Might sound paradoxical... a "low" "high roller" tournament. But really, every event in this year's Spring Championship of Online Poker, no matter the buy-in, has produced large enough prize pools to make even the least inexpensive events seem big, relatively speaking.
Event #37-L sported a $215 buy-in -- the biggest price tag of all the "low" events in this year's SCOOP series -- with a whopping 1,414 accepting the challenge of trying to win 10 or 11 heads-up matches and capture the first prize and super-stylish SCOOP watch. That field together built a prize pool of $282.800. Those making it to the Round of 128 made the cash, with $42,768.04 ultimately awaiting Sunday's winner.
The first day of play saw 64 players survive to today's Day 2, with each guaranteed to earn at least $735.28 for their work on Saturday. That group fought their way to the Round of 32, which played out as follows, with the losers each taking away $1,295.22: qbgoose def. sofia_25, sonik4 def. jahve00, ndscott def. leopeluca, ZKostas def. psyhoagromor, zoro555 def. pargg, arek11 def. Dymonius, LFB TUBI def. hneves182, oxyzak def. Rory "Mafews" Mathews, dontdoitlol def. AG_allin91, harddecision def. bartleby666, _qupuni$her_ def. PumpernickR, MrJovelli def. fordycent13, Andrew "RunThisTable" Lichtenberger def. 6pokep, user223 def. rikkke, goxomago def. Jamie_KK, and Slottinho def. dachshundd.
Round of 16
Andrew "RunThisTable" Lichtenberger was the first one through to the quarterfinals. Lichtenberger grabbed an early lead versus user223, and soon the latter was all in on a [4h][3d][6d] flop holding [5c][2s] for a straight. RunThisTable had [6h][4d] for two pair, and when another six fell on the turn, Lichtenberger had improved to a full house to oust user223.
ndscott was the next to make it through after defeating ZKostas. In their last hand, ZKostas was all in following a [Qc][9d][6d] flop with [As][Ah], but ndscott had [9d][9h] for a set and it held. A little later dontdoitlol had harddecision down to a super short-stack, then won the last of the chips with [Kd][Qd] after flopping a queen versus harddecision's [As][8h].
sonik4 then defeated qbgoose, using [Ad][6s] versus the latter's [Qs][Js] in the final hand to move on. By then zoro555 had whittled arek11 down to less than 2,000 to zoro555's 18,000-plus, then used pocket fours to beat arek11's [Kh][Qs] and earn a spot in the quarters.
Slottinho was then down to a short stack and pushing all-in with [Kd][4d] against goxomago's [Ks][Qc], and the better hand held to earn goxomago a spot in the next round. MrIovelli was the next short-stack to shove, in this case with [Kh][5c] versus _qpuni$her_'s [As][Ts]. Again the best hand preflop stood up, and _qpuni$her_ moved on.
The last match in the Round of 16 to complete was between oxyzak and LFB TUBI. oxyzak had about a 2-to-1 chip lead when the pair got all of LFB TUBI's chips in preflop with [4s][4c] against oxyzak's [Kh][Kc]. The kings held, and oxyzak grabbed the last quarterfinal spot.
Round of 16 losers each earned $4,077.97 for making it this far.
Quarterfinals
It would take about 20 minutes for the first of the quarterfinal matches to complete. goxomago had whittled down Andrew "RunThisTable" Lichtenberger to just over 3,500, then came a hand in which a series of raises before the flop ended with Lichtenberger all in with [Qh][Qd] against goxomago's [Kc][Ks]. The flop was [8h][8c][5h], then the [Kd] on the turn made the river no matter, and goxomago had grabbed the first semifinal spot.
sonik4 was the next player through after chipping ndscott down below 2,000, then winning an all-in confrontation in which sonik4 held [Ac][6s], ndscott [Kc][9s], and the board paired neither. Meanwhile, oxyzak had been way down in the match versus zoro555, but managed to come back to grab nearly a 3-to-1 lead, then get zoro555 to commit to a preflop all-in with [Qd][Jd] against oxyzak's [Kh][Ks]. The kings held, and ozyzak was in the final four.
Finally dontdoitlol had _qpuni$her_ down under 3,000 and all in a [5s][6h][Js] flop holding [Ks][7s] against dontdoitlol's [Ac][Jd]. A spade came to save _qpuni$her_, prompting dontdoitlol to comment "I don't like where this is going." All worked out fine for dontdoitlol, however, as soon _qpuni$her_ was all in again with [Ad][6h] against dontdoitlol's [Ah][8c], and after the board came [5h][Jc][6d][Tc][8d] dontdoitlol had won.
Semifinals
oxyzak grabbed an early lead against sonik4 in their semifinal match, but the advantage soon swung sonik4's way, and after a half-hour of poker sonik4 had oxyzak chipped all of the way down to just 1,360. A preflop all-in ensued, with oxyzak holding [Qs][9s] and sonik4 [Ac][Kc], and when the board rolled out [5d][4s][Jd][Ks][7d], sonik4 had earned the first final spot.
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In the other semifinal dontdoitlol and goxomago were virtually even for the first 20 minutes or so, goxomago pulled out in front for the next few minutes, then dontdoitlol seized the advantage to push out to nearly a 3-to-1 advantage. goxomago battled back, however, and had drawn back even as they crossed the one-hour mark.
Then goxomago put a little space between the two after winning a decent-sized pot in a hand in which both flopped top pair of kings, but goxomago had the better kicker to claim the 3,200-chip pot. goxomago would win another, larger pot soon after that with a big river bet on a board with two aces that dontdoitlol couldn't call.
Then, with goxomago up to 14,260 and dontdoitlol down to 5,760, the latter reraised shoved with [Ac][8c] and got a quick call from goxomago with [As][Js]. The board came [7c][Qs][Ad][9s][3d], and goxomago had made it through to the championship round.
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Finals
Just two players remained to battle for the bracelet, Ukraine's sonik4 and goxomago of Russia.
As it happened, the final match of would be a quick one, ending in less than 20 minutes. sonik4 seized the advantage early, quickly pushing out to close to a 3-to-1 chip lead before they'd even made it out of the first 10-minute level.
Then in Level 2 sonik4 managed to add further to the lead in a hand in which sonik4 had [Ah][Qc], flopped a queen, and managed to get three streets of value with top pair to take still more of goxomago's chips.
Finally goxomago was down to 2,937 and opening with a min-raise to 120 from the button, and sonik4 called. The flop came [Jc][3s][4c], and sonik4 checked. goxomago bet 150, then sonik4 check-raised to 420. goxomago made it 840, sonik4 shoved, and goxomago called the 1,977 left behind.
goxomago had [Kc][Qc] for a flush draw and a couple of overs, while sonik4 had flopped a set with [4h][4c]. The turn was the [6h] and river the [9d], and it was all over!
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Congratulations to sonik4 for surviving 11 rounds and taking down the "low" version of the heads-up "high roller" event to earn a not-low-at-all $42,768.04 payday!
It's been a remarkable couple of a weeks here at PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker. Blom's back-to-back to kick things off. More multiple bracelet winners in joacowalter, bleu320, and Drew M Scott. Players cashing in SCOOP events from more than 130 different countries. Guarantee-smashing prize pools everywhere you look...
Turnouts for Sunday's final events helped catapult the overall amount of money awarded in the series to a staggering $65,332,179 in prize pool and bounties, making this year's SCOOP the biggest online poker tournament series ever. And culminating these historic two weeks of poker is the "high" version of Event #40, a two-day, $10,300 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament otherwise known as the "Main Event."
Event #40-H sported a $2.5 million guarantee, meaning at least 250 had to enter to meet that goal. But as we've grown accustomed to over the last two weeks, in the context of SCOOP, the guarantee often tends to represent a fraction of what the prize pool actually turns out to be.
Field Grows, Shrinks
In fact, there were already more than 300 players seated when the first hands were dealt on Sunday afternoon, meaning the guarantee was already bested, and with late registration extending another three hours, the total number joining would no doubt grow considerably before all was said and done.
The first elimination of the day happened less than 15 minutes after the tourney began. b8chatz had already slipped to about half the starting stack of 15,000, then unfortunately ran [Kh][Ks] into the [As][Ah] of RoyalSalute to be the first one on the virtual rail.
By the one-hour mark more than 430 had registered, with only a handful having busted during the first 60 minutes. forhayley had jumped to the top of the counts in the early going along with RoyalSalute, still flush from that aces-versus-kings hand from before. And Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis had found a spot in the top five as well after an hour's worth of poker.
The next two hours saw a few familiar names take turns near the top of the counts, including Mike "Sowerss" Sowers who just last night grabbed a SCOOP watch in Event #36-M ($530 PLO 6-max.). After two-and-a-half hours of play Sowers led everyone with nearly 45,000, a nudge above KuuL, caipsa, and James "croll103" Carroll.
Registration finally closed at the three-hour mark, at which point a total of 517 entrants had together built a monstrous prize pool of $5,170,000 -- more than twice the event's $2.5m guarantee! The top 63 finishers would divide the loot, with a min-cash equaling $22,748 and a first-prize of $982,300 awaiting the winner barring any final table deals.
There were still 476 of those 517 players battling as the fourth hour began, with OLD TIME GIN having claimed the top spot in the counts as the only player with more than 50,000. Sowers, Carroll, Veldhuis, Keven "Stammdogg" Stammen, Grayson "gray31" Ramage, Dani "supernova9" Stern, and Randy "nanonoko" Lew were all on the first page of the counts.
At the four-and-a-half-hour mark the field shrunk below 400, with OLD TIME GIN still on top followed by KissMyAcePlz and KuuL. Play continued, with the aforementioned Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb going out in 368th, having already grabbed four SCOOP watches wrapped up the Player of the Series race and thus graciously allowing someone else a shot at winning this one.
Leaders Emerge, Recede
As the field shrunk to 300, Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko pushed into the top spot where he stayed a while before slipping back to the pack. And soon after they crossed the six-hour mark 250 players remained, led by garampon, philbort, KeyserMM, OLD TIME GIN, and Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky.
An hour later the field had been trimmed to less than 200, with Brian "Halfrek" Elgaard having jumped ahead of everyone and nearing 150,000, with KeyserMM and Tim "Tim0thee" Adams the nearest challengers, both hovering just over 100,000. Elgaard then fell back while KeyserMM moved forward, becoming the first player to 200,000 chips with less than 150 left.
They had been playing more than nine hours when the field finally dipped below the 100-player mark, with KeyserMM still comfortably in front, having just moved past 300,000 at a point when the nearest challenger -- KissMyAcePlz -- had just under 190,000.
KeyserMM had just added more than 65,000 to that big stack in a hand versus H@££INGGOL in which the two had bet back and forth on a [3h][Qh][7c] flop until H@££INGGOL was all in with [Kd][Qd] against KeyserMM's [6h][5h]. The turn was the [Jc] and H@££INGGOL was still ahead, but the river brought the [Ah] and a flush to KeyserMM, sending H@££INGGOL out just shy of the top 100.
Tracking Team PokerStars
At that point Team PokerStars had four representatives among the remaining field, with Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen of Team Online leading the quartet in 54th position. Team Pros Alex Kravchenko (63rd), Andre "aakkari" Akkari (73rd), and Martin Stasko (75th) also continued to battle as the money bubble was still more than 35 eliminations away.
Kravchenko would fall in 83rd place in a hand in which he'd commit the last of his stack on a [Kc][5h][3h][Jc] board with [Ac][Qc] and find himself up against Jamie "TheCronic420" Rosen's [Kh][Qh]. The river was the [9s], sending the Russian railward.
By then Kazu "imashokU" Oshima had gathered some momentum to push past KeyserMM and into the chip lead, closing in on the 350,000-chip mark as the field fell below 75 and within shouting distance of the bursting of the money bubble that would occur with the 64th-place elimination. The tourney had been running over ten-and-a-half hours by then, with just another 30-minute level-and-a-half left to go before play would be paused overnight.
As Level 20 got started -- the last level of the night -- they were down to 66 players gathered around eight tables, with one-time chip leader OLD TIME GIN, Also11, and Flagellator all sitting on short stacks and hoping somehow to squeeze into the final 63 and the cash. Meanwhile Andre Akkari had been heading in the other direction, building an above-average stack to move into the top 15 with play beginning to slow down as they neared the money.
Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari
Bubble Tension
Akkari would in fact be the one to bring everyone one step closer to the cash shortly thereafter, using [4c][4d] to beat Also11's [Ah][Qc] and knock the latter out in 66th place. Clark "snake8484" Hamagami then survived an all-in hand versus pokerbrat13 when his [As][Ah] managed to hold against pokerbrat13's [Qs][Qh].
A couple of new names ascended to the top of the counts as everyone waited to see who the last two players out before the cash would be. Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky and ValueH both moved ahead of Kazu "imashokU" Oshima, and Akkari found a spot in the top 10 as well.
Flagellator then survived an all-in versus two opponents with [Ad][Ks] when an ace flopped and the hand held. Though even after that hand, Flagellator's stack of just over 17,000 meant still being in 65th position with 65 players left.
Meanwhile, Martin Staszko was down below 40,000 chips when aagefr opened with a min-raise to 5,000 from middle position and Staszko called from the big blind. The flop came [2h][8s][7d], and when Staszko checked, aagefr shoved all in and Staszko called with the 34,279 he had behind.
Staszko had [10s][10h] for an overpair while aagefr had [8c][4c] for eights. But the turn brought the [4d] to give Staszko's opponent a second pair, and after the [5c] river Staszko was out in 65th.
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They were just one elimination away from the money, and with less than 10 minutes to go for the night, hand-for-hand play commenced across what were now eight eight-handed tables. A five-minute break happened to fall just a few hands from the end, adding still more tension.
Play resumed, and they had gotten to the very last hand of the night when Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky min-raised to 5,000 on the button, then it folded to Steve "Illini213" Barshak in the big blind who reraise-shoved all in for 28,137 total. Wilinofsky, who had over 360,000 behind, made the call, tabling [8s][8c] to Barshak's [As][3s].
The flop came [8d][2s][Jc] to give Wilinofsky a set, then the [Ks] fell on the turn to provide flush hopes to Barshak, but the river was the [Qc], and Barshak was the last one out before the cash.
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That meant all 63 players still alive in Event #40-H would be able to experience their 12-plus hour breaks knowing they'd made the money. And really, given how remarkable a two weeks it has been, it's hardly surprising yet another night of SCOOP ended so remarkably.
Here's what the top of the leaderboard will look like when play resumes at 14:30 ET on Monday:
Also returning tomorrow are Jon "FatalError" Aguiar (18th, 142,636), Stefan "I'am_Sound" Huber (22nd, 133,279), Jamie "TheCronic420" Rosen (23rd, 117,068), Vojtech "Vojta_R" Ruzicka (26th, 107,986), Sorel "zangbezan24" Mizzi (28th, 101,149), Rory "Mafews" Mathews (29th, 98,913), Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko (30th, 97,522), Clark "snake8484" Hamagami (33rd, 92,491), William "Altrum Altus" Reynolds (34th, 88,669), Team Online member Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen (51st, 42,615), Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira (52nd, 38,431), Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (54th, 35,812), Brian "Halfrek" Elgaard (57th, 28,171), and David "Betudontbet" Emmons (59th, 23,906).
Come back to the PokerStars blog tomorrow for a full recap of tomorrow's Day 2 of the big one, the $10,300 NLHE Main Event for which a $982,300 first prize and the coveted SCOOP watch awaits the winner.
Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.
The numbers below say it all. This low buy-in version of the Main Event was a success, and it hasn't even played out yet. The final results will be in after Day 2 on May 21, but leading for the first day is Chojjasd. The player from Malta is no stranger to deep runs in the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker, but Chojjasd will be looking to keep this momentum going into the second day of action. But there are 87 others with a different idea. The final playdown will be interesting. Count on it.
*****
It's one thing to crush a guarantee. Tournaments on PokerStars frequently garner large fields that create prize pools to leave the guarantees in the dust. But this 40-L Main Event, well, it put the guarantee to simple shame. The initial figure of $1 million was nothing to sneeze at in the first place, but the prize pool set after three hours of registration on May 20 was ridiculous. In a good way, that is.
With those outstanding numbers in the record books, let's take a look at the first day of this two-day extravaganza.
The money bubble burst at 6 hours, 15 minutes into the tournament, and the unfortunate bubble player was bundzik out in 3151st place. On the happier end of that equation was rusleqpoker, who took home $154.89 for 3150th place.
The list of Team PokerStars players still in the field was solid but getting thinner by the hour. After the money bubble, Stavros "IDOLLS" Kalfas was the first to exit, walking away with $154.89 for 2739th place. Team Pro Chad "ChadBrownPRO" was the next to hit the rail in 2164th place ($221.28), followed by Team Online's George "Jorj95" Lind in 1960th ($243.40). Team Pro Celina Lin exited in 1626th place ($287.66), followed by fellow Team Pros Andre "aakkari" Akkari in 854th ($508.94), Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth in 472nd ($685.96), and Eugene Katchalov in 346th ($818.73).
Into the later levels of the night, three pros remained, and two of them were brothers. Team Pro Matthias "mattidm" de Meulder, one of the twins, had to say goodbye to the 40-L Main Event in 191st place but received $1,017.88 for it. Meanwhile, his brother Christophe "chrisdm" de Meulder (pictured here) and the infamous Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier pressed on in the midst of 150 remaining players.
