Long before online poker tournaments routinely offered seven-figure guarantees, Tuesday night meant something very specific to serious PokerStars players. It meant Super Tuesday.
The $1,050 weekly tournament became one of the toughest regular fixtures in online poker, attracting established professionals and ambitious grinders prepared to put up four figures on a weekday night. Almost two decades after its introduction, the name is still alive.
On September 8, Super Tuesday returns as part of WCOOP 2026, with three versions ranging from $109 to a $10,300 High Roller. The buy-ins have changed, the fields have changed and online poker itself has changed almost beyond recognition, but Super Tuesday has survived.
What Is the WCOOP Super Tuesday?
The 2026 World Championship of Online Poker began on September 6 and runs until September 30, with 350 champions due to be crowned across 121 numbered events. PokerStars is celebrating the 25th edition of its flagship online championship.
Poker Type’s look at the full WCOOP 2026 schedule shows just how far the series has expanded since its nine-event debut in 2002. Tuesday, September 8 brings the first Super Tuesday of this year’s WCOOP.
WCOOP 2026 Super Tuesday Schedule
| Event | Buy-in | Guarantee | Start |
|---|---|---|---|
| WCOOP 15-L: Super Tuesday | $109 | $150,000 | 13:05 ET |
| WCOOP 15-M: Super Tuesday | $1,050 | $175,000 | 13:05 ET |
| WCOOP 15-H: Super Tuesday High Roller | $10,300 | No advertised guarantee | 13:05 ET |
The structure neatly illustrates what has happened to online poker since the original tournament appeared. The traditional $1,050 buy-in survives in the middle tier, there is now a $109 version for smaller bankrolls, and above both sits a $10,300 High Roller costing almost ten times the entry fee of the tournament that made Super Tuesday famous.
Super Tuesday Started Back in 2007
The name has genuine online poker history behind it. PokerStars introduced Super Tuesday in late May 2007, with the original tournament costing $1,050 to enter at a time when the online poker boom was still gathering momentum.
Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin won the inaugural edition after defeating a field of 356 players and collected $89,000. It quickly became apparent that PokerStars had found a market for a major midweek tournament.
Sundays were already the center of online tournament poker, with players building schedules around the largest weekly guarantees. Super Tuesday offered something different by giving serious tournament players a weekly $1K event in the middle of the working week, helping turn it into a proving ground for online professionals.
When a $1K Tuesday Tournament Was a Big Deal
It is easy to look at modern online poker schedules and underestimate what a $1,050 weekly tournament represented in 2007. Today, high rollers can find five-figure online tournaments during major festivals, but in the late 2000s putting up $1,050 every Tuesday represented a serious commitment.
Super Tuesday consequently developed a reputation for difficult fields. The tournament attracted established online professionals alongside recognizable live players and future stars.
The numbers were substantial too. In November 2010, 432 players entered one edition to create a $432,000 prize pool, while a February 2012 tournament drew 498 entries and produced $498,000 in prize money with $94,620 for the winner.
A regular Tuesday tournament was effectively generating half a million dollars.
How Big Was the Classic Super Tuesday?
| Edition | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | First Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inaugural event, 2007 | 356 | $356,000* | Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin | $89,000 |
| Feb. 2010 notable edition | 487 | $487,000 | Jemmert1983 | $92,530 |
| Nov. 2010 | 432 | $432,000 | Coilmaster85 | $83,376 |
| Feb. 2012 | 498 | $498,000 | BoskoRock | $94,620 |
| Feb. 2016 | 515 | $515,000 | mahmuttt88 | $97,850 |
| Dec. 2016 | 432 | $432,000 | goddy arthur | $77,501 |
*Based on the $1,000 contribution to the prize pool from each $1,050 entry.
The figures show why Super Tuesday mattered. This wasn’t a promotional tournament appearing once a year, but a regular weekday event where players could generate prize pools approaching or exceeding $500,000.
Jason Koon Was a Super Tuesday Champion
Some of the names found in old Super Tuesday results now look considerably more significant. Jason Koon won the tournament in October 2010, long before he became synonymous with super high roller poker.
Playing as “jakoon1985,” Koon defeated 409 opponents in a 410-entry field and collected $78,679. He would go on to become one of the most successful tournament players in history, with his extraordinary high-stakes career eventually earning him induction into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2026.
