Players from 42 different countries competed in the 2021 World Championship of Online Poker on PokerStars, making it the largest international event in the site’s history.
The previous record was set in 2018 when players from 41 countries participated in WCOOP events. Previously unrepresented countries participating included New Zealand, Andorra, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and San Marino.
The 2021 WCOOP featured a total of 306 tournaments that catered to low-stakes, mid-stakes, and high-stakes poker players from around the globe. A total of 1,428,869 registrations were logged, with 294,277 coming via re-entries. In total, $122,340,165 in prize money was awarded, with first-place prizes amounting to $18,342,344, which is inclusive of more than $3.1 million in bounties.
Brazilian poker hotspot
Brazil dominated the 2021 WCOOP, with its players winning an amazing 57 titles throughout the series. Brazil’s previous record stood at 35 wins. Meanwhile, Russian players also fared well this year, capturing 37 wins while the UK came in third with 27 titles.
To show just how dominant the Brazilians were this year, they also recorded a total of 54 second-place finishes, and for three events, ended up finishing in first, second, and third place.
San Marino which has a population below 34,000 is now the smallest country to win a WCOOP title. This was also the first edition of the WCOOP, where a player from Malta didn’t win a title.
2021 WCOOP by the numbers
Any large tournament series, whether live or online, is going to generate a slew of statistics that can be broken down and analyzed to show a wide variety of patterns and trends. With that said, here’s our look at some of the more interesting facts and figures from the 2021 WCOOP.
Top five prize pools
- Event 91 High: $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Main Event — $10,000,000
- Event 91 Medium: $530 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Main Event — $3,891,500
- Event 34 High: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Super High Roller — 3,000,000
- Event 91 Low: $55 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Main Event — $2014,550
- Event 63 Medium: $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max PKO — $1,930,000
Top five biggest fields based on number of entries
- Event 1 Low: $5.50 No-Limit Hold’em — 141,219
- Event 1 Medium: $22 No-Limit Hold’em — 45,743
- Event 91 Low: $55 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Main Event — 40,291
- Event 94 Low: No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max PKO — 27,906
- Event 67 Low: $11 No-Limit Hold’em PKO — 22,966
Top five prizes paid out
- Event 91 High: $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Main Event — CrazyLissy ($1,499,942)
- Event 34 High: 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Super High Roller — kZhh ($657,557)
- Event 91 Medium: $530 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max Main Event — festen x ($549,008)
- Event 63 High: $10,300 No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Max PKO High Roller — great dant ($331,495)
- Event 92 High: $10,300 PLO, 6-Max Main Event — probirs ($308,556)
Other fun facts
- Players whose usernames started with the letter P won 34 tournaments
- 38 tournaments finished with a deal, but only on three occasions did the runner-up take more cash than the winner
- Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins created a new record by becoming the first player to win three titles in back-to-back WCOOPs (2020 and 2021)
- The top three players in WCOOP history (Shaun Deeb, Tobias Leknes, and Denis Strebkov) didn’t win a title this year
- Benny Glaser and Jussi Nevanlinna have each won a minimum of one title for four consecutive years
