The 2012 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker came to a close with the running of three main events, one at each of the low, medium and high buy-in levels. The largest of all was the $10,300 buy-in, which attracted 517 entrants to build a massive $5.17 million prize pool.
The field was littered with the biggest names in the online MTT world, with many making deep runs including Jamie “TheCronic420” Rosen in 34th place ($28,435), Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky in 31st place ($28,435), and Andre Akkari in 16th ($41,360).
Nick “GripDsNutz” Grippo survived to three-handed play, where the remaining players agreed to a deal that evenly split the remaining $2.2 million in the prize pool, except for $80,000 that would be set aside for the eventual winner after the three played it out.
Grippo eliminated Polish player “sosickPL” in third place ($718,675), and after a tough heads-up battle got the last of the money in with 6
6
against the A3
for the win. The board ran out T5
285, and with that Grippo had earned the title of 2012 SCOOP main event champion, a commemorative watch and the $798,675 first prize. Canadian player “sp00led” earned $718,675 for their runner-up finish as a result of the deal made.
At the medium buy-in level, an impressive 3,567 players posted the $1,050 buy-in to build a $3,567,000 prize pool. The last player standing was suarez_BG from Bulgaria, who captured $560,019 for the win.
The low buy-in event cost only $109 to enter and drew an incredible 22,128 players, building a $2,212,800 prize pool that blew away the $1 million guarantee. A total of 3,150 players made the money in this event, but the lion’s share went to Greece’s john_tri80, who earned $198,726 after making a deal heads-up.
The 120 tournaments of the 2012 SCOOP had 526,154 total entries, the biggest number since the 461,936 in the 2010 SCOOP. This year $65,332,179 in prize money was awarded, topping PokerStars’ previous record for a series of $64,230,010.
