With only a handful of events left to play in the 2013 SCOOP there was a sense that nobody wanted any of it to end, at least in the final table of event 42-L. There were 24 all-ins that went uncontested, 12 of them in a row, amounting to nothing more than a few warning shots in the air, directed to alert chip leader nbk_oli of their will to go down fighting. It was all they could do of course. nbk_oli wasn't just a chip leader; he was a massive chip leader, right from the start, through to heads up, where he made short work of winning a first SCOOP title, and a first prize of $62,082.88.

The final table line-up

It was the type of final table you expect when one players arrives with such an advantage - a procession, led by a future champion, escorted by an honour guard of seven others vying for second place.

Here's how the final began.

Seat 1 - meetpete33, 40,632,257
Seat 2 - YUNOABC, 7,992,957
Seat 3 - nbk_oli, 72,222,386
Seat 4 - philippe2211, 11,863,812
Seat 5 - jelsmulle, 25,351,977
Seat 6 - jusssti, 4,800,202
Seat 7 - Ctaylor865, 31,597,862
Seat 8 - TheDrunkLife, 19,618,547

It started with the suggestion of a deal by jelsmulle, immediately leapt upon by short stack jusssti, and then laughed at by nbk_oli. meetpete33 didn't mind having a look at numbers but the rest remained silent, as if speaking up might just anger nbk_oli, making it worse.

But as mentioned there was no lack of activity. YUNOABC was among the first to move in, then he called when TheDrunkLife shoved to double up, leaving TheDrunkLife with a million which, with the big blind at exactly that would ensure he was out within a minute. TheDrunkLife shoved with ace-eight. meetpete33 called with king-eight and caught a king on the flop. Seven left.

philippe2211 doubled, then jusssti, before the 12 all-ins went uncalled, which seemed uncalled for. That was 20 minutes of play peppered with raised, then lowered expectations for someone. Notably jusssti who might of hoped that all that action would keep him from busting in seventh. It didn't. He shoved with ace-seven, ran into Ctaylor865's pocket fours and that was that.

By now nbk_oli was up to 90 million, enough to ask for $60,000 ($2,000 less than first), when another deal cropped up in the chat box again and, like before, seemed wildly optimistic.

After the break, and further mooting of a deal, meetpete33 doubled with jacks against jelsmulle's sevens, which ensured jelsmullefell in sixth place moments later, when nbk_oli called and made a pair of tens.

Shortly after philippe2211 doubled with a flopped pair of fives, and then clashed in an almighty pot with the chip leader.

As nbk_oli lol'd, meetpete33 went out in fifth place when his king and queen were dethroned by YUNOABC's ace-jack. All the while nbk_oli extended his lead, first to 101 million, then 112 million followed by 128 million, the latter improvements coming against philippe2211 who was repeatedly forced to lay down hands.

Ctaylor865 departed in fourth place, gambling unwisely that his queen-deuce had the better of nbk_oli. It didn't. nbk_oli showed king-queen of diamonds and made a flush.

nbk_oli - 132 million
YUNOABC - 44 million
philippe2211 - 37 million

Earlier the writing had been on the wall. By now you couldn't see the wall for all the writing. YUNOABC went next, shoving with pocket sevens. nbk_oli had looked down at king-jack but a board with two tens and two eights rendered the sevens useless and elevated nbk_oli's king to best kicker.

Had philippe2211 busted YUNOABC there may have been a fight left to be had. Instead nbk_oli's 182 million loomed large over philippe2211's 31 million, although the Swiss, who had begun the final as one of the short stacks, was perhaps by now very glad to still be playing.

The denouement followed swiftly, nbk_oli's stack reaching 193 million, a near ten-to-one advantage when the chips went in, ace-three versus ace-king.

It proved a clinical finish that in hindsight seemed all too easy. For the finalists there nothing left to play for as far as SCOOP is concerned, as the main events rumble on to their conclusions. But a great result for nbk_oli, with a win column to be proud of. Congratulations to him.

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #42-L ($27 no-limit hold'em 8-Max) results

Players: 21,598
Prizepool: $530,230.90
Places paid: 2,800

1. nbk_oli (United Kingdom), $62,082.88
2. philippe2211 (Switzerland), $42,418.47
3. YUNOABC (Netherlands), $31,813.85
4. CTaylor865 (United Kingdom), $21,209.23
5. meetpete33 (Germany), $10,604.61
6. jelsmulle (Denmark), $5,302.30
7. jusssti (Estonia), $3,711.61
8. TheDrunkLife (Canada), $2,386.03

Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter.

The SCOOP is coming to a close and SlyderS1 took one of the last watches of the year. While the Main Events were raging on, SlyderS1 was slowly beating 8-handed table after 8-handed table.

There were 5,436 players that signed up to play the 8-max event. This created a $1,087,200.00 prize pool, soaring past toe $600,000 guarantee. Among these thousands of players were about 40 Team PokerStars Pro and Online players.

Four Team PokerStars players made it to the money this event with Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier making it the furthest, finishing 194th for $608.83.

But -- unlike most events this series -- only eight players could make the final table. Nine players would make it to the final table bubble.

The bubble

There were a trio of all-ins that brought us down to our final table. With 70K/140K blinds with a 17.5K ante, psyhoagromor raised to 280,000 from the cutoff and DonkKick called from the small blind. There was an [ac][4c][2d] flop and psyhoagromor bet 225,999. DonkKick raised to 451,998 and psyhoagromor moved all-in for 2,005,347.

DonkKick called and showed [ah][10s] to psyhoagromor's [as][4h]. The turn brought a [5s] and a [6d] fell on the river. psyhoagromor's two-pair took the pot and he was up to 4.7 million while DonkKick was down to 411,000.

Two hands later, DonkKick got some chips back when he doubled through psyhoagromor. DonkKick moved all-in with [10s][10d] and psyhoagromor called with [9d][7h]. The board came [6s][4d][js][6h][6d] and DonkKick was up to 911,000, a stack he lost the next hand.

DonkKick moved all-in from under-the-gun and rain1812 called from the big blind.

rain1812: [qc][js]
DonkKick: [ac][kc]

There was a safe [3d][8c][3s] flop and DonkKick was still in the lead. Then the turn brought a [qh] and a [js] came on the river to give rain1812 the victory. DonkKick was out in 9th and earned $5,979.60.00.

The final table

Seat 1: JACKPOT786 --5,124,126
Seat 2: dariepoker -- 2,391,059
Seat 3: BackDoorovic -- 7,625,702
Seat 4: PokerBratv2 -- 5,334,875
Seat 5: RomaFresh -- 12,978,155
Seat 6: rain1812 -- 9,489,200
Seat 7: psyhoamgromor -- 4,286,278
Seat 8: SlyderS -- 1,130,605

Plenty of rain

psyhoamgromor crippled our final table bubble and then psyhoamgromor was our first final table elimination.

Blinds were up to 100K/200K with a 25K ante and dariepoker raised to 400,000 from early position. psyhoamgromor moved all-in for 4,221,278 from the big blind and dariepoker called.

psyhoamgromor turned over the big slick with [ad][ks] while dariepoker showed pocket rockets, [as][ah]. There was a [qh][qd][5s][4d][8s] board and dariepoker doubled up. psyhoamgromor was down to 295,219 after the pot and down to 0 the next hand.

RomaFresh raised to 400,000 from the cutoff, rain1812 re-raised to 910,000 from the button and psyhoamgromor called all-in from the small blind. The big blind and RomaFresh folded and rain1812 was up against psyhoamgromor.

psyhoamgromor: [js][5d]
rain1812: [as][3s]

The board came [6c][kh][6h][8c][8s] and psyhoamgromor was out in 8th, earning $8,154.00.

Two hands later, rain1812 got another one.

rain1812 raised to 400,000 from the hijack and dariepoker re-raised to 992,000 from the small blind. rain1812 called and there was a [7c][9h][10s] flop. dariepoker checked, rain1812 bet 840,000 and a [3s] came on the turn when dariepoker called.

rain1812 bet 1.6 million when checked to and dariepoker raised all-in for 6,045,118.

dariepoker showed [kc][ks] and rain1812 was the one with pocket rockets this time, [as][ac]. The river was a [2d] and rain1812 was up to 18.2 million.

dariepoker was eliminated in 7th and earned $13,590.00

Sliding jackpot

There weren't any pocket aces the next elimination, but the abundance of pocket pairs continued. With 125K/250K blinds and a 31.25K ante, PokerBratv2 raised to 500,000 from the hijack. SlyderS1 moved all-in for 9.2 million from the small blind and JACKPOT786 called all-in for 4,720,376. PokerBratv2 folded and we had a showdown.

JACKPOT786: [as][kh]
SlyderS1: [qc][qh]

The board came [6d][6h][10s][7d][jh] and JACKPOT786 was out in 6th for $29,898.00.

Blinds went up to 15K/30K wit a 37.5K ante when another player hit the slide. SlyderS1 raised to 657,575 from the small blind and BackDoorovic moved all-in for 4,940,852 from the big blind.

BackDoorovic showed [ac][4c] to SlyderS1's [ah][10d]. The flop came [10c][4d][9c] and SlyderS1 hit top pair to BackDoorovic's [ac][4c]. The [2h] turn and [6d] river didn't fill the flush and BackDoorovic was out in 5th, earning $51,642.00.

Bad weather

Then we had a bit more rain.

A few hands after BackDoorovic's elimination, rain1812 raised to 600,000 from the button. PokerBratv2 moved all-in for 3,617,947 from the big blind and rain1812 called.

PokerBratv2: [qd][10c]
rain1812: [ad][jh]

The board came [4h][3d][4c][3c][ks] and PokerBratv2 was eliminated in 4th. rain1812 jumped into the lead with 20 million while PokerBratv2 earned $73,386.00.

Sliding rain

rain1812 had the slight lead, but SlyderS1 (17.4 million) and RomaFresh (16.8 million) were in hot pursuit.

Then RomaFresh finished 3rd after two big hands:

Four hands later rain1812 took the rest away from RomaFresh.

RomaFresh raised to 1 million from the small blind and rain1812 called from the big, bringing an [8s][jh][7s] flop.

A [6h] came on the turn when rain1812 called RomaFresh's 1.2 million bet. RomaFresh doubled that bet on the turn rain1812 called 2.4 million. The river was a [10d], RomaFresh moved all-in for 6,575,880 and rain1812 called.

RomaFresh: [6d][6c]
rain1812: [as][9c]

rain1812's rivered straight beat RomaFresh's set and RomaFresh was out in 3rd, earning $95,130.00.

Heads-up

SlyderS1: 21,497,783
rain1812: 32,862,217

rain1812 had the lead and kept chipping away at SlyderS1. Then SlyderS1 turned the tide.

Blinds were 300K/600K with a 75K ante and SlyderS1 raised to 1.2 million. The flop came [5s][7h][ah] and SlyderS1 bet 857,575 when checked to. rain1812 called and a [kd] came on the turn.

SlyderS1 bet 1,757,575 and rain1812 called, bringing a [qc] on the river. SlyderS1 moved all-in for 7,517,408 and rain1812 called. SlyderS1 turned over [as][qh] for two-pair while rain1812 showed [7d][8h] for sevens.

SlyderS1 was back up to 22.8 million and rain1812 was still leading with 31.5 million.

SlyderS1 then took a large lead in a flopless pot. With 400K/800K blinds and a 100K ante, rain1812 raised to 1.6 million and SlyderS1 re-raised to 3,757,575. rain1812 four-bet to 7,515,150 and SlyderS1 moved all-in.

rain1812 folded and was left with 19.3 million to SlyderS1's 34.9 million. rain1812 wouldn't be able to turn the tide again and was eliminated in 2nd place:

rain1812 got $116,874.00 for the runner-up finish while SlyderS1 earned $169,757.60 for his first SCOOP victory.

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #42-M ($215 NLHE 8-Max) results:

Players: 5,436
Prize pool: $1,087,200.00
Places paid: 680

1. SlyderS1 (Hungary) $169,757.60
2. rain1812 (Estonia) $116,874.00
3. RomaFresh (Russia) $95,130.00
4. PokerBratv2 (Hungary) $73,386.00
5. BackDoorovic (Sweden) $51,642.00
6. JACKPOT786 (United Kingdom) $29,898.00
7. dariepoker (Romania) $13,590.00
8. psyhoagromor (Ukraine) $8,154.00

That's it for SCOOP 42. There's no more SCOOPs to register for this year but you can still check out the SCOOP Main Event. If you want to see results from this year's SCOOP, including the Player of the Series, check out the SCOOP homepage.

Alexander Villegas is done with this year's SCOOP for the PokerStars Blog.

According to the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come." Instead of driving out to the middle of nowhere to watch a bunch of ghosts play baseball in a corn field, PokerStars created the Spring Championship of Online Poker. SCOOP has become one of the most popular festivals of internet poker and this year's numbers across the board prove its continuing success.

Israel's MLiz faded a massive field of 23,045 to take down the low version of the SCOOP Main Event. For that modest investment of $109, players had a rare opportunity to boost their bankrolls with a six-figure payday. MLiz walked away with a juicy score worth $189,015.34.

"If you build it, they will come." SCOOP Main Event #43-L $109 NL was a two-day event and attracted 23,045 runners. The prize pool was a whopping $2,304,500, which smashed the $1 million guarantee. The top 3,150 places paid out with $230,458.95 originally set aside for the eventual champion.

PokerStars Team Pros trying to take down the Main Event included David Williams, Andre Akkari, Chad Brown, Jake Cody, Marcin "Goral" Horecki, Angel Guillen, Bryan Huang, Chris DeMuelder,Rhino Mathis, Jan Heitman, Jason Mercier, Lex Veldhuis, Vivan Im, Ike Haxton, Leo Fernandez, Theo Jorgensen, Johnathan Duhamel, Max Lykov, Eugene Katchalov, Joe Cada, Ivan Demidov, Alex Kravchenko, Liv Boeree, and Marcel Luske.

Team PokerStars Online seeking a SCOOP title included Pessagano, mement_mori, nanonoko, jomane, shaniac, frosty012, and nkeyno.

