The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) events are now in full swing. The SCOOP is a 22-tournament series spread out over 11 days of action. Each tournament is offered with three different sets of buy-ins ranging from low, to mid, to high stakes. Buy-ins are offered for as little as $5.50 and can be as high as $25,500. Make sure you check out the full schedule of events.
Event No. 13 — Razz
Who knew razz could be so popular? A total of 2,945 players put up the $20 buy-in in the low-stakes version of the tournament, and Anubis147 logged off with an extra $9,571 in his PokerStars account.
The mid-stakes version featured a $200 buy-in and drew a field of 713. Brett "get crunk" Richey (pictured above right) made the final table, finishing in fifth place for $7,130. This was Richey’s third final table of the series, and so far he has cashed for over $91,000. The eventual winner was dimmmmi1, who took home $26,738 for the victory.
The high-stakes tournament had a $2,000 buy-in and attracted 117 of the best razz players in the world. The final table was absolutely loaded with pros, such as Justin "Boosted J" Smith (eighth), Josh "nitbuster" Arieh (sixth), Scott "gunning4you" Seiver (fifth), Barry "barryg1" Greenstein (third), Serge "Adanthar" Ravitch (second), and Daniel "steamraise" Alaei (first).
Alaei (pictured left), who picked up $63,765 for his win, was at his third final table of the series, as well. He previously had two fifth-place finishes, but this time he broke through to pick up the victory, bringing his series total to $116,000.
Event No. 14 — Short-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
The low-stakes tournaments in this series have so far been filled with lesser-known players and rarely has a high-stakes notable broken through the massive field for an unlikely victory, but last night in the $50 buy-in tournament, Hevad "RaiNKhAN" Khan (pictured right) navigated his way through 8,301 entrants en route to a huge win, pocketing $58,107.
The mid-stakes tournament had a $500 buy-in and was won by Roach11 for $134,978. Also at the final table were Christian "charder30" Harder (fifth) and Steve "thorladen" Weinstein (fourth).
Over at the high-stakes tournament, 331 players put up the $5,000 buy-in, hoping to walk away with a big chunk of the $1,655,000 prize pool. After winning event No. 12 the night before for $57,770, Frank "gator93" Hernandez took fourth for an additional $132,400.
The eventual winner was garompon, who took out Matt "Hoss_TBF" Hawrilenko heads up for the title and $364,100.
Looking Ahead
Today’s SCOOP action will feature an eight-game mix tournament and seven-card stud.