Other notable bustouts from earlier in the tournament included the SCOOP champion of champions Shaun Deeb, who exited in 816th place for $508.94, as well as others who didn't cash in this one. The winner of this tournament in 2011, fittungen, did return to make a run at a repeat victory but fell short of that by busting in 13,348th place. The other 2011 Main Event champions - Goldenboys and Lrslzk - exited outside of the money as well.
Last two levels
There were a group of players set on staying in the confines of the top 10 on the leaderboard. Chojjasd was one of them, and after a takeover of the top spot from VolkovDmitri, Chojjasd became the first player to climb over the 10 million mark. It happened with this elimination:
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But then 22illuminati jumped into the lead, though a big move from Alex71AMT took the number one spot. Skitzis was also moving toward the top. Marius2891 then took over just before the 11.5-hour break.
Chrisdm climbed a bit, surpassing ElkY as he did so, by eliminating a player in this fashion:
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ElkY enjoyed a small boost at the end of the night. The last hand at his table started with Elky raising from middle position and jambeyang calling from the big blind. ElkY bet the [2s][4d][9c] flop, and jambeyang check-called. The same action took place on the [5s] turn, and the [6c] river prompted yet another bet from ElkY. Jambeyang check-folded, and ElkY collected nearly 2.5 million chips to put him in 19th place for the night.
On another table, Chojjasd was looking to hold the first place that was regained in the last level. When Diego.AKKA started the last hand at that table with a raise UTG, Chojjasd reraised, and Diego.AKKA called. The [3c][9h][Kc] brought a bet from Chojjasd and check-call from Diego.AKKA. The [4s] turn brought another bet from Chojjasd, but Diego.AKKA folded, showing [Jd][Js]. Chojjasd didn't show but did collect more than 2.9 million to solidify that end-of-day chip lead.
The night ended at the end of Level 40, as scheduled. Players were given a break of more than 12 hours and asked to return on Monday, May 21. Level 41 - with blinds of 70,000/140,000 and a 17,500 ante - will welcome them back to play to the conclusion of the event. As they parted ways, the leaderboard reflected the top players of 88 remaining at 10 tables.
2012 SCOOP Event #40-L ($109 NLHE Main Event) Day 1 Results:
Total players: 22,128
Paid players: 3,150
Players remaining: 88
Imagine tying a brick of cash worth $560,000 on the end of a stick and then dangling it out the window. How long would it take before someone snatched it all up?
PokerStars set the bait and 3,567 blood-thirsty online poker players flocked to Event #40-M NL.They each paid the $1,050 ticket with hopes of winning a SCOOP title, a cool watch, and $560,019 in cash.
Day 1 of Event #40-M ended after 30 levels and the field was decimated from 3,567 to 74. PokerStars Team Pro Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth was one of the fortunate ones to make the cut. Ainsworth battled all day and finished up with 647,951 in chips, which was good for 36/74 overall.
Poland's husajn54 ended Day 1 as the chip leader with 2,193,865. Meanwhile, Canada's Rocketmist was not far behind in second with 2,064,103. Rocketmist and husajn54 were the only players who ended Day 1 with more than 2 million.
Notable players still alive in the mix include Michael "Timex" Macdonald (30th in chips) and Veronica "Princessa" Dabul (42nd in chips).
In case you were wondering, Shaun Deeb a.k.a. the Mayor of SCOOP, failed to cash in this event. I know, I know.... we're just as shocked as you are. Deeb's remarkable winning streak -- four SCOOP titles this year and five overall -- is a feat that will be difficult to replicate. Anyway, Deeb showed a little bit of humility as he bowed out in 1,256th place.
Team PokerStars Pro Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth
Event #40-M $1,050 NL featured a $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool, which was nowhere close to being in jeopardy, because the prize pool swelled to $3,567,000. Event #40-M attracted 3,567 runners, but only 450 of them would get a cut of the prize pool with $560,019 set aside for first place.
Here's the final table payouts:
1st place - $560,019
2nd place - $417,339
3rd place - $296,061
4th place - $205,102.50
5th place - $152,703.27
6th place - $115,927.50
7th place - $80,257.50
8th place - $44,587.50
9th place - $28,536
Notables players who cashed on Day 1 included Team PokerStars Pro Martin "AABenjamin" Hubry (213th for $3,138.96), Team PokerStars Pro Viviam Im (324th for $2,104.53), Team PokerStars ProJoão "jomane" Nunes (384th for $1,926.18), and Team PokerStars Pro Ivan Demidov (435th for $1,819.17).
Other noteworthy players who made the money included: AaronBeen (77th), Brian "theczar19" Piccioli (94th), aejones (112th), Jon "Fatal Error" Aguiar (197th), James "mig.com" Mackey (288th), Jason "PBJaxx" Senti (301st), Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (308th), Dylan "ImaLucSac" Linde (344th), im2tight (358th), Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo (361st), and Adam "Roothlus"Levy (414th).
Members of Team PokerStars Pro and PokerStars Team Online were well represented in Event #40-M. The majority of them were knocked out during two massive waves of eliminations.
The initial wave of bustouts occurred at the onset of the tournament and some of those early eliminations included Jonathan Duhamel (3,105th), Richard Toth (3,087th), Leo Fernandez (3,071th), Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome (3,060th), Kevin "WizardOfAhhs" Thurman (3,012th), Fatima DeMelo (3,008th) and Theo Jorgensen (3,004th).
A second wave of exits also included: Mikhail "innerpsy" Shalamov (2,979th), Arnaud "frenchkiss" Mattern (2,920th), Vikto "Isildur1" Blom (2,869th), Max LYkov (2,846th), ElkY (2,721st), Eugene Katchalov (2,693rd), Andre Akkari (2,666th), Christophe "chrisdm" de Muelder (2,647th), Vicky Coren (2,622nd), Marcin "Goral" Horecki (2,570th), Lex Velhuis (2,569th), Shane "Shaniac" Schleger (2,567th), Toni Judet (2,480th), Juan "JuanPastor" Manuel (2,420th), Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen (2,401st), Freddy "sirfreddy83? Torres (2,388th), George "Jorj95" Lind III (2,382nd), Chad Brown (2,349th), Pius Heinz (2,265), and Javier "El_Cañonero" Dominguez (2,160th).
After a few hours of play, another flurry of bust outs occurred and several more Team Pros and members of Team Online were knocked out including Angel Guillen (1,802nd), Björn "Bjoerni89" Schneider, (1,755th), Rino Mathis (1,743rd), Nacho Barbero (1,715th), Victor Ramdim (1,704th), Celina Lin (1,680th), Sigge "clarkkent89" Reichard (1,613th), Henrique "Henrique.P" Pinho (1,424th), Sandra Naujoks (1,268th), Stavros 'IDOLLS' Kalfas (1,173th), and Diego "vgreen22" Brunelli (1,146th).
The pace slowed down when action drew close to the bubble. A handful of PokerStars players fell short of the mark including Ville Wahlbeck (824th), Matthias "mattidm" De Meulder (767th), Martin Staszko (694th), Randy "nanonoko" Lew (689th), Tyler "Frosty012"Frost (547th), George Danzer (514th), and Dag Palovic (500th).
Unfortunately, PokerStars Team Pro Ana Marquez from Spain busted out just before the money bubble in 459th place. When the money bubble final popped, dyeti from the U.K. unceremoniously became the "Bubble Boy" and busted out in 451st place.
Team PokerStars Pro Vivian Im
Three members of PokerStars Team Pro made deep runs -- Jude Ainsworth, Martin Hruby, and Vivian Im. Only one of them would advance to Day 2.
Team PokerStars Pro Vivian Im met her demise when she had her Big Slick picked off. The action was kicked off by loll76, who opened to 10,000. Viviam Im shoved all-in for 37,057, and loll76 called. Im's [Ac][Kh] had loll76's [Ad][2s] dominated. Alas, the board ran out [9s][7c][4d] [2d] [8c]. The [2d] on the turn sealed Im's fate. She busted out in 324th place, but earned $2,104.53.
Martin Hruby's run came to a halt when gnetaren bombed it all-in preflop with [Kd][Js] and Martin "AABenjaminAA" Hruby called with [Ac][5d]. The flop was the [Ks][Qc][3s] and gnetaren took the lead in the hand. The turn was the [2c] and the [8s] fell on the river. Neither card helped Hruby. The Team PokerStars Pro from the Czech Republic hit the road in 213th place, which earned him a $3,138.96 pay day.
Jude Ainsworth's run was propelled by a clutch hand against wasjaxjev. A raising war was initiated by wasjaxjev, who min-raised to 20,000. Ainsworth bumped it up to 49,856. wasjaxjev four-bet shoved all-in for 233,431. Ainsworth called with [Jc][Jd] and wasjaxjev was flipping with [Ah][Kh]. The board ran out [9s][6d][3d][8d] [6c]. Ainsworth's Jacks won the race and he chipped up to 500K, while wasjaxjev went busto in 131st.
With 100 players remaining, Cashcid Linc from Germany took over the chip lead with over 1.6 million. Ainsworth was alive with an mid-sized stack of 420K.
With 75 players left, Rocketmist took over the lead with over 2 million and Ainsworth gradually chipped up to 630K, yet still found himself in the middle of the pack.
When play reached the end of Level 30, action was suspended. The top spot was claimed by husajn54, who ended Day 1 as the chip leader with 2,193,865. Rocketmist was second with 2,064,103. Team PokerStars Pro Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth finished up 36th in chips with 647,951.
Event #40-M Day 2 will begin at 14:30 ET on Monday, May 21st. Action will re-start at Level 31 with blinds at 10K/20K and a 2.5K ante. The average stack is 723,040 with 74 players remaining. Check back tomorrow with PokerStars Blog for full coverage of the final table.
Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.
Indeed, we await champions, and we do it with champions in our midst. Not only are the ranks of the Day 2 main events fields full of recognizable faces, there are many who we have met recently, including Scott "Mongy" O'Reilly who won the Turbo Championship of Online Poker Player of the Series. The guy is in the money of the $10,300 buy-in on a complete freeroll after using his TCOOP Player of the Series prize, a free ticket to the high buy-in main event.
Scott "Mongy" O'Reilly
O'Reilly is joined by so many stars (including the TCOOP winner Betudontbet), it's impossible to name them all here. For a complete look at the Day 1 wrap ups, see these PokerStars Blog reports:
This year's SCOOP has seen many champions we have met before in one capacity or another. Almost anyone who has followed poker recently knows Shawn "buck21" Buchanan, the 29-year-old poker pro from Abbotsford, British Columbia in Canada. After winning a lot of events in his day, this festival was a first for him. He won Event 28-H (Razz). After a year of traveling around the world, he settled down for a couple of weeks to add to his resume.
"It is my first SCOOP title, which is very cool," he said. "I won a WCOOP PLO title before, so its awesome to add a SCOOP title."
But then there are others out there we have never met, yet are people who have dreamed their entire careers of this kind of success.
Austria's Hans-jörg "Hans-jörg029" Gaugelhofer is a 30-year-old concert pianist who lives on dreams. Last year he got to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing in Vienna's Musikverein. This year, he became a SCOOP champion in event #27-H $1,050 NLHE event for $167,321.
"A lot of dreams come true," he said.
Hans-jörg "Hans-jörg029" Gaugelhofer
And then there is the story of José Queiroz da Costa Neto, a one-time Brazilian history teacher who looked to poker as a way to make a better living. When no one else believed in him, he said, he believed in himself. He set out to prove to himself he could win a SCOOP event, and he did in Event #30-M, the 10-max shootout.
"I try to make my life interesting. I try not to wait for things to happen," he said. "I like being the main character of my own story, so instead of waiting things to happen, I try to make them happen."
José Queiroz da Costa Neto
Spain's Sergio Cabrera Godoy was disappointed in where his life was heading. Nothing seemed to be going particularly right for him. He said he spent a long time "in the tank" and finally emerged with a newfound drive to succeed.
"I decided it was time to break with everything and try as hard as I could to make my dream true. And now look at me, I'm a SCOOP champ," he said "Fight for your dreams, try as hard as you can, work as hard as you can, focus as hard as you can and you will be rewarded."
The excitement of the 2012 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) carried into Week 2 as more than $15 million in guarantees were still up for grabs. Members of Team PokerStars Pro were hitting the table in full force and, to our delight, several team members were updating their SCOOP adventures on Twitter.
One of those players hitting Twitter furiously was Jason Mercier, who had a very productive week on PokerStars. We're no longer surprised when Mercier goes deep in a tournament, but it's still fun to watch when the American is running over a field in a big event.
Deep in the SCOOP 18-H ($1,050 Pot Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys) event, Mercier took the chip lead after winning a massive pot with aces full of jacks against a smaller full house. He posted the hand on the brand new PokerStars BOOM! Hand Replayer: http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/94748_8B9895F409
Mercier used those chips to secure a seat at a tough final table that included Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond and Joseph "subiime" Cheong. "Final table yo!! 4/6.... Looking for a #scoop title !! U can watch on pokerstars #duh," tweeted Mercier.
After close to 17 hours playing the tournament, Mercier was three-handed with Galfond and "MrCoco." The three players decided to chop up the remaining money and flip for the title, something we don't normally see in the prestigious SCOOP events. "MrCoco" won the flip, the title, and the Movado watch. Mercier finished as the runner-up for $114,600.
Said Mercier afterward, "Feel a bit salty bout not playing it out for the title. But I'm so tired and it could have taken forever."
Jason Mercier
Unlike Mercier, Liv Boeree had a rough go of it in the first week of SCOOP events. She tweeted her frustration after a long Sunday at the tables, saying, "One day I'll cash in one of these Scoops. One day."
It didn't take long for Boeree's luck to change. And, apparently, all it took was a trip to the dentist and some medication. Boeree said on Twitter that she was scheduled to have a wisdom tooth removed on Monday, but the surgery was cancelled because the doctor needed to drill her jaw, which required full anesthesia.
Hours later, Boeree was back on the virtual felts and running deep in the SCOOP $109 Pot-Limit Omaha Turbo. "Only 41 left! Let's goooo," Tweeted Boeree. She went on to take 15th place for around $2,000, but it was good to get the monkey off her back. "Still a deep run at last, was a nice feeling," she wrote.
Outside of Team PokerStars Pro Viktor "Isildur1" Blom's success (two titles) in the 2012 SCOOP, the biggest story has been the run of high-stakes regular Shaun Deeb, who won three titles through the first 30 events of this series. Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov was at the final table of two of Deeb's wins, and the two players exchanged pleasantries on Twitter during the second final table:
Katchalov: "Made another final table, this time in the 2k Stud Hi/Lo. I'm 3/7 and looking forward to revenge vs @shaundeeb"
Deeb: "@EugeneKatchalov sorry in advance for sucking out on you"
Katchalov: "@shaundeeb hate you Kryptonite!"
Of course, Deeb won again, his third title in Stud games during the 2012 SCOOP. Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst took note of that and tweeted at Deeb shortly after his third win: "Why don't you win a holdem event like all the respectable poker players @shaundeeb? #washedup #okfineyourekindofsick.
The 2012 SCOOP has been a rollercoaster ride for Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who has been spurting his highs and lows on Twitter throughout the series. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, he ran into the Shaun Deeb buzz saw on Wednesday in what ended up being a gruesome hand in the $1,050 rebuy.
Grospellier posted the hand on the BOOM! Hand Replayer. Here's how it played out:
With the blinds at 150/300 and a 60 ante, Grospellier raised to 600 from under-the-gun with pocket aces and Deeb called in middle position with pocket kings. The player in the cutoff three-bet to 1,929, and action folded back to ElkY, who four-bet to 4,234. Deeb then five-bet all-in for 17,573 total and the cutoff folded. ElkY called instantly with his aces and was in great shape to win a 90 big blind pot, but the board ran out As-10d-5h-Jd-Qh to give Deeb a backdoor straight and send Grospellier to the rail.
"WTF shaundeeb..." ElkY tweeted.
Grospellier rebounded on Thursday by making his third final table of the series, this time in the $2,100 8-Game High event. "Here we go, 3rd FT of the #SCOOP2012 series, in 8-Game High. Time to close the deal and ship the title now. #everytime," he tweeted as the final table got underway.
With three players remaining, Grospellier was short-stacked against two formidable pros, Chris "Genius28" Lee and Alex "joiso" Kostritsyn. Unfortunately, ElkY was unable to bounce back; his tournament ended in the 2-7 triple draw round when Kostritsyn knocked him out in third place.
"Super annoying bad run to end it 3rd," Tweeted ElkY. "Wow that sucks, but some more #SCOOP2012 to go to try to finally win one. #sosick #itwillhappen."
How did the rest of the SCOOP turn out for ElkY and the rest of the Team PokerStars Pros? Tune in to the next edition of As the Stars Tweet to find out!
Another successful SCOOP has come to a close on PokerStars, but not before a few more champions were made. Today, the Day 2 completion of 2012 SCOOP Event 39-Low, $27 NLHE 6-max, saw lucas drolet claim a SCOOP Movado watch.
20,838 found $27 in their PokerStars accounts to put towards Event 39-low. It all added up to more than $520,000 in the kitty and almost $65,000 for the winner. With all of those people registered, and with the great structures that are the hallmark of SCOOP, you can bet that this event was scheduled as a two-day affair.