Only two notables cashed: Team PokerStars Online Caio "Pessagno" Pessagno (43rd) and PokerStars Team Pro ElkY (468th).

With roughly 200 players remaining on Day 1, Pessagno rocketed to 2nd in chips after dragging a 6.2 million pot. On a board of [Ts][6c][6s][2h][Th], Pessagno got raised on the river by p1ngp0ngpr0 and called all-in. Pessagno held [Ac][6h]. He had flopped trips and rivered a boat. p1ngp0ngpr0 tabled [2s][2d] and lost with a smaller boat. With 100 to go, Pessagno lost a couple of pots and slipped to 2.2 million.

At the end of the first day, Pessgano was still alive with 2.18 million in chips, good enough for 60th out of 90 overall.

Day 1 of the SCOOP Main Event #43-L ended at the completion of Level 40. Only 90 players remained. Poland's Pawel.Mpl held the chip lead with 13.5 million. Rounding out the Top 5 in chips were: sydens (12.4 million), The Don Bot (11.9 million), sirgiannis1 (10.6 million), and Alessoo (9.3 million).

Action went quick on Day 2. Team Online Pessagno chipped up immediately during the first orbit of day 2. Pessagno took out bezya with [Ah][Qs] vs. [As][9d] and dragged a 3.6 million pot. That hand thrust Pessagno into the Top 25 overal with 4.5 million. Unfortunately that's as high as he'd get.

Team Online's Pessagno run came to and end when he busted in 52nd place. He met his demise in a three-way pot. He held [Ac][Ks] vs. 1-ronnyr3's [Qs][Qd] vs. fifou123's [Kd][Kh]. The board ran out [7s][3h][2s][7c][8d] and Pessagno's Big Slick failed to improve. For a 52nd-place finish, Pessagno took home $3,226.30.

With 27 players remaining on the last three tables, tonn22 seized the lead with 38.2 million (roughly 10 million more than his closest competitor). With 18 to go on the final two tables, Pawel.Mpl regained the lead and rocketed to 62 million.

With 10 to go, Pawel.Mpl chipped up to 83 million and action went hand-for-hand. Short-stacked TWOcc doubled up twice against Pawel.Mpl, who slipped to 60 million. Russia's murzik36 bubbled off the final table in tenth place when he ran [As][9s] into yuricougar's [Ad][Kh].

SCOOP $43-L Main Event - Final Table Chip Counts:
Seat 1: yuricougar (52,354,188)
Seat 2: tonn22 (27,887,644)
Seat 3: Thru Ya City (22,987,330)
Seat 4: TWOcc (43,621,820)
Seat 5: boomerangP (18,096,222)
Seat 6: Pawel.Mpl (60,787,067)
Seat 7: MLiz (38,294,621)
Seat 8: Cha444 (23,001,092)
Seat 9: sirgiannis1 (58,645,016)

The final table commenced during Level 54. Blinds were 1M/2M with a 250K ante. Pawel.Mpl still retained the big stack, while boomerangP was the short stack.

boomerangP eliminated in 9th place

Short-stacked boomerangP opened to 14,895,632, MLiz raised to 27,791,264, and boomerangP called all-in for 1,950,590 more. MLiz was way behind with [Tc][Th] against boomerangP's [As][Ad]. The board ran out [Kd][Js][3h][8h][Ts] and MLiz rivered a set of tens to win the pot. boomerangP had Aces snapped off and became the first player to exit at the final table. For a ninth-place finish, boomerangP collected $13,827.00.

tonn22 eliminated in 8th place

Short-stacked tonn22 open-shoved for 11,275,314 and Thru Ya City re-raised all-in for 37,599,660 to isolate. Everyone else got out of the way. Heads-up. Thru Ya City led with [9d][9h] versus tonn22's [6h][6c]. The board ran out [Ks][Qh][2d][5d][Kc] and Thru Ya City's nines held up. The Netherlands' tonn22 was knocked out in eighth place, which paid out $20,740.50.

With seven remaining, sirgiannis1 held a slight lead over Pawel.Mpl (71 million to 68 million).

TWOcc eliminated in 7th place

Short-stacked TWOcc open-shoved for 11,808,228, and Pawel.Mpl called. Pawel.Mpl held [Ks][Kh] while TWOcc made a final stand with [Ts][3s]. The board ran out [Qs][7c][4c][6d][Th] and Pawel.Mpl's pocket cowboys held up. TWOcc bounced in seventh place, which paid out $32,378.22.

With six remaining, Pawel.Mpl jumped back into first overall with almost 86 million.

sirgiannis1 eliminated in 6th place

We saw the next bustout occur in the largest pot of the tournament (up until that moment). An escalating raising war was ignited by sirgiannis1, who min-raised to 6 million, MLiz bumped it up to 18 million. sirgiannis1 four-bet all-in for 58,182,586, and MLiz called. Classic race. MLiz was flipping with [Ah][Ks] versus sirgiannis1's [Jh][Jd]. The board ran out [Tc][Td][8h][Ac][4h] and MLiz's Big Slick improved to win the 120+ million pot with two pair -- Aces and Tens. Greece's sirgiannis1 was set to the virtual rail in sixth place and he took home $46,090.00.

With five players remaining, MLiz chipped up to 144 million, or more than twice as much as Pawel.Mpl in second with 56 million.

DEAL

Action was paused for over thirty-three minutes so the final five could discuss a deal. The supercomputer at PokerStars HQ spit out the ICM numbers: MLiz ($169,015.34), Pawel.Mpl ($132,594.02), Cha444 ($124,437.18), Thru Ya City ($117,577.40), and yuricougar ($114,622.40). They had to leave $20,000 on the table for the eventual champion. Pawel.Mpl instantly rejected the initial ICM numbers and wanted more money.

"145K & snap agree," was Pawel.Mpl's response.

The final five tried to re-negotiate the terms of a new deal with Pawel.Mpl securing $10K more (or $2.5K from each player), but MLiz rebuked that notion. Then Pawel.Mpl tried to get $3.5K out of the other three players.

Thru Ya City joked "lol now I know what greed feels like."

Pawel.Mpl counter offered for $3.3K and they found some middle ground. The new deal looked like this: MLiz ($169,015.34), Pawel.Mpl ($142,494.02), Cha444 ($121,137.18), Thru Ya City ($114,277.40), and yuricougar ($111,322.40). They also left $20,000 on the table for the winner along with a champion's watch.

Everyone agreed to the modified deal and action resumed.

Thru Ya City eliminated in 5th place

With a deal in place and everyone eager to get back to playing cards, we saw a quick-fire bustout. MLiz opened to 9 million, Thru Ya City shoved for 48,749,973, and MLiz called. Coin flip. Thru Ya City was racing with [Ah][Jd] versus MLiz's [8d][8c]. The board ran out [8h][6c][6h][5s][Th] and MLiz dragged the pot with a full house. Thru Ya City was knocked out in fifth place, which paid out $114,277.40.

yuricougar eliminated in 4th place

On the very next hand, we saw another elimination. Cha444 min-raised to 6 million, yuricougar bombed it all-in for 24,816,687, and Cha444 called. Cha444 was ahead with [Ks][Ts] against yuricougar's [Kh][7h]. The board ran out [Qs][Td][6h][Jh][Jd], and Cha444 won the pot with two pair -- Jacks and tens. For a fourth-place performance, yuricougar earned $111,322.40.

Pawel.Mpl eliminated in 3rd place

Pawel.Mpl open-shoved for 32,130,543 and MLiz called. MLiz led with [3h][3s] against Pawel.Mpl's [Ks][4d]. The board ran out [8h][3c][3d][2d][Jc] and MLiz won the pot with quads! MLiz flopped quad treys too. Poland's Pawel.Mpl took home $142,494.02 for a third-place finish.

HEADS-UP: MLiz (Israel) vs. Cha444 (Indonesia)
Seat 7: MLiz (240,078,945)
Seat 8: Cha444 (105,596,055)

MLiz held the overall advantage, but Cha44 was close enough that a double up would give him the chip lead.

Cha444 eliminated in 2nd place; MLiz ships SCOOP Main Event #43-L!

The heads-up battle lasted 15 minutes. For most of their match, neither player gained any significant ground. The final knockout almost came out of nowhere. MLiz held a 229M to 116M lead. Both players woke up to big hands and bombed it all-in preflop. MLiz opened to 12 million, Cha444 came over the top all-in for 115,721,555, and MLiz called.

MLiz: [Jh][Jd]
Cha444: [As][Kc].

Cha444 was racing for his tournament life with Big Slick versus Jacks. The board ran out [8s][3c][3d][6c][9c]. MLiz's pocket Jacks held up and dragged the pot. Cha444 was knocked out in second place.

For a gutsy runner-up performance, Cha444 collected $121,137.18.

Congrats to MLiz for winning the "low" version of the SCOOP Main Event. Israel's MLiz earned $189,015.34 for first place and also won a cool Movado champion's watch.

View the final and winning hand through the innovative replayer:

2013 SCOOP Event #43-L $109 NL Main Event - Final Table Results:

Entrants: 23,045
Prize Pool: $2,304,500
Places Paid: 3,150

1. MLiz (Israel) - $189,015.34 **
2. Cha444 (Indonesia) - $121,137.18 **
3. Pawel.Mpl (Poland) - $142,494.02 **
4. yuricougar (Netherlands) - $111,322.40 **
5. Thru Ya City (Russia) - $114,277.40 **
6. sirgiannis1 (Greece) - $46,090.00
7. TWOcc (Switzerland) - $32,378.22
8. tonn22 (Netherlands) - $20,740.50
9. boomerangP (Canada) - $13,827.00

** denotes a five-way deal

Visit the SCOOP home page for all of your SCOOP needs. While you are there, find out who won 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.

A $4 million prize pool is serious business. It's nearly as rich as an EPT Main Event. In fact, it's so lucrative Daniel Negreanu decamped from Las Vegas to Vancouver the weekend before the WSOP just to be able to buy in. In its fourth year, SCOOP continued breaking records left and right, it's $75,585,534 in total prize money making it the richest series in online poker history. This weekend was its fireworks finale, with micro-stakes grinders and world champions alike gathering for the two-day Main Event. It took more than 19 hours of play to find a champion and although Team Online's Randy "nanonoko" Lew came tantalizingly close to victory, it ultimately belonged to Brazil's Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos, who took down Event #43-M ($1,050 NLHE Main Event) and paired the UKIPT title he earned earlier this year with a SCOOP watch.

4,039 players bought into the "medium" Main Event, the prize pool topping out at $4,039,000. 540 places were paid with first place set to earn $634,123. When it came to the Red Spades, nearly all hands were on deck. 47 of them joined the action and seven finished in the money: Vicky Coren (508th), Matthias De Meulder (482nd), Caio Pessagno (480th), Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen (440th), Joao "jomane" Nunes (224th), Jake Cody (167th), and Randy "nanonoko" Lew, who advanced to Day 2.

Day 1 concluded after 30 levels of play, it's 80 survivors granted a 12 1/2 hour break before cards went back in the air. Some familiar faces among them were four-time SCOOP champ Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (424,594), Will "molswi47" Molson (376,878), Marco "NoraFlum" Johnson (151,892), T 54 T 97s (486,671), and our lone remaining Red Spade, Randy "nanonoko" Lew (985,477). Both Anderson and T 54 T 97s also made Day 2 of Event #43-H, ($10,300 NLHE Main Event).

An excited Lew tweeted, "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!"

End of Day 1 Top 10 in Chips

DReeamzoo (Malta) 2,316,525
-ANALNATSHA- (Kazakhstan) 2,123,000
Cobus83 (Malta) 1,964,132
zinkAA (Russia) 1,755,586
Kotovi (Russia) 1,620,484
stasia42 (Israel) 1,490,443
cantbeat (Canada) 1,475,350
propoloop (Germany) 1,458,763
Act.VolanD (Russia) 1,377,687
TK542 (Japan) 1,373,945

The final 80 returned Monday at 14:00 EDT to play down to a winner. Within three hours, the field had thinned to 18. Lew was still alive, but short-stacked and with [Ad][Kd] in the cutoff, he moved all-in for his last 12 big blinds. Lew's big slick held up against BOBAN94's [As][9s] and he moved up to 2.1 million in chips. Then, with 13 players remaining, Lew was in the big blind with [As][2c], facing a small blind shove from Will "molswi47" Molson. Lew called, only to watch Molson turn over [Ad][Ks]. The gods of variance shined brightly on nanonoko as a deuce hit the flop, ending Molson's run in 13th place while Lew moved up to 4 million.

Lew's incredible luck was not lost on the rail.

OriQ9s (observer): YOU DO HAVE A SICK LIFE BRO
Nervous Mike (observer): if you win this make a tattoo with A2

It took the ultimate cooler to eliminate both the 11th and 10th place finishers. PSMozak ran [Ks][Kc] into zinkAA's [As][Ad] and a short time later, the same scenario unfolded on the other table, stasia42's [Kc][Kh] up against TK542's [As][Ac]. This time, stasia42 channelled a little of nanonoko's run-good and binked a king on the turn to send TK542 home on the final table bubble.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: nanonoko (3,746,204 in chips)
Seat 2: stasia42 (7,438,162 in chips)
Seat 3: iAct.VolanD (3,738,878 in chips)
Seat 4: Need1MFasT (10,503,357 in chips)
Seat 5: LuCasino777 (3,162,258 in chips)
Seat 6: mandalaclub (13,241,369 in chips)
Seat 7: zinkAA (4,747,223 in chips)
Seat 8: Bostero10 (9,540,903 in chips)
Seat 9: nicofellow (4,466,646 in chips)

zinkAA sinks on the river, nicofellow's jacks take out iAct.VolanD

One of the shorter stacks to start the final table, nanonoko had an early setback when he three-bet shoved for 4.33 million with [9s][9d] and ran into LuCasino77's [Kh][Ks]. Lew fell to only 2.24 million, but rebounded to 5.6 million seven hands later when he picked up his own [Ks][Kd] against Need1MFasT's [Ac][Kc]. Need1MFasT's stack was hardly dented by nanonoko's double-up and he took the chip lead with 15 million when he called mandalaclub to the river with pocket queens on a king-high board.

