An epic World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) from PokerStars is now in the books for 2023, and it was one for the record books. Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser extended his dominance in PokerStars’ Championship series with a record seven titles this time around for an astonishing 10 wins on the Championship circuit this year. And yet, even with that dominance, Glaser still couldn’t fend off his hard-charging countryman, Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, for the overall leaderboard.
It has been a wild month of Championship poker, but the 2023 WCOOP has now come to a close. Over 337 total events, more than 1 million entries were recorded for prize pools totaling almost $95 million. And it came down to the wire as far as the Player of the Series Leaderboards were concerned, with Glaser and Leonard fighting it out to the final hand for the overall title.
In the end, “pads” nosed out Glaser at the wire for the overlead in the premier online poker series from PokerStars, but Glaser dominated the field in overall wins with seven new titles to go with his three from the Spring Championships earlier this year for 10 total in 2023. Leonard took the overall title with a strong back half to the series that saw him finish with four WCOOP titles this year.
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While Glaser was the clear title leader, there were a couple of other players crowding around Leonard in a tie for second. Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes and Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen both grabbed four titles in this series as well while Brazilian Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi was the lone player to bag 3 titles ahead of a boatload of players winning two.
2023 WCOOP at a Glance
- Total Events: 337
- Total Prizes: $94,953,399
- Total Entries: 1,013,641
- Leaderboard Winners
- Overall: Patrick “pads1161” Leonard
- High: Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser
- Medium: Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen
- Low: “FAL1st”
Ivan “ILS007” Stokes Wins Big Main Event
The big Main Event winner this time around was Ivan “ILS007” Stokes for a bit more than $1 million in WCOOP 98-H: World Championship of NLHE: $10,300 Main Event at a final table that included Niklas “Lena900” Astedt. “BLEFE GOD” from Brazil bagged the $1,050 Medium prize for almost $620,000 while “CadeMito” and “Goonie Tot” cut a deal heads up in the $109 Low with “CadeMito” recording the win for an adjusted $257,039.
Main Events at a Glance
- WCOOP 98-H
- Buy-In: $10,300
- Entries: 600
- Prizes: $6,000,000
- Winner: Ivan “ILS007” Stokes
- WCOOP 98-M
- Buy-In: $1,050
- Entries: 4,342
- Prizes: $4,342,000
- Winner: “BLEFE GOD”
- WCOOP 98-L
- Buy-In: $109
- Entries: 27,184
- Prizes: $2,718,400
- Winner: “CadeMito”
Glaser, “FAL1st”, and Leonard Battle for Tight Leaderboard
It was a battle for the overall leaderboard in this year’s WCOOP series, and perhaps the most surprising entry on the list is “FAL1st”. While there is no implication that their skills are any less than the rest of the names on the list, and they won the Low Leaderboard title, their presence on the overall list, and in fact at the top of the Low, comes from just a single title win through the entire series.
In the end, less than 200 points separated the top three finishers in the overall leaderboard standings, with Leonard taking the title with 2165 points over “FAL1st” in second with 2015, and the red-hot Glaser in third with 1970. Bruschi grabbed fourth place with more than 1900 points as well, putting first through fourth within 240 points of each other.
Odeen’s four titles this series nabbed him the seventh spot on the overall leaderboard with 1625 points, but it was plenty to secure him the win in the Medium bracket. His 735 points were nearly 100 points more than second-place Bruschi for Medium glory while Bruschi narrowly edged out Leonard and Gabriel “pinguinho” Baleeiro, who tied for third on 625 points. Baleeiro also figured in the top five of the Low leaderboard.
Golden Glaser
While there were a lot of standout performances this year at WCOOP, it is hard to ignore the giant standing above the rest. Glaser came into this series atop the list with 18 titles to his name over both the Spring and World Championships.
He booked three SCOOP titles earlier this year to put him on 18 total. Before 2023, however, just 8 of his titles came in the fall at WCOOP. After 2023, that total has nearly doubled to 15 WCOOP titles, and his 7 this fall mean his 2023 total titles for all Championship series is an astonishing 10.
To put that into perspective a bit, coming into this year, Glaser had an already impressive 'COOP resume of 15 wins across both series. With 10 titles in 2023 alone, he bumped his title count by 66% in a year. That might not be so impressive when a player starts on a single title, but when they start on 15, the result is surely one for the record books.
Get all the news and results from the 2023 WCOOP from the PokerStars Blog and get ready for a high-octane November in Sin City with PokerStars NAPT Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Qualifiers are running now! Learn how you can score a trip to compete in the 2023 North American Poker Tour.