There were 2,700 scheduled prizes in Event 39-low. Five of them were claimed by the Red Spade Brigade. Team PokerStars Pros Chad Brown and Andre Akkari made modest pushes into the middle tiers of the money. PokerStars Team Online players Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen (1262nd) and George "jorj95" Lind (457th) did slightly better. But top honors for PokerStars went to Team PokerStars Pro Richard Toth, who was the last player eliminated on Day 1. Richard's 40th-place elimination was good for $1,000.22.
39 players survived Day 1. They were headed by eiro07 (12,751,785), DarkAvenger3 (12,262,282) and CasualWorker (12,200,506). Given the volatility of 6-handed NLHE, it shouldn't be surprising that none made the final table of six. DarkAvenger3 was first out, in 29th, followed by CasualWorker (18th) and eiro07 (15th). Instead, when BlackWolfie ran ace-king into Betrob7's pockets kings and didn't improve, these six players made one of the last final tables of 2012 SCOOP:
Seat 1: fur8275df (15895761 in chips)
Seat 2: Betrob7 (52048790 in chips)
Seat 3: Jeb Gees (27383664 in chips)
Seat 4: lucas drolet (25824288 in chips)
Seat 5: Raphinja (41996193 in chips)
Seat 6: D}l{okeR_KzN (45231304 in chips)
Level 49: Blinds 400k-800k, ante 100k
Average stack: 34.7 million
Immediately, D}l{okeR_KzN suggested, "mb deal?" Three other players agreed but not everyone checked the "Discuss deal" box. A likely holdout was Jeb Geez, who said, "you joking? 30k is not even a car here." By "here", Jeb Geez likely meant Switzerland.
If you believe in that sort of thing, you could say the karma of chop-blocking was repaid upon Jeb Geez in full with a 6th-place elimination. If not, you could say Jeb Geez suffered a few lots post and finally, in the 600k-1200k level, pushed for 16 million with [ac][6s]. Raphinja re-pushed with pocket 7s, which held on a [2d][kh][6d][kc][5d] board.
Immediately upon Jeb Geez's elimination, the tournament went on a break as the other five players considered doing a deal. Chip-chopping would have given leader lucas drolet, with 61.4 million in chips, $43,829. That wasn't good enough for lucas drolet, who asked for $50,000 and pointed out that short stack fur8275df "got only 10 BBs" and shouldn't get $16,679. The other players refused, most pointedly fur8275df, who said "no deal. play."
Play resumed, with fur8275df picking up a quick double-up. Pocket 6s held, all in pre-flop, against D}|{okeR_KzN's pocket 4s. Two more medium-sized pots wound up in fur8275df's stack to bump fur8275df to 44.6 million. The tournament paused for deal discussions a second time. This time, all five players agreed without much protest to a straight chip chop.
The remaining five player were playing for the $5,000 champion's set-aside and the Movado watch. Betrob7 caught a quick double-up through lucas drolet when pocket 10s beat out ace-queen. D}|{okeR_KzN was far less lucky. All in pre-flop with pocket aces, D}|{okeR_KzN was called by fur8275df, who showed ace-king. The board rolled out [td][qd][9s][ts][jc] to give fur8275df a Broadway straight and send D}|{okeR_KzN to the showers in 5th place.
Three hands later Raphinja turned a wheel against Betrob7's flopped middle set. They got all in on the turn; the river didn't pair the board. That pot gave Raphinja the chip lead and dropped Betrob7 to less than 9 million in chips. Betrob7 bowed out a few hands later when [ad][3d] couldn't overtake lucas drolet's pocket 4s, all in pre-flop.
Down to three players, lucas drolet and fur8275df played a monster pot for the chip lead:
RSS readers click through to see replay
That pot left fur8275df with fewer than 4 big blinds. There was no miraculous comeback; Raphinja finished off fur8275df four hands later with pocket queens.
That left lucas drolet and Raphinja to battle for the championship in Event 39-Low. The starting edge belonged to lucas drolet, 115.6 million to 92.7 million. Blinds were 700k-1400k. lucas drolet quickly pushed that count north of 150 million by taking down a medium-sized pot with an uncalled river bet on a board of [qc][ad][3s][tc][3d].
From there it was six hands to the end. The final hand was a cooler: Raphinja flopped a straight with [qh][9s] on a board of [8s][jh][th], but lucas drolet's [ah][qs] turned a bigger straight when the [ks] hit the board. It took a bet and four raises to get all the chips in; Raphinja was drawing only to a chop. The [6c] wasn't a chopping card. It knocked Raphinja out in 2nd place and gave the Event 39-Low championship to lucas drolet.
The 40 event spring madness known as the Spring Championship of Online Poker is nearing its end.
We've seen some crazy things happen. Shaun Deeb dominated the series and, despite all the legal setbacks in the online poker world, the 2012 SCOOP turned out to be the largest SCOOP in PokerStars history.
But today, skllzdatklls made a little bit of personal history.
skllzdatklls bested a field of 5,227 -- including dozens of Team PokerStars Pro and Online players -- to win Event #39-M.
This is skllzdatkills first SCOOP victory and biggest online cash. Aside from the fancy watch, today's victor walked away with $159,425.
The 2-day event restarted at 11am ET today and play didn't stop until skllzdatklls made the final kill at 4:53pm ET.
But, before we could get that far, players were responsible for bringing us down to our final six players.
SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
The final two tables shared the burden of bringing the tournament down to the final table. Each tables was responsible for three eliminations.
At one table, sklzdatkills, MiniiPop and ImDaNuts each added an elimination to their Event #39-M resume.
The other table only had two axe men, but only one would make the final table.
Thielon123 took care of the first elimination while SmokerGri knocked out our 8th place finisher.
Both of these players would then be involved in the final table bubble elimination.
With three players left at the table, Thielon123 raised to 200,000 from the button. oncommand passed in the small blind and SmokerGri made it 1MM.
Thielon123 moved all in for 2,534,032 and and SmokerGri called. SmokerGri showed [As][jh] and was going to need some improvement to beat Thielon123's [qd][qs].
The [8h][ad][kh][3d][6c] board brought the help SmokerGri needed and Thielon123 was eliminated in 7th place.
oncommand's final table chip lead lead grew even more after bluffing SmokerGri out of a multi-million chip pot:
RSS readers click through to see replay
The roomy final table then got a bit roomier.
With 60K/120K blinds and a 15K ante, ImDaNuts raised to 240,000 from UTG. BigMeech99 re-raised to 513,875 from the button and ImDaNuts 4-bet to 916,340.
Action was back on BigMeech99 who moved all in for 4,072,293. ImDaNuts had BigMeech99 covered, but only by about one big blind.
ImDaNuts called and showed [jh][js] while BigMeech99 electronically turned over [ah][qc].
The flop came [7c][4h][4c] and BigMeech99's hopes of a straight were gone. The [2d] on the turn eliminated any chance of a flush and a [6c] came on the river, robbing BigMeech99 of every chip he accumulated over the last two days.
BigMeech99 became our first final table elimination and earned $16,726.40 for finishing in 6th place.
EVENING THINGS OUT
With 70K/140K blinds and a 17.5K ante, oncommand raised to 329,000. MiniiPop re-raised with every chip he had, all 5,846,640.
SmokerGri, in the big blind, was the only player that hadn't acted in the hand. SmokerGri also had the shortest stack.
The short stack called and oncommand got out of the way.
MiniiPop: [as][kh]
SmokerGri: [ah][qd]
This wasn't an ideal showdown for SmokerGri and the [3h][10h][9s] flop didn't change much. But the turn was a [qs] and things turned around for SmokerGri.
Only a king or a jack could end SmokerGri's tournament life, but the river was a [9h] and SmokerGri doubled up to just over 8MM.
The hand left MiniiPop and the hamster in his avatar in bad shape. With only about 1.8MM left, the hamster was going to have to make some moves.
Four hands later, oncommand raised to 490,000 and and MiniiPop moved all in for 1,786,263.
oncommand called with [10s][jd] while MiniiPop showed [ac][4c].
The [as][kd][4s] flop fell heavily in MiniiPop's favor, but it also gave oncommand a straight draw.
But instead of a queen, a [7h] would come on the turn and a [2s] would fall on the river. MiniiPop and the hamster doubled up and now had 3.7MM to play with.
SMOKED OUT
The next elimination would be a wild one.
It involved every ace on the board, three players, two tens, one elimination and one almost-double up:
RSS readers click through to see replay
MiniiPop kind-of-almost doubled up to 8,009,349 while oncommand took a massive lead with 22,395,190.
This made SmokerGri our 5th place finisher, a finish worth $31,362.00.
USING SKILLS TO GET SOME KILLS
With four players left, skllzdatklls managed to chip up to 10MM and was about to go on a rampage.
With 100K/200K blinds and a 25K ante, oncommand raised to 600,000 and skllzdatklls called, bringing a [9h][3s][8s] flop.
Action was checked to oncommand who led out for 672,000, skllzdatklls called.
The turn was a [jh] and skllzdatklls check-called command's 1,317,120 bet.
The river was a [kd] and skllzdatklls checked again. oncommand bet 2MM and skllzdatklls moved all in for 8,200,391.
oncommand folded and skllzdatklls won the 9MM pot, bringing his stack up to 15.5MM.
With big stacks comes big responsibility. Usually, that responsibility means eliminating everyone in sight.
That's exactly what skllzdatklls did.
oncommand raised to 500,000 and ImDaNuts called. skllzdatklls 3-bet to 1,696,969 from the big blind and oncommand folded.
Action was back on ImDaNuts who moved all in for 8,293,330. skllzdatklls called and showed a pair of 10s.
ImDaNuts showed one overcard and one undercard, [9c][jc].
The [as][4s][7s] flop ruined ImDaNuts's chances of a straight and a flush. The turn was a [4h] and a [5s] came on the river, ruining any chance of a SCOOP victory for ImDaNuts.
ImDaNuts was eliminated in 4th place, his second final table finish this SCOOP.
Just last week, ImDaNuts finished 2nd in Event #21-H ($2,100 NLHE) for $247,260. But that isn't close to ImDaNuts's biggest poker cash.
ImDaNuts goes by the live name of "Chris Oliver." Under that name, Oliver managed to finish 2nd in the 2011 PokerStars PCA Main Event.
That finish won the 23-year-old $1,800,000.
Today, ImDaNuts would walk away with $52,949.51, increasing his total winnings by a bit more than the US national average wage.
Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver at the 2011 PCA
A few hands later, skllzdatklls would pop the heads-up bubble.
The bloodlust was insatiable.
The skllz needed klls.
skllzdatklls raised to 400,000 and MiniiPop moved all in for 3,994,929.
Action was back on skllzdatklls who called with [qh][qs] while MiniiPop showed [ah][8h] for his tournament life.
The board ran [6c][4d][3d][10d][jh] and MiniiPop's Event #39-M run was over.
MiniiPop's 3rd place finish was good the 3rd place prize, $83,632.
THE BATTLE BEGINS
With MiniiPop gone, the SCOOP watch's new home was narrowed down to two wrists. (Or four, if oncommand and skllzdatklls liked to switch watch hands for fun or shock value.)
skllzdatklls: 31,150,890
oncommand: 21,119,110
skllzdatklls was still on the gas when the heads-up match started. skllzdatklls took a few opening bites out of oncommand before taking out a big a chunk.
With 125K/250K blinds and a 31,250 ante, skllzdatklls raised to 500,000. oncommand re-raised to 1.5MM and skllzdatklls made it 2,999,999.
oncommand went into the tank and finally emerged with a re-raise to 5.5MM. skllzdatklls quickly responded by moving all in for 34,705,268.
oncommand folded and skllzdatklls won the 11MM pot, increasing the lead to 40MM. This left oncommand with 12MM.
skllzdatklls then brought oncommand down even further:
RSS readers click through to see replay
STRAIGHT TO THE TOP
oncommand then then took command of the situation.
oncommand moved all in for 4.3MM and skllzdatklls called.
skllzdatklls called: [ah][7s]
oncommand: [as][3d]
skllzdatklls had oncommand dominated and the flop came [5c][9d][6c], giving skllzdatklls a straight draw.
But the turn was a [4d] and oncommand got a straight draw too.
The [2d] came on the river, and oncommand got the straight, a double up and 8.7MM chips.
Despite the double up, oncommand was still severely shortstacked. A few hands later, oncommand raised to 600,000 and skllzdatklls called.
skllzdatklls checked the [7c][js][3h] flop and oncommand bet 600,000. skllzdatklls raised to 1,567,890 and oncommand moved all in for 6,965,574.
skllzdatklls called and showed [qs][jh] for top pair. oncommand turned over [ad][5s] for, well, not much.
The turn was a [6c] and, suddenly, there was hope for oncommand. Then, a [4s] came on the river to give oncommand another straight and another double up.
This time, on command's stack grew to 15MM.
Then, skllzdatklls lost the lead.
skllzdatklls raised to 600,000 and oncommand re-raised to 1,950,000. skllzdatklls called and the flop came [2d][3s][jc].
oncommand bet 1,800,000 and skllzdatklls called, bringing a [10s] on the turn. oncommand led out again, this time for 4,050,000, skllzdatklls called.
A [5d] came on the river and oncommand moved all in for 13,508,437.
skllzdatklls folded and lost the lead to oncommand. skllzdatklls was left with 23MM while oncommand was up to 29MM.
Then, oncommand took a commanding lead with another bluff, just like at the beginning of the final table:
RSS readers click through to see replay
THE FINAL KILL
It was now skllzdatklls's tournament life at risk.
With 200K/400K blinds and a 50K ante, oncommand raised to 800,000. skllzdatklls called and the flop came [qh][5d][7h].
Action was checked to oncommand, who bet 400,000. skllzdatklls raised to 1,333,337 and oncommand called, bringing a [10c] on the turn.
Both players checked and a [9c] came on the river. skllzdatklls opened for 3,456,789 and oncommand moved all in.
skllzdatklls thought for a while before calling and showing [9d][10d]. The two pair was better than oncommand's [ah][5c] and skllzdatklls doubled up to 22,665,142.
skllzdatklls then snatched the lead back away from oncommand:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Now back in the lead, skllzdatklls was ready to do damage.
With 250K/500K blinds and a 62.5K ante, oncommand raised to 1MM. skllzdatklls re-raised to 2,898,989 and oncommand called.
skllzdatklls bet 2,696,969 on the [jh][5c][ah] flop and oncommand called.
The turn was a [7c] and skllzdatklls bet 3,789,789. oncommand called and a [3d] came on the river.
skllzdatklls made one final bet, an all in bet worth 21,363,062. oncommand folded and was left with 12MM while skllzdatklls' stack grew to 40MM.
skllzdatklls would then go in for the final kill.
skllzdatklls raised to 1MM and oncommand called. oncommand checked the [8d][7d][2c] flop and skllzdatklls bet 999,999. oncommand moved all in for 10,947,944 and skllzdatklls made the final call.
The players showed the final hands of the tournament:
oncommand: [10c][8c]
skllzdatklls: [kc][kd]
The turn was a [6d] and the [kh] came on the river, giving skllzdatklls a set of kings and the SCOOP championship.
oncommand became the runner-up finisher and won $114,994 for taking 2nd place.
This made skllzdatklls the Event #39-M champion and proud owner of a SCOOP watch. But the watch isn't the only prize, skllzdatklls will also take the grand prize of $159,425.30
With Event #39-M finished, the SCOOP is almost over.
As of writing this, only Event #39-H and all three main events remain. If you're reading this in time, go check them out. If they're already done, then, hello readers of the future. What's it like there? Did we get to Mars yet? Did Shaun Deeb buy the Earth with his SCOOP winnings?
As one of the final table's initial chip leaders, john_tri80 experienced a fair amount of chip stack challenges. Several hours of hard work went into outlasting opponents, but the elimination of Fiskin1 in third place was key in getting to heads-up with the chip lead over FrandsenDK. John_tri80 then stayed aggressive and ended up in the winner's circle in one of the most prestigious online poker events in the world.
*****
We now enter Day 2 of the 2012 SCOOP Main Event Low, the final toast to a 16-day poker festival unlike any seen before in the world of Internet poker. As a reminder of what happened yesterday, let's start with the big numbers:
19. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (UK) - 5,058,912
23. Team PokerStars Pro Christophe "chrisdm" de Meulder (Belgium) - 4,574,887
Day 2 begins
Of the two remaining Team PokerStars players, chrisdm had the roughest time. After whyme270483 doubled through him, he ended up pushing all-in with [Kc][Jh] on the button. Traderzz called from the big blind with [Ah][7s], and the board came [7h][5s][4h][Ad][Kh] to give Traderzz two pair. Team Pro Christophe "chrisdm" de Meulder left in 64th place with $2,323.44.
After one hour and 15 minutes of play on Day 2, the field had been reduced to only 50 players. Marius2891 had climbed to the top and beyond, surpassing the 25 million-chip mark.
But as quick as some rise in NLHE, others fall. Day 1 chip leader Chojjasd had a rough time, as players like Golaith13 and Renster12 doubled through. Finally, Chojjasd pushed nearly 3 million chips all-in with [As][9h], and Golaith13 was there in the small blind with [9s][9d]. With no ace on the [6h][Kc][5s][4c][2s] board, Chojjasd was ousted in 45th place with $3,097.92.
Former top 10 players also hit the rail, such as VolkovDenis in 34th place, shyme270483 in 27th, and 22illuminati in 25th. Further down the line, Golaith13 exited in 22nd and marius2891 in 16th.