ZinkAA was down to 3.95 million when he found [Ah][Qh] in the big blind and three-bet to 955,255. UTG raiser Bostero10 set zinkAA all-in and revealed a dominated [Ad][Jh]. Both players made top pair on the [As][Kd][Th] flop and the [5h] on the turn opened up a nut flush draw for zinkAA, but Bostero10 caught a miracle on the river, the [Qd] falling to make him a Broadway straight. Bostero10 moved up to 11.8 million in chips while zinkAA was eliminated in ninth place, earning $32,312.00.

Four hands later, nicofellow opened for a min-raise to 500,000 and iAct.VolanD moved all-in for 2.87 million from the big blind. iAct.VolanD's [As][7d] was in bad shape vs. nicofellow's pocket jacks, the board running out [Kh][6c][5c][Qs][4c] to end his run in eighth place ($50,487.50).

Lightning won't strike twice for stasia42

Stasia42 got lucky on the final table bubble when his kings cracked aces, but he couldn't pull off another miracle. With the action folded to him on the button, stasia42 open-shoved for 5.09 million with [Ah][7h] and LuCasino777 called all-in for less with [As][8s] in the big blind. Stasia42's best hope was a chop, but LuCasino777 paired his eight on the river, leaving stasia42 on only 1.1 million in chips. Stasia42 moved all-in with [Kd][4c] a few hands later, but did not improve against LuCasino777's [Ad][Qs]. For seventh place, stasia42 banked $90,877.50.

No compromise

As soon as the field narrowed to six, deal chatter flooded the window and everyone agreed to pause the action and take a look at some chip chop and ICM numbers. Naturally big stacks Bostero10 and Need1MFast favored the steeper chip chop deal while the shorter stacks preferred ICM. Bostero10 told his opponents he'd take a deal for his $436k chip chop share or nothing at all while short stack nanonoko wanted to see his share increase from the $236k ICM number to $260k. Although a few players were motivated to make the deal happen at this stage, they were ultimately unable to come to a compromise and cards went back in the air.

Nicofellow takes the lead, Need1MFast burns out

Blinds were up to 150,000/300,000 when LuCasino777 picked up [Kh][Kc] and extracted three streets of value from Need1MFasT. However, those chips found their way into nicofellow's stack a few hands later when LuCasino777's pocket eights fell to [Ac][Td]. Nicofellow picked up another 5 million in chips from Need1MFasT when his [8s][9s] flopped a gutshot straight draw on a [Qd][Jd][5d] flop and filled it with the [Tc] on the turn. His stack rose to 24.4 million before nanonoko swooped in and three-bet shoved for 3.8 million. Nicofellow called with [As][7d], but had run headlong into nanonoko's [Ad][Ac]. Nanonoko doubled to 8.5 million while onetime short stack nicofellow held the chip lead with 20.5 million.

Bostero10 asked his opponents if they wanted to look at numbers again, but before he could get a consensus, the action folded to Need1MFasT on the button. He open-shoved for 3.03 million and LuCasino777 reshoved for 10.2 million from the small blind. Need1MFast's [Kd][5c] needed to improve against [Ah][Qs], but LuCasino777 rivered a queen-high straight instead, eliminating Need1MFasT in sixth place.

By this point, everyone had agreed to take another run at making a deal. However, on the last hand before the action paused, mandalaclub open-shoved for 7.43 million on the button and Bostero10 reshoved for 9.3 million behind him. Bostero10's [Qc][Qh] held up against [Ac][Jh] and mandalaclub hit the rail in fifth place, earning $171,657.50.

That's a deal!

Suddenly instead of negotiating a six-handed deal, our remaining players were looking at a four-way chop. Here's where their chip counts stood when the action paused:

nicofellow - 19,144,929
Bostero10 - 17,399,945
LuCasino777 - 13,886,842
nanonoko - 10,153,284

Final table host Celina Lin calculated chip chop and ICM numbers for the players, but nanonoko warned everyone in advance that he wasn't interested in making a chip chop deal. When the ICM numbers came up, they awarded the following shares.

HostPeterZO (Administrator): nicofellow:$439,209.35
HostPeterZO (Administrator): Bostero10:$427,760.63
HostPeterZO (Administrator): LuCasino777:$400,731.01
HostPeterZO (Administrator): nanonoko:$364,445.01
HostPeterZO (Administrator): Left To Play for place 1: $40,000.00

Nanonoko took a moment to fire up his internal supercomputer and concluded that he'd take a deal for $368k. Bostero10 was still holding out for his chip chop share of $434k, leaving their four opponents to decide how much they were willing to give up. LuCasino777 agreed to give $4,000 to Bostero10 while nicofellow shifted $3,000 to Bostero10 and $4,000 to nanonoko. All parties agreed to the revised numbers and with $40,000 still in play for the winner, cards went back on the screen.

Randy "nanonoko" Lew eliminated in fourth place

Shortly after action resumed, Bostero10 opened for a min-raise to 1,000,000 and nanonoko moved all-in for 10.6 million from the big blind. Nanonoko's [Qh][9h] was racing with Bostero10's pocket sevens but did not improve, the board finishing [Jh][6c][5c][2c][5d]. Nanonoko's SCOOP Main Event run ended in fourth place, but the $368,445.01 he took home is by far his largest-ever online MTT score.

Bostero10 boots LuCasino777

Bostero10's pocket sevens may have fared well vs. nanonoko, but this time they ran right into a monster. Bostero10 four-bet shoved for 26.7 million preflop and nicofellow called off his remaining 13.3 million, revealing [Kd][Kc]. Nicofellow's pocket kings held up on the queen-high board, doubling his stack to 32.2 million while Bostero10 fell to 10.7 million.

Bostero10 put the rest of his chips in a few hands later with [As][4s] and LuCasino777 called with [6d][6s]. However, LuCasino777's small pair was counterfeited when the board paired kings and nines, leaving Bostero10's ace to play. LuCasino777's stack was cut in half and a few hands later he three-bet shoved his remaining 11.9 million with [Kd][Td]. Nicofellow called with [Ac][Jh], his ace-high holding up to eliminate LuCasino777 in third.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 8: Bostero10 (15,216,600 in chips)
Seat 9: nicofellow (45,368,400 in chips)

Heads-up was not only a battle for the title and the remaining $40,000 in the prize pool, it was a battle for South America. Argentina vs. Brazil. In one corner of the chat box was Team Pro Nacho Barbero, cheering on his countryman Bostero10, while Andre Akkari let loose a hearty "VAMOOOOOOO BRASSILLL!" for nicofellow.

Nicofellow brought a 3 to 1 chip lead into heads-up play but quickly lost it. Bostero10 four-bet shoved for 15.5 million with [Ah][4h] and nicofellow called with [Kh][Qd]. Although nicofellow paired his queen on the [Qh][Th][2s] flop, Bostero10 turned the nut flush with the [7h] and doubled to 31.2 million.

However, nicofellow didn't have to wait long before he flopped two pair and raked in an 18.1 million pot to reclaim the chip lead.

Two hands later, nicofellow picked up [Ad][Jh] and opened for 1,000,000. Bostero10 three-bet to 2.55 million and nicofellow snap-shoved for 37.7 million. Bostero10 tanked for a moment before calling with [Ac][Td]. Bostero10's dominated hand did not improve on the [Qs][3s][2c][Qc][8h] board and nicofellow closed out his first SCOOP title.

Congratulations to our 2013 SCOOP Main Event champion Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos! He banked $472,209.35 for the win while runner-up Bostero10 earned $434,760.63.

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #43-M ($1,050 NLHE Main Event) results

Players: 4,039
Prizepool: $4,039,000
Places paid: 540

1. Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos (Brazil) $472,209.35*
2. Bostero10 (Argentina) $434,760.63*
3. LuCasino777 (Slovakia) $396,731.01*
4. Randy "nanonoko" Lew $368,445.01*
5. mandalaclub (Brazil) $171,657.50
6. Need1MFasT (United Kingdom) $131,267.50
7. stasia42 (Israel) $90,877.50
8. iAct.VolanD (Russia) $50,487.50
9. zinkAA (Russia) $32,312.00

*= reflects the results of a four-way deal that left $40,000 in play for the winner

Kristin Bihr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

The 2013 installment of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker entered today with just a few two-day events left to close out, but the final numbers for the series were complete yesterday. PokerStars players made this year's SCOOP the richest tournament series in online poker history, awarding more than $75.58 million in prize money in 132 events across three buy-in levels. It's been an amazing 15 days, and the final day was capped off with an aptly well-played final table in the final high buy-in event of the series.

Event #42-H, a $2,100 eight-max no-limit hold'em tournament, kicked off at 11 a.m. ET yesterday with a $1,000,000 guarantee. The 30-minute levels and 10,000-chip starting stacks drew a total of 905 players to the tables, building a $1,810,000 prize pool to be split up among the top 104 finishers. The top prize was set at $339,375, but it would take more than 34 hours to get there.

Day 1 lasted for 20 levels, with the blinds rising during that time from 25/50 to 1.5K/3K with antes of 375. By the end only 51 starters remained in action, led by these 10 players:

Sk2ll_m0dR (Germany) 543,598 chips
Greenstone25 (Sweden) 342,289
salamandryko (Peru) 331,474
szusza84 (Hungary) 317,355
psyhoagromor (Ukraine) 312,349
Joe "ender555" Ebanks (United Kingdom) 297,391
HealTheWorld (Germany) 296,918
KidCardiff6 (United Kingdom) 270,629
J_nufc_V (United Kingdom) 258,375
b8chatz (United Kingdom) 250,251

Only two of those players would survive the six hours and 42 minutes it took to reach the final table, which started with blinds and antes at 10K/20K/2.5K and these eight players facing off for the final SCOOP High-level title of this series:

Seat 1: MAMOHT_T (678,366 in chips)
Seat 2: MilanRabsz (1,727,655 in chips)
Seat 3: blaaaaaah666 (501,892 in chips)
Seat 4: HealTheWorld (1,315,181 in chips)
Seat 5: gaucho47 (791,373 in chips)
Seat 6: ender555 (2,811,407 in chips)
Seat 7: H.Oussalé (810,555 in chips)
Seat 8: thnkpositive (413,571 in chips)

Leading the way was Joe "ender555" Ebanks, a WSOP bracelet winner in the 2011 $10,000 Six-Max NLHE Championship and a WCOOP winner that same year in six-max limit hold'em. With just over 140 big blinds his game plan was limited only by his creativity. But even the shortest stack, belonging to Thailand's thnkpositive, was worth more than 20 big blinds at this point. That much room to play gave the action a bit more of a freewheeling feel than final tables with a quicker structure.

The first four orbits saw plenty of movement in the chip stacks as the blinds increased to 12.5K/25K/3.125K. Both thnkpositive and Switzerland's gaucho47 made up some ground, tripling and doubling their stacks, respectively. Russia's MAMOHT_T lost nearly half of what had been a 34-big-blind stack. But the biggest loser was Ireland's blaaaaah666, who was crippled to just under four big blinds on Hand #33. thnkpositive opened before the flop with an all-in bet of 473K, holding [Kh] [9h], and blaaaaah666 made the call from the big blind with [Ac] [Kc]. The first card to fall was the [9s], leaving the Irish player in need of an ace, but the rest of the board came [2c] [Qh] [6s] [9c] and blaaaaah666 was left with just 90K. Four hands later HealTheWorld's [Ac] [Jd] held up against [Kh] [6h] and blaaaaah666 was ousted in 9th place ($27,150).

Joe Ebanks still had the chip lead with 2.56M, but the rest of the field had begun to catch up a bit. Germany's HealTheWorld (1.39M), gaucho47 (1.36M), and Poland's MilanRabsz (1.34M) were all within one double-up of the chip lead, and thnkpositive (1.11M) still held more than 44 big blinds. But Ebanks used his chip lead in a few key spots to maintain his advantage. He stole one three-way pot worth 704K on a [5d] [4h] [Jh] flop with an all-in check raise. Two hands later he won another worth 693K at showdown:

With 3.25M chips after that pot and nobody else with even half as much, Ebanks was firmly in the lead as the blinds and antes went up to 15K/30K/3,125. That entire level passed without an all-in confrontation and Ebanks increased his stack to 3.86M. On Hand #96, with blinds and antes now 17.5K/35K/4,375 the field would shrink to six after HealTheWorld move all-in under the gun for just under 11 big blinds, holding [Jc] [9c]. gaucho47 called the bet with [Qs] [Qd] but couldn't get any more customers; the board ran out [4s] [Kc] [7s] [7d] [Jh] and HealTheWorld was out in 7th place ($40,725).

That pot gave gaucho47 the clear second-place stack at 2.58M. Meanwhile MilanObsz, Russia's MAMOHT_T, Germany's H.Oussalé, and thnkpositive were all working with 21 big blinds or less. The question was which one would be the next to bust. It wasn't H.Oussalé; within a few hands the German player won four out of five pots to climb to 1.17M. Instead it was MilanRabsz, who ran into a cooler on Hand #108. gaucho47 opened the betting with a raise to 70K under the gun before Joe Ebanks raised to 205K in second position. MilanRabsz jammed for 463K with [Jh] [Jd], which got rid of gaucho47, but Ebanks snap-called with [Kd] [Ks]. The [3h] [4h] [Tc] [Qs] [9d] board never threatened and MilanRabsz took 6th place ($63,350).

Five hands later the short-stacked player who ran into a cooler was MAMOHT_T, who picked up [9c] [9s] in the small blind on Hand #113 and jammed for 571K after H.Oussalé's opening bet of 70K and thnkpositive's three-bet to 155K. H.Oussalé went away, but thnkpositive snapped with [Ad] [As]. This time the underdog found a way to win, though; the board came [7s] [Js] [Ks] [9h] [Tc] and MAMOHT_T won the 1.26M-chip pot. thnkpositive was left with just 169K, all of which went in the middle on the very next hand with [Qs] [7d]. Both Joe Ebanks and gaucho47 called, and Ebanks won the pot with [Ac] [7s] when the board came [As] [3d] [Ah] [Kc] [Td]. That made thnkpositive the 5th-place finisher ($90,500).