Looking back at Koon’s Super Tuesday victory provides a snapshot of an earlier stage of his career. He was already battling strong online fields for four-figure buy-ins years before becoming one of the defining players of the super high roller era.
Calvin Anderson Won It Too
Koon wasn’t alone among recognizable players to win the tournament. Calvin “cal42688” Anderson defeated a 417-entry Super Tuesday field in December 2010, collecting $80,022 from the $417,000 prize pool.
The final tables regularly contained players who would become familiar names to serious poker followers. A random weekly edition could contain established professionals, future bracelet winners and online specialists whose screen names were better known than their real identities.
For railbirds, Super Tuesday offered an opportunity to watch elite online poker without waiting for a major championship series. For the players themselves, winning it carried credibility.
Some Memorable Super Tuesday Winners
Super Tuesday’s history is too long to reduce to a definitive shortlist, but several results illustrate the caliber of player who has appeared at the top:
- Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin won the inaugural Super Tuesday in 2007 for $89,000.
- Jason “jakoon1985” Koon won a 410-entry edition in October 2010 for $78,679.
- Calvin “cal42688” Anderson defeated 416 opponents in December 2010 for $80,022.
- Dan Heimiller won a 349-entry edition in November 2010 for $67,532.
- mahmuttt88 beat 514 opponents in February 2016 and collected $97,850.
- goddy arthur won the final Super Tuesday of 2016 for $77,501.
- Patrick “pads1161” Leonard won the $1,050 WCOOP Super Tuesday in 2023 for $54,506.
- “Nolet20” won the $10,300 WCOOP Super Tuesday High Roller in 2025 for $186,434.
There are several very different eras of online poker represented in that list. That is precisely the point, because Super Tuesday has survived long enough to connect generations of online tournament players.
WCOOP Gave Super Tuesday a New Life
The modern version is not simply the old weekly tournament continuing unchanged. PokerStars has increasingly incorporated the Super Tuesday name into its major online series, including WCOOP.
The format fits naturally with WCOOP’s Low, Medium and High structure, allowing the same tournament concept to be offered at dramatically different bankroll levels. In 2022, for example, the schedule included $55, $215 and $1,050 Super Tuesday tournaments.
The $1,050 High edition that year attracted 379 entries and generated a $400,000 prize pool, with Croatia’s “hovlaa” collecting $68,187. By 2025, however, the top Super Tuesday level had become considerably more expensive.
Canada’s Nolet20 Won $186K in 2025
Last year’s WCOOP Super Tuesday provides the most useful comparison with September 8. The three tournaments had buy-ins of $109, $1,050 and $10,300, the same three levels being used in 2026.
WCOOP Super Tuesday 2025 Results
| Level | Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | $109 | 2,444 | $250,000 | “RomeOpro” | $36,739 |
| Medium | $1,050 | 290 | $290,000 | “buck21” | $55,354 |
| High | $10,300 | 60 | $600,000 | “Nolet20” | $186,434 |
Canada enjoyed a remarkable night, with Canadian players winning both the Medium and High versions. “buck21” defeated the $1,050 field for $55,354, while “Nolet20” won the $10,300 High Roller.
Only 60 entries were required to create the $600,000 High Roller prize pool. Nolet20’s $186,434 payout was more than twice the $89,000 Baldwin collected for winning the inaugural Super Tuesday 18 years earlier.
The comparison isn’t perfect because the buy-ins are completely different. It does, however, illustrate how far the top end of online tournament poker has moved.
From $1,050 to $10,300
That change is perhaps the most interesting part of Super Tuesday’s story. The original $1,050 event was itself a high roller, but in 2026 it is the Medium version and the High edition costs $10,300.
It is a remarkable example of buy-in inflation at the top of online poker. That does not mean ordinary online poker has suddenly become ten times more expensive, because WCOOP simultaneously offers championship events at single-digit and double-digit buy-ins.
Instead, the modern tournament schedule stretches much further in both directions. Recreational players can enter WCOOP cheaply while elite high rollers can play tournaments costing $10,000 or even $25,000 online.
Super Tuesday now sits across that entire spectrum.
The $109 Version Could Attract the Biggest Field
The $10,300 High Roller will naturally attract attention because of the money involved, but the $109 Low edition could attract vastly more players. Last year’s equivalent drew 2,444 entries, more than eight times the field of the $1,050 tournament and more than 40 times the number of entries in the High Roller.
