Alejandro Lococo Wins 2026 WCOOP Main Event for $343K After Twitch-Fueled Final Table

Alejandro “Papo MC” Lococo has won the 2026 PokerStars WCOOP $1,050 Main Event for $343,242.

The Argentine poker player, rapper and streamer defeated a field of 2,310 entries to capture his first World Championship of Online Poker title.

Lococo entered the final table third in chips. However, he quickly moved toward the top of the leaderboard and eventually reached heads-up play against Ireland’s “Goodarla.”

By the final hand, Lococo held a dominant chip advantage.

He moved all in with queen-four. Goodarla called with ten-seven, and the board gave Lococo trip fours to end the tournament.

The victory added another major title to a poker résumé that already includes a WSOP bracelet, a seventh-place finish in the WSOP Main Event and a $12.07 million Triton Million victory.

Still, this result was different.

The Alejandro Lococo WCOOP Main Event win gave Papo MC one of online poker’s most recognizable championship titles while thousands of viewers followed the finish live.

Alejandro Lococo WCOOP Main Event Win: Quick Facts

Why Alejandro Lococo’s WCOOP Win Became Such a Big Story

WCOOP produces hundreds of champions.

However, not every winner brings the same audience.

Lococo already had a following far beyond traditional poker media before entering the final table.

He is widely known as Papo MC, a freestyle rapper and content creator from Argentina. In addition, his poker career has grown from recreational crossover story to legitimate high-stakes success.

That combination made the WCOOP final unusually easy to follow for casual fans.

Poker players knew the importance of a WCOOP Main Event title. Meanwhile, viewers from outside poker already knew Papo.

As a result, the final table reached a broader audience than a normal online tournament result.

The $1,050 Main Event Beat Its $2 Million Guarantee

The Medium WCOOP Main Event had a $1,050 buy-in and a $2 million guarantee.

Players pushed the tournament past that target.

A total of 2,310 entries created a final prize pool of $2.31 million.

The field included 1,539 initial entries and 771 re-entries.

Therefore, the tournament generated $310,000 more than its advertised guarantee.

This was one of six Main Events on the 2026 WCOOP schedule.

Our WCOOP 2026 schedule and Main Events guide covers how PokerStars divided the championship across Low, Medium and High buy-ins for both NLHE and PLO.

WCOOP $1,050 Main Event Final Results

Lococo Started the Final Table Third in Chips

Papo did not arrive with an overwhelming lead.

Instead, he began third among the final nine players.

Jorge “jorginho88” Abreu and Younes “calldeKhigh” Maghous entered ahead of him.

That position was still strong, though.

Lococo had enough chips to apply pressure without immediately needing a double-up.

Meanwhile, several shorter stacks had to worry about rising blinds and large payout jumps.

This is where final-table poker becomes very different from the early stages of a tournament.

Players are no longer thinking only about accumulating chips.

They also need to understand how elimination changes the value of every remaining stack.

Why ICM Pressure Changes a WCOOP Final Table

Ninth place paid $22,882.

Sixth place was worth more than $63,000.

Third place paid $174,411.

First place offered $343,242.

Consequently, every elimination created a meaningful financial jump.

A player with a medium stack may sometimes need to avoid a marginal confrontation because shorter stacks are close to busting.

At the same time, large stacks can use that fear to apply pressure.

Understanding these payout effects is essential in modern tournament poker.

Lococo Took Control as the Final Table Got Shorter

According to final-table coverage, Lococo began gaining momentum early.

By seven-handed play, he had moved into the chip lead.

That change mattered because shorter tables require wider ranges.

At nine-handed play, players can wait longer for strong starting hands.

Once only six or seven players remain, the blinds arrive more often and positional opportunities become more valuable.

Strong tournament players adjust by opening more hands and attacking passive stacks.

Lococo’s rise showed how quickly a solid final-table stack can become a commanding one.

Why Short-Handed Poker Requires Wider Ranges

Imagine using the same opening range six-handed that you use at a full nine-player table.

You would fold too often.

Your opponents would collect too many blinds without resistance.

Instead, players need to widen their ranges as the table becomes shorter.

However, wider does not mean random.

Position, stack depth and opponent tendencies still matter.

That balance becomes even more important at a major final table.

The Final Table Included Serious Online Competition

A $1,050 Main Event with more than $2 million in the prize pool naturally attracts strong tournament players.

