This Sunday, PokerStars runs a WCOOP Women’s World Championship event - and unlike most online titles, this one hands the podium a live seat rather than just a payout. The top three finishers each win a free seat to the £20,000 Women’s Classic, a live event staged during Ladies Weekend at London’s Hippodrome Casino from October 16 to 18. Here’s how the pieces fit before you fire it up.
What’s on the line this Sunday
The WCOOP Women’s World Championship runs this Sunday as part of PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker series. Finish in the top three and you collect a free seat to the Women’s Classic in London. Those seats are described as £300 entry tickets - your way into the live festival, not a cash prize.
That distinction matters. This isn’t a satellite that pays out in chips you can cash and walk away with. It’s a pathway: you play your way through an online field, and the reward is a chair in a live room. Think of it the way a regional qualifier feeds a title fight - the win itself is the entry fee to something bigger.
If you want in, the operative words are this Sunday.
Why link an online event to a live festival?
PokerStars has spent years building WCOOP into one of the bigger titles on the online calendar. Bolting a live prize onto an online event addresses a familiar hurdle for women’s poker - getting players who are comfortable grinding online to make the leap to a live room, where they may be one of the only women at the table.
The online game is where many newer and recreational players start out. Online poker lowers the barrier: no travel, no dress code, no walking into an unfamiliar card room cold. By making the online event the on-ramp, PokerStars replaces the intimidating first step with something concrete - a paid seat, a date, and a destination. You qualify from home and show up in London already holding your ticket.
What the £20,000 Women’s Classic represents
The Women’s Classic carries a £20,000 figure and sits inside Ladies Weekend at the Hippodrome Casino, running October 16 to 18. Hosting a dedicated women’s festival at the Hippodrome is a statement about where women’s live poker sits in the UK - over a full weekend at a well-known London venue.
This event is pitched as part of a broader push to promote women in poker, and the programming reflects that. Educational sessions are promised, so there’s a development angle here rather than just crowning a champion.
While guest list adds to that. Marle Spragg and Jennifer Shahade are both listed, with Shahade also delivering a masterclass over the weekend. Shahade recently captured a women’s title at PokerStars Open Philadelphia, so her presence at a London women’s festival fits.
Where this fits in the bigger picture
Women’s events have been getting more attention across the poker world. WSOP Europe recently debuted its own Ladies Championship in Prague. Now PokerStars is running its own version from the online side, feeding a live festival in London.
What makes the PokerStars version distinct is the mechanism. This one starts online and routes players to a live room, which means it can reach someone who has never set foot in a casino and still put them in a seat at the Hippodrome by October. For newer players weighing whether live poker is for them, that’s a softer landing than buying in cold.
If you play online and have been curious about the jump to live, this is a clean bridge. You don’t need to book flights on spec or gamble a live buy-in blind - you get through the online field, and the seat is handled.
Before you fire, it’s worth brushing up on bankroll basics - the smart way to chase a live seat is to chase it within your means. Do that, run well on Sunday, and you could be trading a laptop for a felt in the West End come October.
