All qualifying bloggers will be credited 10 tickets to play in any of the 30 WBCOOP events running until March 3rd, all of which award tickets for PokerStars' Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) for top finishers. If you cash in any WBCOOP event, you get your seat in the March 4th main event with a $5,000 prizepool. There is a also a WBCOOP leader board prize that will award a package to a live event worth up to $7,000 and a trophy.
All it takes to qualify for the $5,000 is a 500-word-miniumm blog (or 60-second-maximum video blog) explaining, well, what you'd do with the $5,000. Just paste the URL of your blog on the WBCOOP main page (again, found here) to become part of the festivities.
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Unlike my counterpart Dale Philip, I can't say I ever aspired to be the "best" poker blogger. If I remember right, I began writing this thing at a Foxwoods tournament in 2005 just hoping to be able to express myself occasionally and to chronicle anything that stood out along the way in what was a new and exciting experience, inside and out poker life.
Since then, it's been a rare privilege to be able to encounter people in the poker world who have reacted positively to my stories and who have journeyed with me down a path that has included at least a few fun highs, as well as some distinctly painful lows. A poker blog can be the perfect outlet for expressing very heartfelt ideas and very banal concepts alike.
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As for what I'd do with the $5,000--well, realistically, I would consider myself a bigger favorite to hit the $1,000 prize for best live tweeter. I also can't compete with fellow PSTO Tyler Frost's idea to use the $5,000 to stake 23 of his followers in the Sunday Million. Well done, Frosty, that is a great plan! Even better than Dale's idea to stake his pet stuffed monkey in the APPT.
It's not going to sound too exciting to anyone out there, but I got to keep it real: Since I wasn't around for Valentine's Day (I was playing online poker in Mexico, of course), I will be compelled to take any of my WBCOOP winnings and spend them taking my girlfriend out to a nice dinner.