WCOOP stats: A statistical analysis of the 2023 series
Table of Contents
That’s it! The 2023 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is done for another year. But before you all wander off and start preparing for SCOOP, here’s one last update for you. Here’s the ever popular WCOOP stats package for another hugely successful series.
STAT TRACKER
The 340 tournaments of WCOOP wrapped up on the night of Wednesday, October 4 2023 (or the early hours of the next day, depending on your location). The main stats are as follows — with the standout figure being that number of entries. It passed 1 million yet again.
Tournaments completed: 340
Entries: 1,026,834 (inc. 244,257 re-entries)
Prize pools: $95,513,197
First-place prizes: $15,660,295 (inc. $3,086,617 in bounties)
HIGHEST AND LOWEST
As always, the Main Events attracted most attention during this WCOOP and they accounted for the biggest prize pools. But WCOOOP caters for everyone, and the low buy-in events, as you would expect, amassed the biggest fields.
Here are the highests and lowests from the series.
Top five prize pools
$6,000,000 – WCOOP 98-H: World Championship of NLHE: $10,300 Main Event
$4,342,000 – WCOOP 98-M: $1,050 NLHE [NLHE Main Event]
$2,718,400 – WCOOP 98-L: $109 NLHE [NLHE Main Event]
$1,594,125 – WCOOP 76-H: $25,000 NLHE [Super High Roller]
$1,469,500 – WCOOP 66-M: $530 NLHE [Progressive KO, Sunday Million]
Thirteen tournaments this time had prize pools of $1 million or more.
Ivan “ILS007” Stokes won the biggest tournament of the series
Top five biggest fields (by number of entries)
75,029 – WCOOP 01-L: $5.50 NLHE [Phase 2], $400K Gtd
28,043 – WCOOP 01-M: $22 NLHE [Phase 2], $500K Gtd
27,184 – WCOOP 98-L: $109 NLHE [NLHE Main Event], $2.5M Gtd
17,713 – WCOOP 102-L: $11 NLHE [Progressive KO, Series Saver], $165K Gtd
15,353 – WCOOP 29-L: $11 NLHE [Progressive KO, Saturday KO], $150K Gtd
Nineteen tournaments had 10,000 or more entries.
The biggest freezeout (i.e., the tournament with no re-entries) was WCOOP 34-L: $5.50 NLHE PKO Sunday Warm-Up, with 9,283 entries.
Top five biggest winner’s prizes
$1,047,257 – Ivan “ILS007” Stokes – WCOOP 98-H: World Championship of NLHE: $10,300 Main Event
$619,300 – “BLEFE GOD” – WCOOP 98-M: $1,050 NLHE Main Event
$495,333 – Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo – WCOOP 76-H: $25,000 NLHE [Super High Roller]
$257,039 – “CadeMito” – WCOOP 98-L: $109 NLHE [NLHE Main Event]
$233,532 – “lmbajimbaa” – WCOOP 100-H: World Championship of PLO: $10,300 Main Event
Juan Pardo’s Super High Roller victory was worth close to $500K
Smallest five prize pools
The only restricted event in WCOOP is the Women’s Event and it follows that the fields are somewhat smaller than the tournaments that are open to all. However, it’s the unfashionable mixed game variants that typically attract the fewest players, and that’s borne out again this year as we look at the smallest fields and prize pools.
$2,960 – WCOOP 99-L: $5.50 NLHE [Progressive KO, Womens Event], $2.5K Gtd
$5,312 – WCOOP 91-L: $11 Stud, $5K Gtd
$8,565 – WCOOP 16-L: $11 FL Badugi [6-Max], $8K Gtd
$8,820 – WCOOP 50-L: $11 NL 2-7 Single Draw, $8K Gtd
$8,860 – WCOOP 99-M: $22 NLHE [Progressive KO, Womens Event], $7.5K Gtd
Smallest five fields
25 – WCOOP 55-H: $10,300 8-Game [High Roller], $275K Gtd
32 – WCOOP 77-H: $2,100 FL 2-7 Triple Draw, $55K Gtd
33 – WCOOP 16-H: $1,050 FL Badugi [6-Max], $30K Gtd
34 – WCOOP 61-H: $1,050 NL 5-Card Draw, $30K Gtd
37 – WCOOP 10-H: $2,100 HORSE, $75K Gtd
Smallest winner’s prizes
$408 – Synned Gil – WCOOP 99-L: $5.50 NLHE [Progressive KO, Womens Event], $2.5K Gtd
$734 – santorio1 – WCOOP 91-L: $11 Stud, $5K Gtd
$1,363 – nickname332 – WCOOP 30-L: $11 FLO8 [8-Max], $12.5K Gtd
$1,426 – dukas18 – WCOOP 16-L: $11 FL Badugi [6-Max], $8K Gtd
$1,454 – newpics – WCOOP 50-L: $11 NL 2-7 Single Draw, $8K Gtd
INDIVIDUAL BRILLIANCE
For almost the entire length of this WCOOP series, we have been talking about Benny Glaser. Already one of the most decorated players in WCOOP history, the British mixed games specialist, known online as “RunGodlike” went on an incredible tear through this series, winning an unprecedented SEVEN titles.
