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BBZ Poker Teams Up with PokerStars for WCOOP Boot Camp 2025

BBZ Poker Teams Up with PokerStars for WCOOP Boot Camp 2025

Every year before the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) on PokerStars, BBZ Poker partners with PokerStars to run the WCOOP Boot Camp, a warm-up series designed to help players prepare for one of the biggest online tournament festivals of the year.

The Boot Camp combines a full schedule of warm-up tournaments across multiple formats and buy-in levels with free coaching sessions led by the BBZ coaching roster. It is open to everyone, and the coaching sessions are completely free.

WCOOP Boot Camp 2025

The 2025 WCOOP Boot Camp ran from August 3 to August 18, leading into the 24th WCOOP series (September 7 to October 1, 2025). Here is what was included.

Tournament schedule

137 tournaments across 69 unique events in Low and High buy-in tiers. Formats included No-Limit Hold’em, 8-Game, HORSE, Razz, and PL Badugi, with buy-ins ranging from $2.20 to $5,200 and satellites starting at $1.10. Combined guarantees exceeded $9 million.

The series wrapped up with two Main Events on August 17:

Main Event (High)

$1,050

$400,000 guaranteed

Main Event (Low)

$109

$600,000 guaranteed

Free coaching sessions

BBZ ran 12 free coaching sessions on August 1, 8, and 15 (10 AM to 2 PM ET each day), hosted on the BBZ Discord server. Sessions covered WCOOP-specific strategy, format preparation, and live Q&A. Recordings were made available afterward for anyone who could not attend live.

The 2025 coaching roster included:

Jordan “BBZ” Drummond

Founder and head coach

Alex “Pwndidi” Theologis

High-stakes MTT specialist

Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet

High-stakes MTT legend

Andy “BowieEffect” Wilson

Game theory and strategy

Jargo “bungakat” Alaväli

ICM and MTT theory

Tobias “senkel92” Leknes

Mixed-game tournament specialist

Brian “bfizz11” Fite

Low to mid-stakes MTTs

Ryan “newguy89” McEathron

Satellite specialist

Leaderboard prizes

The Boot Camp Leaderboard awarded $60,000 in Power Passes to the top 100 players in tournaments with buy-ins up to $215:

1st to 4th

$10,300

Gold Power Pass

5th to 8th

$2,500

Silver Power Pass

9th to 100th

$109

Bronze Power Pass

Ticket Machine

The WCOOP Boot Camp Ticket Machine offered $150,000 in WCOOP tickets across two prize draws (August 12 and August 19). Players earned entries by completing challenges: play 10 Boot Camp events, or finish in the money in two events. Each draw awarded $75,000 in tickets.

Prepare for the next WCOOP

Whether you are playing the next Boot Camp or grinding WCOOP qualifiers on your own schedule, the best preparation is systematic study of the spots that come up most often in tournament poker: preflop ranges, ICM decisions, final table play, and bubble dynamics.

BBZ’s Daily Seminars run 8 live coaching sessions per week covering all of these topics, with 3,000+ hours in the archive. The same coaches who lead the Boot Camp sessions teach seminars year-round.

Daily Seminars

Live coaching 8 sessions per week from the same coaches who lead the WCOOP Boot Camp. MTT strategy, ICM, final table play, and more. 3,000+ hours in the archive. Cancel anytime.

Try Free for 7 Days

Preflop Charts and Trainer

Solver-approved ranges for every position and stack depth. Drill your preflop game before WCOOP so your decisions are automatic when it matters.

Try Free for 7 Days

Join the BBZ community

Boot Camp coaching sessions are hosted on the BBZ Discord, which has over 11,000 members and is active year-round. Join for free to get announcements about the next Boot Camp, access hand review channels, and connect with other serious tournament players.

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