FrandsenDK doubled through ElkY with 14 players remaining, and ElkY was all-in with the ante on the next hand. MrWeesy raised, and EdikLem reraised, but MrWeesy responded by moving all-in. EdikLem folded and showed [Qd][Qc], which was up against the [Ac][7d] of ElkY. The board came [3s][8d][Js][8s][8c], and MrWeesy made the full house. Team Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier left in 14th place with $6,417.12.
The 11th place elimination of RJules12 led to hand-for-hand action, which went on until short-stacked nobre13 finally made a push with [Kd][Jh]. Original raiser luznypapa called with [As][6s] and caught the first card on the [6c][7d][9s] flop. The [7c] and [9h] made two pair on the board, and luznypapa's ace kicker played for the win. Nobre13 exited in tenth place with $8,298.00.
Fiskin1 fishing for more titles
The final table was set in Level 51, with blinds of 600,000/1,200,000 and a 150,000 ante. Players' initial chip counts were as follows:
Seat 1: jonath3501 (21,950,347 in chips)
Seat 2: flowstone80 (51,959,415 in chips)
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (52,408,130 in chips)
Seat 4: luznypapa (41,934,224 in chips)
Seat 5: slavOuchka (33,756,155 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (52,072,424 in chips)
Seat 7: T_Dot_D (21,160,084 in chips)
Seat 8: MrWeesy (10,388,332 in chips)
Seat 9: Fiskin1 (46,290,889 in chips)
Three players were near the chip lead as the final table began, each of them over 50 million chips. Meanwhile, Fiskin1 wasn't far behind. But at the same time, Fiskin1 was at the final table of Event 39-H and already in the SCOOP books with a win earlier in the series in Event 18-M.
John_tri80 took a pot worth 36.6 million chips from T_Dot_D to climb above the 60 million mark and into the lead, though flowstone80 kept up and hit that same mark soon after. But when john_tri80 then took a 35.6 million-chip pot from slavOuchka, the former crossed the 80 million chip mark.
On the other end of the leaderboard, MrWeesy worked the short stack for awhile, even doubling through flowstone80 to stay in action. But MrWeesy moved all-in again soon after. The hand started with a small blind raise from T_Dot_D and all-in reraise from MrWeesy in the big blind. T_Dot_D called with [Jd][Jh], and MrWeesy saw that he needed help with [Ad][3s]. But there was nothing on the [Ts][7c][2c][5s][5h] board to provide that assistance. After a 13th place finish in 2012 SCOOP Event 29-L, MrWeesy ended this run in ninth place, which was worth $13,276.80.
Can anyone stop john_tri80?
The chip leader kept climbing. When slavOuchka risked nearly 39 million chips from the small blind, john_tri80 called from the big blind with [Ad][Kh], which beat the [Ts][9h] preflop. The board of [4h][8h][5s][4c][Qh] changed nothing, and the ace kicker with the pair of fours won the pot for john_tri80. SlavOuchka departed in eighth place with $19,915.20.
And when jonath3501 pushed all-in with [Ac][Tc] from the button, original raiser john_tri80 called with [Jc][Jd]. The flop of [Kc][Qs][5d] gave jonath3501 hopes of a straight, but neither the [5h] nor the [9s] made that happen. Jonath3501 left in seventh place with $31,089.84.
T_Dot_D in strong second place run
Luznypapa risked it all with [Qd][Qh] from the button, and though john_tri80 folded the small blind, T_Dot_D called from the big blind with [Kh][9h]. Not only did the flop bring [8d][4d][Ks] for top pair, but the [Kd] on the turn made trip kings for T_Dot_D. And even that was made into a full house when the [9s] came on the river. Luznypapa had no choice but to accept sixth place and the $44,256.00 that went with it.
Double? No trouble
Fiskin1 was in trouble on a rather short stack but mounted a comeback with a double through flowstone80, as seen here:
RSS readers click through to see replay
And a bit later, another double-up, that time through T_Dot_D with pocket aces, put Fiskin1 into second place of the remaining players.
FrandsenDK takes over briefly
Flowstone80 was unable to gain ground after the Fiskin1 double-through, so upon looking down at [Ac][7c], the decision to move all-in was made. FrandsenDK was along for the ride holding [9c][9s], and that pocket pair held up to the [6h][7s][Qc][2h][5s] board. Flowstone80 was eliminated in fifth place with $66,384.00.
Fiskin1 to first
As action sped up and blinds increased, another player was at risk shortly after. It started with a T_Dot_D raise and Fiskin1 reraise. T_Dot_D responded by moving all-in with [Ah][9c], but Fiskin1 snap-called with [As][Ad]. The board of [6d][3h][Kd][2s][Kc] contained no nines or help for T_Dot_D, who left in fourth place with $88,512.00.
Keep playing; nothing to see here
The three remaining players paused the action to look at some payout options, but after seeing chip-chop and ICM numbers, players couldn't agree on much of anything. That realization quickly led to the tournament restart, and they played on for the prize money as set.
Solid series for Fiskin1
FrandsenDK took a chance and won, doubling through Fiskin1 here:
RSS readers click through to see replay
That left Fiskin1 ready to move, which happened a few hands later when Fiskin1 saw [5c][5h]. But john_tri80 had [7s][7h], and that only improved to a set of sevens on the [7c][Ac][Jh] flop. The [9d] turn and [2s] river changed nothing. Fiskin1, who won Event 18-M earlier in this series and was in the final four in Event 39-H, was ousted in third place with $110,640.00.
Heads-up deal and grand finale
The final two players started with these counts:
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (146,451,678 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (185,468,322 in chips)
The paused the tournament to attempt deal talks, but failure to come to any agreement prompted them to play on. But within moments, they wanted to speak about the deal again. And they made a deal! These were the final payout numbers, with the exception of $20,000 that was set aside to be added to the winner's money:
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (148,326,678 in chips) = $187,000.00
Seat 6: john_tri80 (183,593,322 in chips) = $178,725.75
John_tri80 continued to chip up and climbed over the 200 million mark. FrandsenDK suffered but did manage this double-up to gain some ground:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Four hands later, the two tangled again. It started with a cheap flop of [Ad][7s][Js]. FrandsenDK bet, and john_tri80 check-called. The [2s] on the turn prompted the same action, and the [3h] river card brought a bet from john_tri80. FranksenDK raised all-in with [5d][3d] for the rivered pair of threes, but john_tri80 called with [Jd][8c] for the pair of jacks. FrandsenDK took second place in the tournament and $187,000.00.
John_tri80 became the 40-L SCOOP Main Event champion of 2012. In addition to $198,725.75 in cash, john_tri80 won the champion's Movado watch. Congratulations!
Denmark's ministerborg smelled blood in the water. He began Day 2 in the Top 10 in chips and sought his second SCOOP crown this month after winning Event #21-H. He survived the initial onslaught on Day 2 and advanced to the final table. When heads-up play began against suarez_BG, ministerborg held an advantageous lead -- 40M to 13M. Despite the lead, ministerborg didn't rush to finish off suarez_BG right away. The two played heads-up mental chess and mental jujitsu for almost eighty minutes before one of them emerged victorious. In a stunning and thrilling comeback, suarez_BG denied ministerborg's quest at a second SCOOP title.
When the dust settled, Bulgaria's suarez_BG won the "medium" version of the Main Event and took down his first SCOOP title. Event #40-M $1,050 NL featured a prize pool worth $3,567,000. Event #40-M attracted 3,567 runners and only the top 450 got a cut of the juicy prize pool with $560,019 set aside for first place.
After an arduous Day 1, only 74 players returned to action on Day 2 in Event $40-M $1,050 NL. Team PokerStars Pro Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth began Day 2 in the middle of the pack. Despite being on the good side of luck for most of the day, Ainsworth's deep run came to a halt when he busted out in 23rd place.
Team PokerStars Pro Jude "j.thaddues" Ainsworth
The moment that cards went in the air on Day 2, a slew of eliminations occurred. MilanRabsz from Poland was the first player to exit on Day 2, hitting the road in 74th place. During the first ten minutes of Day 2, five players were liquidated.
The chip lead on Day 2 was a hot potato and changed hands too many times to count. The end of Day 1 leader -- husajn54 -- only kept the lead for less than ten minutes into Day 2 before kangis from Costa Rica seized the top slot. Team PokerStars Pro Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth chipped up to 750K and leanthief jumped out to the lead with 2.3 million.
As action consolidated from six to five tables, Ainsworth lost a couple of small pots and was all of a sudden one of the short stacks. Ainsworth made a move... and got a little lucky. Ainsworth open-shoved for 280,278, and treezer called from the small blind. Ainsworth was in trouble with [Th][8h] versus' treezer's [Ac][Kc]. The flop was [8c][3d][2s] and Ainsworth took the lead. The [Ad] spiked on the turn and treezer re-gained the lead, but the [Ts] fell on the river, which improved Ainsworth to two pair -- tens and eights. Ainsworth avoided an elimination and came from behind to double up to 620K.
Ainsworth embarked on a mini-heater. He won consecutive hands, then doubled through one of the big stacks. Ainsworth min-raised to 60,000, kangis shoved all-in for 1,715,519, and Ainsworth calld. kangis was flipping with [Tc][Ts] agianst Ainsworth's [Ah][Qc] Ainsworth took the lead on the flop and improved to trip Aces on the turn. His hand held up when the board ran out [Ac][8c][6c][5h][As]. Ainsworth surged to over 1.2 million.
Ainsworth's mini-rush ended when he ran into short-stacked Spokey's [Ah][Ad]. Ainsworth took [As][Qs] to battle against Aces. He flopped a flush draw on a flop of [Jh][9s][5s], and turned a gutterball for a Broadway straight, but neither filled in for him on the river. Ainsworth took a small hit and slipped to 1 million.
With 36 players to go, leanthief held the top spot with 3.7 million, followed by WhiteRabbito with 3.1 million. Ainsworth lost some of his stack and slipped to the back of the pack again with under 600K. Just when things looked dour for Ainsworth, he avoided another elimination and snapped off Aces in the process. Ainsworth kicked off the fracas with a min-raise to 80,000, and Rocketmist called from the big blind. The flop was [Kh][Js][9d] and both players checked. The turn was the [9h]. Rocketmist fired out 81,000 and Ainsworth called. The [8h] fell on the river. Rockemist bet 139,320, and Ainsworth shoved all-in for his last 546,828. Rocketmist called with [Ah][Ad] for two pair -- Aces and nines. Ainsworth showed [6h][5h] and won the pot with a flush. Rocketmist's attempt to slow play Aces came back to bite him in the butt. Ainsworth picked up a well-timed double up and chipped up to almost 1.5 million.
ROCKER
Argentina's leanthief surged over 5 million after knocking out two players on the same hand and winning a 2.3 million pot. Three-way. All-in preflop. The leanthief took [Ad][Qd] to battle against jahhont's [9s][9d] and Niccon's [As][9c]. The board ran out [Ah][8s][7s][Ac][Js]. The leantheif won a side pot and main pot with trip Aces. Niccon was knocked out in 35th place and jahhont busted out in 34th place. Meanwhile, leantheif blazed by the 5 million-chip mark.
Around the same time on a different table, Ainsworth doubled up to almost 2 million. On a flop of [Td][5d][3s], Spokey attempted to check-raise Ainsworth, but he responded by shoving all-in with [Kd][Ks]. Spokey trailed with [Ac][Tc]. Ainsworth's pocket Cowboys held up and he avoided another elimination. With 31 remaining, Ainsworth rocketed into the Top 10 in chips.
Michael "Timex" Macdonald busted out in 30th place. Timex three-bet shoved preflop with [2s][2c], but ran into dknight10's [Kh][Ks]. For 30th place, Timex earned $8,204.10.
With 27 players left, WhiteRabbito took over the lead with 4.8 million, and leanthief was second. Aisnworth was 13th overall with 1.8 million.
With 25 to go, Ainsworth lost a chunk of his stack to esvik in a 670K pot. With 24 to go, Ainsworth avoided elimination... Ainsworth open-shoved with [6c][5h] for 725,062 and is all-in XuxiSanchez called with [Ah][2c] from the big blind. Ainsworth runs good. Here's the proof: the board ran out [Ks][Td][6s][Qs][Qh]. Ainsworth won the hand with two pair -- Queens and sixes. Ainsworth doubled to 1.5 million to stay alive.
With 23 remaining, Mazurite took over the lead with 5 million. Mazurite doubled up with [As][Ts] against ministerborg's [Ah][Qs] to win a 4.6 million pot.
HEY JUDE: Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsowrth eliminated in 23rd place
All good things must come to an end, right? Ainsworth had been flirting with the dark side of luck for most of Day 2 and it finally caught up to him. Ainsworth open-shoved for 1,055,532, and ministerborg re-raised all-in to isolate. Everyone got the heck out of the way and let those two rumble. Ainsworth led with [As][Jc] versus ministerborg's [Ac][9d] . Unfortunately for Ainsworth, the board ran out [Kd][Ks][6d][Qd] [4d], and ministerborg caught running diamonds to win the pot with a King-high flush.
Team PokerStars Pro Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth busted out in 23rd place, but he shouldn't feel too sad because he earned $9,452.55.
Check out the hand in the replayer:
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With 21 players remaining, it was KipsterDK's turn to lead the pack. KipsterDk picked off Rocketmist in 22nd place when KipsterDK flopped trips with [Ah][Tc], then turned a boat to win a 2.6 million pot.
Klebanov999 became the leader after winning the largest pot of the tournament (up until that point). KipsterDK four-bet shoved 4.3 million with [6c][6h] and Klebanov999 happily called with [Ac][Ah]. Klebanov999's Aces held up and a stunned KipsterDK went from the penthouse to the outhouse in the same level. KipsterDK bowed out in 18th place. Meanwhile, Klebanov999 chipped up to almost 9 million.
Veronica "Princessa" Dabul held on with a short-stack for most of Day 2 and managed to hold on long enough for a 14th place finish. On her final hand, she made a stand with [As][2d], but got run down by suarez_BG's [9h][8c] when the board ran out [Qd][Jd][9c][Kd][4c]. Princesa collected $16,586.55 for 14th place.
With 13 to go, ministerborg took command of the lead with 7.7 million after Klebanov999 tumbled out of the top spot. IRLMedic doubled through Klebanov999 with [Qd][Qh] versus [9c][9h] and won a 6 million pot.
SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME
Event #40-M continued to sizzle as play approached the final table bubble when hunwei and Klebanov999 decided to race to the death in a 4.4 million pot. Klebanov999's [As][Jc] lost to hunwei's [7s][7h]. Talk about a crazy roller-coaster ride for Klebanov999, who held the lead late in the tournament, yet busted out in 11th place.
Action was hand-for-hand for a brief moment before someone busted out in tenth place. Mazurite min-raised to 280,000, ministerborg re-raised to 567,400, Mazurite four-bet to 1.35 million, ministerborg five-bet shoved for 8,506,232, and Mazurite called. Classic race. Mazurite was flipping with [As][Ks] against ministerborg's [9h][9c]. The board ran out [Qh][5s][2d][7s][6c] and ministerborg's pocket nines held up. Mazurite bubbled off the final table in tenth place, but took home a consolation prize of $21,937.05.
With almost 13 million, ministerborg began the final table as the chip lead during Level 42 with blinds at 80,000/160,000 and a 20K ante. The average stack was a shade under 6 million.
After winning a SCOOP event earlier in the series, ministerborg had a legitimate shot at winning multiple titles. Only eight other players stood in his way.
DON'T LET ME DOWN: IRLMedic eliminated in 9th place
IRLMedic made a stand and bombed it all-in for 2,476,213 with [As][6d]. Big stacked ministerborg woke up with [Kd][Kc]. Ouch. IRLMedic took a wrong time to run into pocket Kings. The board ran out [Jc][8s][3c][Js][Jh] and ministerborg's Aces held up. The rich got richer (ministerborg's stack passed 16.7 million), while an Ace-less board sealed IRLMedic's fate. IRLMedic became the first player to bust off the final table. For a ninth-place finish, IRLMedic earned $28,536.
DIG A PONY: Korn2005 eliminated in 8th place
Play settled down momentarily before we saw the second exit at the final table. Korn2005 opened to 400,222, PSÄ! shoved all-in for 4,540,240, and Korn2005 called all-in for 3,366,244. Korn2005 was ahead with [Ac][Kd] against PSÄ!'s [Ah][Qs], but disaster struck when the [Qd] spiked on the flop. The board finished up [Qd][5s][2s][4c][9d]. PSÄ! won the pot and Korn2005's Big Slick was beat down. For an eighth-place performance, Korn2005 earned $44,587.50.
GET BACK: dknight10 eliminated in 7th place
With seven remaining... ministerborg looked almost human and coughed up the lead. It took a little help from the poker gods... carrycakes doubled up with [Ah][5h] against ministerborg's [Ad][Th] after carrycakes turned a boat and won the 11.6 million pot. Carrycakes snagged the overall lead.
After the top spot shifted, we saw another elimination when dknight10 open-shoved to 3,848,679 and suarez_BG called. suarez_BG led with [Td][Ts] against dknight10's [Ad][Th]. The board ran out [Ah][Qd][Tc][8c][9h]. Although dknight10 flopped two pair, suarez_BG flopped a set. Alas, suarez_BG won the pot and dknight10 hit the road in seventh place, earning $80,257.50.
