Pokerstars Scoop 2020
What’s better than three weeks of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)? That’s right: four weeks of it. News of an extension, plus another title for a very familiar name, all feature in today’s SCOOP round up…
TODAY’S HEADLINES
2020 SCOOP Schedule – $85M Guaranteed Poker Revenues on the Rise With the current economic slowdown and quarantines imposed, online poker traffic was already expected to increase. Global data revealed online poker to be back at its most recent high dating as far back as 2015. Connor 'blanconegro' Drinan has officially made history with his fifth tournament win in the 2020 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker, topping a field of 159 in the three-day-long.
• Watson bags fourth career SCOOP title
• Super High Roller offers half mil up top
• Stud double for China as Lebanon, Korea and Czechs also win
• SCOOP extended! Play until the end of May
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
SirWatts makes it four in SCOOP: The deep stages of the $1,050 2-7 Single Draw last night was essentially a contest between only the most revered players in the world: “krakukra”, Ole “wizowizo” Schemion, Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara, “serkku21”, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Luke “lb6121” Schwartz and Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn were all in the money. None of them became champion, however, because they couldn’t beat Mike “SirWatts” Watson, who added a fourth career SCOOP title to his glittering resume. Watson won two SCOOP titles in PLO in 2015, and added a third last year in the 6+ high buy-in event. He also has a 2-7 Triple Draw title in WCOOP, as well as an 8-Game High Roller title in the 2016 WCOOP festival. It’s tempting to say that he is another mixed-games expert, but that would ignore the fact that he has also won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event, the Bellagio Cup and a WSOP-E bracelet, all in no limit hold’em. Watson bagged $22,050 for victory last night, with Kostritsyn in second and Schwartz third.
Mike “SirWatts” Watson: One more for popular Canadian
OK-dokey: Stud double for China: What Connor Drinan is to Omaha, the Chinese sensation “OK1OK2” is to stud. Just about a week after OK1OK2 won the $109 Stud Hi/Lo title, picking up China’s first victory of the series, the same player was back in the winner’s circle for SCOOP-49-H, this time a $1,050 Stud tournament. It was worth $25,887.50 and demanded he or she beating a field whose late stages also featured the multiple ‘COOP winning “merla888”, Ole “wizowizo” Schemion, Denis “aDrENalin71” Strebkov, “krakukra” and “lennart”. You could say it’s a case of nominative determinism: if it was OK once, it is now OK twice. (There may well be a bit of a Stud trend in China at the moment as a player named “fff888899” also won the low buy-in Stud tournament, beating a field of 2,650 to win $4,416.50 in a tournament costing $11 to play.)
Korea gets on the board: In the world of poker South Korea is, at best, what you might call an emerging nation. Only four players have live earnings of more than $1 million and the country has never appeared on the SCOOP of WCOOP winner’s board. Until now, that is. The brilliantly named “level1pro” last night became Korea’s first SCOOP champion in the $55 buy-in SCOOP-48-M NLHE tournament, outlasting a field of 11,917 entries to win $78,018.60. That’s no mean feat, especially considering that only 27 of those entries came from Korean players. Are we on the cusp of a Korean poker boom? Too early to say. But “level1pro”‘s victory may yet become a landmark.
OFFICIAL SITE & SCHEDULE RESULTS
LEADER BOARDS ALL BLOG REPORTS
Biggest prize heads to Canada: Canada’s “molda79” has made final tables in the Sunday Million and the Super Tuesday, but has never had a victory quite like the one he or she pulled off last night. There were 1,884 entries to SCOOP-48-H, a straight no limit hold’em affair, and molda79 was the last of them standing, after outgunning “ReWARds84” of the UK heads up. Steven “SvZff” van Zadelhoff, a former WCOOP Main Event winner, was fourth, but all bowed down to molda79, who secured a payday of $141,607.42. That was the biggest prize awarded on a busy night.
“cartoon2387” one place from daily double: Players from Lebanon tend to punch above their weight on both the live and online felt, but the SCOOP 2020 ledger was blank from the first 10 days of this festival. “cartoon2387” ended that in emphatic fashion yesterday, however, when he or she won the $109 NL 2-7 Single Draw tournament at the same time as coming second in the $1,050 limit stud. Winning two SCOOP titles in one day is not unprecedented, but it doesn’t happy very often. cartoon2387 fell one place short, but will make do with $8,282 for the outright win and $17,575 for the second place.
Old favourite lands title:Jonas “Tulkaz” Klausen was playing on the EPT in its very earliest days, and though the Dane appears to have wound down his live play over recent years, he is still very much a force in the online game. That was underlined again last night when Klausen won SCOOP-50-H, a $530 PKO tournament, in which Klausen denied Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs heads-up. It’s so important to win that final battle in PKO events as the top two essentially split what’s left in the main prize pool and the final bounty is all. Klausen finished with a total haul of $62,786.28 to Ruijs’s $38K.
