Brazilian online grinder Felipe Infante, playing under the username “tchozen666,” turned a modest $109 buy-in into a $7,412 payday by winning Event #17-H of the 2026 PokerStars WCOOP Boot Camp. The tournament drew 673 entries and ran for just over seven hours before Infante closed it out, another entry in a growing list of Brazilian scores from a series designed to warm players up for the World Championship of Online Poker.
While the buy-in and prize pool are modest compared to the series’ higher stakes offerings, the result is a useful reminder of how the WCOOP Boot Camp is built to reward volume and consistency at accessible stakes, not just the high roller events that tend to draw the bigger headlines.
A Seven Hour Grind to the Title
Event #17-H carried a $109 buy-in and attracted 673 entries, a healthy turnout for a mid tier event on a schedule packed with dozens of tournaments running in parallel throughout the WCOOP Boot Camp. Infante navigated the field over more than seven hours of play, a grind typical of $100-plus buy-in tournaments with hundreds of entries, where survival through multiple stack resets and bubble stretches matters as much as raw aggression.
Closing out a field of 673 players for the title is no small accomplishment, and the seven hour duration suggests a final stretch that likely involved several lead changes before Infante secured the win. Turning a $109 investment into $7,412 represents roughly a 68 times return, a strong outcome by any standard for a mid stakes online tournament.
Part of a Deeper Brazilian Presence in the Boot Camp
Infante’s win adds to a pattern of strong Brazilian results throughout the 2026 WCOOP Boot Camp schedule. The series has already produced an all Brazilian final table finish in a separate bracket earlier in the run, and Infante’s title in Event #17-H continues that trend, reinforcing Brazil’s status as one of the most active player pools competing across the Boot Camp’s daily grind.
PokerStars has leaned into that engagement with region specific scheduling and marketing throughout the series, and results like Infante’s give Brazilian players a tangible reason to keep grinding the mid stakes bracket rather than only chasing the marquee high roller events that draw international fields. For players newer to multi table tournaments, understanding basic how to play poker fundamentals is the first step before tackling a field of this size.
Why Mid Stakes Events Matter in a Series Like This
The WCOOP Boot Camp is designed around a wide range of buy-ins specifically so that recreational and semi professional players alike can find a bracket that matches their bankroll. A $109 buy-in sits comfortably in the middle of that range, cheap enough for a casual player to try without major bankroll risk, but substantial enough to produce a five figure prize pool once hundreds of entries stack up.
That structure matters because it keeps engagement high across the entire multi week series, rather than concentrating attention purely on the $500-plus high roller brackets. A 673 entry field at $109 generates far more total rake and player interest across a platform than a handful of high stakes specialists battling in a 174 entry event, even if the biggest single prizes come from the pricier brackets.
The Bigger WCOOP Boot Camp Picture
Event #17-H is one of dozens of tournaments running across the 2026 WCOOP Boot Camp, a series built around more than $6.5 million in guarantees and free coaching sessions from BBZ Poker designed to sharpen players ahead of the main WCOOP schedule later in the year. Results like Infante’s, spread across a wide range of stakes and formats, are exactly what the series is built to generate, steady volume of meaningful cashes rather than a handful of concentrated headline scores.
For players tracking the series as a whole, the contrast between a 673 entry mid stakes event and the smaller, pricier high roller brackets running in parallel shows how differently the same promotional window can play out depending on buy-in level and field composition. Both formats reward solid fundamentals, though the variance and skill level of the average opponent shift considerably as the buy-in rises.
What This Means for Recreational Grinders
Infante’s run is a solid example of how disciplined play in accessible buy-in tournaments can produce meaningful results without requiring a high roller bankroll. A 673 entry field still demands strong poker odds awareness at every stack depth, from early game patience through the inevitable bubble and final table swings, but the entry cost keeps the downside manageable for players building experience at this level.
As with any tournament series, results like this should be treated as one data point rather than proof that mid stakes multi table tournaments are an easy path to profit. Variance remains high even in modest buy-in events with hundreds of entries, and players should always set clear bankroll limits and treat online poker as entertainment, restricted to those of legal age in eligible jurisdictions.