It is an important reminder that modern WCOOP isn’t solely aimed at professionals. Tuesday’s $109 tournament has a $150,000 guarantee, while the $1,050 version guarantees $175,000.
Players who want the Super Tuesday experience without paying four or five figures therefore have a much more accessible route into it than they did when Baldwin won the original.
Super Tuesday Is Only Part of a Busy WCOOP Tuesday
September 8 isn’t solely about No-Limit Hold’em. PokerStars has packed the day with different formats, giving players options well beyond the three Super Tuesday tournaments.
Other WCOOP events on Tuesday include:
- Progressive Knockout Bounty Builder events at $22, $109 and $530.
- 5-Card PLO8 at $11, $109 and $1,050.
- Fixed Limit Badugi at $22, $109 and $530.
- Seven-max Turbo PKOs at $11, $75 and $215.
- NLO8 Hyper-Turbo Mystery Bounty events beginning at $5.50.
That variety is another major difference between WCOOP and the online poker landscape in which Super Tuesday originally appeared. No-Limit Hold’em remains the biggest game, but a modern championship schedule needs considerably more than Hold’em.
WCOOP Itself Has Changed Beyond Recognition
Super Tuesday isn’t the only survivor from another era. WCOOP began in 2002 with just nine events and approximately $730,000 paid in total prizes.
Its first Main Event was a $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em tournament that attracted only 238 players. Sweden’s “MultiMarine” won it for $65,450.
By 2003, the post-Moneymaker poker boom was beginning to transform the series. The Main Event generated an $891,000 prize pool and “DeeOhGee” collected $222,750, before WCOOP paid more than $6 million across the entire series a year later.
By the end of the 2021 edition, PokerStars recorded more than 6.6 million tournament entries and $1.095 billion in WCOOP prize pools since the series began. The 2026 edition is now the 25th WCOOP.
PokerStars has continued changing the formula this year through the WCOOP Games, adding a team competition with community players representing squads led by personalities including Spraggy, Marle Spragg and Sebastian Huber. It is another example of how far the championship has expanded beyond a straightforward collection of online tournaments.
WCOOP has become enormous.
Patrick Leonard Added Super Tuesday to His WCOOP Record
Few players illustrate modern WCOOP better than Patrick “pads1161” Leonard. The British online specialist won the $1,050 WCOOP Super Tuesday in 2023, defeating Brazil’s “Eduardo850” heads-up after the pair agreed a deal.
Leonard collected $54,506, but the title carried additional significance because it was his fourth WCOOP victory of that year’s series and ninth overall. His run helped him secure the 2023 WCOOP Player of the Series title ahead of Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser.
Leonard continued adding WCOOP titles and had reached 12 by September 2025. For a player who has deliberately structured significant parts of his year around the major online championship series, adding Super Tuesday to that record was particularly appropriate.
Why Did Super Tuesday Last?
Online poker is full of tournament names that disappeared, but Super Tuesday survived because the name became useful shorthand. For years, it meant one thing: the serious $1K tournament on Tuesday.
Players knew when it ran, what it cost and that the field would be difficult. They also knew winning it meant beating players who were often among the best online tournament professionals in the world.
The modern WCOOP version is different, but PokerStars has preserved enough of that identity for the name still to mean something. The $1,050 tournament remains, the day remains Tuesday and the competition remains serious.
What has changed is everything around it.
A Piece of Online Poker History Returns on September 8
It would be easy to describe WCOOP 15 as another three tournaments on a schedule containing hundreds of them. Super Tuesday deserves a little more attention.
It began in 2007 with 356 players putting up $1,050 and Eric Baldwin collecting $89,000. It then survived the end of poker’s first online boom, Black Friday and enormous changes in online tournament structures, regulation and player pools.
Future Poker Hall of Famer Jason Koon won it, as did Calvin Anderson, while Patrick Leonard later added its WCOOP incarnation to his collection of championship titles. Last year, the $10,300 edition produced a $600,000 prize pool from only 60 entries.
Now the tournament is back for another WCOOP.
At 13:05 ET on September 8, players can enter for $109, the traditional $1,050 or the modern high-roller price of $10,300. Almost 20 years after the first Super Tuesday, one of online poker’s most recognizable tournament names is still doing what it was created to do: giving poker players a reason to make Tuesday anything but ordinary.