Belgian outdoes mixed-game sharks: More noted mixed game bosses came out for the Limit Stud tournaments last night, with Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, Julian “jutrack” Track and Adam “adamyid” Owen all making the deep stages of the $109 medium buy-in edition. However Glaser could get no further than 13th, Track was seventh and Owen was fourth, leaving Belgium’s “Vervaetmans“, “beermoney” of the UK and “Hörhö2” of Finland to chop it three ways. Hörhö2 took the most — $7,966.28 — but Vervaetmans won it, picking up the title and $7,537.78. beermoney was left with $7,484.41 and a second place, but the next round is presumably on him. (Both Glaser and Owen also played the high buy-in version of this, won by “OK1OK2”, but whiffed.)
Leader board crusher goes to the top: Russia’s “FONBET_RULIT” is a leader board beast, seemingly placing in the top echelons on the “low” leader boards during every ‘COOP festival. He or she has continued the run during this SCOOP, with 31 in-the-money finishes from 122 entries before last night. And then on Tuesday, FONBET_RULIT added one more ITM finish, but this one was the best: FONBET_RULIT finally went all the way to the top spot, winning the $5.50 4-Max. This came after he or she beat a field of an even 20,000 entries (12,939 entries; 7,061 re-entries), winning $5,614.26, including bounties.
Spotlight off, P0KERPR02.0 wins: Until last night, the most exposure the German player named “P0KERPR02.0” has had to the spotlight came during last year’s WCOOP when he finished third in a $2,100 8-Max event. That wouldn’t have been particularly noteworthy had it not been streamed live in front of tens of thousands of people as Lex Veldhuis finished second. Veldhuis was nowhere in sight last night as P0KERPR02.0 progressed all the way to the title in the day-end PKO Turbo, turning a $530 buy-in into $73,901.94, including bounties. Marc-Andre “FrenchDawg” Ladouceur finished third, while Brazil’s “PaGaOVelhinho”, who won another high buy-in turbo earlier in the series, fell one place short of a second title.
Nemeth running hot in two huge hold’em events: The $25,000 Super High Roller is the biggest buy-in of the series and attracted a super tough field. Andras “probirs” Nemeth is the chip leader of the last 10 seeking a $521,597 first prize. That’s impressive enough, but Nemeth is also sitting in fifth place of the 25 players returning in the $2,100 medium buy-in version of this event. Two London-based Spaniards, Sergei “srxakgirona” Reixach and Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos, are placed first and second in that one.
SCOOP extended! Are you enjoying SCOOP 2020? We are. And PokerStars announced last night that the festival will be extended until May 31, with full details about new tournaments available from Friday. Watch this space. The big just got even bigger.
TODAY’S RESULTS
Pokerstars Scoop 2020 Schedule
| Tournament | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Prize |
| 48-L: $5.50 NLHE | 31,938 | $156,496 | vuksan1 | Canada | $14,089.19* |
| 48-M: $55 NLHE | 11,917 | $600,000 | level1pro | South Korea | $78,018.60 |
| 48-H: $530 NLHE | 1,884 | $942,000 | molda79 | Canada | $141,607.42 |
| 49-L: $11 Stud | 2,650 | $25,970 | fff888899 | China | $4,416.50 |
| 49-M: $109 Stud | 539 | $53,900 | Vervaetmans | Belgium | $7,537.78 |
| 49-H: $1,050 Stud | 95 | $95,000 | OK1OK2 | China | $25,887.50 |
| 50-L: $5.50 NLHE, 4-Max, PKO | 20,000 | $98,000 | FONBET_RULIT | Russia | $5,614.26† |
| 50-M: $55 NLHE, 4-Max, PKO | 8,076 | $403,800 | sabulltrp | UK | $33,697.82† |
| 50-H: $530 NLHE, 4-Max, PKO | 963 | $481,500 | Tulkaz | Denmark | $62,786.28† |
| 51-L: $11 NL 2-7 Single Draw | 2,460 | $25,000 | filfedra | Czech Republic | $3,152.00 |
| 51-M: $109 NL 2-7 Single Draw | 404 | $40,400 | cartoon2387 | Lebanon | $8,282.00 |
| 51-H: $1,050 NL 2-7 Single Draw | 84 | $84,000 | SirWatts | Canada | $22,050.00 |
| 55-L: $5.50 NLHE, PKO | 19,476 | $95,432 | AAlino4ka | Russia | $6,456.21 |
| 55-M: $55 NLHE, PKO | 7,794 | $389,700 | Felipe_mla$ | Brazil | $36,215.76 |
| 55-H: $530 NLHE, PKO | 1,066 | $533,000 | P0KERPR02.0 | Germany | $73,901.94 |
| Daily totals | 109,346 | $4,024,199 | $523,713 |
†inc. bounties
*denotes deal
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 153
Tournaments ongoing: 9
Starting today: 12
Entries so far: 1,123,536
Prize pools so far: $70,347,822
First-place prizes awarded: $9,759,938.21
Totals refer to completed tournaments only
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
We’re catching up with a lot of SCOOP winners this year, all happy to share their experiences of winning big.
Most recently, Tapio “PikkuHUMPPA” Vihakas told us that he was “as lazy as a human can be,” but undermined his own commitment to idleness as he took down the massive Sunday Cooldown for $90,828.67, including bounties. “plens” told us how his victory in SCOOP-20-M will help him live his dream of playing on the EPT. Meanwhile Guilherme “teruliro” Orrico added a SCOOP title to his two WCOOP successes, and just continues to get better.
