September weather forecast: 100% chance of WCOOP

Ask someone in Australia what they think of when September rolls around and they may say the end of winter and beginning of spring. Ask an American and they may tell you it is the end of summer and beginning of autumn (or fall, if you will). Ask an online poker player and they will tell you two things: 1) that they have no earthly clue what the weather is like and 2) that the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) is upon us.

The WCOOP evokes different emotions and promises different experiences to all players. It has little effect on cash game players - perhaps the games are slightly better during the month as tournament pros and amateur players alike attempt to parlay their tournament earnings into greater cash game success. It may be a time where a cash game player dips their feet into the waters of the tournament world taking a punt at a handful of tournaments with significantly larger than normal prize pools for their respective buy-in levels. For the most part though it is "just another month in the life of".

On the other hand it's the month of all months if you're a tournament player. What the WSOP is to live poker tournaments the WCOOP is to online poker tournaments.

Spanning three weeks with 65 events having buy-ins ranging from $109 to $10,300 (with most in the $200-$500 range) and with a guaranteed total prize pool of $30,000,000 (that is almost certain to be smashed) it's no surprise the series has generated a reputation to be the crème de la crème in the online tournament world.

For me personally it is especially exciting. I am primarily a cash game player but have gone through bouts of being a tournament grinder over my career and consider myself relatively adept at playing all the glorious variations of the wonderful game that is poker. The WCOOP caters brilliantly to me on that front. For the last few years I have avoided the NLHE events as I fell further and further behind the curve and solidified my present and future as PLO grinder - this year however my recent escapades in live NLHE tournaments has rekindled an old fire inside me creating inspiration to improve my skills and take a shot at some of the hold'em WCOOP events.

I don't have an exact schedule. Suffice to say I will be playing all the PLO events (including the hi/lo ones), the $320 8-game and HORSE events plus a scattering of NLHE events whenever time permits. I do know that I will be hosting the final table of four events: