WCOOP 2017 Concludes with Major Changes and Mixed Reactions

The 2017 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) took place from September 3 to 26 on PokerStars. For the first time, all participants played without rakeback, a decision that received mixed reactions from the poker community.

The WCOOP series, traditionally a major event for online poker enthusiasts, lost some of its appeal this year. Prominent players like Dan Kelly and Sean Deib did not participate, and even professional PokerStars players ignored the event. In the high roller tournament with an $10,300 buy-in, only two players with the 'red spike' were present: Felipe 'mojave' Ramos and Adrien 'talonchick' Rousom.

One of the most significant changes was the removal of the detailed statistics section from PokerStars. This section, which tracked player performance over the years, is no longer available. The WCOOP series added 82 cheaper tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $11 to $55, which may have contributed to the decision to remove the statistics. KumariOy was the most successful Russian player during the WCOOP 2017. ImluckNuts won the overall series and received a $20,000 prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure-2018. Players from the former Soviet Union won 15 victories in the WCOOP High tournaments.