LET IT BE: scrooch025 eliminated in 6th place
Two hands later, fireworks happened once again. This time, carrycakes min-raised to to 500,000, suarez_BG called, scrooch025 raised all-in for 4,918,671, carrycakes folded, and suarez_BG called. Another flip.... scrooch025 was racing with [5h][5c] versus suarez_BG's [Ah][Jc]. The board ran out [Ad][3c][2h][6h][8c] and suarez_BG won the pot. The pot got shipped to carrycakes, and scrooch025 was knocked out in sixth place, earning $115,927.50.
With five remaining, hunwei held the lead with 13.9 million, carrycakes was second with 10.3 million. PSÄ! held the middle spot with 8.8 million. Bringing up the rear were ministerborg's 5.6 million and scrooch025's 5.2 million.
FOR YOU BLUE: carrycakes eliminated in 5th place
Just when it looked like ministerborg was on his way out... he stormed back with a timely double up against carrycakes. Sure, ministerborg was behind with [As][6d] against carrycakes' [Ac][9c]. However, the [6c] spiked on the turn and ministerborg avoided an elimination. He doubled to over 9.7 million.
Still reeling from the sting of a bad beat, carrycakes met his demise when his [9d][9s] lost a flip against hunwei's [As][Qh]. Both players bombed it all-in preflop. The board ran out [Qd][5s][2h][3d][4d] and hunwei won the hand with a Wheel. For fifth place, carrycakes collected $152,703.27.
With four to go, hunwei improved to 17 million.
DIG IT: PSÄ! eliminated in 4th place
PSÄ! opened to 500,300, ministerborg raised to 1,214,555, PSÄ! re-raised to 2,253,050, ministerborg re-raised all-in to 11,270,370, and PSÄ! had him slightly covered and called. ministerborg was flipping with [7h][7d] against PSÄ!'s [As][Jd]. The board ran out [Ac][7s][4h][4c][6c] and ministerborg won the 22.9 million pot with a full house. PSÄ! was crippled and busted out on the next hand when ministerborg finally finished him off with [Kh][Jh] against [Th][5s]. For fourth place, PSÄ! won $205,102.50.
With three remaining, ministerborg was ahead with 23.4 million, hunwei was second with 16.7 million, and suarez_BG held 13.3 million.
DEAL?
A deal was floated and guest host Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker popped into the chat to deliver the deal numbers. However, ministerborg shot it down. Action resumed.
TWO OF US: hunwei eliminated in 3rd place
The action was started by ministerborg, who min-raised to 600,000, hunwei raised to 1.5 million, ministerborg re-raised to 3,145,400, hunwei five-bet to 5.7 million, ministerborg six-bet shoved all-in for 22,957,450, and hunwei called. Classic race with hunwei's [Qd][Qh] battling against ministerborg's [Ad][Kc].The flop was [Ah][4d][3s] and ministerborg took the lead. The turn was the [Jd], and the river was the [As]. ministerborg won the 33.9 million pot. Australia's hunwei earned $296,061.00 for an impressive third-place performance.
After forty minutes or so of methodical small ball, suarez_BG went on a heater and won eight out of ten pots, including a 34 million doozy, to take the lead. Here's what went down... ministerborg min-raised to 1 million, suarez_BG bumped it up to 2.25 million, ministerborg four-bet shoved for 36,348,157, and suarez_BG called all-in. ministerborg was in trouble with [Ac][7h] against suarez_BG's [Ad][Th]. The board ran out [Ts][6c][5h][6h][Kd] and suarez_BG doubled up to 34.1 million, while ministerborg slipped to under 20 million.
Just when it appeared that suarez_BG seized momentum, ministerborg stopped the bleeding and doubled up in a staggering 31 million pot. Another flip... suarez_BG was racing with [Ac][Kc] against ministerborg's [Ts][Td]. The flop was [Ad][Kh][Tc], and although suarez_BG flopped top two pair, ministerborg took the lead with a set of tens. The turn was the [9s], and the river was the [Qh]. Talk about dodging a bullet... ministerborg avoided elimination and doubled up to regain the lead: 31M to 22M.
It was suarez_BG's turn to launch a counterattack. He won an 8.8 million pot with [Qd][Jh] and a four-flush. After that hand, both players were almost dead even in chips, but ministerborg still held the slight lead.
Then it happened. Another rush for suarez_BG. He won ten out of the last twelve hands and put away ministerborg. The first crushing blow was a 9 million pot. The board read [Kc][5h][3c][4s][Kh], and suarez_BG showed [4d][3d] to win the pot with two pair. After that hand, suarez_BG was in control of the lead with a 2-1 advantage over ministerborg.
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD: ministerborg eliminated in 2nd place; saurez_BG wins Event #40-M!
On the final hand, after almost eighty minutes of heads-up action... suarez_BG min-raised to 1.2 million, ministerborg re-raised to 2,647,400, suarez_BG four-bet shoved for 41,601,092, and ministerborg called all-in. Both players showed their hands... suarez_BG was ahead with [5s][5h], but he was flipping against ministerborg's [As][Qd]. The board ran out [8d][7c][2d][4d][Js] and suarez_BG's pocket fives held up.
Alas, ministerborg lost the pot and was denied a second SCOOP title after getting knocked out in second place. For a runner-up performance, ministerborg earned $417,339.
Congrats to the suarez_BG, the latest SCOOP champion, who came from behind to win the tournament. The Bulgarian player takes home a sleek champion's watch and $560,019 in cash.
Second chances can be rare in this life, but in SCOOP they seem to come about a little more often than normal. The two players who ended up taking each other on in the heads-up finale of this event were both looking to improve on their performances at past SCOOP final tables. Only one could claim the win, but both would earn their biggest PokerStars scores yet.
The early going
Day 1 of this event saw a field of 840 players turn up, building a $1,680,000 prize pool that crushed the $750K guarantee and setting up a top prize of $298,200. They played 20 levels on the first day and as it drew to a close these players were leading the field of 41:
Day 2 began at 11:00am ET on Level 21 (1.5K/3K/375). With one SCOOP win this year and another SCOOP final table appearance, Fiskin1 certainly had the track record to suggest that a solid Day 1 performance could lead to another deep run. So did the rest of the top five, including former SCOOP winners raidalot and Big_Nat123, former Sunday Warm-Up and WCOOP event runner-up SiiliSuhonen, and former Sunday Warm-Up winner eisenhower1. In the end only Fiskin1 would survive to see the final table, though Big_nat123 came close with a 9th-place finish ($33,600).
Besides those players, other notables in the money on Day 2 included Brandon "oncommand" Meyers (13th, $14,952), William "Altrum Altus" Reynolds (17th, $14,952), Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (20th, $11,592), Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick (40th, $6,888), and Chris "Moorman1" Moorman (41st, $6,888).
834 down, 5 to go
With all of those players on the rail, the final table kicked off at 4:04pm ET with blinds at 8K/16K and these six players in contention:
Seat 1: 7tHEcROw7 (392,959 in chips)
Seat 2: mindgamer (1,282,564 in chips)
Seat 3: RomeOpro (1,233,034 in chips)
Seat 4: Turko_man (340,277 in chips)
Seat 5: Fiskin1 (3,337,581 in chips)
Seat 6: Mike "SirWatts" Watson (1,813,585 in chips)
It didn't take long to see some big action. RomeOpro won the first pot, worth 770K chips, when [Kh] [Qc] was good on a [9c] [Ks] [3c] [9s] [4h] board against both Fiskin1 and WPT Bellagio Cup IV champion Mike "SirWatts" Watson. Three hands later 7tHEcROw7 got all-in for 386K before the flop with [Tc] [Ts], which held up against SirWatts' [6c] [6h]. And two hands after that 7tHEcROw7 would chip up once again, taking out the table short stack in another preflop, pair-over-pair situation. Turko_man's [Th] [Td] couldn't top 7tHEcROw7's [Jc] [Jh], making the Spanish player the tournament's 6th place finisher ($50,400).
Deep stacks, strong play
The quickness of the first exit wasn't duplicated for the next one. All five remaining players had at least 1.1M chips in play (good for 72 big blinds at 8K/16K) and settled into a comfortable rhythm of aggressive, post-flop poker. Only once the blinds had gone up to 10K/20K did another all-in confrontation occur, one which saw Austria's mindgamer double through Fiskin1 with [9c] [9h] against [2d] [2h]. That 1.42M-chip pot - the largest of the tournament so far by 400K - kept the Austrian player in the mix and flattened out the chip counts a bit. While Fiskin1's stack was still worth 150 big blinds, it no longer had every other player at the table covered.
An hour of play would go by in the same manner before the next elimination. With the blinds at 15K/30K, Ukraine's RomeOpro moved all-in for 559K from the cutoff. SirWatts isolated with an all-in move and turned up [Ah] [Th], which was ahead of the Ukrainian's [Kc] [Qc]. The [8c] [Ad] [6s] flop gave Watson an even bigger advantage, and the [Ac] turn and [5h] river made RomeOpro's exit official in 5th place ($84,000).
That 1.16M-chip pot gave Watson a total stack of 3.06M, good for the lead ahead of mindgamer (2.87M), Fiskin1 (1.48M), and 7tHEcROw7 (972K). The four briefly talked about making a deal but once the chip-chop numbers came in they quickly scrapped the idea and opted to keep playing. For nearly an hour they continued to joust with one another without anyone risking their tournament life, watching the blinds move up to 17.5K/35K before 7tHEcROw7 survived with [Ah] [Qd] against Fiskin1's [As] [Th] for a 1.19M-chip pot. A few hands later mindgamer survived a similar situation, winning with [Ad] [Ks] to SirWatts' [As] [Jc] for a pot worth 2.05M, but then doubled 7tHEcROw7 up to 2.19M with [Kc] [Qh] against the former's [Ah] [As].
Mike "SirWatts" Watson was seeking his first SCOOP win
It wasn't until the blinds had risen to 20K/40K with a 5K ante that the next player would be sent to the rail. The hand started with the action folding to Fiskin1, who put in a raise to 110K from the small blind. SirWatts made the call in the big blind to see a flop of [As] [7s] [8c]. Fiskin1 led out for a half-pot bet of 120K and Watson called; on the [Kc] turn, Fiskin1 bet 280K and Watson again called. The river card was the [6s] and after dipping into the time bank Fiskin1 chose to move all-in for 845K into the 1.04M-chip pot. Watson didn't waste much time calling with [Tc] [9c] for the rivered ten-high straight, which was good against Fiskin1's [2d] [2h]. With that, Fiskin1 busted in 4th place ($117,600).
With 4.35M chips to 7tHEcROw7's 2.37M and mindgamer's 1.66M, Watson now looked a good value for a win. After 15 minutes of continuing to chip up at his opponents' expense he found himself in a position to knock out both of them at once in this three-way pot, the largest of the entire tournament:
RSS readers, please click through for replay
Any ace, queen, or spade on the turn or river would have given Watson the victory without having to playheads-up. Instead mindgamer became the 3rd-place finisher ($168,000) and 7tHEcROw7 won a 5.34M-chip pot to seize the lead as the final duel began.
Two players, one title
Both of the remaining players were seeking their first SCOOP titles after previously having come up short. SirWatts had finished in 2nd place twice before, two weeks ago in Event 9-H and back in 2010's Event 34-M, and took 5th in this year's Event 25-H. His opponent, 7tHEcROw7, had finished 6th in last year's Event 37-M. It was a golden opportunity for both players.
On just the second hand of heads-up play, 7tHEcROw7 extended the chip lead. Two-thirds of Watson's stack made its way to the UK player after 7tHEcROw7 led on the flop and turn but checked the river on a board of [Kd] [3s] [5s] [Qh] [2h]; Watson fired off a 1.02M-chip bluff holding [9s] [6s], but 7tHEcROw7's call with [Kh] [Tc] was good for the 4.08M-chip pot.
That left Watson with just 969K, or 24 big blinds, which was more than enough for the Canadian pro to put up a fight. He managed to double up a few hands later with [3c] [3s] against [Ad] [Js] and climb back up to 2.39M, and he would chip up a little further to 2.56M after a few blind steals. But as it turned out, that would be as close as he got to winning over the course of the 41-hand match. 7tHEcROw7 began to chip back up once the blinds went up to 25K/50K, winning just over half of the pots and regularly claiming the larger ones until Watson was holding 1.43M of the 8.4M chips in play. That was when the final hand came about:
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After three and a half hours of final table play, the tournament was complete. Mike "SirWatts" Watson won $220,920 for his second runner-up finish of this SCOOP series, his biggest score ever in a PokerStars tournament. 7tHEcROw7, meanwhile, grabbed $298,200 for the win, topping a previous career-best score by nearly $270,000. Not bad for a player who made the final table as one of the short stacks!
The "high" version of SCOOP Event #40, the $10,300 buy-in Main Event, saw a field of 517 build an eye-popping prize pool of $5.17 million. And after one long day of play, no one had claimed even the tiniest slice of any of it. Not yet.
All 63 of those making it through Sunday's first day of play had earned some portion, however, as the cash bubble had burst on the very last hand of Day 1 when Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky knocked out Steve "Illini213" Barshak in 64th place. (Read the full recap of Day 1 here.)
That managed to tie things up nice and neat there at the end of the night, but Day 2 arrived to make things complicated once again....
It was time to decide who gets what.
Winning that last hand of the night had helped secure Wilinofsky's second-position spot in the counts with 404,575 to end the day, just a touch behind leader Kazu "imashokU" Oshima who led overnight with 405,124.
When the virtual cards began to fly once more Monday afternoon, the average stack was just over 123,000, with the Level 21 blinds at 1,500/3,000, meaning most were relatively deep to start. And that a lot of work likely remained for the player who'd manage to negotiate the remaining field to victory and the largest piece of that enormous prize pool.
From 63 to 27
After a relatively slow pre-bubble period to end the night on Sunday, the pace was predictably quicker to begin proceedings for Day 2, with 15 eliminations occurring within the first half-hour.
Among those min-cashing for $22,748 were David "Betudontbet" Emmons (59th), Dan "w00ki3z." Cates (58th), Brian "Halfrek" Elgaard (57th), Clark "snake8484" Hamagami (56th), and Jeff "jeff710" Hakim (55th). And in the group taking away $24,299 before the initial half-hour break were Johan "busto_soon" Van Til (52nd), Frederik "Fred_Brink" Jensen (50th), and Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko (49th).
The next half-hour saw nine more fall, including Sorel "zangbezan24" Mizzi who took $24,299 for finishing 46th, and Jon "FatalError" Aguiar (42nd), Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira (41st), and Anthony "wwwBTHEREcom" Gregg (40th), each of whom cashed for $25,850. By then aagefr had pushed ahead of the field to a stack of more than 460,000, followed by ValueH, johnxfleming, Kazu "imashokU" Oshima, and Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky.
That's when a clash arose between Andre "akkarri" Akkari of Team PokerStars Brazil and Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen of Team Online. With the blinds 2,000/4,000, Akkari min-raised from the cutoff with [As][10c], Petersen reraise-shoved for 56,925 from the big blind with [Ah][Kc], and Akkari called. The flop came [10h][3s][4d] to pair Akkari, and after the [6c] turn and [2c] river Petersen was out in 39th ($25,850).
Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen, Team Online
The next stretch saw another table's worth of players fall, including Spencer "UH Big Tex" Hudson (36th), Rory "Mafews' Mathews (35th), Jamie "TheCronic420" Rosen (34th), and Vojtech "Vojta_R" Ruzicka (32nd), each of whom won $28,435 for getting that far.
Soon after Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky would lose the majority of his stack in a big hand versus hotmark777 in which Wilinofsky flopped top pair of aces versus hotmark777's set of sixes. That sunk Wilinofsky to less than 70,000, and a couple of hands later Mathew "Matfrankland" Frankland claimed the last of NeverScaredB's chips to send him railward in 31st ($28,435).
Three more fell soon thereafter, and after two hours of Day 2 they were down to the final three tables.
From 27 to 9
By the two-and-a-half-hour mark of Day 2 they were down to 22, with ValueH on top with more than 805,000, followed by Kazu "imashokU" Oshima and Mathew "Matfrankland" Frankland. Among the most recent eliminations at that point were Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (27th), Griffin "Flush_Entity" Benger (26th), and Peter "twirlpro" Turmezey (24th), all earning $31,020.
Another quick spate of knockouts followed the break -- including William "Altrum Altus" Reynolds (19th, $31,020) -- and suddenly they were down to two tables.
johnxfleming (18th) and Mongy (17th) were the next to go, each earning $41,360, and several orbits later Andre "akkari" Akkari found himself 16th in chips out of 16 remaining.
A hand then occurred in which Akkari, down to 187,991 with the blinds 4,000/8,000, raised to 16,000 from middle position and got two callers, Stefan "I'am_Sound" Huber (cutoff) and KeyserMM (big blind). The flop came [9h][9s][5s], and when checked to Akkari bet 29,500, earning a raise to 60,000 from Huber. KeyserMM folded, Akkari pushed all in, and Huber called, turning over [Ac][Ad] to Akkari's [Js][Jh]. The turn was the [9d] and river the [2c], and Akkari was out in 16th ($41,360).
Team PokerStars Pro Andre "aakkari" Akkari
KeyserMM would be the next to fall in 15th after losing a preflop all in with [Ac][Ks] against UrMySponsor's pocket fours. A bit later UrMySponsor would also knock out Stefan "I'am_Sound" Huber 14th, using [Ah][Qd] to best Huber's [Ad][Jc]. Then start-of-day chip leader Kazu "imashokU" Oshima lost a preflop all with [As][Qs] versus sosickPL's [Jh][Jc] to end his run in 13th. Those three each saw $51,700 added to their PokerStars accounts.
