The World Championship of Online Poker is about as good as it gets in terms of online poker tournament series. With $40 million guaranteed across 66 events, all packed into 24 days, members from PokerStars log on from the UK to Finland, Portugal to the Ukraine, to get in on the biggest action of the year. Five players in particular will be striving extra hard at the 2014 WCOOP to take down a title, and the coveted Triple COOP along with it.
The Triple Coop is an exclusive title awarded only to those who manage to win an event in a SCOOP, TCOOP and WCOOP event, and to date, only two online poker players have managed to capture the esteemed honor. Why so few? Such opportunities haven’t been around for all that long. The World Championship of Online Poker has been growing exponentially since 2002, but the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) wasn’t established until 2009 and the Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) is still earning its stripes since the inaugural running in January of 2012.
So far, the only two online poker pros to claim the Triple Coop are Shawn “buck21” Buchanan of Canada and James “Andy McLEOD” Obst of Australia. Buchanan was the first player ever bestowed with a Triple COOP, having claimed his first WCOOP title in 2007, followed by a SCOOP victory in 2012 (and another in 2013), and finally the TCOOP win at Event 33, Razz, in 2014. Buchanan’s solitary glory didn’t last long as Obst followed in his footsteps just two days later with a win at Event 40, H.O.R.S.E. Add to that his 2008 WCOOP win and 2009 SCOOP win, and the second Triple COOP titlist was born.
With the 2014 WCOOP scheduled to run from September 7th through the 28th, five more players with SCOOP and TCOOP titles under their belts are looking to capture a WCOOP title to complete the Triple COOP next month. They include European poker pros Paul “Padjes” Berende of the Netherlands, Simon “ministerborg” Ravnsbaek of Denmark and Peter “Belabacsi” Traply of Hungary, along with “ninototoroko” of Brazil and “phatlat” of Canada.
Berende, who’s pocketed more than $4 million (£2.4mm) in online poker tournament scores at PokerStars since 2007, snagged his first ‘COOP title in 2013 with a TCOOP win, followed by a SCOOP win earlier this year. Ravnsbaek has over $1.7 million (£1.02mm) in PokerStars cashes, grabbing his first SCOOP in 2012 and a TCOOP win in this year’s Event #38. Traply’s success skyrocketed in 2009 with a WSOP bracelet win in Las Vegas. His online prowess took off with a SCOOP and TCOOP title in 2013.
The mysterious Brazilian “ninototoroko” showed up on the radar in 2013 and has harvested over $600k (£360k) in online poker tournaments since, including a 2013 SCOOP title and 2014 TCOOP title. Canada’s “phatlat” is another undisclosed online poker pro who’s maintained their anonymity since 2007, having raked in over $840k (£504k) in the last 7 years including a SCOOP title in 2011 and a win at TCOOP in 2012.
Railbirds from around the world will surely be trained on the tables at PokerStars where these five online poker elitists are seated in hopes of watching history take place once again. The WCOOP starts on Sunday, Sept 7. Good luck to all of the potential Triple COOP titlists!