No player had previously won any more than five titles in a series. It was a superlative display from Glaser.
It was an absolute masterclass from Benny Glaser
He was not alone, however, in snatching multiple titles. Three players won four titles; two others won three. And there were 17 players who won two titles.
SEVEN TITLES
Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser (UK)
FOUR TITLES
Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen (Sweden)
Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes (Norway)
Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (UK)
THREE TITLES
Narcis “Narcisus90” Nedelcu (Romania)
Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi (Brazil)
TWO TITLES
Connor “blanconegro” Drinan, Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, “nilawina”, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, “NICasinos”, “mikke8282”, Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo, “Rebozeio”, Lucio “WizardOffAz” Lima, “Tr!pleeeee”, “Chillolini”, Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky, “leonidus1988”, “efkinis24”, “javel”, “pudelpower”, Ramiro “ramastar88” Petrone.
Patrick Leonard’s consistency brought him four titles and the Player of the Series crown
THE BRIDESMAIDS
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?
In short, we would be lauding exactly the same people. There is a world not too far from this one in which Benny Glaser has won 10 titles this year. In addition to his seven outright victories, he also finished second three times.
Rui Ferreira also finished second three times. Patrick Leonard came second twice as did Renan Bruschi.
The undisputed king of the runner-up finish this time around was Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski, who finished second four times. He also won one title.
FOUR RUNNER-UP FINISHES
Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski
THREE RUNNER-UP FINISHES
“Dainiux”, “jwolter”, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, Blaž “Scarmak3er” Žerjav.
TWO RUNNER-UP FINISHES
“sennj“, “anonymstruts”, Ben “bencb789” Rolle, “deepincidurr”, “drew.derzh”, “FAL1st”, Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes, “Goonie Tot”, Jans “Graftekkel” Arends, “grinder1992”, Espen “Hymn2Ninkasi” Jorstad, Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi, “Jesper8”, “JokerTilt”, “Kaggis”, Fabiano “Kovalski1” Kovalski, “manipulatoor”, “Mikensonas”, Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, Alexandros “Pwndidi” Theologis, “Regis R69”, Rodrigo “seijistar” Seiji, “Sir_winalot9”, “Supermassa1”, “viinig”, “Zanos_Goda”.
Yuri Dzivielevski: Won one and runner-up four times
NATIONAL SUCCESS
It’s no longer a question of whether Brazil will win the countries leader board, it’s merely a question of how many titles they will get.
This time, the South Americans beat their own record by bagging 80 wins. Their previous best mark was 70, from last year, so they continue to dazzle year on year.
Here’s the full list of successes per country, with 44 different nations represented this year.
80 wins – Brazil
40 – UK
19 – Austria
18 – Ukraine
14 – Canada, Norway
13 – Sweden
12 – Finland, Germany, Poland
10 – Mexico
8 – Czech Republic, Hungary
7 – Romania
6 – Argentina, Belarus, Lithuania
5 – Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland
4 – Andorra, Greece
3 – Estonia, Peru, Thailand
2 – Belgium, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malta, Uruguay
1 – Armenia, Aruba, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, Slovakia, Venezuela, Vietnam.
OTHER STATISTICAL TIDBITS
If Benny Glaser was a country: he’d have finished tied 14th, with Romania, on the countries leader board.
Glaser has now won at least one title every year since 2018. Andras “probirs” Nemeth has the next best streak, with one title at least every year since 2020.
236 players won their first ever WCOOP title this year
104 had won titles in previous years
Only 24 tournaments ended in a deal.
The biggest bounty payout went to “starwins 🙂” of Denmark, who earned $139,609 in the $10K Bounty High Roller.
MORE ABOUT WCOOP
Read the day-by-day WCOOP report
Official WCOOP site
