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. 8 — No-Limit Hold’em (Two-Day Event)
The low, $30 buy-in tournament drew in a ridiculous field of 20,353 entrants. Two days later, BodogBanshee was crowned the winner and pocketed $54,953. Notable Devin "tobias fuke" Porter (pictured right) nearly made the final table, but fizzled out in 13th place.
In the mid-stakes tournament, which featured a $300 buy-in, AlexanderT picked up the win and a first-place prize of $286,283. At any other normal time of the year that would be the largest score of the week, but the high-stakes tournament still needed to crown a champion.
The $3,000 buy-in event drew 915 entrants and a had a $3 million prize pool. Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu made it to day two but a costly misclick the night before made his comeback difficult. He went out early on Monday and left it up to a number of notables still in contention. The final table featured Glen "Choron" Chorny (ninth), KingKobeMVP (eighth), Alex "mahoney3" Todd (seventh), Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser (sixth), Alex "hadouk3n" Melnikow (fourth), Jamie "pokerjamers" Armstrong (third) and Zach "nofingclue11" Clark (second, pictured left).
Once the players got three-handed, a discussion about a deal broke out. Armstrong and Clark weren’t happy with the chip chop and urged MCMATTO to give up some cash to make up for their supposed superior poker skills. The talks stalled once, but MCMATTO finally relented and agreed. Armstrong then went out in third, giving his chips to Clark and making the match much more even. But MCMATTO came out on top anyway, pocketing the extra $60,000 and winning a total of $470,500.
Event No. 9 — Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw
It was lowball time at the SCOOP and the lowest lowball event sported a $20 buy-in. InstantLei took down the smallish event for $5,673.
The mid-stakes event had a $200 buy-in and was won by drawmyface for $19,000.
Over in the high-stakes $2,000 buy-in event, the touranment fell just short of its $200,000 guarantee with 90 entrants. Notables making the final table included Alex "AWice" Wice (seventh), Tracey "XTraCey" Nguyen (sixth) and Brent "Astrolux85" Roberts (fourth). Shawn "buck21" Buchanan (pictured right) made his second high-stakes final table of the series, finishing in third place for $30,000. The winner was Amke, who pocketed $60,000.
Event No. 10 — Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em
An astounding 8,192 players entered into the $15 buy-in, no-limit hold’em heads-up tournament. Scarer navigated his way through the field en route to a $16,282 payday.
The $150 buy-in version attracted 2,048 entrants, the winner of which was Ridemin out, who scored $52,224 for his efforts.
The high-stakes, $1,500 buy-in drew in a strong field of 450. The final four players were Robert "PlayaPlz" Lipkin (fourth), Will "potstabber10" Haydon (third), backmanslivs (second) and the eventual winner, PokerNoob999 (first). PokerNoob999 picked up $168,750 for the win.
Looking Ahead
Today’s SCOOP action will feature mixed hold’em and stud eight-or-better.
