As the year trundles on, we come across yet another high-stakes high-class online poker series. Titan Poker are leading the charge for the European Championship of Online Poker V. This bi-annual event has firmly established itself in the pantheon of prestigious online tournaments. In their short history, the ECOOPs have collectively awarded over $15 million in prizes. Making them unarguably Europe’s most lucrative online series.
This latest iteration is scheduled to start on November 23rd, with scores of packed satellites currently running on Titan Poker. Fourteen events over fourteen days will see the tournament calendar run until the Main Event on December 6th. Each event has a guarantee of at least $50,000 and the overall guaranteed prize pools amount to a huge $4,550,000.
The series gets underway with a $200 + $15 No Limit Hold ‘em tournament, along with a guarantee of $250,000. Although there’s a wide spread of games and styles, you’ll be unsurprised to learn that the majority of the tournaments are No Limit Hold ‘em. The largest buy-in occurs half-way through proceedings on Monday 30th of November. The $2,500 NLHE event carries a $500,000 guarantee to tempt in the big players. Among the Turbos, Rebuys, and 6-max tournaments are a number of other poker styles. 7 Card Stud, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Limit Hold ‘em all get their moment in the spotlight. The whole series comes to a close on December 6th with the Main Event, a $1,500 + $80 NLHE tournament with a mammoth $1,500,000 guarantee.
Guaranteed prize pools have almost doubled from the first ECOOP back in December 2007. Online sites stumped up $2.5 million to split between a sprinkling of events and a major new player on the online poker stage was born. Although notably smaller than the likes of the FTOPS and WCOOP, the ECOOP has developed a loyal following that sees it grow year after year. ECOOP II paid over $3.5 million across 10 days and later that year the ECOOP III awarded over $4,150,000. By the time ECOOP IV rolled around in May this year, the guaranteed cash on offer had ballooned to $4,500,000.
Unlike many other online tournament series, the guarantees in these events actually amount to something. Most other online series that boast massive guarantees are always careful to ensure that their figures fall short of the money contributed by buy-ins. Titan Poker and their allies are considerably more generous. In the ECOOP IV around 50% of the events did not meet their guarantees, meaning that every player in the tournament was getting some extra value from their entry fee. The previous ECOOP was very similar to this latest version, so you can expect a similar amount of added value this time around.
ECOOP V Schedule:
Monday 23-Nov NL Hold’em $200 $250,000
Tuesday 24-Nov Limit 7 Card Stud $250 $50,000
Wednesday 25-Nov NL Hold’em Turbo R/A $100 $200,000
Thursday 26-Nov NL Hold’em $250 $350,000
Friday 27-Nov PL Omaha Hi/Lo $750 $100,000
Saturday 28-Nov PL Omaha (6 max) 1 Rebuy $1,000 $150,000
Sunday 29-Nov NL Hold’em $500 $500,000
Monday 30-Nov NL Hold’em $2,500 $500,000
Tuesday 1-Dec PL Omaha R/A $100 $150,000
Wednesday 2-Dec NL Hold’em (6 Max) $300 $300,000
Thursday 3-Dec Limit Hold’em (6 Max) $100 $100,000
Friday 4-Dec NL Hold’em R/A $100 $300,000
Saturday 5-Dec PL Omaha $400 $100,000
Sunday 6-Dec NL Hold’em $1,500 $1,500,000