The remaining dozen fought onward, reaching the four-and-a-half-hour break of the day with UrMySponsor leading with nearly 1.36 million, r4st4f4ri closest with just over 960,000, and sosickPL third with nearly 934,000.
ValueH then become short and had to push all in with [Ac][9s], getting called by sp00led who held [10h][10c]. The board brought no improvement for ValueH who was knocked out in 12th. Dr.Action next had [Ac][Ad] cracked versus r4st4f4ri's [Kh][Qh] when the board brought two queens on the turn and river, sending Dr.Action away in 11th. And Mathew "Matfrankland" Frankland lost a preflop all-in with [As][5s] after being unable to improve versus UrMySponsor's [8s][8h] to fall in 10th. Those three each left with $62,040 for their efforts.
Five of the final nine hailed from Germany, the country entering the final day of play third in the overall SCOOP watch race between nations (behind Canada and the United Kingdom), though just barely in first ahead of Russia for most overall cashes in this year's SCOOP. And two of them -- UrMySponsor and wizowizo -- were battling for the chip lead as the final table got underway.
From 9 to 3
It would take about half an hour before the first elimination of the final table came. With the blinds at 8,000/16,000, sosickPL opened for 16,000 from late position, and it folded to B4d3m3!st3r who reraised all in for 286,312 from the small blind. römpsä quickly folded in the big blind, and sosickPL made the call.
B4d3m3!st3r held [Ks][Jd] and was hoping to catch versus sosickPL's [Ts][Th]. But the board brought cards that were only good from sosickPL, coming [As][Tc][4h][9c][Td] to give sosickPL quads and send B4d3m3!st3r out in ninth.
About 20 minutes later, the blinds had moved to 10,000/20,000 when UrMySponsor raised to 40,000 from early position, then römpsä shoved for 456,646 from a couple of seats over. It folded to Nick "GripDsNutz" Grippo on the button who by that point had become chip leader with more than 1.6 million, and Grippo responded by pushing all in over the top of everyone. All folded back around, and römpsä showed [Kh][Qs] to Grippo's [Ad][As]. The board came [Ts][3h][3s][Jh][6s], and römpsä was eliminated in eighth as Grippo increased his chip stack up over 2.15 million.
The remaining seven pushed through the six-and-a-half-hour break, and shortly after it appeared as though r4st4f4ri was in dire straits after going all in with [Ad][4d] against GripDsNutz who once more had picked up pocket rockets. But three diamonds had hit the board by the turn, and r4st4f4ri survived.
Alas for r4st4f4ri, it was but a brief reprieve. Soon GripsDsNutz was min-raising to 60,000 from the cutoff, and it was r4st4f4ri again reraising all-in, this time to 458,012. It folded back to Grippo who called, tabling [Jd][Td] to r4st4f4ri's [Qc][Jh]. The flop came [Qs][4c][4s] to further r4st4f4ri's advantage, but the turn was the [Kc] and river the [9s], meaning GripDsNutz had backdoored a straight and r4st4f4ri was out in seventh.
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Nick "GripDsNutz" Grippo's hot run would continue, as before the level had finished, he was raising again from UTG to 60,000, then hotmark777 reraised all in for 527,656 from a seat over and when it folded around Grippo snap-called. hotmark777 showed [Tc][Td], but GripDsNutz had picked up yet another big pair with [Kh][Kc]. The community cards came [3c][7s][7h][As][2s], and they were down to five.
Just two hands later it would be UrMySponsor stepping in to interrupt the string of eliminations by GripDsNutz. After UrMySponsor min-raised from UTG, wizowizo shoved for 594,455 total from the next position and it folded back to UrMySponsor who called. wizowizo showed [Ah][Qh] and UrMySponsor [As][Th], and the flop promptly landed [Ts][Jc][3c] to pair UrMySponsor. wizowizo still had hopes to hit a queen or king, but the turn was the [6d] and river the [4s], and wizowizo was out in fifth, claiming a better than quarter-million dollar consolation prize.
UrMySponsor was the last of the five Germans remaining at the final table, but just six hands after knocking out wizowizo, UrMySponsor would be the one at risk in a hand that began with a 2x raise to 60,000 by sosickPL from the button. UrMySponsor reraised to 148,777 from the small blind, and it folded back to sosickPL who made it 287,554 to go. UrMySponsor then pushed all in for 1,359,074 total, and sosickPL called.
UrMySponsor: [5h][5s]
sosickPL: [9c][9h]
The board came [8h][3s][Ac][Ah][Ts], sosickPL's nines had held, and UrMySponsor was out in fourth for a better than $400K score.
Three-Handed: Time to Deal
With that hand sosickPL closed the gap with leader GripDsNutz, pulling almost even with about 3.12 million to Grippo's 3.26 million, while sp00led sat in third with just over 1.36 million. sp00led soon evened things up, however, by doubling through GripDsNutz with [Ah][6d] against GripDsNutz' [8c][8s]. The eights were good through the turn, but an ace fell on the river to save sp00led.
A dozen hands later the trio agreed to pause the tourney to talk about how they might divide the more than $2.2 million for which they were playing. By that point sp00led had edged out in front with 3,193,856, sosickPL was second with 2,401,795, and GripDsNutz third with 2,159,349.
"Before we look at numbers," typed Grippo, "ill take an even chop and nothing else."
That statement initially led to some tentative agreements being voiced, then some backing away as details were hashed out among the trio. They kept coming back around to the idea, however, which ultimately would have meant $728,675 for each, with $50,000 remaining for which to play.
sp00led wanted to leave more on the table -- suggesting $100K -- but GripDsNutz wasn't hearing it. Neither appeared willing to budge until Grippo asked for a recalculation leaving $80K on the table. That would add up to $718,675 being guaranteed to each player.
A tension-filled pause followed, then one by one -- sosickPL, sp00led, then GripDsNutz -- all typed "i agree" and a deal was struck. A sense of relief could be inferred from sosickPL's subsequent chat:
sosickPL: so lets play for that amazing watch! :D
sosickPL: yeah
In terms of tangible value, it might not compare to the $700K-plus scores all three had just secured themselves. Even so, it is a pretty amazing watch...
A few moments more passed, and hands were being dealt once again. Soon came a big preflop all-in between sp00led and GripDsNutz in which the latter held [Ac][6c] and sp00led [Tc][Th]. In kind of a reverse echo of an earlier hand between the pair, this time the board rolled out [5s][Js][3d][7s]... [Ac], with the river ace saving Grippo and pushing him up over 4.1 million and into the lead.
Soon after that, the blinds were 17,500/35,000 when Nick "GripsDsNutz" Grippo opened with a raise to 81,465 from the small blind, sosickPL reraised to 167,930 from the BB, Grippo made it 374,645, sosickPL 591,360, Grippo shoved, and sosickPL called with the 1,579,405 left.
GripDsNutz showed [9d][9s] and sosickPL [8d][8c]. The flop came [Ks][9h][4c], giving Grippo a set, and the [Tc] turn meant the [5c] river was no matter.
RSS readers click through to see replay
From the 517 who started, just two were left.
Heads-Up
Heads-up play began with GripDsNutz enjoying a hefty chip lead with 6,134,353 to sp00led's 1,620,647. Over the next 20 minutes sp00led closed the gap somewhat, and 20 minutes after that the pair were virtually even. A few minutes after that they'd reached the seven-and-a-half-hour break for the day, with GripDsNutz just a little ahead with 3,948,153 to sp00led's 3,806,847.
After the break the pair continued to trade relatively small pots, with sp00led finally nudging out in front to keep the lead for a dozen hands or so. Neither appeared in great hurry, and with the blinds still just 20,000/40,000 both were sitting with stacks more than 90 BBs deep, further enabling such patience.
A hand then arose in which sp00led called a preflop min-raise from Grippo, then check-called a bet of 73,465 after [5h][6s][Ac]. The turn was the [Jc], and sp00led checked once more. This time GripDsNutz bet 187,465, and sp00led fired back a check-raise to 440,000 which after some thought GripDsNutz called.
The river then brought the [6d] and a 640,000 bet from sp00led. GripDsNutz thought for some time, then called with [As][9h] for aces and sixes. sp00led had [9c][8s] for busted flush and straight draws, and GripDsNutz took the almost 2.5 million-chip pot.
They reached Level 36 (blinds 25,000/50,000), and with GripDsNutz having pushed out to a 2-to-1 lead, another hand developed that ended with sp00led pushing out another big river bet -- this time for 750,000 into a 912,500 pot -- with the board showing [10h][3d][Kd][7h][5h]. Grippo thought a while then called, and when sp00led showed [Kc][5s] Grippo mucked. They were close to even again.
GripDsNutz inched ahead once more, then after forcing a fold from sp00led after a five-bet shove, had climbed up over 5 million again to sp00led's almost 2.6 million. But sp00led pushed back, and soon the gap had been closed once more.
The match continued. Eventually the pair had been going at it heads-up for close to two hours. And more than nine-and-a-half hours on Monday, added to the 11-plus it took to get through play the day before.
All 119 of the other SCOOP events had completed, leaving just two players, battling for the last, biggest prize in the biggest tournament in the biggest ever online poker tournament series.
Finally came a hand in which sp00led opened for the minimum of 120,000, GripDsNutz raised to 298,765, and sp00led called. The flop came [As][4d][8c], GripDsNutz bet 264,845, and sp00led called. The turn was the [3s], and this time GripDsNutz checked. sp00led made a smallish bet of 180,000, and after a long pause GripDsNutz check-raised to 489,485. sp00led thought a while as well, then called.
The river was the [Qc], and this time GripDsNutz bet out 812,345. sp00led waited several seconds, nearly using up what had become a mostly depleted time bank, then called. GripDsNutz showed [Ad][2s], and sp00led mucked.
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That hand pushed GripDsNutz up over 6.45 million to sp00led's 1.30 million, and just two hands later sp00led opened for 120,000, GripDsNutz raised to 298,765, sp00led pushed all in for 1,422,207 total, and GripDsNutz called.
GripDsNutz: [6s][6h]
sp00led: [Ah][3d]
Nick "GripDsNutz" Grippo was five cards away from victory, if those sixes could hold. The flop came [2c][Ts][5c], and they remained good. The turn was the [8d]... just one more card! Then the river... the [5s]! It was all over! GripDsNutz had grabbed the watch!
RSS readers click through to see replay
Congratulations to Nick "GripDsNutz" Grippo of Costa Rica for topping a tough field of 517, making it through two hard-fought days of poker, and an especially grueling heads-up match to win Event #40-H! And kudos to sp00led and sosickPL as well for making it to the three-way chop and better than $700K payday!
Thanks for following our coverage these last two weeks of all 120 events of SCOOP. For full results and searchable stats of the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker, check out the official SCOOP site.
Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.
There is no overstating it. The 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker was simply amazing. It was history's biggest online poker festival. It hosted more players than any PokerStars festival ever. It awarded more money than PokerStars has ever given out in a poker tournament series. Meanwhile, one player stood above them all as the clear and undeniable Player of the Series.
Shaun Deeb, the American expat living in Mexico, made SCOOP his personal playground for the past two weeks. Already a previous SCOOP champion, Deeb added four more titles in this series alone to become the all-time leading title-winner among all SCOOP players. Deeb played 115 of the 120 tournaments, cashed 27 times (more than anybody), made eight final tables (double his nearest opponent's four final tables), and won $237,528 in tournament prizes. The performance earned him the overall Player of the Series title and the high buy-in Player of the Series championship. For his Herculean efforts, Deeb will win an 2013 EPT Grand Final package and 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure package.
Shaun Deeb, 2012 SCOOP Player of the Series
While Deeb dominated the standings in those categories, he wasn't the only one picking up Player of the Series honors. PokerStars Team Online's George Lind won the low buy-in leaderboard, and C. Darwin2 won the medium leaderboard. Both players will pick up 2013 PCA packages.
George Lind
While all of those players put on performances that will be remembered for ages, nobody earned more money in this year's SCOOP series than the $10,300 buy-in 2012 SCOOP main event winner GripDsNutz who pocketed $814,079 overall, including his $798,675 main event win. He was joined on the main event podium by medium main event winner suarez_BG and low main event champion john_tri80.
In all SCOOP awarded $65,332,179 in prizes and bounties over the two-week festival. Players from 156 countries put up 526,154 buy-ins, the biggest of any SCOOP in history. It was impressive by almost any measure.
Here are a few more superlatives from the past two weeks:
2012 multiple title winners: Shaun Deeb (4), bleu329 (2), Drew M Scott (2), Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (2), joacowalter (2)
Top 5 2012 winningest counties: Canada ($10,330,331.50), United Kingdom ($7,048,947.59), Germany ($5,721,034.06), Russia ($4,045,340.71), Sweden ($2,799,407.38)
Most 2012 titles by country: Canada (20), United Kingdom (16), Germany (9), Sweden (9), Mexico (7)
For all the numbers from this year's SCOOP and previous festivals, see the SCOOP stats page.
If you missed anything over the past two weeks, we've been on top of all the action. You can look back at all the coverage in our special 2012 PokerStars SCOOP news section.
Thanks to everyone for making this the biggest and best SCOOP yet.
There's a glow that hangs around after something like the Spring Championship of Online Poker, a sort of spent, endorphin-charged euphoria that has many of us stumbling around with silly smiles on our faces. I submit that it's the natural biological reaction to a festival that became the biggest of any online tournament series in history--$65,332,179 in prizes and bounties, 526,154 buy-ins, 156 countries, 120 champions.
It's such a pleasant feeling that we'd bottle it if we could. Since we can't (Big Pharma would never let that happen), we'll do the best we can do. We're going to help ourselves and you come back down to earth slowly with a few final words. This, indeed, is the part of the film where a guy with a voice like Owen Wilson narrates over a montage of video and lets you know what happened to everybody when it was all over.
When the final river of the high buy-in main event finally fell, Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis stepped into the recording booth and offered the best and most insightful commentary on how the championship ended. The good folks at PokerStars.tv recorded it all and put it together in this video for us.
Meanwhile, players across the globe sat back and waited for the delivery man to drop off the SCOOP championship watches. Among those new champions was the 19-year-old BreezyWest who won Event 34-L, the $55 limit hold'em battle.
"The SCOOP win means a lot to me and I am proud of myself that I did it," he said. "Thanks to the win, I am able to move from Tenerife to London. Poker will still be a big part of my life, but there are so many other things I want to do."
BreezyWest
While BreezyWest packs his bags for London, Sweden's Kristoffer "Hefty.TILT" Sandberg, winner of the Event 25-M 2-7 Triple Draw tourney, is using poker as a form of therapy. The 20-year-old readily and humbly admits to rage issues that cause him problems in real life.
"Poker has helped me to keep those feelings calm. This is something I have great use for also outside my poker life," he said. "It is simply interesting because it shows that poker is so much more than playing about money back and forth. There is so much else around it."
While life may be grand for Sandberg, he and the other SCOOP champions aren't immune to struggle.
Woody Deck is an American who left the U.S. for Lithuania several years ago. Though he mitigated the direct effects of Black Friday on his life, he didn't avoid them entirely.
"Everything I won and the opportunities I had slowly went away," he said.
Now he splits his time between the US and Mexico.
"This means I have had to traverse difficult conditions in going to Tijuana, Mexico, one of the most dangerous cities in the world," he said.
"I was going to play a full schedule at the WSOP this year for only the second time before my SCOOP win. Now I will be going in with some badly needed confidence," he said. "In addition to my SCOOP win, I played and won a live WSOP Circuit plo8 event in San Diego earlier this year. I don't think anyone has more live plo8 cashes/wins than me, but I still don't have a WSOP plo8 cash yet, I am 0/6 lifetime. That will hopefully change this year. I wish for nothing more than to have a ridiculously high US tax bill at the end of the year for once."
Woody Deck
Halfway around the world is Vincent Lu, aka, DamienRise, who lives in Shanghai and won Event 32-L. He was the only person from China to win a title this year.
"To be the best Chinese poker player is always my goal," he said. "It's my first major tournament title, of course, but not the last one."
Finally, there is the Brazilian who goes by PaDiLhA SP. He won Event 33-L toward the end of SCOOP.
"I really love and work to seek great achievements in my career," he said. "I hope this is the first of many."
PaDiLhA SP
And so, says Owen Wilson's disembodied voice, that's how we put SCOOP to bed for 2012. The records are broken. The champions are basking in the afterglow. The people at PokerStars are looking toward WCOOP. And the PokerStars Blog? Well, we're back to traveling the world, keeping an eye on the weekend majors, and making sure all the PokerStars news that's fit to print makes right here on this blog.
The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) proved to be a historic affair; in fact, it proved to have more players and award more money than any other PokerStars' series. All told, 134,183 unique players from 156 countries put up 526,154 buy-ins and were awarded $65,332,179 in prize money, more than doubling the guaranteed $30,000,000 prize pool.
Early on in the series, Team Pro Viktor "Isildur1" Blom made headlines by winning to titles: SCOOP 2-M $200 N0-Limit Hold'em and SCOOP 3-H: $500 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max with Rebuys. While that was an impressive feat, it was soon overshadowed by the amazing performance of Shaun Deeb, who won a record five SCOOP titles.
