Benny Glaser has extended one of online poker’s most remarkable individual records, claiming his 17th career World Championship of Online Poker title after winning WCOOP 44-H, the $1,050 8-Game event on PokerStars. The victory, worth $21,400 from a 56-entry field, also marked the 29th COOP-branded title of Glaser’s career once WCOOP, SCOOP and other series wins are combined, and it came in a format he had never previously won at WCOOP despite years of trying.
A Grinding Path to a New WCOOP Title
Glaser, who plays online under the moniker “RunGodlike,” described the run to his first 8-Game title as a battle rather than a coronation. Writing on Instagram after the win, he called it his first final table of this year’s WCOOP and said the title would provide “some morale for the rest of the series.” The final table itself was a mixed-nationality affair, with Glaser’s United Kingdom base pitted against opponents from Finland, Sweden, Ireland and Austria before he closed out the field to add the trophy to an already crowded case.
The final table results tell the story of a tense mixed-game battle rather than a runaway win. Finland’s Markus “O.Klunssila” Ristola finished as runner-up for $13,228, with Sweden’s ShipitFTW911 rounding out the podium in third for $8,177. Fellow Swede Anton “WhatIfGod” Bergstrom took fourth for $5,054, Ireland’s friedrice47 finished fifth for $3,124, Austria’s moggiii banked $2,694 for sixth, and countryman Oliver “sk2ll_m0dR” Weis was the first player eliminated at the final table, earning $2,322 for seventh.
Seventeen Titles Across Eight Years
What makes the achievement remarkable is not just the number of titles but the range of games and stakes across which Glaser has won them. His WCOOP story began in 2018 with a modest $55 PLO 6-Max event that drew 3,312 entries, worth $18,058. Since then he has won at least one WCOOP title every year except 2024, a run that includes an extraordinary seven titles during the 2023 series alone, when he won in formats ranging from Razz-adjacent mixed games to 2-7 Single Draw, 5-Card Draw and PLO8.
His largest single WCOOP score to date remains a $55,706 payout for topping the 1,175-entry WCOOP 68-M, a $320 NLHE 6-Max Freezeout in 2023, though he has won five other events with even larger fields than that. The new $1,050 8-Game title becomes his tenth WCOOP-H (high buy-in) title, to go with two WCOOP-L (low buy-in) and five WCOOP-M (medium buy-in) titles, a spread that shows Glaser has been just as willing to grind smaller buy-ins as he has to take on the series’ priciest mixed-game fields.
An Unmatched Range of Formats
The 8-Game win also pushed Glaser’s format count to eleven different poker variants in which he has now won a WCOOP title. His three NLHE titles and three HORSE titles anchor the résumé, but he has also gone on to win in PLO, NLO8, Razz, Badugi, 2-7 Single Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, PLO8, 5-Card Draw and now 8-Game. Few players in online poker history have shown that level of comfort switching between flop games, stud variants and draw formats at a consistently high level over the better part of a decade.
That versatility is part of what separates Glaser’s record from a simple volume play. Winning a $55 six-max freezeout against more than 3,000 opponents requires a different skill set than closing out a 46-player $2,100 HORSE field, yet Glaser has done both multiple times. It also underlines why mixed-game specialists inside the poker community tend to regard PokerStars’ WCOOP, rather than any single bracelet event, as the truest proving ground for all-around skill across formats.
Consistency is the other part of the story. Most online grinders who chase WCOOP titles tend to specialize in one or two formats and hope volume eventually produces a big result. Glaser’s spread across eleven variants, sustained over eight editions of the series with a title in seven of them, suggests a player who treats the entire mixed-game menu as his comfort zone rather than picking his spots. That kind of range is rare even among the small pool of professionals who make mixed games their primary focus, and it is part of why his name keeps appearing near the top of WCOOP leaderboards year after year regardless of which formats the schedule favors.
What Comes Next in WCOOP 2026
With the series still underway, Glaser’s 17th title adds fresh intrigue to an already stacked WCOOP schedule that spans dozens of events across buy-in levels and formats, from micro-stakes turbos to five-figure high rollers. For players following the leaderboard race, the win is a reminder that WCOOP’s later stages routinely produce late runs from proven mixed-game specialists rather than just the online poker world’s usual list of high-volume grinders.
Newer players hoping to eventually compete in series like WCOOP often start by building a foundation in the game’s core mechanics before branching into mixed formats. Poker Pro Academy’s guide to poker hand rankings is a useful starting point for anyone looking to understand how hands compare across the very variants, from Razz to 2-7 Triple Draw, that make up Glaser’s unusual title collection. As with all online poker, WCOOP is open only to players 18 or older in jurisdictions where online poker is legally available, and results are never a guarantee of future income. Players should always manage their bankroll responsibly and treat online tournaments as entertainment rather than a reliable source of earnings.