A four-handed standoff

With the blinds and antes on the cusp of going up to 20K/40K/5K, the last four players were now stacked like so:

Seat 1: MAMOHT_T (1,265,032 in chips)
Seat 5: gaucho47 (2,268,209 in chips)
Seat 6: Joe "ender555" Ebanks (4,562,374 in chips)
Seat 7: H.Oussalé (954,385 in chips)

Joe Ebanks quickly jumped out to a commanding lead with this heads-up win on Hand #126 against gaucho47:

That gave Ebanks 4.57M chips and he ran with them over the next 33 hands, stacking up to a high point of 6.53M. gaucho47 trended downward over that stretch but picked up [Jh] [Jd] to double through H.Oussalé's [As] [8c], chipping back up to 951K. On Hand #168 MAMOHT_T finally cut into Ebanks' advantage, winning a pre-flop coin flip with [Ah] [8s] against [2s] [2d] with not one but two eights on the board by the turn. That 1.47M-chip pot was redistributed seven hands later when gaucho47 three-bet all-in for 710K with [Ac] [6d] and original raiser MAMOHT_T called with [Kd] [Qs].

With blinds and antes now up to 25K/50K/6.25K, Ebanks still had 110 big blinds with his 5.52M. Everybody else's stack was back over 25 big blinds, but it was gaucho47 who moved back into clear ownership of second place with this 1.13M-chip win:

H.Oussalé fell behind the pack and was looking for a chance to get off the bubble. The German player managed to get all-in with [Ah] [Jh] against Joe Ebanks' [As] [7c] on Hand #188, but the pot was split after the board came [Kh] [Qc] [Ac] [9c] [Kd]. On the very next hand H.Oussalé jammed again, this time for 755K from the button with [Ac] [8d], but that hand was dominated when MAMOHT_T called in the small blind with [Ad] [Qh]. The board came [4d] [2c] [Ah] [Qd] [9d], MAMOHT_T won the 1.57M chips in the pot, and H.Oussalé was eliminated in 4th place ($135,750).

gaucho47 vs. MOMOHT_T

The spread between the last three stacks was a bit narrower than in the earlier stages of the final table:

Seat 1: MAMOHT_T (1,741,652 in chips)
Seat 5: gaucho47 (2,404,891 in chips)
Seat 6: Joe "ender555" Ebanks (4,903,457 in chips)

It narrowed further on Hand #203 when MAMOHT_T made a nice call on the river for this 1.49M-chip pot:

Both MAMOHT_T and gaucho47 were within one double-up of the chip lead now. Rather than chip away at the leader, though, they ended up clashing just after the blinds and antes went up to 30K/60K/7.5K. MAMOHT_T opened on the button for a minimum raise of 120K; after gaucho47 made it three bets for 240K, MAMOHT_T put in a fourth bet of 378K. gaucho47 thought for a bit before calling, building a 839K-chip pot before the [Jh] [6h] [6s] flop; the Swiss player check-called 275K there and then both players checked the [8c] turn. gaucho47 thought for a while again before betting 480K into 1.39M on the river; MAMOHT_T considered the call for a long time before finally making it, only to see gaucho47 turn up [Kd] [6d] for sixes full of eights.

gaucho47 was within four big blinds of the lead now, while MAMOHT_T was left with just 600K. But the Russian player soon doubled back through gaucho47 with [Ad] [2s] against [Kc] [2d] to get back above 20 big blinds. Joe Ebanks continued to apply pressure to maintain his lead, leaving the other two players to fight over who would get to advance to heads-up play. Finally, on Hand #258, MAMOHT_T jammed for 726K from the small blind with [3d] [3c] and gaucho47 called with [Qc] [9s]. The board ran out [2d] [6d] [8s] [9d] [Jh], sending MAMOHT_T to the rail in 3rd place ($181,000).

An epic heads-up match

gaucho47 faced an uphill battle as heads-up play began with the blinds and antes still at 30K/60K/7.5K:

Seat 5: gaucho47 (3,849,893 in chips)
Seat 6: Joe "ender555" Ebanks (5,200,107 in chips)

Ebanks, who had finished 4th and 6th at two previous SCOOP final tables, had his first title in the series within his sights. But his Swiss opponent won 11 of the first 14 pots to move ever so slightly ahead of Joe Ebanks. Then a bet on the river of a board reading [Ah] [3d] [Js] [2c] [2s] was good for 1.11M chips, opening gaucho47's lead up to more than 25 big blinds. Ebanks moved back ahead less than 10 hands later and held that lead for less than 20 hands before surrendering it to gaucho47 once again.

With blinds and antes still just at 40K/80K/10K and both players battling hard, the potential for an epic heads-up match was clear. That was exactly what evolved as Joe Ebanks and gaucho47 slugged it out. The latter took control after a few dozen hands, at one point winning 16 out of 18 pots to whittle Ebanks down to just 1.39M on the 50K/100K/12.5K level. But less than 15 hands later Ebanks had stormed back to within two big blinds again, holding 4.42M to gaucho47's 4.62M.

As it happened that was close as the former past WSOP and WCOOP bracelet winner would get to his first SCOOP victory in this event. gaucho47 dominated the last 39 hands of play, winning 27 of them and losing only one pot worth more than 10 big blinds. That one came when Ebanks was all-in with [4s] [5s] and hit the river to beat gaucho47's [Ac] [Kh] on a board of [Jh] [Qd] [9s] [6c] [4h].

In the end, as so often happens, it came down to a coin flip. On the 152nd hand of heads-up play and the 410th of the final table, Joe Ebanks' run came to a close:

Both of the final two players earned fine paydays for their efforts at this final table. For Joe "emder555" Ebanks, the third SCOOP final table wasn't the charm - at least not for winning a title. But the $244,350 prize topped his previous best at PokerStars by nearly $170K, and his WCOOP victory back in 2011 by nearly $182K. As for gaucho47, the Swiss player's first SCOOP title also came with career-defining cash - at $339,375 the win was worth nearly $315K more than gaucho47's previous best, a 36th-place finish in the 2011 SCOOP High Main Event. It was a fittingly rewarding end to what has been another record-breaking installment of SCOOP.

SCOOP 2013 Event #42-H: $2,100 NL Hold'em (8-Max)
905 entrants
$1,810,000 prize pool
104 places paid

1st place: gaucho47 (Switzerland) $339,375
2nd place: Joe "ender555" Ebanks (United Kingdom) $244,350
3rd place: MAMOHT_T (Russia) $181,000
4th place: H.Oussalé (Germany) $135,750
5th place: thnkpositive (Thailand) $90,500
6th place: MilanRabsz (Poland) $63,350
7th place: HealTheWorld (Germany) $40,725
8th place: blaaaaaah666 (Ireland) $27,150

Jason Kirk is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.

It's been a wild couple of weeks around here... historic, even. A total of $75,585,305.05 has been won in the 132 tournaments of the 2013 Spring Championship of Online Poker, making it the richest online poker tournament series in history. And a big chunk of that was awarded in Event #43-H, the $10,300 no-limit hold'em Main Event in which Viktor "Isildur1" Blom came back versus Noah "Exclusive" Boeken heads-up to win the watch and a whopping $1,096,200 first prize!

Day 1

$5.8 million!

There were 295 players in their seats at 14:30 ET on Sunday when the first hands of the tournament were dealt. Of course, with an extra-long late registration period of three-and-a-half hours, it was certain the field would ultimately be much larger than that, and indeed by the time time the door closed 580 players had signed up for the event, a hefty increase over the 517 who played the SCOOP "High" Main Event last year.

That huge field meant a prize pool of $5,800,000 -- nearly twice the $3 million guarantee (!) -- with the top 72 due to split the cash and that cool seven-figure first prize scheduled to go to the winner.

Mercy... it's Merson (again)?

By then exactly 520 of the 580 were still in, with Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo the early chip leader. A couple of hours later they were down to 352 players with Bonomo still sporting a big stack although by then 2012 WSOP Main Event champion Greg "gregy20723" Merson had snuck past him into the lead.

As the field shrunk to 200 players gregy20723 still led, and with the WSOP only days away all were reminded that Merson didn't just win one seven-figure first prize at the Main Event last year (for $8,531,853), but two as he also won the $10K six-handed no-limit hold'em event (for $1,136,197). And here in the SCOOP "High" ME -- with its $1 million-plus first prize -- he was leading again!

7tHEcROw7 soars over field

As the night wore on, Bonomo remained just a small pot behind Merson, eventually sneaking back out in front to reclaim the top spot as the tourney entered its ninth hour. Then both finally dropped back to join the chase pack as Tom "7tHEcROw7" MacDonald pushed ahead of everyone as just 100 players remained.

They battled their way into the 19th of the 20 half-hour levels scheduled for Day 1, and as the field shrunk to 80 players 7tHEcROw7 remained on top. Along the way Merson saw his stack slide, and ultimately he'd crash in 94th shy of the money.

Meanwhile, the four remaining Team PokerStars Pros found themselves paired off two to a table, with Angel Guillen across from Leo Fernandez on one, and Jake Cody and Ivan Demidov sitting side-by-side on the other. All four had average stacks except Guillen who was operating with less than 20 big blinds.

Blom is back

The tournament moved into the final level of the night, with a still short-stacked Guillen eventually getting moved to a new table to a seat just to the left of the new chip leader, sitting behind a stack of more than 380,000 while no one else was over 300,000.

A glance at the player's username revealed a familiar player had edged into the Event #43-H spotlight -- where he'd remain, as it turned out, until the tourney's final hand.

That's right... as the night came to a close and the money bubble inched closer, the swingy Swede Viktor "Isildur1" Blom had assumed the top spot in the counts.

Minutes remained, then with the tournament just two eliminations from the cash Tom "7tHEcROw7" MacDonald knocked out Rory "Mafews" Mathews in 74th place when the latter put a stack of about 30 big blinds at risk with [As][Jh] and ran into 7tHEcROw7's [Ac][Ah].

Day 1 ends, bubble intact

That knockout gave MacDonald back the lead with a stack of more than 400,000. It also inaugurated hand-for-hand play, and just two hands later the tourney was halted for the night on the stone bubble.

With 73 left, all four of the Team Pros were still in -- Fernandez (37th), Demidov (46th), Guillen (67th), and Cody (68th). Meanwhile here's what the top of the counts looked like overnight:

1. Tom "7tHEcROw7" MacDonald (United Kingdom) -- 426,418
2. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (United Kingdom) -- 412,539
3. raidalot (United Kingdom) -- 348,977
4. Mike "munchenHB" Telker (Cyprus) -- 252,508
5. OMGjonyctt (United Kingdom) -- 238,190
6. leshkaGmBlZ (Russia) -- 235,629
7. BongBob (Mexico) -- 225,397
8. Trueteller (Russia) -- 214,585
9. Sergio "zcedrick" Aido (Portugal) -- 213,665
10. Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja (Canada) -- 210,430

Many other familiar names populated the counts as well, with Mayu Roca "marroca5" Uribe, Pascal "Pass_72" LeFrancois, Tomás "T 54 T 97s" Paiva, Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen, and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken among those with above average stacks. Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo made it through to Monday, too, with just under the average.

Day 2

smokrokflock smoked, bubble bursts

Hand-for-hand play continued as play resumed Monday, and it appeared at first as though the cash bubble might burst in short order as Mayu Roca "marroca5" Uribe was all in on the first hand versus raidalot. Both players had ace-king, however, and chopped the pot.

The second hand then saw XTheDecanoX survive an all-in with [Ah][Kh] versus Leo Fernandez's [Ac][Qc], then seven more hands passed with no further instances of anyone being at risk of elimination.

Finally on the 10th hand of the day, smokrokflock four-bet shoved from the small blind for nearly 30 big blinds and after some thought Sergio "zcedrick" Aido called. It was [Ah][Qh] for smokrokflock and [Ts][Th] for Aido, and when the board rolled out [Js][5d][7d][2h][Jh] the tens held and smokrokflock was the unfortunate 73rd-place finisher.

Taking out Team PokerStars

Soon after Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody went out in 71st after shoving less than four big blinds with [Ad][9d], getting called by Pascal "Pass_72" LeFrancois in the big blind with [Tc][3d], and watching a ten fall among the community cards. Cody's teammate Leo Fernandez followed soon after in 68th after running [3h][3s] into dehoowhat's [Qd][Qc]. Both earned min-cashes of $19,140 for their finishes.

Others hitting the rail during the first hour on Day 2 included Paul "Paolo69" Foltyn (70th, $19,140), Richard "nutsinho" Lyndaker (69th, $19,140), Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (62nd, $20,300), and Eric "jakz101" Crain (60th, $20,300).

Team PokerStars Pro Ivan Demidov was next to go in 59th ($20,300) after committing about 11 big blinds with [Ac][Jd] versus the [5d][5h] Nicky "Cod Meharly" Evans. A jack fell on the turn for Demidov, but a five came on fifth street to end the Russian's run.

That left just Angel Guillen as the last Team PokerStars Pro, but soon he, too, was all in for just five big blinds with [Ah][6s] against Godfatti's [9s][9h]. The board came [9c][6d][2d][As][Ts], and Godfatti's set beat Guillen's two pair to send the latter out in 57th ($20,300).

Boeken becomes "Exclusive" member of million-chip club

Play continued, with Amadi_017 pushing up over 500,000 to claim the top spot as the field shrunk below 50. Among the next wave of knockouts were Matt "ADZ124" Marafioti (55th, $20,300), Nicky "Cod Meharly" Evans (51st, $23,200), Mike "Pipedream17" Dietrich (50th, $23,200), and Vojtech "Vojta_R" Ruzicka (46th, $23,200).

As they moved into the third hour Day 2, Pascal "Pass_72" LeFrancois (42nd, $26,100), Yann "yadio" Dion (41st, $26,100), Mayu Roca "marroca5" Uribe (33rd, $29,000), Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen (28th, $29,000), and Ondrej "Vinkyy" Vinklarek (23rd, $34,800) were among the eliminated as Noah "Exclusive" Boeken moved past everyone into the top spot as the first player to 1 million chips.

