PokerStars WBCOOP Starts Next Week

During the last week of January, PokerStars will be running its annual World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP). Well, sort of annual. The last WBCOOP was in December 2008, and the schedule has slid back a month or so, meaning there wasn’t technically a “2009 WBCOOP.”

The WBCOOP is open to all poker bloggers, with the minimal requirement that the blog has been up and running for at least two months (and has been regularly updated) prior to registering. Like other tourney series -- and just about everything else at PokerStars -- the WBCOOP has gotten bigger and bigger with each passing year.

In 2005, the WBCOOP was a single no-limit hold’em tournament, a freeroll offering a total of $25,000 worth of prizes to the top finishers. In 2006, it was again a single tourney, this time with $37,000 worth of prizes, with the winner getting an entry into the following summer’s World Series of Poker Main Event. In 2007, $40,000 worth of prizes were awarded, with the winner this time getting a package to go play in the PokerStars Carribean Adventure in early 2008. There were 1,337 entrants in that 2007 tourney.

Then, in December 2008, the event was made into a series of tournaments, with six different preliminary events in pot-limit Omaha, no-limit hold’em, Omaha hi/lo, and the 8-game mix (a.k.a., S.P.L.E.N.D.O.R.). Top finishers in those preliminary events won various prizes while also qualifying to play in the Main Event, with a total of 369 entrants making it through. In all, over $100,000 worth of prizes were given away.

This year is following a similar format with a series of six preliminary events followed by a Main Event, only it appears this time everyone can go ahead and enter the Main Event as well as all of the prelims (i.e., one doesn’t have to qualify for the ME). All of the prizes this year will be in the form of “SCOOP” tickets of varying values. That’s the Spring Championship of Online Poker, which I assume will be coming around again in April.

Each preliminary event will be awarding $6,038 worth of SCOOP tickets to the top 136 finishers, ranging from a $1,050 ticket to the winner and $215 tickets to the other final tablists, down to $11 tickets to those finishing 46th-136th. The prizes are greater for the Main Event, with the winner getting a $3,150 ticket, the final tablists $2,100 tickets, on down to the 46th-136th place finishers each winning themselves a $22 ticket.

Additionally, PokerStars is going to be handing out more prizes to those chronicling the action on their blogs and via Twitter. Those prizes include one for “Best Live Event Blogging” ($425 worth of SCOOP tickets), one for “Best Tweeter” (also $425), three “Highly Commended Blogger” awards (each getting $33 worth of SCOOP tickets), and three “Highly Commended Tweeter” awards (also $33 each).

Here’s the full schedule of events for this year’s WBCOOP series:

Monday, Jan. 25, 17:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Tuesday, Jan. 26, 17:00 ET -- Pot-Limit Omaha

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 18:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Thursday, Jan. 28, 18:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Friday, Jan. 29, 19:00 ET -- 8-Game Mix

Saturday, Jan. 30, 15:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Sunday, Jan. 31, 15:00 ET -- Main Event, No-Limit Hold’em

I’ve participated in this sucker ever since I was first eligible to do so, and plan to be there again next week for at least some of the fun. I know I’ll aim to play the PLO event, and probably will try to sit down at some of the others, too.

If you’ve had a poker blog for a couple of months and haven’t registered yet, there’s still time to do so. Click here for info on how to sign up.