The field also included recognizable names who failed to reach the final nine.

Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger, for example, made a deep run before finishing 11th.

Other established players were eliminated earlier during the four-day tournament.

Therefore, Lococo’s victory did not come from simply surviving a recreational field.

He had to navigate thousands of entries and then finish against experienced online competition.

Why 2,310 Entries Create Huge Variance

Large-field tournaments are brutal even for excellent players.

Consider how many all-ins, flips and difficult postflop decisions can occur across four days.

A player can make hundreds of good decisions and still lose one crucial confrontation before reaching the final table.

That is why a single tournament result should never be treated as a complete measure of skill.

However, winning a 2,310-entry Main Event still requires surviving an enormous amount of tournament variance.

Our Poker Variance and Downswings guide explains why strong decision-making can still produce losing short-term results.

Lococo Reached Heads-Up With the Lead

Eventually, only Papo MC and “Goodarla” remained.

Lococo began heads-up play with roughly a 2-to-1 chip advantage.

That gave him an important cushion.

Nevertheless, heads-up poker can reverse quickly because the blinds arrive every hand.

A single double-up can erase a large percentage of a leader’s advantage.

Goodarla managed to survive one important all-in and keep the match alive.

However, Lococo continued applying pressure and gradually rebuilt his lead.

For players learning one-on-one formats, our Heads-Up Poker Strategy guide explains why ranges and aggression change dramatically when only two players remain.

Goodarla Found a Double-Up

The tournament did not end immediately after heads-up began.

At one stage, Goodarla was down to around ten big blinds.

Lococo called an all-in with ace-six.

Goodarla held ace-queen.

The stronger ace held, allowing the Irish player to double.

That temporarily narrowed the gap.

Still, Papo remained ahead and continued reducing his opponent’s stack over the following hands.

The Final Hand: Queen-Four vs Ten-Seven

Goodarla eventually fell below five big blinds.

Lococo moved all in from the button holding:

Q♠ 4♦

Goodarla called with:

10♥ 7♥

The board ran:

J 6 4 5 4

Lococo paired his four on the flop.

Then another four arrived on the river.

That gave him three of a kind and ended the tournament.

Papo MC was officially a WCOOP Main Event champion.

Why Queen-Four Can Be a Shove Heads-Up

At a full table, queen-four offsuit looks extremely weak.

Heads-up against a stack below five big blinds, the situation is completely different.

Blind pressure forces both players to use much wider ranges.

The short stack cannot wait indefinitely because the blinds will quickly consume what remains.

Meanwhile, the big stack can use all-in pressure with hands that would never be played the same way early in a nine-handed tournament.

This is an important example of why poker hands should never be judged without context.

Stack Depth Changes Everything

A hand is not simply “good” or “bad.”

Its value depends on the situation.

At 100 big blinds, queen-four offsuit may be discarded immediately in many positions.

At fewer than five effective big blinds heads-up, it can become part of an aggressive pushing range.

This is why tournament players need to track effective stack depth constantly.

Our Deep Stack Poker Strategy guide covers the opposite end of the spectrum and shows how decisions change as stacks become much deeper.

More Than 3,000 Viewers Watched the Finish

One reason the victory spread quickly was Lococo’s livestream.

More than 3,000 viewers were reportedly following as the final hands played out.

That gave the championship a social-media moment that many online tournament wins never receive.

Instead of reading about the result afterward, fans watched Papo react live.

His personality also made the celebration highly shareable.

This is becoming increasingly important for modern online poker.

Streaming turns a tournament into entertainment while the action is still happening.

Why Streamers Matter to Online Poker

A traditional tournament report reaches people who already follow poker.

A popular streamer can reach people who care about the personality first and the game second.

That creates a different acquisition path for poker.

A viewer might open a WCOOP stream because they follow Papo MC.

Then they start asking what WCOOP is, how the tournament works and why a $1,050 event can create a $2.3 million prize pool.

That crossover effect is valuable for poker platforms trying to grow beyond the same existing audience.

Papo MC Is More Than a Poker Streamer

Lococo’s public profile began outside poker.

He became known in Argentina as a freestyle rapper and content creator.

Later, poker became an increasingly important part of his competitive career.

In 2021, he reached the WSOP Main Event final table and finished seventh for $1.225 million.

Then, in December 2024, he produced the biggest result of his career.

He won the $500,000 Triton Million at WSOP Paradise for $12.07 million.