With 27 cashes, eight final tables and $237,528 in winnings, Deeb laid claimed to the Player of the Series title. That distinction not only earned him packages to the 2013 European Poker Tour Grand Final and 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, but also the admiration of the poker world.
"Why don't you win a holdem event like all the respectable poker players @shaundeeb? #washedup #okfineyourekindofsick," Team Pro Vanessa Selbst tweeted after Deeb won his titles in various mixed games.
Likewise, the fictional yet ever-so-entertaining characters from The Micros congratulated Deeb via Twitter: "Congrats @shaundeeb for a 2nd SCOOP bracelet! So sick! What's that? Wow, I'm being told it's actually his 3rd. 4TH?!? #OMGWTF"
Deeb's success was unprecedented, which is why we think Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy's request for lessons was a great idea: "@shaundeeb lemme sign up for the pre-scoop stars rendezvous run-good pow-wow 2013 before space fills up. or a wcoop one. w/e's best."
While Deeb locked up the Player of the Series, as well as the high buy-in leaderboard, "C.Darwin2" won the medium leaderboard and George Lind of Team Online won the low buy-in leaderboard, each earning a 2013 PCA package for their performance. "alright its official i win low leaderboard unless deeb comes in 3rd or better in main #notexactlythepersoniwanttoantisweatforascoopevent," Lind tweeted during the SCOOP Main Event.
Speaking of the Main Event, this year's tournament drummed up a whole new level of excitement. "One of the biggest days of the year online with the SCOOP main event today. Gonna grind hard then off to vacation in US on tuesday, gl all!" Team Pro Online member Mickey Petersen said on Twitter.
Unfortunately for many, their SCOOP series would come to an end without Main Event success. "Got it in bad w/ AK vs KK. No more SCOOP to me, good luck to everyone who's still in!" Randy Lew of Team Online tweeted.
His fellow pro, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, didn't fare much better: "Been one of the worst run ever this series, hopefully it turns soon.#gonnacrushWSOPanyways."
Likewise, Kevin "ImaLuckSac" MacPhee had a less than stellar SCOOP, but seemed to be in good spirits when he tweeted: "Had a really fun, but unsuccessful SCOOP. Leaving Canada for Idaho today for a much needed week off before the WSOP.
Another man who echoed MacPhee's sentiments was Ari "BodogAri" Engel, who tweeted: "Had a poor scoop showing, so looking to redeem myself this summer. Wsop starts in a week!"
With the 2012 SCOOP in the books, everyone seems to have turned their attention to the World Series of Poker. Even after an incredible SCOOP, Deeb was focused on adding a bracelet to his five brand new watches: "Out of all the tourneys today what a fun 2 weeks tho ready for some days off before WSOP."
Anything can happen in a turbo tournament, but all it takes is one player with momentum to sail through it. Pablito_2121 started slowly at the final table but soon took over, eliminating player after player and dominating with such a large stack of chips that no one could do much damage. And when it was all said and done, pablito_2121 also had good cards, like the pocket aces in the very last hand. Pablito_2121 is now a SCOOP champion.
*****
The last of the 2013 Spring Championship of Online Poker events were on tap for Sunday. Just after the Main Event, there was one last option - the SCOOP Wrap-Up, a NLHE turbo tournament 3x chance, meaning that players could rebuy up to two times within the first 90 minutes of play if they lost all of their chips.
The low buy-in version of Event 44 offered a $100K guarantee for the bargain price of $11, and players lined up to take a chance at it. As one of the last chances to earn a SCOOP watch and become a part of poker history, it was a hit - so much of a hit that the prize pool was more than triple the guarantee! These numbers proved it:
There were a few members of Team PokerStars still in action when the money bubble burst, and Team Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was the first to cash out in 1213th place for $58.82. A bit later, Andre "aakkari" Akkari exited in 1086th place for $62.09, and Fatima Moreira de Melo followed in 1078th place for $65.35. As the four-hour mark approached, the last-standing Team Pro, Marcin "Goral" Horecki busted in 223rd place for $143.78.
Play continued quickly, as happens with a turbo structure, and at the 4.5-hour mark, there were only four tables remaining. In less than 15 minutes, only two tables remained, and hand-for-hand play was in motion shortly after, just as the five-hour mark hit.
The hand was a big one, starting with a raise from RovoDice and all-in reraise from starplayeren holding [Ks][Qs]. QQWINN called all-in from the big blind with [Ad][Qh], and RovoDice called both players with [Th][Td]. RovoDice went on to make a straight on the [8c][Qc][Jd][9h][2h] board, eliminating QQWINN in tenth place with $1,307.16 and starplayeren in ninth place for $2,941.11.
RovoDice rolls the dice for 8-player final table
The final table began in the last minute or so of Level 53, with blinds at 500K/1000K and a 125K ante, along with these players and their corresponding chip counts:
Seat 1: michael raab (20,339,620 in chips)
Seat 2: pablito_2121 (10,995,447 in chips)
Seat 3: HOMERos (8,681,063 in chips)
Seat 4: talentaki (28,885,002 in chips)
Seat 5: Serg2407 (5,796,902 in chips)
Seat 7: SC72A (28,759,210 in chips)
Seat 8: RovoDice (36,064,232 in chips)
Seat 9: mad.afurable (23,873,524 in chips)
Oh, how quickly things change in a turbo tournament. The very first hand of the final table saw SC72A double through the chip leader in this massive hand, which put SC72A in the number one spot:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Two hands later, RovoDice risked the rest of that stack with [Jc][7d], and mad.afurable was there with [Kc][Qc]. The board blanked with [9s][6d][Th][As][4s], and RovoDice was suddenly out in eighth place with $2,941.11.
Just two more hands after that, HOMERos called all-in from the big blind after pablito_2121 raised all-in from the small blind with [Qd][2s]. HOMERos showed [Kh][6s], and it looked safe for a double-up as the flop came [Ah][5c][Jh] and the turn was the [8s]. But the [Qs] came on the river to give pablito_2121 the pot, and HOMERos exited in seventh place with $5,555.43.
Serg2407 doubled through talentaki, and michael raab did the same through pablito_2121. Michael raab then did it again, that time through SC72A. Talentaki then doubled through michael raab.
Three hands after that, pablito_2121 challenged with an UTG all-in raise, and michael raab called all-in from the big blind with [4d][3c]. Pablito_2121 was ahead with [Tc][Td], and though the [Qh][3s][As] flop gave michael raab some hope, the [7c] and [Qs] failed to win the hand. Michael raab was out in sixth place with $8,169.75.
Moments later, Serg2407 pushed all-in with [Kc][Jh], but pablito_2121 was there with [Qh][Qs] from the big blind. Those queens held up to the [3c][4c][8h][2h][7s] board, eliminating Serg2407 in fifth place with $11,437.65.
Quick deal for final four
The last four players paused the tournament to discuss a deal, and they quickly agreed to the ICM numbers as provided. With $2,000 and the SCOOP watch set aside for the winner, these were the guaranteed payouts:
Seat 2: pablito_2121 (38,446,129 in chips) = $24,728.35
Seat 4: talentaki (33,076,200 in chips) = $23,696.06
Seat 7: SC72A (56,889,180 in chips) = $27,454.19
Seat 9: mad.afurable (34,983,491 in chips) = $24,078.68
That was enough to prompt talentaki to move all-in with [Jc][Tc], and original raiser pablito_2121 called with [Ah][8h]. The flop of [4s][8s][5h] gave pablito_2121 the pair, and the [4h] made it two. The [Qs] on the river ousted talentaki in fourth place with $23,696.06.
Pablito_2121 soars
After the last elimination and a subsequent pot worth 22.75 million from SC72A, pablito_2121 climbed over 84 million chips and kept going.
Mad.afurable made an UTG raise, and pablito_2121 challenged with an all-in move. Mad.afurable called all-in with [8c][8h], and pablito_2121 showed [Ac][4c]. The very first card of the [As][Ks][7s][Kc][Qc] board gave the pot to pablito_2121, and mad.afurable had to leave with $24,078.68 for the third place finish.
Can pablito_2121 be stopped?
Heads-up play began with these chip counts:
Seat 2: pablito_2121 (122,937,930 in chips)
Seat 7: SC72A (40,457,070 in chips)
SC72A did manage a double-up here:
RSS readers click through to see replay
But to answer my own question, no, pablito_2121 could not be stopped. SC72A pushed all-in with [Kc][9d], and pablito_2121 called with [As][Ad]. The board came [Jc][Jd][7h][4s][Ac], and SC72A accepted second place and $27,454.19.
Pablito_2121 of Belgium won the SCOOP title, watch, and $26,728.35. Congrats!
Redemption time. One of the last events of the Spring Championship of Online Poker gave Sunday grinders a final opportunity to win a SCOOP title and pad their bankrolls (or get unstuck in some extreme cases). The Triple Chance Turbo format of Event #44-M Wrap Up featured five-minute levels that fostered supersonic action. Players had three bullets, which meant three chances at redemption. This turbo-charged tournament lasted a little more than five hours and in that brief, yet hyper-accelerated time, TiltMeHarder faded a treacherous field. Sweden's TiltMeHarder won Event #44-M and became one of the fortuitous rounders who boosted their rolls on the penultimate day of SCOOP.
Event #44-M $109 NL Wrap-Up [Turbo, 3x-Chance] attracted 4,656 runners and the prize pool ballooned to $778,200.00, which happened to triple the $250K guarantee. The top 585 places paid out with $122,178.75 originally set aside to the eventual champion.
PokerStars Team Pros particpating in the Wrap Up included: Marcin "Goral" Horecki, Jason Mercier, Theo Jorgenson, Martin Hruby, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Ike Haxton, Live Boeree, Nacho Barbero, Geroge Danzer, ElkY, Johnny Lodden, Fatima DeMelo, Bryan Huang, David Williams, Joe Cada, Lex Velhuis, Jonathan Duhamel, Vivian Im, Marcel Luske, Victor Ramdin, and Andre Akkari.
Team PokerStars Online taking one last shot at a SCOOP title included nanonoko, shaniac, Pessagno, nkeyno, Mysters_Y, Jorj95, mement_mori, and Frosty012. None of them would advance to the money.
Four notable PokerStars Team Pros cashed in this event in including Marcin "Goral" Horecki (66th), Jason Mercier (354th), Martin "AABenjaminAA" Hruby (517th), and Theo Jorgensen (554th).
Team PokerStars Pro Marcin "Goral" Horecki went the deepest the Triple Turbo Wrap Up, but fizzled out with seven tables to go. Short-stacked Goral hit the virtual rail in 66th place (paid out $1,260.68) when he lost a three-way pot.
With 18 players to go on the final two table, Sweden's TiltMeHarder held the lead with 3.6 million. With 10 to go, TiltMeHarder retained the lead with 5.7 million. When action went hand-for-hand, short-stacked suzsuzgo bubbled off the final table in tenth place when he ran [6s][3s] into TiltMeHarder's [Kd][Jd].
The final table commenced during Level 482 with blinds at 150K/300K and a 75K ante. TiltMeHarder sat on the big stack (worth approximately 8.9 million), while gzottel was the shorty with 2.3 million.
junco125 eliminated in 9th place
It did not take very long before someone became the first player to bust at the final table. filushh opened to 811,221 and junco125 called. The flop was [5h][4h][2d]. junco125 shoved for 2,069,671, and filushh called.
junco125: [9h][3h]
filushh: [Ah][Jd]
junco125 flopped a straight and flush draw, while filushh was ahead with Ace-high and picked up a Wheel re-draw. The turn was the [7s] and the river was the [4d]. filushh faded a flush and won the pot with Ace-high. Brazil's junco125 blanked out on both draws and became the first player to exit the final table. For a ninth-place performance, junco125 earned $6,225.60.
gzottel eliminated in 8th place
el kudos opened-shoved for 2,305,278, and IvanRus063 called, gzottel called all-in for 1,385,463, and everyone else got out of the way. Three-handed.
gzottel: [As][Ac]
IvanRus063: [Ks][Kh]
el kudos: [Tc][9h]
Although gzottel was ahead with Aces vs. Kings, it was a multi-way pot and an ominous mood hung over the table like an eerie silent moment before a tornado strike. The board ran out [Td][8s][7c][Js][Jd] and el kudos turned a straight, thereby snapping off pocket Aces and pocket Kings. With a meager [Tc][9h], el kudos won the main pot and the side pot, and in the process doubled through IvanRus063 and knocked out gzottel. Germany's gzottel hit the rail in eighth place, which paid out $9,727.50. IvanRus063 did not bust, but the Russian was crippled in the hand.
j.thaddeus eliminated in 7th place
Short-stacked j.thaddeus open-shoved for 949,141, filushh raised to 1,398,282, and everyone folded. Heads-up. Ireland's j.thaddeus made a final stand with [Js][Tc] against filushh's [Kh][Qc]. The board ran out [Qs][5d][4h][As][Ad] and filushh dragged the pot with two pair. Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth took home $17,509.50 for seventh place.
bas0r eliminated in 6th place
On the very next hand, we saw another elimination. bas0r open-shoved for 3,028,253, TiltMeHarder re-shoved for 9,134,139, and everyone else got out of the way of this duel. Heads-up. TiltMeHarder led with [Ah][Kh] against bas0r's [Qh][Td]. The board ran out [Jh][7c][6s][3h][5c], and neither player improved their hands, but TiltMeHarder's Big Slick won the pot with only Ace-high. For a sixth-place performance, the U.K.'s bas0r earned $25,291.50.
With six to go, TiltMeHarder chipped up to 13.2 million.
el kudos eliminated in 5th place
Thirteen hands later, we witnessed another liquidation. The U.K.'s el kudos bombed it all-in for 1,720,163, but Fukuruku re-raised all-in for 2,494,359 and everyone else folded. Heads-up. Fukuruku led with [Ac][Qh] vs. [Ah][7s]. Alas, el kudos was dominated. The board ran out [9s][6h][5s][Jd][3c]. Neither player improved, but el kudos ran into kicker issues and was dunzo. Fukuruku dragged the pot with Ace-high and a Queen-kicker. For a fifth-place finish, el kudos collected $3,3073.50.
With four players remaining, TiltMeHarder amassed a ginormous stack worth 20 million, which was more than 50% of all the chips in play.
IvanRus063 eliminated in 4th place
Big-stacked TiltMeHarder pushed his weight around and moved all-in for 21,846,468. Short-stacked IvanRus063 tried to stand up to the big-stacked bully and called all-in for 1,906,848. IvanRus063 made a valiant final stand with [Jc][7c] versus TiltMeHarder's [Ad][Qc]. The board ran out [Ks][8h][4c][5c][4d]. IvanRus063 turned a straight draw, but whiffed on the river. Neither player improved their hands, but TiltMeHarder won the pot with Ace-high. Russia's IvanRus063 was bounced in fourth place, which paid out $44,746.50.
DEAL
TiltMeHarder's stack topped 21 million while both his opponents held roughly 17 million combined. It was time for a deal. After lengthy negotiations, the final three agreed on a tweaked ICM deal with the following terms: monster-stacked TiltMeHarder locked up $103,000, while filushh secured $85,589.25, and Fukuruku was guaranteed $83,840.40. They also had to leave $5,000 on the table to the eventual champion (in addition to the 'balla' champion's watch). Everyone agreed to the modified deal and play resumed.
Fukuruku eliminated in 3rd place
With a deal secured and money squared away, we saw a bustout on the ensuing hand. Fukuruku met his demise when filushh min-raised to 1.6 million, Fukuruku bombed it all-in for 8,419,370, and filushh called. Fukuruku trailed with [Ad][9c] against filushh's [Tc][Td]. The board ran out [7d][5d][3s][9d][Th]. Although it was not necessary, filushh rivered a set of tens and won the pot. the Ukraine's Fukuruku earned $83,840.40 for a third-place finish.
Although TiltMeHarder was slightly ahead, the final two were virtually even.
filushh eliminated in 2nd place; TiltMeHarder ships event #44-M!
For most of the heads-up battle, it was somewhat evenly matched. The final two exchanged several crushing body blows and even drew blood, but neither could get too comfortable with a lead. Just when it looked like the two were bogged down in a quagmire, we saw a huge hand and the tides turned on filushh. At the time, filushh was ahead 22.7M to 16.1M. Both players bombed it all-in preflop. TiltMeHarder was fighting for his tournament life with [Qd][Ts] against filushh's [Ah][Th], but TiltMeHarder caught a runner-runner Broadway straight to win the pot and double up, thereby avoiding an elimination. That decisive pot (in excess of 32 million) crippled filushh, who slipped to 6.6 million. TiltMeHarder opened up a 5-1 chip advantage.
Four hands later, it was all over when TiltMeHarder delivered a knock-out blow.
On the final hand... TiltMeHarder moved all-in for 32,856,816 with [As][8d] and filushh called all-in for 4,553,184 with [9d][9s]. Although filushh was ahead preflop with pocket nines, filushh promptly lost the lead. The flop was [Ah][Kd][8h] and TiltMeHarder jumped ahead with two pair. The turn was the [3h] and the river was the [4h]. TiltMeHarder won the pot with the Dead Man's hand -- Aces and Eights -- and filushh was knocked out in second place.
For a runner-up performance, Israel's filushh collected $85,589.25.
Congrats to TiltMeHarder for winning Event #44-M, which paid out a first place prize of $108,000.00, in addition to a sleek SCOOP champion's watch.
Visit the SCOOP home page for all of your SCOOP needs. While you are there, find out who is going to win Player of the Series. If you're a stats geek, check out the comprehensive SCOOP stats page.