Click through to hear more from our long list of happy champions:
Previous winner interviews:
Catalina “catam18” Marmureanu”: A result for all women in poker
Paul “pistolp999” Kroezen: A triumph of perseverence
Adam “adamyid” Owen: Defeating end-boss “veeea”
Matt “MUSTAFABET” Ashton: Tournaments are practice for cash games
Antanas “Nr1InEurope” Bakaitis: “I’m no good at Texas Hold’em!
“MarkBang”: First out to last man standing
“thegodfisher”: Busy broker finds time to win SCOOP title
Oleg “Fukuruku” Vasylchenko: Poor student becomes richer
Michael “Malicious20” Cottier: $9.5K from a $2.20 buy-in tournament!
Dimitrios “papadatos69” Papadatos: Making most of downturn in tourism
William “Williaml666” Barbosa: Best feeling ever!
Last hand double-KO gives ‘PufuMiu’ win in Event #11-L
TWITCH WATCH
Here’s a sensational clip from the streaming genius that is Ben “Spraggy” Spragg. Within 120 seconds, Spraggy gives masterclasses in a) dealing with chat hecklers, b) entertaining the audience and c) how (not) to play Omaha Hi/Lo, but still win. Check it out.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars and play SCOOP? Click here to get an account.
TOP TWEETS
Good luck Wayne!
Made Day -2 Of #SCOOP2020 $11 NLHE, So Hope To Be Grinding It Up Tomorrow Night with $17K Up Top ??♣️ @PokerStarspic.twitter.com/0IDW9veGa2
— Wayne Hemmings (@Wayneo_75) May 13, 2020
Felix Schneiders is German and streams in German but there’s quite a lot here that English speaker will enjoy too:
“Bei Anruf Set” #SCOOP2020 Special pic.twitter.com/BRBDrr8Myd
— Felix Schneiders (@xflixx) May 12, 2020
FOLLOW THE ACTION LIVE!
The top 10 in the SHR
Our friends at Poker News are offering live coverage of a ton of SCOOP events and last night it was all about the $25,000 Super High Roller. There were 89 entries to this tournament, which has the highest buy-in across the festival, and a $2.18 million prize pool. When the bags came out at the end of the first day, 10 players were left, led by Andras “probirs” Nemeth.
Poker News watched the tournament from the start and you can read back through all of the coverage, before returning at 1pm ET for the resumption. The final table is stacked with talent.
If that’s not enough, another $5,200 High Roller kicks off tonight, as well as the $2,100 Heads Up. Poker News will be covering those too.
LEADER BOARD LATEST
We are now into Week 2 of SCOOP, which means three fresh leader boards and another race to pick up some major bonus prizes. The new leader boards began with tournaments that started on May 10 and later, which means they are still very formative. We’ll look at those once they are a bit more meaningful.
However, the “overall” leader board runs through the duration of the festival, and this makes for increasingly interesting reading. Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi is still alive in the $25K so will be sure to pick up a heap more points, while “FONBET_RULIT”‘s win last night has put him back into contention. Here’s how the board currently stands:
Overall
1 – Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Netherlands, 805 points
2 – krakukra, Russia, 570
3 – FONBET_RULIT, Russia, 565
4 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 560
5 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK, 535
Overall leader board runs through entirety of SCOOP.
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
Three new countries appeared on the leader board overnight, with players from Lebanon, South Korea and the Czech Republic winning their first titles. There were three wins for Canadian players, which represents their most successful night of the series, though the UK retains top spot.
Latest standings:
22: UK
19: Russia
15: Brazil
11: Germany
10: Netherlands
Seven: Canada
Five: Austria, Ukraine, Sweden
Four: Greece, Belarus, Norway, Mexico
Three: Hungary, Poland, Ireland, Finland, China
Two: Romania, Argentina, Peru, Malta, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium
One: Japan, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Uruguay, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, South Korea, Czech Republic
STARTING TODAY
Day 14: Wednesday, May 13
There’s great variety among today’s four events, not least in the very first of the day which marks a welcome return for HORSE. Five variants all in one. After that, there’s a high roller event with a $5K buy-in at the High level, which means a $1 million guarantee. Then there’s one for the real purists: a heads-up challenge for buy-ins ranging from $22 to $2,100. There’s space for only 4,096 players at the low buy-in level, 1,024 at the medium and 128 at the high. So get registered early if you want to play.
12.05pm ET – Event 56: HORSE
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $30,000, $60,000, $80,000
1pm ET – Event 57: NLHE High Roller
Buy-ins: $55, $530, $5,200
Guarantees: $500,000, $850,000, $1 million
2.15pm ET – Event 58: NLHE Heads-Up
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
Guarantees: $40,000, $100,000, $200,000
Pokerstars Website
3.30pm ET – Event 59: NLHE Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $85,000, $350,000, $350,000
PREVIOUS SCOOP COVERAGE
Pokerstars Scoop 2020 Results
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