How to Play

Become Part of the WSOP Heritage

It's estimated that over 40,000,000 people worldwide play poker online each year. Some play for money, some for prizes, some just for fun.

Online poker is faster and less intimidating than live games, with more variations available any time of the day or night. Playing online poker is a snap. A poker table is displayed on your computer screen. The friendly user interface allows you to make in-game decisions with one click of your mouse. Players take turns being the dealer, as the dealer's position rotates clockwise after each hand. Just like in a casino, there's a professional dealer to deal the cards and keep the game moving. Online poker is fast and fair, with no wait to shuffle, no collection of discards (known as the "muck"), and no misdeals. With online poker in Nevada, you can enjoy the same poker action whether you're in Las Vegas or Bunkerville!

How is Online Poker Different?

• Proximity to your opponents: With online poker, you can play against people anywhere in Nevada!
• Multi-tabling: It's as close to cloning yourself as you can get. With online poker, you can play multiple tables at the same time.
• Speed of play: Online poker operates at approximately 4 to 5 times the pace of offline poker. You may also be multi-tabling, which means you could see as many as 20 times more hands than you would see in a live casino!
• Actions speak, not words: In a live casino, players can initiate or call a bet verbally, and it's binding. Online decisions are put into action with the buttons on your screen. There are no take-backs once you press the button, so make sure to keep any itchy trigger fingers in your pockets!

       

WCOOP 2013: The parade of heroes

 The World Championship of Online Poker is over for another year having paid out a guarantee-busting $62,362,757. It's been a hell of a series lasting 66 tournaments and three weeks of play. Some players have confirmed their class while others have emerged from the masses as possible stars of the future. Where better to start than with the $10,665,000 Main Event.

PlayinWasted, online World champ 
WCOOP-66: $5,200 Main Event

The first (very expensive) hat tip has to go to WCOOP Main Event champ PlayinWasted. The German low stakes grinder's previous largest PokerStars win had been $17,000. The $1,493,499 they collected for their World Champion title has boosted their bankroll considerably, to put it lightly, so keep an eye out for PlainWasted in bigger buy-in comps going forward.

If you want to see how PlayinWasted took down that enormous first prize then watch the WCOOP Main Event final table below with commentary from Nick Wealthall and reigning EPT Grand Final Champion Steve O'Dwyer.

Ankush "Pistons87" Mandavia proves his mettle again 
WCOOP-58: $530 NLHE (1R/1A)

Ankush "Pistons87" Mandavia has increasingly been one of those players that you really, really, really want to fade in a heads-up or short-handed tournaments. He won his first WCOOP in 2011 in the $10,300 Heads-Up High Roller for $119,000 having beaten Daniel Negreanu in the semi-finals. He's since won a four-max SCOOP title for more than $100,000 and won two heads-up tournaments on the EPT last season sealing his claim on the EPT9 Heads-Up Player of the Year title. This time round he went for regular full-ring glory.

        Big Slick, Ace, King, A,K. A,K offsuit is a better starting hand than AQ suited or KQ suited regardless of what some other poker writers have said. This is obvious because you don't want to get in there with K,Q suited or A,Q suited against A,K offsuit. Hold 'em is kicker poker and you cannot outkick Big Slick. You turn a pair one third of the time. It is top pair and it cannot be outkicked. More money is lost on Ace and a rag than any other hand. It is being lost to the dominate hand A,K. A,K is a better hand and a more playable hand at no limit than pairs below a pair of tens. They put the brakes on with too many overcards. Big Slick can only make one straight, never on the ignorant end. A,K gets a lot of free cards. It is not a good semi-bluffing hand unless any two cards above a nine come.