PokerStars Unveils 25th WCOOP With 350 Tournaments and $40 Million in Guarantees

The September series spans 121 events, six Main Events and a stack of qualifiers and promos

PokerStars has published the full schedule for the 25th World Championship of Online Poker, and the September series is now set at 350 tournaments running from Sept. 6 through Sept. 30. The slate carries $40 million in guarantees, includes six Main Events with $6.5 million in combined guarantees, and every winner will receive a trophy.

As reported yesterday, PokerStars had already set the dates and said the full slate would follow in the coming weeks. Poker.org describes WCOOP as PokerStars’ annual World Championship of Online Poker, first played in 2002, and says this year’s edition spans 121 different events. It also says 10 of the tournaments are branded World Championship events, and most events are offered at three buy-in levels.

The flagship championships are split between no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha. Poker.org says the NLH and PLO Main Events are each available in Low, Medium and High versions, priced at $109, $1,050 and $10,300. The NLH trio starts Sept. 27 with guarantees of $1.25 million, $2 million and $2.5 million, while the PLO versions start Sept. 28 and carry guarantees of $100,000, $250,000 and $400,000.

PokerNews says the wider festival will cover formats including No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, 8-Game, HORSE, Progressive Knockout, Mystery Bounty and Triple Draw, and that six Main Events will award more than $6.5 million in guaranteed prize money on Sept. 27 and 28. The site also says PokerStars is adding satellites from $0.55, WCOOP-themed Spin & Go events from $0.75, $500,000 in tournament tickets through Lucky Dip, more than $175,000 in ticket bundles and Main Event entries through Power Path Express, and an extra $100,000 across the WCOOP Leaderboards. Steve Clarricoats, PokerStars associate director of online scheduling, told PokerNews that a WCOOP victory is a piece of poker history and that every champion joins an exclusive group of players who have conquered one of the toughest online tournament series in the world.

published 4 hours ago • by Team F5permalink

Shinichiro Kano Leads APT Incheon Main Event Into Day 4

The Day 3 leader held 3,050,000 chips as 47 players returned, with a record field and steep pay jumps shaping the run to the final table.

Shinichiro Kano led the APT Incheon Main Event into Day 4 with 3,050,000 chips, giving him the top spot as 47 players returned at Paradise City Casino Resort. Zhentao Long sat second with 2,965,000 and Yoko Sasaki was third on 2,580,000, so the top of the counts was tight even before the field got much smaller.

Spadepoker’s stack analysis said the event had reached 1,393 entries and a prize pool of KRW 3,008,540,000. It described that total as the largest international tournament the city had ever hosted, and noted that the average stack had been climbing fast while the field narrowed.

The payout structure is why those chip counts mattered. First place was worth $374,085 and second was worth $214,120, a drop of more than $159,000 for finishing one spot lower. The final table guaranteed at least KRW 38,580,000, while 10th and 11th both paid KRW 32,230,000, which made the fight around the bubble especially sharp.

As covered in our Aug. 8 report on the Korea National Cup, APT Incheon was already producing record numbers before the Main Event reached this stage. With 47 players left, the field still had 38 eliminations to go before it could reach the nine-handed final table.

published 10 hours, 14 minutes ago • by Team F5permalink

EPT Barcelona €100,000 Super High Roller Gets Underway

Day 1 is in progress at Casino Barcelona, with PokerNews set to track chip counts, entries and the prize pool as the festival’s marquee high-roller event unfolds.

The €100,000 EPT Super High Roller is now underway at Casino Barcelona. PokerNews’ event page says Day 1 is in progress and that it will not run full live reporting for the tournament, but will post key updates on chip counts, entries and prize-pool figures.

The 2026 PokerStars EPT Barcelona festival runs through Aug. 29 and features more than 60 trophy events across a wide range of buy-ins.

The rest of the schedule is still lining up around it. The €5,300 EPT Main Event is due to begin on Aug. 22, and from Aug. 23 seven days of live broadcasts are slated to bring card-exposed coverage from both the Super High Roller and the Main Event.

PokerNews described the festival as being only a couple of days in when multiple champions had already been crowned. Elias Suhonen took the largest share of a €310,000 prize pool in a €10,200 no-limit hold’em event and finished with €114,200.

published 10 hours, 15 minutes ago • by Team F5permalink

Mauricio Miranda Leads RGPS Dallas Main Event After Day 1a

He burst the bubble at Palace Poker and topped the first flight with 992,000 chips.

Mauricio Miranda led Day 1a of the RGPS Golden Expedition Dallas $600 Main Event after bursting the bubble and finishing with 992,000 chips at Palace Poker. Halit Ozaltun was second with 890,000, and the opening flight sent 12 players on to Day 2 in the money.

According to PokerNews, the first of eight opening flights drew 100 entries and played all the way to Level 20 before the bags came out. As covered earlier this month, the series returned to Palace Poker after a stop in the Passport Season came to a close in March. The event carries a $200,000 guarantee, starts players with 60,000 chips, and allows unlimited reentry across the eight opening flights.

Hand-for-hand play dragged on for more than two full levels near the bubble. David Poblacion survived the stone bubble with 239,000 chips, and Miranda then won the final-bubble hand against Dora Coyle to end the night. The showdown was A♠J♥ for Coyle against A♦K♦ for Miranda, and Miranda improved on the runout to send Coyle out.

Nikola Mircetic finished third with 766,000, Jackson Morisey bagged 623,000, and Paul Taskalos rounded out the top five with 532,000. Morisey was the only other player to finish above ten starting stacks, while Taskalos’ surge came after a big river call with top pair a few levels earlier.

The field also included two RGPS Ambassadors, but neither made the money. Alexandra Loveless made an early run with pocket queens before fading after late registration closed, Bart Bogard joined the field and was eliminated, and defending Dallas champion Daniel Lowery took two shots before running top pair into Michael McBarron’s set of sixes. The tournament continues Friday with Day 1c, and six more flights were still to be played this weekend.

published 10 hours, 16 minutes ago • by Team F5permalink

Han Feng Leads PokerStars Open Main Event Into Day 3

The Barcelona field is down to 80 after 4,333 entries, with Alexander Ivarsson close behind and a Saturday finish ahead.

Han Feng took the chip lead into Day 3 of the PokerStars Open Main Event in Barcelona, with the €1,650 event down to 80 players from a starting field of 4,333 entries. Alexander Ivarsson was the nearest player in the counts as the tournament moved into its next stage.

As covered in our Aug. 5 report on his fifth-place WSOP Main Event finish, Feng already had a $2.25 million score on his résumé before this run. He bagged 5.1 million chips for Day 3, which put him in front of a field that had already been pared down sharply during Day 2.

According to PokerOrg, all eight Day 1 flights were complete before Day 2 began, and only 648 players advanced to lock up a minimum cash. The same reporting said the official prize pool landed at €6,239,520, below last year’s 5,036-entry, €7,251,840 edition. F5 Poker matched those totals and also noted that PokerStars had added a €2,200 In the Money at 180,000 side event to the Barcelona festival.

Several familiar names were still around but in need of chips. Jamie Dwan, who started Day 2 with one of the bigger stacks, finished 45th on 1.2 million. Brock Wilson sat 50th with 1.1 million, Dominik Panka had 805,000, Sebastian Huber 735,000, and Victoria Livschitz was down to 300,000. Feng and those five players were the remaining Pick 3 draft choices in the event. Day 3 gets under way Friday at 11am local time, and the PokerStars Open champion is due on Saturday, the same day the EPT Barcelona Main Event begins.

published 10 hours, 16 minutes ago • by Team F5permalink

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