Unkn0wn123 rounded out a terrific SCOOP series with a 22nd-place finish ($34,800). Start-of-Day-2 leader Tom "7tHEcROw7" MacDonald was the next to go in 21st, followed by Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja (20th) and raidalot (19th), each of whom also earned $34,800.

Finding a final table

With 18 left, Noah "Exclusive" Boeken still held the top spot with nearly 1.4 million, with Mike "munchenHB" Telker next closest with about 1.23 million.

GlassOfBeer (18th) was next out, then Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo's run ended in 17th after his [As][Qh] failed to improve versus Tomás "T 54 T 97s" Paiva's [Qd][Qs]. OMGjonycutt followed those two to the rail in 16th, like them also earning $46,400.

BongBob was next out in 15th, followed by sosickPL who finished 14th (for a 16th SCOOP cash) and chipdonky47 in 13th, with each earning $58,000.

Noah "Exclusive" Boeken next won a huge pot after knocking hateAll686 out in 12th ($69,600). That one saw the pair battle to the river, building a pot of more than 755,000 as the board came [3c][2c][7s][7c][3s]. hateAll686 then checked, Boeken shoved, and hateAll686 called all in for nearly 550,000 with [Jc][Jh]. But Boeken had [6c][5c] for the flush, and suddenly Exclusive was up over 2.11 million.

Soon after Boeken also knocked out Thiago "XTheDecanoX" Nishijima in 11th ($69,600), then Event #20-H ($2,100 NLHE Turbo Zoom) winner Tomás "T 54 T 97s" Paiva went out in 10th -- both also earning $69,600 -- and after five hours of Day 2 action the final table was underway.

Seat 1: Amadi_017 (United Kingdom) -- 423,455
Seat 2: Sergio "zcedrick" Aido (United Kingdom) -- 1,299,847
Seat 3: Mike "munchenHB" Telker (Cyprus) -- 1,629,266
Seat 4: cmontopdeck (United Kingdom) -- 661,773
Seat 5: Noah "Exclusive" Boeken (Netherlands) -- 2,397,709
Seat 6: leshkaGmBlZ (Russia) -- 375,703
Seat 7: w4ldo (Germany) -- 699,434
Seat 8: Ravi "govshark2" Raghavan (Canada) -- 387,291
Seat 9: Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (United Kingdom) -- 825,522

Amadi_017 axed in ninth

They'd reached Level 30 (8,000/16,000/2,000) by the time the final table began. Within five minutes Mike "munchenHB" Telker was min-raising to 32,000 from early position, and when it folded around to the big blind Amadi_017 reraised all in for 363,205. Telker quickly called, showing [Js][Jh], while Amadi_017 was hoping to improve with [As][Kc].

The [4s][9h][5h] flop was no good for Amadi_017, and the [Qd] turn brought the wrong face card. The [4d] then fell on fifth street, and Amadi_017 was out in ninth.

leshkaGmBlZ leaves in eighth

About 20 minutes later they were still in Level 30 when Noah "Exclusive" Boeken min-raised to 32,000, then leshkaGmBlZ reraise-shoved for 404,453 from a seat over. It folded back around and Boeken called the reraise, showing [Ad][Ks] to leshkaGmBlZ's [9s][9d].

The flop came [6h][Js][Ac], pairing Boeken's ace, and after the [Jd] turn and [3d] river, leshkaGmBlZ had been ousted in seventh.

w4ldo waylaid in seventh

Play continued, and after a while the table's short stack w4ldo was all in before the flop and at risk with [8s][8d] versus zcedrick's [Kd][Qd], but managed to survive. Meanwhile Viktor "Isildur1" Blom chipped up over 2 million to move into third position behind Boeken with just under 2.2 million and Telker who'd nudged in front with more than 2.25 million.

Alas for w4ldo, the end would come soon thereafter. The blinds had moved up to 12,500/25,000, and after a Boeken open for 50,000 from UTG, w4ldo jammed for 356,493 and it folded around to Telker in the small blind who called. Both cmontopdeck (big blind) and Boeken folded, and w4ldo showed [Ac][Qs] while munchenHB had [As][Ks].

The board came [6s][3c][5s], then [9h], then [8h], and they were down to six.

govshark2 speared in sixth

The blinds increased once more to 15,000/30,000, and soon Ravi "govshark2" Raghavan open-pushed from the cutoff seat to 172,207 and got a single caller in Viktor "Isildur1" Blom from the button. Raghavan had [Qs][9h] and Blom [Ah][Qc].

The flop came [As][8h][6s], putting Raghavan into even worse shape, and by the [4h] turn he was drawing dead. Raghavan's Main Event run had ended in sixth, though he had earned a nice consolation prize worth nearly a quarter million dollars.

zcedrik down to zero, out in fifth

It was only a few hands later that Noah "Exclusive" Boeken raised 2x to 60,000 from under the gun, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom called from the cutoff, then Sergio "zcedrick" Aido pushed all in for 505,263 from the button. The blinds stepped aside, as did Boeken, but Blom made the call.

zcedrick: [Ac][Kh]
Isildur1: [9s][9h]

Aido was looking for an ace, a king, or some other favorable combination of community cards, but nothing came to help him as the board rolled out [2h][7d][Qc][Th][6s], sending zcedrick railward in fifth.

munchenHB mowed down in fourth

The final four continued for several orbits, then two knockouts in two hands saw the tournament suddenly reach heads-up play.

With play having reached Level 34 (17,500/35,000/4,375), Noah "Exclusive" Boeken raised to 70,000 from the button, then Mike "munchenHB" Telker reraised to 199,885 from the big blind and Boeken called.

The flop came [Qh][4h][Td]. Telker led for 198,995, and when Boeken raised all in, Telker called with the 1,242,701 he had left behind.

Both players had flopped top pair, but Exclusive's [Qd][Js] meant he had the better kicker than munchenHB who had [Qc][9c]. The turn was the [2h] and river the [Tc], and Telker was out in fourth.

An amazing run for Telker, who incredibly matches his performance in the 2012 WCOOP Main Event where he also finished fourth, in that case earning more that $1 million thanks to having made it to a six-way chop beforehand.

cmontopdeck cut down in third

On the very next hand, it was Viktor "Isildur1" Blom raising 2x to 70,000 from the button, cmontopdeck reraising all in for 828,071 from the small blind, Boeken pushing all in over the top from the big blind, and Blom stepping aside.

cmontopdeck had [Jc][Th], but needed all sorts of help to overcome the [Kc][Kh] of Boeken. The [Jh][5c][3c] gave cmontopdeck jacks and a ray of hope, but the [Qc] turn and [2s] were of no use, and cmontopdeck took third.

Blom battles back, beats Boeken

What a tournament it had been. And what a heads-up match to conclude it, too, with Noah "Exclusive" Boeken looking for his second SCOOP watch of the series after winning Event #13-H ($2,100 PLO Heads-Up), and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom aiming to better his SCOOP performance from a year ago when he started the series winning two watches in two days.

This battle began with Boeken enjoying a better than 3-to-1 advantage over Blom to start heads-up play with 6,525,734 to Blom's 2,174,266. There was no deal-making talk -- not that we expected it. The blinds were still 17,500/35,000, meaning both players' stacks were deeper than deep to begin, as Boeken had about 186 BBs and Blom about 62.

Blom thus proceeded with caution, and over the first half-hour of heads-up play managed to add more than a million to his stack without putting himself all-in and at risk once. Over the next few hands Blom chipped up over 4 million to narrow Boeken's lead even further, then edged out in front to grab the lead as the next break approached.

Before long Blom had more than 5.6 million to Boeken's 3.08 million. The blinds were up to 25,000/50,000, and the last hand before the day's eight-and-a-half-hour break saw Blom min-raise, Boeken three-bet to 250,000, and Blom call.

The flop came [Ts][2c][Jc] and the turn the [Kd], with Blom calling bets by Boeken on both streets (for 250,000, then 600,000). The river then brought the [Ad], and when Boeken checked, Blom promptly shoved all in, sending Boeken into the tank for some time before he let his hand go.

That took the pair to the break with Blom sitting with 6,721,891 and Boeken 1,978,109, their stacks having essentially been switched since the start of heads-up play.

Back from the break, the pair played five minutes more without much change to their stacks, carrying their heads-up duel close to the one-hour mark.

Then a hand arose in which Boeken min-raised to 100,000 from the button and Blom called, and the pair saw a flop come [Js][Kc][9s]. Blom checked, Boeken bet 130,000, and soon Blom check-raised to 342,500. Boeken responded by shoving all in for 1,859,359 total, and Blom called.

Isildur1: [Qc][Tc]
Exclusive: [Ks][5c]

Boeken had flopped a pair of kings, but Blom had a king-high straight and a stranglehold on the hand. The [9c] fell on the turn, meaning Boeken wasn't quite drawing dead with one card to come. But the river was the [Ad]. Blom had won!

Congratulations to ever-amazing Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, winner of this year's SCOOP "High" Main Event! Blom adds a third SCOOP watch to his collection, plus a rare seven-figure online tourney score to his list of accomplishments.

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #43-H Main Event ($10,300 No-Limit Hold'em) results

Players: 580
Total prize pool: $5,800,000
Places paid: 72

1. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (United Kingdom) $1,096,200
2. Noah "Exclusive" Boeken (Netherlands) $803,300
3. cmontopdeck (United Kingdom) $591,600
4. Mike "munchenHB" Telker (Cyprus) $446,600
5. Sergio "zcedrick" Aido (United Kingdom) $313,200
6. Ravi "govshark2" Raghavan (Canada) $246,500
7. w4ldo (Germany) $188,500
8. leshkaGmBlZ (Russia) $130,500
9. Amadi_017 (United Kingdom) $88,740

Thanks to everyone for following our coverage of the 2013 Spring Championship of Online Poker here on the PokerStars blog. Click here for recaps of all 132 events and more, and visit the SCOOP site for a complete rundown of results and other SCOOP stats.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

This year's Spring Championship of Online Poker saw Team Pro Daniel Negreanu win his first ever online title. It saw Team Pro George Danzer win two events and put forth a Herculean effort to win the overall Player of the Series. It was, by all accounts, a festival rich on story lines.

Though each tale seemed taller than the last, no one could've predicted how rich the tournament would actually be. By the time the festival was done, PokerStars had paid out $75,585,435.05 in prize money, more than $10 million more than last year.

BLOM WINS THIRD TITLE, MAIN EVENT, $1 MILLION

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom is a cash game player, right? That's the conventional wisdom. Somehow, though, it seems when it comes time to play a big money tournament, he finds a way to turn himself into a tourney player.

As you see above, it once happened in the PCA $100,000 High Roller. It happened again when he won two SCOOP titles last year. And, by golly, if it didn't happen again yesterday when he won $1,096,00 in the $10,300 SCOOP main event.

His first tweet when it was over?

While that played out, Brazil's Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos won the medium buy-in event. The effort was worth $472,209 after a four-way deal that involved Team Online's Randy "nanonoko" Lew who finished in fourth place for $368,445.

Meanwhile, the monster 23,045-player low buy-in main event went to Israel's "MLiz" who pulled in $189,015 after a five-way deal at the final table.

DANZER WINS OVERALL PLAYER OF SERIES

There was never any questioning whether Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer had his eye on SCOOP 2013 Player of the Series. He played 130 tournaments over the 16 days of play. During that time, he cashed 24 times, made four final tables, and won two events outright. It was a stellar effort that earned him Player of the Series of both the high buy-in category and the overall series. For his marathon, he earned not only his untold amount of profit, but also packages to the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure an the EPT 10 Grand Final.

We also want to recognize Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick who won the medium buy-in leaderboard as well as Team PokerStars Pro Marcin "Goral" Horecki who won Player of the Series of the low buy-ins. Both players get SCOOP trophies and PCA 2014 packages.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

While the Player of the Series title is beyond impressive, it doesn't always tell the whole story in terms of who cashed the biggest. There were some big winners in this year's SCOOP. The biggest, of course, was Viktor Blom who pulled in more than $1 million in the main event alone.

Here are the Top 20 SCOOP 2013 earners.

WRAPPING THINGS UP

You can see all our coverage from the past two weeks in our special SCOOP 2013 coverage section. Also, don't forget to check out all our video recaps on PokerStars.tv.

Once again, congratulations to all the champions and Players of the Series, and thanks for reading.