Pauly McGuire is an author and freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.
There was never any doubt that Event #44-H, the $1,050 version of the SCOOP Wrap-Up, would draw a tough field. SCOOP is one of the most popular tournament series here at PokerStars and this tournament was the last chance to earn a champion's watch at the High buy-in level for this year. It was also guaranteed to build a healthy prize pool, with two rebuys available for every player if they should go broke during the first 90 minutes of play. But perhaps most importantly, its turbo structure meant the whole tournament would be play out in just a few hours.
With all those things going for it, Event #44-H drew a starting field of 955 players. Collectively they made 604 rebuys, boosting the total prize pool for the tournament to $1,559,000 - nearly four times the original guarantee. In all 108 spots were paid, with $282,179 set aside for the winner.
There was more on the line than just big cash, though. Shaun Deeb, last year's SCOOP Player of the Series, came into the day fourth in this year's race and was still going in this tournament with just two tables left. He earned 30 points in the standings when he busted in 11th place, which unfortunately for him won't be nearly enough to catch up to leader George Danzer's 655 points.
By 8:34 p.m. ET the blinds and antes were up to 25K/50K/6.25K and this lineup sat down to play for the title:
Seat 1: Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (956,795 in chips)
Seat 2: Femmeonfelt (164,482 in chips)
Seat 3: David "davidv1213" Vamplew (1,029,970 in chips)
Seat 4: Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser (1,308,674 in chips)
Seat 5: deamon10 (699,663 in chips)
Seat 6: ocropTi (1,258,086 in chips)
Seat 7: Zach "nofingclue11" Clark (717,048 in chips)
Seat 8: John "kleath" Leathart (700,314 in chips)
Seat 9: a.S.e High (959,968 in chips)
Fittingly for the last High buy-in tournament of the series, this final table was filled with heavy hitters. In Seat 1 was Steve "mcnallyville" McNally, a past Super Tuesday and Wednesday Quarter Million winner. In Seat 3 sat this year's EPT London champion and former WCOOP event winner, Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser; on his left in Seat 4 was the 2010 EPT London winner, David "davidv1213" Vamplew. The lineup was rounded out by 2009 SCOOP Event #5-H champion deamon10 (Seat 5), 2012 TCOOP #15 champ ocropTi (Seat 6), two-time SCOOP final tablist Zach "nofingclue11" Clark (Seat 7), and 2012 SCOOP #14-H winner John "kleath" Leathart (Seat 8).
No brakes
Nobody at the table was in a comfortable position. Even chip leader Ruben Visser had just 26 big blinds, so it's no big surprise that the pace of play before the flop tended toward either blind steals or all-in confrontations. With that dynamic it didn't take long for the first player to bust. Canada's short-stacked Femmeonfelt drew the big blind on Hand #7 and called all-in for a total of 118K with [9d] [5c] after mcnallyville raised from the small blind with [Jd] [3h]. The [Qc] [6s] [7s] flop offered the Canadian player a few more outs to an inside straight, but the [3c] turn and [2s] river sent Femmeonfelt out in 9th place ($19,995.20).
Just five hands later, with the blinds and antes up to 30K/60K/7.5K, Zach "nofingclue11" Clark ran into a bit of a cooler. The action folded to Clark in the small blind, where he moved all-in for 498K with [8d] [8h]; John "kleath" Leathart woke up with [Kd] [Ks] and made the call. The [Jc] [6s] [9h] [6d] [Qd] board changed nothing, kleath won the 1.05M-chip pot, and Clark was gone in 8th place ($34,453.90).
Only four more hands would go by before mcnallyville opened for 160K with [Ks] [Jh] from the cutoff on the 40K/80K/10K level. deamon10 three-bet all-in for 549K from the big blind with [As] [8c] and mcnallyville made the call, catching an immediate reward on the [4c] [Kh] [Th] flop. Running cards or an ace would have saved deamon10, but the turn was the [9s] and the river the [4s], sending the former SCOOP winner to the rail in 7th place ($49,108.50).
The quick pace kept up as just two more hands would pass before the next knockout. It was another blind-versus-blind confrontation as kleath opened all-in from the small blind with [As] [Kh] and Romania's a.S.e. High called for 713K total in the big blind with [Ks] [Jh]. The dominated hand picked up some outs to a straight on the [6d] [Ah] [Qc] flop, but they didn't come home as the board ran out [3c]-[5d] to eliminate a.S.e. High in 6th place ($64,698.50).
A five-handed deal
With play now five-handed and the blinds and antes still at 40K/80K/10K, the chip stacks looked like this:
Seat 1: mcnallyville (2,239,690 in chips)
Seat 3: davidv1213 (904,970 in chips)
Seat 4: rubenrtv (1,407,424 in chips)
Seat 6: ocropTi (1,240,586 in chips)
Seat 8: kleath (2,002,330 in chips)
Everyone agreed to look at the numbers for a deal, and it didn't take long for them to agree to split the prize money up according to ICM. Within 10 minutes of pausing the game they were back in action with $8,000 and the final champion's watch on this year's SCOOP schedule left for the winner.
The very first hand back from the deal saw the two EPT London champions at the table clash. The two were in the blinds and David Vamplew got the action going by moving all-in for 804K from the small with [Ad] [9d]. Ruben Visser called in the big with [Ah] [Qh] and both players paired on the [5s] [Ac] [6c] flop. The [4d] on the turn left Vamplew in need of one of the three nines left in the deck, but the [As] fell instead and he left in 5th place with his $133,422.80 share from the deal.
Former EPT London champ David Vamplew finished 5th in this SCOOP event
Just 20 hands into the final table, five players were already gone. Steve McNally was in danger of being crippled on Hand #26 after moving all-in with [As] [6d] from the small blind and having John Leathart call all-in for 1.69M from the big blind with [Ah] [Qd], but the 3.8M-chip pot was split after the board came [5d] [3d] [9c] [9s] [5h]. Only Ruben Visser was able to break up the pace of play with this rare display of post-flop poker on Hand #29:
RSS readers, please click through for replay
Four hands later Visser, with blinds and antes up to 50K/100K/12.5K, claimed a much more substantial pot. He opened the betting with a minimum raise to 200K, holding [As] [9c], and then made the call with about 1M left behind after Germany's ocropTi moved all-in for 1.71M with [Kh] [Js]. The German player and former SCOOP winner got no help from the [Qh] [7d] [6s] flop but did pick up a few extra outs on the [9h] turn. None of them came home when the river was the [6c], sending ocropTi out in 4th place with a $161,081.83 share from the deal.
That left Visser with 4.62M chips to McNally's 1.90M and Leathart's 1.26M. On Hand #39 Leathart became the first all-in player at risk during the final table to survive the confrontation after moving all-in with [Kd] [2s] and getting a call from McNally with [Qh] [Jd]. The board came [8s] [Tc] [3c] [2d] [6h] to ship Leathart the 1.91M-chip pot and leave McNally with 1.25M. Two hands later those chips went in the middle before the flop from the button with [Jh] [Td]; Leathart called with [As] [Ts], which held up on the [6h] [8c] [3h] [9c] [9h] board to send McNally out in 3rd place with $186,478.79.
First-time SCOOP winner guaranteed
With blinds and antes still at 50K/100K/12.5K, the heads-up match between two players seeking their first SCOOP titles was set:
Seat 4: Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser (4,635,480 in chips)
Seat 8: John "kleath" Leathart (3,159,520 in chips)
Leathart had the biggest share of the prize money locked up at $181K but was at a slight disadvantage of 16 big blinds to start heads-up play. After he and Ruben Visser split the first eight pots evenly, Leathart made a little headway with three pots in a row, pulling the two players' stacks to within a single big blind of each other. But that was as close as Leathart would get to a comeback. Visser stole the next pot before the flop with a three-bet and then won the only pot of the heads-up match with any betting after the flop:
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Visser took the next pot, worth 1.2M, with another pre-flop three-bet and then stole the blinds from the button on Hand #56. That had the reigning EPT London champ up to 5.48M and ready to apply maximum pressure to earn his first SCOOP win. On Hand #57 Leathart opened for a minimum raise to 240K and Visser responded by shoving with [8s] [6c]. Leathart made the call and was on the heavy side of a coin flip with [4c] [4s], but Visser increased his out on the [9d] [5s] [Kd] flop. Leathart remained safe on the [3h] turn, but the [7d] gave Visser his straight, the pot, and the SCOOP Wrap-Up win.
Though he was unable to add a second SCOOP title to his resume, the $181,005.82 John "kleath" Leathart earned from the five-way deal represents the biggest score of his career at PokerStars, and more than double his previous best. And though the $168,957.76 share of the deal that Ruben Visser earned was a bit smaller than Leathart's, it was also the best of his career at PokerStars, just surpassing the $152K he won for conquering WCOOP Event #26 back in 2008. He's now just one TCOOP title away from the elusive Triple COOP.
With major live and online wins to his credit, this has been a good year for Ruben Visser
Four-handed poker is one that always excites many of the game's professionals. It's an action game. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, giving pros a chance to maximize their perceived "edge". So it's no surprise that we saw a couple of big name professionals make a deep run at the title today with high-stakes phenom Dan Cates and Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer both reaching the final table. In the end, it was Danzer who ran red-hot heads up to overcome a big chip disadvantage to win his second SCOOP title of the series.
It all went down in SCOOP Event #41-H which was the $2,100 No Limit Holdem 4-Max event, where a stacked field of 380 players took to the virtual felt, creating a prize pool of $760,000.
Among the field were the likes of Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier, Joe Cada, Bertrand Grospellier, Daniel Negreanu, Tatiana Barausova, Lex Veldhuis, Victor Ramdin, Ville Wahlbeck, Ike Haxton, Vicky Coren, Jake Cody, Eugene Katchalov, Nacho Barbero and Randy Lew, but they all failed to reach the money for the top 44 players. Also missing the money was dpeters17 of Canada who bubbled the $4,750 min-cash.
Matthias de Meulder was the only Team PokerStars Pro to cash on Day 1 of play, finishing in 41st place for $4,750. However there was another red spade in the money with George Danzer sitting 22nd of the 26 players who survived to reach Day 2, with high-stakes crusher Dan "w00ki3z." Cates sitting on top of the leaderboard.
Several notables had progressed to Day 2, but fell short of the final table when play recommenced. Mike "Timex"McDonald lost a preflop race with pocket threes versus ace-king to depart in 17th place ($7,516.40), before a short-stacked Chris Moorman fell in 14th place ($9,006) when his king-queen couldn't overcome George Danzer's ace-seven.
Danzer was on a roll and after his pocket aces got action from Kyle Cheong's ace-king to see the young Aussie out in 9th place ($12,122), Danzer found himself second in chips with two tables remaining.
Cates was still out in front and when the final table bubble loomed, the average chip stack was still 100 big blinds, resulting in some slow periods of play. Eventually SPEKTAH got into a raising war against USoGotPwned who four-bet jammed [ks][qh] with SPEKTAH making the call with [td][th]. The board fell [Js][Kd][5h][9c][Ts] and despite rivering a set it wasn't enough for SPEKTAH as USoGotPwned made a straight. SPEKTAH collected $17,677.60 for 6th place as the final table of five was formed as follows:
Final Table Line up
Seat 1: Zach "nofingclue11" Clark (185,900 in chips)
Seat 2: USoGotPwned (688,711 in chips)
Seat 3: pezler06 (60,708 in chips)
Seat 4: GeorgeDanzer (301,827 in chips)
Seat 5: Dan "w00ki3z." Cates (662,854 in chips)
The final table blinds kicked off at 2,000/4,000 with a 500-chip ante with Cates narrowly trailing USoGotPwned, with pezler06 the only one under pressure from the blinds.
pezler06 blinded down to around seven big blinds before committing in a battle of the blinds against USoGotPwned. pezler06 called it off with [kc][5s] after USoGotPwned shoved [ad][9d] from the small blind. The board fell [Qc][Th][6d][8h][Js] to give USoGotPwned a straight and eliminate pezler06 in 5th place for $26,964.80 in prize money.
Zach "nofingclue11" Clark was next to go and again the action unfolded in a battle of the blinds. nofingclue11 moved all in from the small blind with [ad][5s] but USoGotPwned woke up with a relative monster in the big blind, making the call with [tc][th]. The board was spread [6h][Jd][Js][3s][9s] to leave nofingclue11 to pick up $41,389.60 for 4th place.
Three-handed play was an intense affair, as Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer was on the short stack, but a double up with ace-queen against USoGotPwned's king-queen evened things right up.
It would be Dan "w00ki3z." Cates who would be next to crack in an interesting hand against USoGotPwned:
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USoGotPwned floated the flop, caught a straight draw on the turn and hit Broadway on the river as Cates couldn't get away from his pair of kings. Cates missed the SCOOP title but pocketed $66,834.40 for 3rd place.
Heads-up chip counts
Seat 2: USoGotPwned (1,386,961 in chips)
Seat 4: GeorgeDanzer (513,039 in chips)
USoGotPwned held a near 3-to-1 chip advantage when heads-up play commenced with the two players quick to enter into deal discussions. USoGotPwned was happy to give up a little equity to lock in a nice payday as a deal was struck with $12,000 and the SCOOP title in the middle to play for.
USoGotPwned was able to extend the lead, winning ten of the first dozen heads-up pots. Danzer was keeping things pretty tight, looking for a good spot to strike, and he found the perfect opportunity with pocket deuces:
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Flopped quads for Danzer did the damage to crack USoGotPwned's pocket aces. However the real damage came with the second double up for Danzer when USoGotPwned was just one card away from victory.
The action unfolded on a flop of [8h][Qc][6s]. After a series of raises, Danzer moved all in with [7c][9s] for an open-ended straight draw as USoGotPwned made the call with [Qd][tc] for top pair. The turn was a bricky [3c] but the river was the [th] to complete Danzer's straight!
With the chips back to even and over one hundred big blinds deep, the two players settled back in for an anticipated long grind ahead. Danzer snuck in front, but USoGotPwned's aggression saw him win more pots to reclaim the chip advantage.
However a cooler saw the two players erupt preflop with Danzer five-bet shoving [ah][ks] as USoGotPwned took a shot at the title with a call holding [ac][qh]. USoGotPwned needed a queen but that changed on the [Jd][9c][Td] flop as USoGotPwned picked up an open-ended straight draw. Now needing a king or eight to claim the win, USoGotPwned watched the [5d] turn and [6h] river brick the board to see Danzer take a commanding chip lead.
From that point, Danzer relentlessly pressed home the advantage until landing the final, fatal blow. After Danzer limped the button, he called it off with [ad][9s] when USoGotPwned shoved 18 big blinds with a very dominated [8h][9h]. The flop brought a real sweat when it landed [Js][5d][Ts] as USoGotPwned found an open-ended straight draw. However the [Jd] turn and [5h] completed the board to see USoGotPwned out in 2nd place as Danzer collects his third SCOOP title! Following the deal, USoGotPwned took home the lion's share of the prize money, winning $168,988 with Danzer taking $155,000 and the shiny new SCOOP watch. After winning SCOOP Event #12-H a little earlier in the series, Danzer is likely to also now add SCOOP Player of the Series honours thanks to today's impressive victory.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's SCOOP series and congratulations to all of the prize winners. Check out the all the stats from the series as well as the Player of the Series leaderboard on the SCOOP home page.
It's a holiday where I am, and I'll be candid with you: I intended to take the day off. I thought things would run themselves. I thought, "Hey, the main event of SCOOP isn't even finished yet. Why worry with work?"
And then I saw just how crazy today was going to be.
If you didn't notice, yesterday's main events made SCOOP the richest online tournament series in history. In total, the festival will pay out $75,585,305.05. That alone is insane news that was worth getting out of bed for.
And then I looked at the main events' Day 2 line-ups, and...woah, mama.
The $10,300 high buy-in main event pulled in 580 players for a prize pool with $5.8 million. It's paying more than $1 million to the winner. Seventy-three of them are left. Sitting at the top of the pack is last year's Event #39-H winner 7tHEcROw7. And who is that right below him in second place? Who, indeed. That is Mr. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom. That's who it is. Last year, Blom won two titles. Now's he's in good shape to fight for a third. Also among the top ten is Mike "munchenHB" Telker. Team PokerStar Pros Leo Fernandez, Ivan Demidov, Angel Guillen, and Jake Cody made day two as well.
Viktor Blom
The $1,050 medium buy-in main event drew a whopping 4,039 players and is paying out more than $634,000 to the winner. Eighty players are left going into the final day of play. Malta DReeamzoo leads them all. Team Online's Randy "nanonoko" Lew has a better than average stack.
Made it to day 2 of SCOOP-43-M Main Event! This is my first ever day 2 of online of all of my years playing online! twitter.com/nanonoko/statu...
More than 23,000 people showed up for the $109 low buy-in main event. Only 90 of them remain. Poland's Pawel.Mpl is the leader heading into Day 2. Team Online's Caio Pessagno sits among the Day 2 players.
So, while today may be a holiday, it's no day to take a break from a computer screen.
All of the main events resume at 2:30 ET today. The PokerStars Blog will have full wrap-ups when the tourneys are finished. Good luck to all the players still in today.
Might sound paradoxical... a "low" "high roller" tournament. But really, every event in this year's Spring Championship of Online Poker, no matter the buy-in, has produced large enough prize pools to make even the least inexpensive events seem big, relatively speaking. 