That victory also gave him his first WSOP bracelet.

As a result, Papo can no longer be described simply as a celebrity who happens to play poker.

The $12.07M Triton Win Changed Lococo’s Poker Career

The Triton Million featured one of the largest buy-ins in poker.

Players paid $500,000 to enter.

The event generated a $48 million prize pool.

Lococo defeated Ben Heath heads-up and took home $12.07 million.

That score remains far larger than the WCOOP prize.

However, online championship titles measure something different.

The WCOOP win shows that Lococo can also close a major multiday event in the online environment.

Online and Live Poker Are Not Identical

The strategic foundations are similar.

Still, the environments create different challenges.

Online poker runs faster.

Players see more hands per hour and often use more precise bet sizes.

Physical tells disappear.

Meanwhile, live poker creates slower pacing, table conversation and a completely different emotional atmosphere.

Success in both settings requires adaptation.

This Was Lococo’s First WCOOP Title

Despite his major live résumé, Lococo had not previously won a WCOOP championship.

That changed with the $1,050 Main Event.

The timing makes the result even stronger because 2026 marked the 25th edition of WCOOP.

The series began in 2002 and has become one of online poker’s longest-running championship festivals.

Winning any event matters.

Winning a Main Event places a player’s name in a much narrower historical group.

Three WCOOP Main Events Produced Three Very Different Champions

PokerStars offered three NLHE Main Event buy-in levels in 2026.

The structure is one reason WCOOP attracts such a broad range of players.

A recreational player can target the $109 tournament.

Regular grinders can aim for the $1,050 level.

Meanwhile, elite high rollers compete in the $10,300 World Championship.

Felipe Boianovsky Made History in the $10K Main Event

The High Main Event created another major story on the same closing day.

Felipe “lipe piv” Boianovsky won the $10,300 tournament for $551,632.

That victory made him the first player to win the $10K Main Event at both SCOOP and WCOOP.

However, the Lococo story carried a different type of search appeal.

Papo already had a much wider public profile, and his championship unfolded in front of thousands of livestream viewers.

That made the $1K victory especially strong for social and search discovery on October 1.

The $109 Main Event Drew 14,533 Entries

The Low Main Event showed the opposite side of WCOOP.

A total of 14,533 entries built a $1,453,300 prize pool.

Ukraine’s “ihor888888” won the tournament for $172,022.

That field demonstrates how dramatically tournament size can grow when the buy-in falls from $10,300 to $109.

Lower entry cost increases accessibility.

However, huge fields also increase variance because a winner must survive thousands more opponents.

The Main Event Structure Shows Why WCOOP Still Works

WCOOP does not require every player to compete at the same financial level.

Instead, PokerStars uses parallel tournament tiers.

The concept remains recognizable while the buy-in changes.

This lets more players participate in a championship environment.

It also creates three different winner stories from the same headline tournament.

The Sunday Million Helped Launch a Huge PokerStars Month

WCOOP began on September 6 alongside the special Sunday Million 20th Anniversary edition.

That event carried a $5 million guarantee.

The timing helped create a major opening weekend before WCOOP moved into the rest of its championship schedule.

Our Sunday Million 20th Anniversary guide explains how PokerStars connected one of its oldest weekly brands with the start of WCOOP.

Why Tournament Guarantees Matter

A guarantee tells players the minimum amount PokerStars expects to distribute in the tournament prize pool.

If entries exceed the required amount, the prize pool can grow beyond that guarantee.

That is exactly what happened in Lococo’s Main Event.

The event promised $2 million.

Actual participation created $2.31 million.

For players, larger guarantees can be attractive because they signal scale.

Still, a bigger prize pool does not make an event easier to beat.

Do Not Chase Big Guarantees Outside Your Bankroll

Major series create a common mistake.

A player normally comfortable in $20 tournaments sees a multimillion-dollar guarantee and decides that a $1,050 entry suddenly looks reasonable.

The potential prize has increased.

The player’s bankroll has not.

Therefore, the financial risk remains enormous.

Our Poker Bankroll Management guide explains why tournament players need enough buy-ins to survive long losing stretches.

Satellites Can Reduce the Direct Entry Cost

Championship series often use satellites to help players reach expensive events for less.

However, satellites do not remove financial risk.

A player can repeatedly enter qualifiers and spend more than expected without ever winning a seat.

Therefore, satellite attempts should still fit inside a planned tournament budget.