If you'd like to catch up with the most recent news, here are our wraps from the long weekend. Click on any of the headlines to read the stories.

bogdaniel111 breaks through, matt86ck takes top dollar in Event #34-L ($27 PL Omaha H/L)

Players: 3,719
Prizepool: $91,301.45
Places paid: 495

1. bogdaniel111 (Romania) $7,988.63*
2. Teminem (Ukraine) $6,257.31*
3. matt86ck (Poland) $13,500.00*
4. toomaskoomas (Finland) $7,616.50*
5. HnumTheGreat (Russia) $6,318.90*
6. ibluffgold (Malta) $2,967.29
7. farrider63 (Germany) $2,054.28
8. royeapoker (Chile) $1,141.26
9. loreh87 (Hungary) $730.41
*= reflects the results of a five-way deal that left $1,000 in play for the winner

TheLandlord1 evicts opponents to win Event 34M ($215+R PLO H/L)

Players: 943
Prizepool: $188,600
Places paid: 126

1. TheLandlord1 (Canada) $29,620.20*
2. henrikx (Sweden) $28,845.80*
3. paomala (Costa Rica) $18,294.20
4. UIDuffer (Ireland) $13,673.50
5. Fresh_oO_D (Germany) $9,505.44
6. Obamapoker88 (Sweden) $7,544.00
7. Liquid_PLO (Germany) $5,658.00
8. EdoTK (Sweden) $3,772.00
9. luk45zp (Poland) $2,263.20
(Payouts reflect two-way deal)

Akademnuk ascends to victory in SCOOP #34-H ($2,100 PLO Hi/Lo)

Entrants: 171
Prize pool: $342,000.00
Places paid: 27

1. Akademnuk (Russia) $73,530.00
2. Just F0LD it (Russia) $53,010.00
3. bedias (Brazil) $40,185.00
4. römpsä (Finland) $29,925.00
5. kuhns89 (Germany) $20,520.00
6. kirbynator (Canada) $17,100.00
7. 2mark (Germany) $13,680.00
8. plplaya (Canada) $10,260.00
9. KallApelsin (Sweden) $6,840.00

pierrec_m pierces field in Event #36-L ($27 NLHE 1R1A)

Entrants: 8,415
Rebuys: 5,362
Add-ons: 3,708
Prize pool: $429,256.75
Places paid: 1,080

1st pierrec_m (Romania) - $64,394.18
2nd BBCboom (Russia) - $47,377.06
3rd ZebMcCracken (Germany) - $34,340.54
4th meteze (Romania) - $22,750.60
5th OrangemanXD (Belarus) - $17,599.52
6th t8ofDiamonds (Malta) - $13,306.95
7th GodsTeacher (United Kingdom) - $9,229.02
8th kambera560 (Bulgaria) - $5,151.08
9th zabest_666 (Canada) - $3,326.73

Chance "ChanceCU" Kornuth shows poker's a skill game, wins Event #36-M ($215 NLHE 1R1A)

Players: 1,430
Re-buys: 1,030
Add-ons: 909
Total prize pool: $673,800.00
Places paid: 180

1. Chance "ChanceCU" Kornuth (Mexico) $112,558.29
2. snejokCoxx (Russia) $82,203.60
3. skyboy69 (Portugal) $61,989.60
4. T.J. "1BigAceHole" Ulmer (Canada) $45,818.40
5. Cosita Rica (Costa Rica) $33,016.20
6. GearUp777 (Austria) $26,278.20
7. TIITTIIT (Canada) $19,540.20
8. IfoolU (Sweden) $12,802.20
9. fish2013 (Belarus) $7,007.52

Anthony "wwwBTHEREcom" Gregg wins first watch #36-H ($2,100+1R1A No Limit Hold'em)

Players: 224 (135 rebuys, 149 add-ons)
Prizepool: $1,016,000
Place paid: 27

1. Anthony "wwwBTHEREcom" Gregg (Canada) $197,720.35*
2. Elio "smokrokflock" Fox (Canada) $178,199.65*
3. robinho (Sweden) $119,380
4. bob43155 (Mexico) $88,900
5. TheMuIIetman (Sweden) $60,960
6. Rens02 (Netherlands) $50,800
7. Mafews (United Kingdom) $20,320
8. Clark "snake8484" Hamagami (Canada) $30,480
9. Sasuke234 (Sweden) $20,320
Reflects heads-up deal

klippen's wings aren't clipped in Event 37-L ($27 HORSE)

Players: 2,826
Prizepool: $69,378.30
Places paid: 368

1. klippen (Norway) - $11,796.36
2. DaliaAllin (Portugal) - $8,325.39
3. St3phenHendr (Austria) - $6,244.04
4. breasticlelv (Panama) - $4,856.48
5. ozenc (Austria) - $3,486.91
6. L1000000 (Canada) - $2,081.34
7. LuigiPalermo (Germany) - $1,387.56
8. Kazantipolé (Switzerland) - $693.78

Mitorun runs away with title in Event #37-M ($215 HORSE)

Entrants: 567
Prize pool: $113,400.00
Places paid: 72

1st Mitorun (Russia) - $19,604.32*
2nd guns_n_fight (Greece) - $17,534.18*
3rd David "WhooooKidd" Baker (Mexico) - $11,566.80
4th Fred_Brink (Denmark) - $8,505.00
5th YordanPetrov (Bulgaria) - $5,670.00
6th Tarzancev (Russia) - $3,969.00
7th Ulett_23 (Canada) - $2,835.00
8th holtekila (Norway) - $1,984.50
* denotes heads-up deal

aDrENalin710 Wins Second SCOOP Title; George Danzer Denied Third SCOOP Crown in Event #37-H ($2,100 HORSE)

Entrants: 107
Prize Pool: $214,000
Places Paid: 12

1. aDrENalin710 (Russia) - $58,315
2. highland (Canada) - $39,590
3. Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer (Germany) - $29,960
4. PearlJammer (Mexico) - $20,330
5. AceQuad (Mexico) - $14,980
6. NoraFlum (Mexico) - $11,235
7. CoooKay (Canada) - $9,095
8. skalexjung (Germany) - $6,955

JKMatthews denies Horecki and "JC" to add SCOOP title to MM silverware in Event #38-L ($27 NL Omaha Hi/Lo)

Players: 2,906
Prizepool: $71,342.30
Places paid: 378

1. JKMatthews (Australia), $10,100.16*
2. JulianChrist (Brazil), $9,592.26*
3. yurasov1990 (Belarus), $5,992.75
4. LebenIsSchön (Germany), $4,172.81
5. Goral (Poland), $3,103.39
6. bolovic (Switzerland), $2,389.96
7. Gags30 (Canada), $1,676.54
8. nickosz (Hungary), $1,034.46
9. Raininkiwi (New Zealand), $606.40
* denotes two-way deal

ninototoroko crushes in Event #38-M ($215 NL Omaha Hi-Lo)

Entrants: 661
Prize pool: $132,200
Places paid: 90

1st ninototoroko (Brazil) - $24,787.50
2nd flexmasterNL (Netherlands) - $17,847.00
3rd Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick (United Kingdom) - $13,220.00
4th midastruck (United Kingdom) - $9,915.00
5th kintamani (Austria) - $6,940.50
6th bogdaniel111 (Romania) - $5,618.50
7th ezeelife (United Kingdom) - $4,296.50
8th miamia23 (United Kingdom) - $2,974.50
9th Fred_Brink (Denmark) - $1,864.02

gumasta scoops up a win in Event #38-H ($2,100 NL Omaha Hi/Lo)

Players: 118
Prizepool: $236,000
Places paid: 15

1. gumasta (Philippines) $59,000.00
2. N0b0dy (Canada) $40,120.00
3. karolinaD (Poland) $30,680.00
4. Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (Mexico) $21,830.00
5. jpro89 (Canada) $15,340.00
6. nilsef (Germany) $12,390.00
7. vandir4rek (Russia) $10,030.00
8. TY4Stacks2 (Sweden) $8,260.00
9. Eric "AceQuad" Brix (Mexico) $6,490.00

mossberg1988 mows down massive field and wins Event #39-L $55 PLO [6-Max]

Entrants: 3,007
Prize Pool: $150,350
Places paid: 390

1. mossberg1988 (Denmark) - $20,969.18 ***
2. balsarney88 (Malta) - $16,834.15 ***
3. Eric "AceQuad" Brix (Mexico) - $15,948.22 ***
4. ITSME81 (Belguim) - $8,269.25
5. Strlxen (Sweden) - $5,262.25
6. ttouch77 (New Zealand) - $2,686.75
*** denotes a three-way deal

krondix crushes Event #39-M ($530 PLO 6-Max)

Players: 700
Total prize pool: $350,000
Places paid: 90

1. krondix (Dominican Republic) $63,000
2. ANV1972 (Russia) $47,250
3. Popiedejopie (Netherlands) $35,000
4. cantbeat (Canada) $24,500
5. KamelAudun (Norway) $17,500
6. elabuga (Russia) $10,500

Daniel Negreanu takes first major online victory in Event #39-H ($5,200 PLO 6-Max)

Players: 180
Prizepool: $900,000
Places paid: 24

1. Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu (Canada) $216,000.00
2. FA_Morgoth (Austria) $148,950.00
3. römpsä (Finland) $112,500.00
4. ender555 (United Kingdom) $76,500.00
5. leshkaGmBlZ (Russia) $58,500.00
6. rdcrsn (Canada) $40,500.00

Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin wins first SCOOP title in Event #40-L ($215 NLHE Heads-Up, High Roller)

Players: 1,365
Prizepool; $273,000
Places paid: 128

1. Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin (Mexico) $41,285.79
2. jokkee_apart (Norway) $26,270.79
3. nizmo jiz (Australia) $13,134.03
4. maximum123 (Norway) $13,134.03
5. Andrey VNIIM (Russia) $7,316.40
6. 245112jp (Hungary ) $7,316.40
7. croman19 (Sweden) $7,316.40
8. veeea (Russia) $7,316.40

Ben "KidCardiff6" Warrington wins HU High-Roller Event #40-M ($2,100 NLH Heads-Up, High-Roller)

Players: 247
Prizepool: $494,000
Place paid: 32

1. Ben "KidCardiff6" Warrington (United Kingdom) $91,920*
2. caaaaamel (Austria) $85,920*
3. Rens "Rens02" Feenstra (Netherlands) $24,580
4. Vladimir "GVOZDIKA55" Shchemelev (Russia) $34,580
5. Pascal "Pass_72" LaFrancois (Canada) $19,266
6. Saul "iCeVeNoM" Khalili (Canada) $19,266
7. Paul "paulgees81" Volpe (Canada) $19,266
8. €urop€an (Finland) $19,266
* - reflects heads-up deal

mrGR33N13 does the talking, Ben86 does the winning in Event #40-H ($21,000 heads-up high roller)

Players: 32
Prizepool: $656,000
Places paid: 8

1. Ben86 (Canada), $200,401.00*
2. mrGR33N13 (Canada), $160,399.00*
3. Lrslzk (Finland), $65,600.00
4. theNERDguy (Brazil), $65,600.00
5. Helio TYF (Canada), $41,000.00
6. Sauce123 (Canada), $41,000.00
7. ninototoroko (Brazil), $41,000.00
8. kotkis (Finland), $41,000.00
* denotes two-way deal

zhenmao75322's wall of chips wins Event #41-L ($27 NLHE 4-Max)

Players: 8,734
Prizepool: $214,419.70
Places paid: 1,100

1. zhenmao75322 (China) $22,0014.98
2. naGlo_LgaL (Belarus) $13,324.04
3. vagos9 (Greece) $7,721.25
4. TournamenT29 (Russia) $4,764.40
5. dagsie89 (United Kingdom) $3,014.74

hownorez has way after three-way chop, wins Event #41-M ($215 NLHE 4-Max)

Players: 1,777
Total prize pool: $355,400
Places paid: 224

1. hownorez (Czech Republic) $37,843.50*
2. zebest_666 (Canada) $37,297.21*
3. 360flip019 (Canada) $40,397.81*
4. Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin (Mexico) $12,630.91
5. Sklifus (Russia) $8,088.90

Danzer does it again in Event #41-H ($2,100 NLHE 4-Max)

Entrants: 380
Prize pool: $760,000.00
Places paid: 44

1st George Danzer (Austria) - $155,000.00*
2nd USoGotPwned (United Kingdom) - $168,988.00*
3rd Dan "w00ki3z." Cates (United Kingdom) - $66,834.40
4th Zach "nofingclue11" Clark (Mexico) - $41,389.60
5th pezler06 (United Kingdom) - $26,964.80
* denotes heads-up deal

All too easy for nbk_oli who wins Event #42-L ($27 NL Hold'em, 8-Max)

Players: 21,598
Prize pool: $530,230.90
Places paid: 2,800

1. nbk_oli (United Kingdom), $62,082.88
2. philippe2211 (Switzerland), $42,418.47
3. YUNOABC (Netherlands), $31,813.85
4. CTaylor865 (United Kingdom), $21,209.23
5. meetpete33 (Germany), $10,604.61
6. jelsmulle (Denmark), $5,302.30
7. jusssti (Estonia), $3,711.61
8. TheDrunkLife (Canada), $2,386.03

An uphill victory for SlyderS1 in Event #42-M ($215 NLHE 8-Max)

Players: 5,436
Prize pool: $1,087,200.00
Places paid: 680

1. SlyderS1 (Hungary) $169,757.60
2. rain1812 (Estonia) $116,874.00
3. RomaFresh (Russia) $95,130.00
4. PokerBratv2 (Hungary) $73,386.00
5. BackDoorovic (Sweden) $51,642.00
6. JACKPOT786 (United Kingdom) $29,898.00
7. dariepoker (Romania) $13,590.00
8. psyhoagromor (Ukraine) $8,154.00

gaucho47 outguns Joe "ender555" Ebanks in Event #42-H, $2,100 NL Hold'em (8-Max)

Players: 905
Prize pool: $1,810,000
Place paid: 104

1st place: gaucho47 (Switzerland) $339,375
2nd place: Joe "ender555" Ebanks (United Kingdom) $244,350
3rd place: MAMOHT_T (Russia) $181,000
4th place: H.Oussalé (Germany) $135,750
5th place: thnkpositive (Thailand) $90,500
6th place: MilanRabsz (Poland) $63,350
7th place: HealTheWorld (Germany) $40,725
8th place: blaaaaaah666 (Ireland) $27,150

MLiz magnificent in Main Event with victory in Event #43-L [$109 NL]

Entrants: 23,045
Prize Pool: $2,304,500
Places Paid: 3,150

1. MLiz (Israel) - $189,015.34 **
2. Cha444 (Indonesia) - $121,137.18 **
3. Pawel.Mpl (Poland) - $142,494.02 **
4. yuricougar (Netherlands) - $111,322.40 **
5. Thru Ya City (Russia) - $114,277.40 **
6. sirgiannis1 (Greece) - $46,090.00
7. TWOcc (Switzerland) - $32,378.22
8. tonn22 (Netherlands) - $20,740.50
9. boomerangP (Canada) - $13,827.00
** denotes a five-way deal

VAMOOOO! Brazil's Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos wins Event #43-M, nanonoko 4th ($1,050 NLHE Main Event)

Players: 4,039
Prizepool: $4,039,000
Places paid: 540

1. Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos (Brazil) $472,209.35*
2. Bostero10 (Argentina) $434,760.63*
3. LuCasino777 (Slovakia) $396,731.01*
4. Randy "nanonoko" Lew $368,445.01*
5. mandalaclub (Brazil) $171,657.50
6. Need1MFasT (United Kingdom) $131,267.50
7. stasia42 (Israel) $90,877.50
8. iAct.VolanD (Russia) $50,487.50
9. zinkAA (Russia) $32,312.00
*= reflects the results of a four-way deal that left $40,000 in play for the winner

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom bests Boeken heads-up, wins over $1m in Main Event #43-H ($10,300 NLHE)

