players run hot and see their year-long preparation come to fruition. This year, there were two players who won three events and a further 13 who won two titles. Here are this year’s multiple champs:
3 wins:2 wins:
_sennj_ (Norway)
Eduardo “Eduardo850” Silva (Brazil)
Elliott “elliottpet” Peterman (Costa Rica)
FAL1st (Russia)
Fisherman FV (Netherlands)
kurzatvvarz (Poland)
Lauriê “LaliTournier” Tournier-Moraes (Brazil)
Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt (Austria)
Joao “Naza114” Vieira (Netherlands)
Pablo “Pablos701” Wesley (Brazil)
Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (UK)
Belarmino “PaGaOVelhinho” de Souza (Brazil)
Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen (Finland)
It’s also often fun at this stage of a major series to consider some alternative histories and to look at the near misses. Who were the players who consistently got heads-up, but couldn’t get over the line? What if a few heads-up battles had gone the other way? Who would we be lauding then?
This time, two Nordic players became the ultimate bridesmaids. Sweden’s “GlobalHappiness” and Finland’s “zerodeda” both got down to the last two on three occasions, but came away without a title. Eight other players finished second twice and did not win an event.
However, two players got heads up four times: Joao “Naza114” Vieira and Pedro “pvigar” Garagnani. Vieira converted twice and finished runner-up twice. Garagnani converted once.
Here’s a list of all the players who got heads up more than once, and what they actually ended up winning:
HEADS UP FOUR TIMES
Won two, runner up twiceWon one, runner up three times
Pedro “pvigar” Garagnani (Brazil)
HEADS UP THREE TIMES
Won three
Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (UK)
Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins (Brazil)
Won two, runner up once
Eduardo “Eduardo850” Silva (Brazil)
Won one, runner-up twice
Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna (Finland)
Diego “Die Ventura” Ventura (Peru)
Luke “lb6121” Schwartz (UK)
Runner-up three times
GlobalHappiness (Sweden)
zerodeda (Finland)
HEADS UP TWICE
Won two
_sennj_ (Norway)
Elliott “elliottpet” Peterman (Costa Rica)
FAL1st (Russia)
Fisherman FV (Netherlands)
kurzatvvarz (Poland)
Lauriê “LaliTournier” Tournier-Moraes (Brazil)
Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt (Austria)
Pablo “Pablos701” Wesley (Brazil)
Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (UK)
Belarmino “PaGaOVelhinho” de Souza (Brazil)
Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen (Finland)
Won one, runner-up once
avttaS (Russia)
Baca4b (Poland)
Camilancefieldg (Canada)
Durabo (Denmark)
edercampana (Brazil)
Gladi3 (Austria)
Jans “Graftekkel” Arends (Netherlands)
Will “hellzito” Arruda (Brazil)
kZhh (Hungary)
MrHyde97 (Peru)
Mulatin181 (Brazil)
Nelepo10 (Brazil)
Pablo “pabritz” Brito (Brazil)
PIPON777 (Latvia)
Andras “probirs” Nemeth (Hungary)
RPILON (Canada)
shrekpoker91 (Ukraine)
SmilleThHero (Austria)
Stakelis24 (Lithuania)
tubatalevski (Bulgaria)
vincelis (Lithuania)
Christian “WATnlos” Rudolph (Austria)
zufo16 (Mexico)
Runner-up twice
_pauL€FauL_ (Austria)
Alex “AlexKP” Petersen (Denmark)
Dante “dantegoyaF” Goya (Brazil)
Fukuruku (Ukraine)
Haringbuis (Netherlands)
Naked:D (Ukraine)
Matt “OLD TIME GIN” Stone (Canada)
Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes (Norway)
This time, as is very often the case, Brazil blitzed the competition. Prior to the 2021 WCOOP series, the most titles a single country had ever won was 35. Brazil set that mark last year. But the South Americans absolutely destroyed their own record this time around, finishing the series with an absolutely incredible 57 titles. Russia, who finished second, eclipsed Brazil’s previous mark, but the Class of 2021 Brazilians had a clear lead of 20 over even them.
In all, 42 countries got on the board this time, which is also a record. In 2018, we saw winners from 41, but on the final day, Slovakia won its first of the series and pushed us up to 42 for WCOOP 2021.
Here are the final standings:
57 titles — Brazil
37 — Russia
27 — UK
20 – Netherlands
16 — Austria
15 — Canada
14 — Sweden
11 — Poland
9 — Hungary
8 — Finland, Germany
7 — Belarus, Norway
6 — Mexico, Ukraine
5 — Czech Republic, Latvia, Romania
4 — Argentina, Lithuania, Peru
3 — Bulgaria
2 — Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Moldova
1 — Andorra, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Morocco, New Zealand, Panama, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Uzbekistan.
Note: Andorra, Azerbaijan, New Zealand, San Marino and Uzbekistan won the first WCOOP titles in their history.
In case anyone was wondering whether Brazil just got lucky a bunch of times heads up, the answer is no. Brazilians also finished runner up on 54 occasions during this WCOOP, and on at least three occasions, Brazilians finished first, second and third in the same tournament.
The main overachievers in heads-up battles were British players, who crowned 27 champions and had only 18 runners-up. Otherwise, as the list of second-place finishers below demonstrates, most countries won approximately half of their heads-up battles:
Second place finishes:
54 – Brazil
37 – Russia
22 – Netherlands
18 – Austria, UK
15 – Canada, Ukraine
11 – Belarus, Poland
10 – Germany, Sweden
9 – Finland
6 – Bulgaria, Norway
5 – Estonia, Lithuania, Peru, Romania
4 – Greece, Hungary
3 – Denmark, Ireland, Malta, Mexico
2 – Andorra, Argentina, Belgium, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Latvia, Moldova
1 – Chile, Croatia, Ecuador, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay.
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