Cheap entry points are useful only when players control their total volume.

PokerStars Finished WCOOP During a Competitive Online Poker Year

PokerStars was not operating in isolation during 2026.

GGPoker and other major platforms continued running enormous international tournament series.

Player liquidity became one of the biggest competitive advantages in the market.

Large networks can support bigger fields, more formats and larger guarantees.

Our Online Poker Boom 2026 report looks at how tournament festivals are driving global online poker traffic.

What Regular Players Can Learn From Lococo’s Win

1. You Do Not Need to Start First in Chips

Lococo entered the final table third.

He did not need to immediately force a giant pot.

Instead, tournament stacks gave him time to find better opportunities.

2. Adjust as the Table Gets Shorter

Ranges that work nine-handed can become too tight six-handed.

Players need to recognize when blind pressure requires more aggression.

3. Use the Big Stack

Once Lococo gained the lead, his chips became a strategic weapon.

Shorter stacks had more to lose from marginal confrontations.

4. Heads-Up Poker Is Different

Hands such as queen-four gain value when only two players remain and effective stacks are short.

Context matters more than absolute hand appearance.

5. One Lost All-In Does Not End the Match

Goodarla doubled during heads-up play.

Lococo did not lose control emotionally.

He continued applying pressure until the next opportunity appeared.

Pot Odds Still Matter in a $343K Final

The numbers may become much larger at a WCOOP final table.

The underlying mathematics remain the same.

Players still compare the price of a call with their expected equity.

They still need to understand draws, bluff frequencies and bet sizing.

Our Pot Odds in Poker guide covers the basic framework behind those decisions.

Alejandro Lococo WCOOP Main Event FAQ

Did Alejandro Lococo win the 2026 WCOOP Main Event?

Yes. Alejandro “Papo MC” Lococo won the $1,050 Medium WCOOP Main Event on PokerStars.

How much did Alejandro Lococo win?

Lococo earned $343,242 for first place.

How many entries were in the tournament?

The $1,050 Main Event attracted 2,310 entries.

What was the prize pool?

The tournament generated $2,310,000 in total prize money.

What was the guarantee?

PokerStars advertised a $2 million guarantee.

Who finished second?

“Goodarla” finished runner-up for $244,673.

What is Alejandro Lococo’s PokerStars username?

He plays as [Papo]AR.

Is this Lococo’s first WCOOP title?

Yes. The 2026 $1,050 Main Event gave him his first WCOOP championship.

Where did Lococo start the final table?

He entered third in chips.

What happened in the final hand?

Lococo shoved Q♠4♦ against Goodarla’s 10♥7♥. The board ran J-6-4-5-4, giving Lococo trip fours.

How many people watched Lococo’s final table stream?

Contemporary reports said more than 3,000 viewers were following the closing stages on Twitch.

Does Alejandro Lococo have a WSOP bracelet?

Yes. Lococo won his first WSOP bracelet in the 2024 Triton Million at WSOP Paradise.

How much did Lococo win in the Triton Million?

He won $12.07 million after defeating Ben Heath heads-up.

Did Lococo ever make the WSOP Main Event final table?

Yes. He finished seventh in the 2021 WSOP Main Event for $1.225 million.

Who won the $10,300 WCOOP Main Event?

Felipe Boianovsky won the High Main Event for $551,632.

Who won the $109 WCOOP Main Event?

Ukraine’s “ihor888888” won the Low Main Event for $172,022.

Final Thoughts: Papo MC Adds a WCOOP Main Event to His Résumé

Alejandro Lococo entered the final day with a realistic chance to win.

He was third in chips, but several dangerous opponents remained.

Instead of fading, his position improved as the final table became shorter.

Eventually, Papo moved into the lead.

Then he reached heads-up play against Goodarla with the larger stack.

His opponent found one double-up, but Lococo remained in control.

Finally, queen-four against ten-seven ended the tournament.

The river gave Lococo trip fours.

The first prize was $343,242.

More importantly, the victory added a WCOOP Main Event title to a career that already includes one of the largest live poker scores ever recorded.

Lococo has now reached the WSOP Main Event final table, won a WSOP bracelet in a $500,000 Triton event and captured a flagship PokerStars online championship.

Those results came in very different poker environments.

That versatility is what makes the October 1 story bigger than another tournament payout.

Papo MC is officially a WCOOP Main Event champion.