Players: 580
Total prize pool: $5,800,000
Places paid: 72

1. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (United Kingdom) $1,096,200
2. Noah "Exclusive" Boeken (Netherlands) $803,300
3. cmontopdeck (United Kingdom) $591,600
4. Mike "munchenHB" Telker (Cyprus) $446,600
5. Sergio "zcedrick" Aido (United Kingdom) $313,200
6. Ravi "govshark2" Raghavan (Canada) $246,500
7. w4ldo (Germany) $188,500
8. leshkaGmBlZ (Russia) $130,500
9. Amadi_017 (United Kingdom) $88,740

Pablito_2121 is number one in Event 44L ($11 NLHE Turbo, 3xChance)

Players: 17,869 (14,810 rebuys)
Prizepool: $326,790
Places paid: 2,250

1. pablito_2121 (Belgium) $26,728.35*
2. SC72A (UK) $27,454.19*
3. mad.afurable (Germany) $24,078.68*
4. talentaki (Greece) $23,696.06*
5. Serg2407 (Ukraine) $11,437.65
6. michael raab (Austria) $8,169.75
7. HOMERos (Sweden) $5,555.43
8. RovoDice (Latvia) $2,941.11
9. starplayeren (Denmark) $1,960.74
(Payouts reflect four-way deal)

TiltMeHarder avoids mega-tilt and binks Event #44-M Wrap-Up [$109 NL Turbo, 3x-Chance]

Entrants: 4,656
Re-Buys: 3,126
Prize Pool: $778,200
Places Paid: 585
1. TiltMeHarder (Sweden) - $108,000.00 ***
2. filushh (Israel) - $85,589.25 ***
3. Fukuruku (Ukraine) - $83,840.40 ***
4. IvanRus063 (Russia) - $44,746.50
5. el kudos (U.K.) - $33,073.50
6. bas0r (U.K) - $25,291.50
7. Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth (Ireland) - $17,509.50
8. gzottel (Germany) - $9,727.50
9. junco125 (Brazil) - $6,225.60
*** denotes a three-way deal

EPT London champ Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser wins Event #44-H, $1,050 NL Hold'em Wrap-Up (Turbo, 3x-Chance)

Players: 955 (604 rebuys)
Prize pool: $1,559,000
Places paid: 108

1st place: Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser (Netherlands) $168,957.76*
2nd place: John "kleath" Leathart (Mexico) $181,005.82*
3rd place: Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (Mexico) $186,478.79*
4th place: ocropTi (Germany) $161,081.83*
5th place: David "davidv1213" Vamplew (United Kingdom) $133,422.80*
6th place: a.S.e. High (Romania) $64,698.50
7th place: deamon10 (Denmark) $49,108.50
8th place: Zach "nofingclue11" Clark (Mexico) $34,453.90
9th place: Femmeonfelt (Canada) $19,995.20
* - Denotes results of a five-way deal

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

We're used to seeing some extraordinary plays in our major series like SCOOP, but sometimes a player does something that takes our breath away. Step forward Sami 'Lrslzk' Kelopuro, who pulled off a masterstroke during this hand in the $21,000 SCOOP High Roller.

As you watch the hand play out below, keep in mind that this is a heads-up contest, both players have a wide range as a result - and both will be suitably aggressive. What would you do in Kelopuro's shoes?

Yes, that was Shaun Deeb commentating on the hand for pokerstars.tv. "That really should be talked about as one of the greatest hands of poker... those hands you always hear about," he said. "That is poker on a level I've never seen."

Coming from one of online poker's tournament legends, that really is saying something.

So, a round of applause to Kelopuro, one of the best players to have come out of Finland. We bet mrGR33N13 will be feeling a little, er, green when he watches it.

Viktor Blom doesn't do a lot of media work. Even in the few opportunities I've had to talk to him, I've walked away without a perfectly clear understanding of what we just talked about.

That is a short way of explaining why you don't yet see a long, in-depth piece about Blom's $1 million win in the $10,300 Spring Championship of Online Poker main event. His oft-retweeted response to winning was, "Cash game seat open?" I expect that will be, much like Forest Gump, all he has to say about that.

There are others, however, who are carrying around a particular glow that says a lot more, both about their game and how they chose to live their lives. Take, for instance, Randal Flowers.

It was a struggle, but the man actually managed to find a picture of himself wearing a shirt.

This bears a little explanation.

PokerStars Blog writer Krisin Bihr put it well when she led this piece with, "Randal 'RandALLin' Flowers is the youngest-ever two-time WPT champion. He has over $3.5 million in career online MTT earnings and another $1.9 million live. But until tonight, he had yet to ship a 'COOP.'"

Flowers, an American, has been on the scene for years, but when Black Friday shut down his USA headquarters, he became one of the online refugees living in Mexico.

"It was a blessing in disguise. Between all the friends I have in our small community down here in Playa, to finally finding somewhere my girlfriend and I could live together, it was very nice," he said. "Without the DOJ forcing me to move out of my own country, I wouldn't be as happy as I am now. Taking this opportunity to use my happiness to play stress-free poker as focused as I can is a great feeling.

Stress-free is right. Flowers struggled to find a picture of himself in which he wasn't shirtless or making obscene gestures to the camera. Hell, he often finds it hard to stop relaxing. The beach isn't far away, and fighting the desire to grind the waves instead of the online tables is a struggle.

Nonetheless, he's booking this turbo SCOOP win as a career accomplishment.

"It's a great win. I've won a few WPT's live which are the highlight of my career, but I've never won a 'COOP," he said. "It's funny because I primarily would say my strength would be more deepstack NLHE tournaments with the longer levels. To win something the opposite is a surprise, but I'll most certainly take it."

If Flowers' carefree lifestyle seems antithetical to the poker grind, you might want to take a look at 23-year-old Ivan "Furunduk" Tikhov who won the medium buy-in $82 5-Card Omaha Hi/Lo 6-Max event.

That's him below.

What you see there is a young man clutching the fabled Binion's million. He's a Russian. In Vegas. Who lives in London. Temporarily.

The point is, he doesn't like being rooted down. He and his wife recently traveled across Europe and the Caribbean. Poker is a big part of his life, but it's a means to an end.

"My life doesn't have geographical borders," he said. "I can live in any place I like, because my job allows it."

Event 19-L winner Ben " I Am Benjami " Stern knows all about where jobs can take you. Born and raised in London, he nows spends most of his time in Tel Aviv, Israel working in the forex and binary options trading industry. Poker is his hobby, and his job lets him live where he wants.

"It's an amazing city with a beautiful coastline and a warm bustling atmosphere almost 24 hours as day," he said. "Waking up to the sunshine, sea breeze, and being surrounded by kind friendly people from all over the world is so refreshing, especially in a zone surrounded by a shadow of troubles, both past and present."

Those are just a few of our recent SCOOP champions, men who don't need much to make their nut. Give them an internet connection and some sunshine, and they'll do the rest.

You can see full results of all the SCOOP events on the 2013 SCOOP results page. For more in-depth coverage, head to our special 2013 SCOOP coverage section.

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

While the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Viktor Blom and George Danzer may have taken the biggest headlines it should not be forgotten that the SCOOP crowned a lot of heroes during its $75 million festival. One hundred and thirty-30 heroes, in fact (two players won two events).

One of those champs was 22-year-old Jan De Smet who won SCOOP Event #5-L ($11+R NLHE turbo). De Smet, playing under the name 'JacktShipper', beat a field of 12,558 (with 22,128 rebuys and 8,014 add-ons) to bank $58,291.29. He may be young but there's plenty of poker experience under the belt of this University student. As well being a heads up coach at the same site as Team PokerStars Online's Kevin 'WizardOfAhhs' Thurman, De Smet has racked up enough FPPs to attain Supernova status so you may recognise his online name if you've been grinding on PokerStars.

"While I don't have any real reservations against seeing my real name used, I'd prefer it if I'd be referred to as jacktheshipper or JTS simply because native English people mispronounce my first name quite wrong and it makes me cringe," said De Smet.

As someone who has butchered many a poker player's name (mainly Russian and Czech), it's an understandable request but given that these SCOOP winner profiles are about marrying the player behind the avatar, we're calling you De Smet, De Smet. You can't mispronounce in print.

So, De Smet may not be the most well-known SCOOP winner, but he has beaten him before.

"Last year is... where SCOOP became my favourite online poker series of all time. Mainly because I final tabled the low shootout and also because I drew Daniel Negreanu in the first round of the $700 HU-MTT (and won) which was just an awesome feeling. Even though I understand that one game doesn't really hold any significance towards who is the better player, and it's very likely it's Daniel, it just felt great playing someone so well known and winning," said De Smet.

You've heard the cliché before, poker is a journey. It's got ups and downs, periods of self-reflection and moments of self-doubt. If you're a part-time player then it's hard to truly grasp this, but if it's your only income, and the only income that you've ever known, that adage really does apply.

"This is going to sound super lame but I really matured a lot as a person (in the last year) and I think anyone around my age going trough that whole maturation process can attest that it's quite interesting. How going from fighting with your parents turns into an appreciation of all the work and effort they do for you. How I now value my girlfriend far more than I did in past relationships, it just feels like all the pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together, which will eventually lead me to great comfort, I believe. It's like I've found inner peace and clarity and can now be a more reasonable person and see eye-to-eye with my peers. Really quite a good feeling and very odd not more people my age speak about this," said De Smet.

De Smet appears to have an old head on some young shoulders, possibly because of the severe asthma that he had to deal with as a kid. Regular trips to the doctor and a reliance on inhaler machines were all part of De Smet's early years meaning that the usual pastime of running around like a maniac were off the agenda.

"One of my earliest memories is (of course, super cloudy as expected) being in a hospital seeing my parents worry over me and having to do all kinds of tests like breathing into tubes," said De Smet.

This led to a lot of time spent playing cards, chess and chequers, basically anything that wouldn't exacerbate his asthma. What young Jan couldn't have possibly known back then is that the foundations for becoming a successful poker player were being laid well and deep. Calm heads prevail.

"We discussed a deal five-handed but one person was simply not replying. This seemed odd to me because for an $11 tournament there were quite significant price jumps. After a while he busted and we played on. When we were two-handed we discussed another deal, I remember me having around 71million chips, and my opponent having around 73 million or so. It was not a huge difference in chips... and I said I wanted to chop it even despite most likely having 100s of hours of HU experience more than my opponent. I figured it seemed reasonably fair.

It was to be expected that I had a slight edge in a hyper turbo HU SNG structure, that actually being my main game, but I was willing to just cut it down the middle and play for the remaining $5,000. He insisted on wanting $50k and me $43k or so and playing for the rest, which was simply too bad a deal to accept. We talked some more because honestly I really wanted to make a deal, and didn't really want to play a hyper-turbo HU for $20,000. However, we couldn't reach something that was fair, perhaps my opponent knew I really wanted to make a deal and be reasonable and tried to exploit me knowing that. So eventually we agreed no deal and I ended up getting quite lucky when we eventually got it in with my A6o vs his 88 and I hit an ace. Needless to say, I was very happy that ace came, "said De Smet.

Winning $58,291.29 will tend to do that. Remember the names - both De Smet and JacktShipper - they're likely to pop up again.

Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

Eric Brix grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul called White Bear Lake in Minnesota. It was a typical middle class town in which Brix spent a lot of time fishing, waterskiing, quad biking and wrestling, a sport in which he competed at school for nine years. Anytime during that idyllic upbringing it's doubtful it would have occurred to Brix that a few years down the line he'd be living in Cancun, a 28-year-old furiously clicking the refresh button on his computer, sat next to his Mexican wife, desperately hoping to see confirmation that he'd been crowned the best player of a 16-day, 132-event tournament series which had paid out more than $75 million.

Brix, who had moved to Mexico after Black Friday, had been contesting for the Player of the Series crown of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) but had, he thought, just been beaten to the trophy by George 'GeorgeDanzer' Danzer. Brix, playing under the name 'AceQuad', a homage to his earlier love of quad biking, had made an astounding 19 cashes, seven of which were final table finishes. Danzer had scored more cashes but less final tables. He had, however, bagged two SCOOP bracelets, one at the death. It was certainly feasible that Danzer had won enough to claim the leaderboard.

"On the last day of SCOOP I cashed in three events for 65 points and I thought for sure I had won the overall (SCOOP Leader Board) until I looked up George Danzer and saw he was heads-up in the 4-max. I knew then I had lost the overall leader board because he was making 90 points in that minimum, which put me in second place. About one week later, my friend Cal42688 (Calvin Anderson) wrote me a message," explained Brix.

That note from Anderson suggested that there had been a mistake in the calculations and that Brix had, in fact, actually come out on top. Anderson himself was invested in checking: he finished fourth on the Overall and third on the Medium leaderboards. An email was sent to PokerStars.

"So the waiting began. I was checking my email ten times a day for a response. I understood this was a big issue and tried not to bug them. On the second day of waiting, I contacted a friend that works for PokerStars and he talked to the card room manager. One week later they figured it out and contacted me to let me know I'd won. Any doubt that I had went away and I began calling all my friends and family to tell them the news," said Brix.

Put simply, the point calculations had gone awry. Click here for a more in-depth explanation. While the plaudits and sense of achievement are hard earned, the not-so-small matter of a PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT10 Grand Final package - which includes entry into the €10,000 Main Event - is certainly worth celebrating.

"They (friends and family) all want to come to Monte Carlo. It's going to be amazing. I can't wait to see the city with my wife. I have been to the PCA and to an event in Estonia. They were amazing trips but I expect this one to be even better."

While the discovery of the mix up brought joy for Brix it also rained on Danzer's parade. Don't feel too bad for the Team PokerStars Pro, his excellent SCOOP performance was still good for the SCOOP High leaderboard and a PCA 2014 package.

Thankfully Brix had plenty of things to keep his mind off what he thought was a near-miss at the top of the leader board. He was getting married the day after SCOOP finished (always the consummate professional grinder, it seems), which is why you won't be seeing his face at the WSOP this summer.

"This year is the first I am not going to Vegas for the WSOP in five years. Only because I want to be in Mexico with my wife and I have been doing a lot of travelling. I had my sister's wedding and my cousin's wedding is coming up soon," said Brix.

