2026 WCOOP Full Schedule: 121 Numbered Events, Six Main Events, and $6.5 Million Guaranteed

Last Updated on August 31, 2026 by Bala Kumar

The 2026 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) returns to PokerStars from September 6 to September 30, and this year’s schedule carries 121 numbered events and six official Main Events guaranteeing a combined $6.5 million.

WCOOP has remained one of the longest-running major online poker series, and for players grinding it out at the tables, a WCOOP title still carries real weight in the game’s history. Here’s what’s actually on the schedule, how the numbers break down, and what to know before you register.

When Does WCOOP 2026 Start, and How Long Does It Run?

WCOOP 2026 runs for 25 days, from Sunday, September 6 through Wednesday, September 30, entirely online on PokerStars. The schedule follows the familiar three-tier format from series like SCOOP earlier in the year: Low, Medium, and High buy-in versions of most events running in parallel, with the heaviest volume landing on Sundays (September 6, 13, 20, and 27).

Clearing Up the “121 Events” Number

This is worth being precise about, because it’s easy to misread. 121 refers to the number of numbered event slots on the schedule (WCOOP 01 through WCOOP 121). Almost every numbered slot is offered simultaneously at Low, Medium, and High buy-ins — meaning the actual number of individual tournaments players can enter is well into the several hundreds once every tier is counted separately. So: 121 distinct events on the schedule, each typically split into up to three separate tournaments by stake level.

Formats on offer include No-Limit Hold’em (6-Max, Deep Stack, Turbo, Mystery Bounty, Progressive Knockout), Pot-Limit Omaha, PLO8, HORSE, 8-Game, Razz, 2-7 Triple Draw, 5-Card PLO, Badugi, and Stud Hi/Lo.

The Six Main Events: Where the $6.5 Million Guarantee Comes From

PokerStars has split the WCOOP Main Event into six separate tournaments — three NLHE, three PLO — rather than running one single field. According to the official schedule, this is the exact breakdown:

Add those six guarantees together and the total lands at $6.5 million. The $10,300 NLHE Championship carries the single largest guarantee of the six at $2.5 million.

For reference: the 2025 WCOOP $10,300 Main Event was won by Gilles Simon. Historical WCOOP High-buy-in fields have typically run well past their guarantees once re-entries are added, though the exact 2026 turnout won’t be known until the event actually plays out — treat any field-size figure before September 27 as an estimate, not a fact.

How WCOOP 2026 Compares to WSOP Online 2026

Two major online series are running close together this year, so a side-by-side is useful — sourced directly from each operator’s official announcement:

GGPoker’s WSOP Online concentrates its biggest number into one $25 million Main Event and offers real WSOP gold bracelets as the prize. PokerStars spreads WCOOP’s guarantees across six separate title fields plus 115 other numbered events, so there are more distinct “world champion” titles available across the series, even though no single WCOOP guarantee matches WSOP Online’s $25 million figure. Both are legitimate but structurally different approaches — one is depth of opportunity, the other is one very large peak event.

Satellites: A Low-Cost Path Into the Series

WCOOP satellites start at $0.55, with WCOOP-themed Spin & Go satellites starting at $0.75. To be clear on how this works: these are satellite entry points, not direct entries — a $0.55 satellite gets you into a qualifying chain that can eventually award a seat into a much bigger buy-in event, including the $10,300 Championship, but it is not a $0.55 ticket straight into the Main Event itself. Players will need to win through one or more satellite rounds to convert a small buy-in into a full Main Event seat.

Alongside satellites, PokerStars is running three value promotions through the series:

• WCOOP Lucky Dip — $500,000 in tournament tickets given away throughout the series
• Power Path Express — $175,000+ in ticket bundles and Main Event entries
• WCOOP Leaderboards — an additional $100,000 in cash prizes across Low, Medium, High, and overall Player of the Series races

The Leaderboard races reward volume rather than just deep runs, which makes them a realistic target for high-volume Low-stakes players who may not often reach a Main Event final table.

Players With the Most WCOOP Titles

Most of these totals were built on the smaller-field World Championship side events rather than the marquee Main Events — the $1,050 HORSE Championship (Sept 7), Razz Championship (Sept 10), NLHE PKO Championship (Sept 13), Triple Draw Championship (Sept 15), PLO8 Championship (Sept 17), and 8-Game Championship (Sept 24) among them. Mixed-game specialists tend to face shallower, less-hyper-aggressive fields in these events compared to the flagship NLHE tournaments.

Practical Notes Before Registering

1. Multi-entry rules vary by event. Some events allow unlimited re-entry through the first break; others are single-entry. Confirm on the individual event page before assuming you can fire multiple bullets.
2. All times are listed in ET and UTC. Players in Asia or Australia should check the local conversion for High buy-in events, several of which land in late-night hours depending on region.
3. The Sunday Million 20th Anniversary Phase 2 event on September 6 ($5M Gtd) runs alongside WCOOP in the same window but is not itself a WCOOP-branded event — worth noting so it isn’t confused with the official 121-event schedule.
4. The Women’s Championship (Sept 20) runs at Low, Medium, and High buy-ins like the rest of the schedule.

FAQs

Bala Kumar

Founder of PokerClubGames.com and a Poker Researcher with 10+ years of experience in SEO, WordPress development, and gaming content strategy. Specializes in researching online poker sites, poker apps, tournaments, bonuses, and poker strategies. Experienced in poker platform reviews, affiliate marketing, and creating SEO-focused poker content for global audiences.

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