Is WCOOP good or bad for internet poker?

i was just (jealously) looking over the prize monies for the series - $809,000 in total - with

$235,000 paid out to twelve players


that is a LOT of money to take out of the available money pool online in the space of a few weeks - apart from the fact that they are presumably winning players in any case those twelve guys aren't going to put much of that $235,000 back on the tables, and, similarly, a lot of the other $500,000+ will be turned into holidays and cars, i would think


is it a drop in the internet poker ocean or will there be a knock-on effect in the daily games for a while do you think?

for instance, there was lackluster play in the grand finale, which leads me to believe the fact that the money shall and will be in fact be placed and put back into the ocean of internet gambling, or as you said "a drop in the ocean" does hold true in this case.

curious2

I think we should cruise our normal sites over the next few days, see whether play levels are the same at various levels.


Also, we could look at tourney participation, at Pokerstars and elsewhere, and see whether the WCOOP whipped up some additional tourney players, or burnt out the regulars for awhile.


I thought the tourney was great, (though opponent skill levels were not generally what you would find in a big B&M event). I enjoyed both final events, as well as the 5 satellites I participated in.


My guess is it is good for online poker overall, but time will tell.

i agree that it is good for online poker's future growth (headlines draw the "buyers"), but this amount of money, IF REMOVED, is in no way a "drop in the bucket"!


ask any site owner/operator what the effects are of taking this kind of money out of the online community. BAD!!


but i will be playing again (and losing again) next year.


The "overlay" on the sattelites for the big events, and the number of entrants in the $100 event makes it too tempting. Just like a powerball ticket to Granny.

Paradise removes over $1M in rake every week. Compared to that $800K removed by 50+ lucky players in one week (one month counting satellites) of WCOOP is small change.

Amen to that mb. Besides, due to the enormous number of WCOOP satellites, a large proportion of the WCOOP entries were satellite winners.


I suspect most players had a reasonable satellite entry fee "budget" that was not deadly to their bankroll, and played the events accordingly, if they won a seat.


Also, a substantial precentage of the "third table" payouts and perhaps second table payout portions of the prize money, will likley stay in players "Pokerstars" bankroll, no differently than if it had been won in a side game. That's where my (meager 3rd table) winnings are going to be, not withdrawn, (at least not immediately).

Despite some recent negative influences such as no longer being able to use credit cards. Intoduction of PotLimit and NL games (these eat the fish very quickly), and the future of paypal being in doubt, I still see more and more players at the tables each day.


Online Poker will continue to grow for several more years. The publicity of these tourneys is only going to help bring more of the brick and mortor crowd in.


I can see MultiMarine going into his local casino bragging how he won 65k to all these players who think they are better than him. Some of them are going to take a shot at it.


Mark this in your Note Book. Stu Pidasso predicts next years WCOOP will be between 2 and 2 1/2 million in prize money.


Stu