Mexico isn't such a bad place to be, even if a certain level of naturalisation can't entirely erase homesickness.

"The one thing I miss the most is family and friends. I do travel back and forth as often as I can to see them. Materialistically, I really miss cable internet. The internet down here is so slow and not very reliable. Nothing tilts me more than being disconnected or having a hand fold because of bad internet. During Christmas time I miss the snow. It just doesn't feel like Christmas without snow."

But Brix has found plenty of other reasons to like Mexico (not just his wife). His friends back home now needle him about his choice of beer: domestic Mexican. If that's all Brix, who counts Anderson, Nick 'Rounder63' Carrillo, Danny 'THE__D__RY' Ryan and Phil 'Ca$hmanBrian' Diehl among his closest friends in the poker world, has to worry about then life can't be too bad. Bookmark the name 'AceQuad' for the next time you play any of the COOPs. Keep your fingers crossed he's not at your table.

Find out more about SCOOP here.

And here are the tournament reports of all seven of AceQuad's SCOOP final tables:

Event #19-M $109+R PL 5-Card Omaha [6-Max]: 5th, $11,560
Event #26-M $109 1R1A PL Courchevel Hi/Lo (Turbo): 3rd, $15,000
Event 30-H $2,100 Razz: 5th, $13,580
Event #33-H $2,100 8-Game: 6th, $11,520
Event #37-H $2,100 HORSE: 5th, $14,980
Event #38-H $2,100 NL Omaha Hi/Lo: 9th, $6,490
Event #39-L $55 PLO [6-Max]: 3rd, $15,948.22

Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

Of poker pro and coach Jonathan Little’s several strategy books, Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em has been especially cited for praise by those who play lower stakes NLHE — a group that comprises the majority of poker players.

In the book Little shows readers how to play a solid, competent, decently aggressive style that will be profitable in these games. He provides both a basic strategy to crush small stakes games and identifies adjustments needed when facing more challenging competition.

Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em begins with several chapters devoted to preflop strategy, including how to play when you are first in as the open-raiser, when facing limpers, when facing a raise, and other situations. Then come chapters focused on postflop strategy, including how to proceed after being the preflop aggressor and after calling before the flop, and other technical skills applicable to postflop play.

Little also includes more advice about game selection, tournaments, bankroll management for a wide variety of formats, and how to avoid tilt yourself while taking advantage of it in others.

The following excerpt appears within the chapter “Post-Flop Strategy: As the Pre-Flop Aggressor” and comes within a section covering how to proceed after you’ve raised before the flop and then flopped a draw — be it a strong draw, a marginal draw, or a “junky” draw.

Draws

For the most part, your plan with your draws is to bet with the intention of betting again on most turns, especially if the board changes (making your opponent’s premium and marginal made hands worse). If you happen to have a draw that has a large amount of showdown value, checking behind on the flop may be ideal. If your draw relies on fold equity, betting is mandatory if you think you have fold equity, but be willing to check it if you have reason to believe your opponent will rarely fold.

Strong Draws

Strong draws are draws with 12 or more outs to the effective nuts. While your best draws always have a significant amount of equity, it is important to understand that they vary in strength and should be played accordingly. For example, A♥K♥ on J♥T♥3♠ is a marginal made hand that can easily win at showdown if it does not improve (your best Ace-highs usually fall in the marginal made hand range), whereas 9♥8♥ cannot win at showdown. As your showdown value decreases, you have to rely more heavily on fold equity, although that is not always the case.

For example, an early position player raises and only you call from the button with J♥T♥. The flop comes A♥K♥4♦. Your opponent makes a continuation bet. At this point, you do not have much fold equity because this board should be excellent for your opponent’s range, as most early position raisers play primarily big pairs and strong big cards. A raise will make your opponent fold all hands worse than a King, but you will almost certainly be able to win the pot from those hands on the turn by betting when your opponent checks. Calling allows you to keep the pot small when you are not a huge favorite, and allows you to continue keeping the pot small if you do not improve on the turn. If instead you had 6♥5♥ on a 9♥8♥2♦ board, you should strongly consider raising because this board is not good for most preflop raisers’ ranges, meaning you have some amount of fold equity.

In general, middle card boards are better for the caller than the raiser because most players raise with all big cards and only some middle cards. When someone calls, they often have many combinations of middle cards in their range and fewer combinations of big cards (because they 3-bet some of them). This means that the pre-flop caller should have more middle cards in his range than the pre-flop raiser. Also, note that the pre-flop raiser should have more big cards than the pre-flop caller, making boards containing big cards better for the pre-flop raiser.

With your best draws, it is vitally important that you do not play them in a manner that leads to you having to fold. It is quite common for amateurs to raise a continuation bet with a hand like Q♥T♥ on 9♥8♥4♠ and then fold when their opponent goes all-in. If you think that your flop raise may get pushed on a decent amount of the time, call instead. Even if you do raise and get pushed on, you should usually call due to the fact that premium draws win about 50% of the time against ranges that are not incredibly tight (remember, you don’t want to raise against tight ranges because they won’t fold) and you will only need to win 40% of the time or so based on the pot odds.

Marginal Draws

Marginal draws have 8 or 9 outs to the effective nuts. These are your unexciting open-ended straight draws and flush draws. They often have overcards that may or may not add additional equity. These hands are usually strong enough to bet and call a reasonable raise due to their large implied odds, but if you bet perhaps 4 big blinds on the flop and your opponent raises to 29 big blinds, you should fold the majority of the time.

Compared to strong draws, marginal draws have to rely heavily on implied odds because they are behind all made hands. This should lead you to bet these hands every time on the flop unless you are confident you have no fold equity or you think your opponent is going to check/raise to an amount that will force you to fold.

Junky Draws

Junky draws are draws with fewer than 8 outs to the effective nuts. The most common junky draw is a gutshot straight draw. Even gutshots vary in value, from decently strong to completely unplayable. For example, J-10 on 8-7-3 is quite strong due to the presence of overcards that can improve to top pair, but 5-4 on the same board is total junk because it only has 4 outs, and when you hit, you still lose to the most obvious draw, 10-9.

Jonathan Little

For more from Jonathan Little, check out this recent summary of his revealing and insightful “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit Poker.

Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em is available in paperback, as an e-book, and as an audio book at D&B Poker.

D&B Publishing (using the imprint D&B Poker) was created by Dan Addelman and Byron Jacobs 15 years ago. Since then it has become one of the leading publishers of poker books with titles by Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Little, Mike Sexton, Chris Moorman, Dr. Patricia Cardner, Lance Bradley, Martin Harris and more, all of which are available at D&B Poker.

A recap of the major results from this weekend on PokerStars…

• Malta’s “MoTTaGeNiaL” wins the Milly for $110K
• World #2 “Lena900” takes down $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up for $50K
• Saturday night special for “€urop€an”: four FTs, two titles
• All the results from the weekend majors

Weekend review – March 25th

MALTA’S “MoTTaGeNiaL” WINS SUNDAY MILLION FOR $110K

The biggest weekly tournament on PokerStars saw 10,805 entries yesterday, creating a $1.08 million prize pool that would be split between the top 1,934 players.

There was $110,898 set aside for the eventual champ, and at the end that would turn out to be Malta’s “MoTTaGeNiaL”, who took it down with no deal. The UK’s “MarToMchat” finished second for $80,470.

The whole thing took more than 15 hours to wrap up.

“Lena900” WINS $1,050 SUNDAY WARM-UP FOR JUST UNDER $50K

After 44 weeks ranked as the world’s no.1 online tournament player (according to PocketFives.com), this week saw Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt knocked off the top spot by Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky.

Niklas “Lena900” Astedt

However, “Lena900” put up a darn good fight on Sunday, hoping to reclaim the top spot next week after victory in the High Roller Club’s $1,050 Sunday Warm-up for $49,627.

“Lena900” had another close call too, finishing fifth in the $2,100 Sunday High Roller for an additional $17,842.

SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL FOR “€urop€an”

Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden has been a long-time crusher online, but while most big results tend to fall on a Sunday, this week he dominated Saturday night’s action.

“€urop€an” kicked off the evening with victory in the High Roller Club’s $530 Bounty Builder for $14,137 plus bounties. He then finished second in the $1,050 Saturday KO for $8,268 plus $5,453.

The results didn’t stop there. “€urop€an” also took down a $215 Saturday KO event for $8,543 plus bounties (which saw Fintan “easywithaces” Hand finish fourth for $3,364), and capped things off with a final table in the $530 Daily 500 (ninth for $1,444).

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM THE HIGH ROLLER CLUB

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM THE WEEKEND MAJORS

6+ Hold’em was only introduced on PokerStars in January 2019, but already it’s become a favorite among fans regulars and casual players alike. Recently we reached out to four 6+ Hold’em regulars to pick up some strategy tips and learn what keeps them coming back for more.

Action, action, action!!!

Ask enough regulars about 6+ Hold’em and you’ll find they all agree one bedrock principle: the nuts and bolts of 6+ Hold’em make it a high-quality action game.

“I love the fast-paced action,” says Roman Yitzhaki. “I have been in some crazy games with the whole table gambling. Everyone approaches 6+ in their own unique way, and it’s fun to try to solve everyone’s puzzle.”

The puzzle shares its poker DNA with two of the most popular variants around. “It’s really a fun game with some interesting strategy differences. It plays like Omaha in a lot of ways but with the simplicity of Hold’em,” says Mike Watson.

Peter Jetten knows a thing or two about winning at new games — he won the first Open Face Chinese Poker tournament at the PCA.

Max Silver concurs. “I’ve played Hold’em and Omaha extensively during my career and I think 6+ offers a bit of both. You still have two cards but equities run much closer and boards tend to be much more dynamic due to the higher frequency of straights.”

The end result, says Peter Jetten, is a game that grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go. “If you’ve read my tweets you know that 2019 is the year of action and as far as that goes, this is the game that keeps on giving. I’ve been impressed by the power 6+ Hold’em has to draw in and hook both new players and those who have been playing other games for many years.”

Unexpected Highlights

One of the benefits of picking up a new game is discovering aspects that set it apart from other more familiar forms of poker. For the pros we talked to, 6+ Hold’em was no different.

For Silver, one of the biggest surprises came away from the tables when he was crunching numbers. “I’ve been running a lot of equities to learn the game and when I found out JT suited is a favorite over pocket tens that blew my mind,” he says. “It’s refreshing after 8 years as a professional poker player to play and learn something new.”

These days Mike Watson finds himself playing a lot of 6+ Hold’em.

Jetten has been impressed by just how many highlights can be packed into a 6+ Hold’em session. “I’ve seen a lot in my brief time playing Short Deck, so it’s tough to pick out my favorite highlights. Perhaps it was one of several timely one-outers, or stealing someone’s chicken in a big pot, or even a mega hero call. I think the best highlight was winning a six-way all-in holding 8-6.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise at all — certainly the most complimentary to the game itself — was Watson’s. “When I started playing 6+ Hold’em I thought it was a stupid game that I had to learn for some of the high roller tournament series I wanted to play,” he says. “Now I find myself playing more short deck than anything else.”

6+ Hold’em strategy advice for new players

With so many similarities to standard Texas Hold’em, 6+ Hold’em will feel familiar for many new players. But that familiarity can also lead to trouble when the differences between the two games begin to show up. So what 6+ Hold’em strategy advice do these pros have for new players?

Start slow with 6+ Hold’em, says Max Silver, and learn the equities so you’ll know when you’re getting your money in good.

“Start slow,” says Silver. “It’s a game of high variance and you will end up all-in a lot. Learn the equities and you’ll soon learn surprising things like an open-ended straight draw is a flip or better against top pair. Abuse your fold equity whenever possible, as it’s huge if your opponent folds a 30% claim to the pot. Finally, a flush beats a full house, so proceed with caution on three- and four-flush boards.”

Because the equities in a given hand run so much closer than in Texas Hold’em, new 6+ Hold’em players need to realize that small differences in hand strength can have a big effect. “There is a big difference between hands one rank apart,” says Yitzhaki. “For example, J-9 is very different from J-8 and A-K from A-Q. Suited hands also seem quite strong, so where J-9 off-suit is weak, J-9 suited is quite strong.”

Watson suggests that regular Hold’em players depart from familiar strategies in one key way when they play 6+. “A lot of Hold’em players don’t like to limp in, but in the 6+ ante structure it’s an important part of your strategy. Especially in early position, it’s often better to just call the big blind and see what happens behind you before committing too much money.”

“Without the little cards in the deck, you are dealt a playable hand much more often,” says Jetten. “Also the ‘ante up’ structure makes the pots big right from the first time you look at your cards. Considering those things, my general advice is to play aggressively trying to take down as many pots as you can, and don’t be afraid to gamble if you are facing an all-in!”

Ready to put these 6+ Hold’em strategy tips to the test? Click here to open a PokerStars account today.

Get the full Sochi experience at the EPT Open later this year…

The EPT Sochi festival is taking place this week. If events there have made you curious about this lesser known stop on the European Poker Tour, you might be interested in details of another event taking place in Sochi later this year.

The EPT Open Sochi offers the same EPT backdrop, the same luxurious destination, but all with a smaller buy-in.

It’s the same as an EPT Festival in other ways too.

You can win your seat in the same way, with packages including Main Event seat, hotel accommodation, and travel expenses.

It takes place in October this year, with satellites every weekend for those who like to get their seat booked early.

Here are the details.

EPT Open Sochi festival: Friday 4 October to Sunday 13 October 2019

The five-day RUB133,000 buy-in Main Event starts on Wednesday 9 October, and has a RUB70 million guarantee.

For those with bigger bankrolls, there is also a High Roller event on the schedule, with a buy-in of RUB258,000.

Packages consist of Main Event entry, along with six night’s accommodation. You’ll stay at the five-star Sochi Marriott Krasnaya Polyana, between Friday 8 and Monday 14 October. Packages also include US$569 in travel expenses.

You can qualify online at PokerStars in any of the satellites starting this weekend, and running until October. For more details, go to the Events tab in the PokerStars tournament lobby.