2009 WCOOP: The way it was

Each year, we look at the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker and simply say...wow.

This year, we're looking for a word bigger than "wow."

Since WCOOP started in 2002, PokerStars has awarded more than $156 million in WCOOP prize money. This year made up nearly 1/3 of that purse. The 2009 WCOOP guaranteed $40 million in cash. That number is now academic.

In all 44,000 players from 140 countries played in this year's 45 events and built an overall prize pool of more than $51 million. We'll leave it to you now to come up with that bigger-than-wow word.

It was a series in which we saw Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier win two WCOOP bracelets in the same year. That was a feat matched and, to a degree, outdone by Daniel "djk123" Kelly who not only won two bracelets but made it the final table of the main event. There he finished in fourth place, one of eleven cashes he picked up during the series. That performance earned him the Player of the Series honor.

Finally, it ended when up and coming poker superstar Yevginiy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko won the 2009 WCOOP Main Event for more than $1.7 million, an accomplishment that led him to say "It's a dream come true to win the largest and toughest online poker tournament ever assembled."

Now, as we sit back and think on the wows of the year, we have a chance to hear from the three people we mentioned above.

PokerStars.tv has put together a great look at the 2009 WCOOP. In the round-up show below you will find interviews with ElkY, Kelly, and Timoshenko.

Now, as we put WCOOP behind us, we can look forward to the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure where all of the bracelet winners have been invited for a ceremony in their honor.

We look forward to meeting them all there, where collectively we can certainly come up with a word bigger than "wow."