Some familiar faces won big on Day 23 of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), as the battle for the top country became a two-horse race. All the latest from the SCOOP tables…
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• Hallaert makes it three
• Fritz continues 2020 heater
• UK and Brazil split seven titles in one night
• The SCOOP mistakes you’re making (according to the champions who beat you)
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Hallaert hauls in third: Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert was back among the champions last night, winning the third SCOOP title of his career in the $530 NLHE Event 84-H. Hallaert, whose live career highlight remains his appearance at the WSOP Main Event final table in 2016, is also a tournament director and industry stalwart. But he made his name as a player, and continues to perform at the highest level. Last night’s success came over a field of 745 entries and after a three-way deal at the end. Romania’s “Glash0” took the most money, $50,748, but Hallaert, originally from Belgium but now based in the UK, won $47,866 and the title.
OFFICIAL SITE & SCHEDULE | RESULTS
LEADER BOARDS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
“Crizh” takes down a second huge one: Hallaert wasn’t the only former champion returning to the throne last night. In 2016, Brazil’s “Crizh” repeated beat an 18,155-entry field in an $11 PKO tournament to win a first SCOOP title. Yesterday Crizh outlasted an even larger player pool — 18,962 entries — in Event 89-L: $11 NLHE. Crizh picked up $12,956.43 (including bounties) and joined the ranks of two-time winners.
Manuel “BigFudge95” Fritz adds SCOOP outright to SM chop (and Platinum Pass): It’s been a decent first half of 2020 for Manuel “BigFudge95” Fritz. In January, the Austrian player won a Platinum Pass to the PSPC in a Mega Path satellite on PokerStars. In April, he was part of a four-way deal at the end of the Sunday Million, resulting in a second place and a career-high payday of $116,384. Then last night, Fritz showed the wisdom of reinvestment: turning a $1,050 buy-in into $137,497.07 and a SCOOP title. The event was the high buy-in PKO Thursday Thrill, with a field of 1,047 and a prize pool of $1.047 million. Fritz took $73,596 from the main prize pool and earned another $64K in bounties, including the final one of “xMOOMOx”. After winning the Platinum Pass he told us about how poker has helped him develop as a person. It’s now paying him back in cold hard cash too.
Fourth time a champion for “robc1978”: The UK’s “robc1978” has been close to a SCOOP title before. In 2014, he came fourth in an event won by Julian “MrCoco” Gardner, in 2017 he was beaten heads up by Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah in a Turbo Zoom event, and in 2018 finished ninth as Sam “SamSquid” Grafton won the title. None of those bosses were anywhere near the final table of SCOOP-86-H last night, however, allowing robc1978 to finally go all the way. The event was the $2,100 NLHE/PLO, with 188 entries, and robc1978’s victory earned him $74,995. He had to defeat a final table dominated by Nordic players, with Finns finishing in second and fourth and a Swede in fifth. But robc1978 is now, definitively, a SCOOP champion. If at first you don’t succeed…
TODAY’S RESULTS
Tournament | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Prize |
84-L: $5.50 NLHE | 17,340 | $84,966 | nice_steady | Netherlands | $9,083.39 |
84-M: $55 NLHE | 6,134 | $306,700 | KaZanCHuK | Russia | $35,847.68* |
84-H: $530 NLHE | 745 | $372,500 | SpaceyFCB | UK | $47,866.84* |
85-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, PKO | 20,302 | $198,960 | victorbco | Brazil | $13,169.35† |
85-M: $109 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Mini Thursday Thrill SE | 6,758 | $675,800 | muriLLoo.mrL | Brazil | $61,748.26† |
85-H: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Thursday Thrill SE | 1,047 | $1,047,000 | BigFudge95 | Austria | $137,497.07† |
86-L: $22 NLHE/PLO 6-Max | 5,174 | $103,480 | W.Leung | Finland | $14,724.80 |
86-M: $215 NLHE/PLO 6-Max | 1,072 | $214,400 | MezuuÜuuT | UK | $31,137.52* |
86-H: $2,100 NLHE/PLO 6-Max | 188 | $376,000 | robc1978 | UK | $74,995.11 |
89-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, PKO | 18,962 | $185,828 | Crizh | Brazil | $12,956.76† |
89-M: $109 NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, PKO | 4,268 | $426,800 | Will Eye Amm | UK | $42,228.53† |
89-H: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, PKO | 473 | $473,000 | Old brock | Austria | $76,742.89† |
Daily totals | 82,463 | $4,465,433 | $557,998 |
†inc. bounties
*denotes deal
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 261
Tournaments ongoing: 6
Starting today: 12
Entries so far: 1,981,353
Prize pools so far: $137,239,687
First-place prizes awarded: $18,985,772
Totals refer to completed tournaments only.
FEATURE! FEATURE! FEATURE!
In our most recent SCOOP feature, a whole gallery of SCOOP winners shared their answers to one crucial question: “What common mistakes do players make at the tables to make them exploitable?”
If you want to know what the likes of Charlie “Epiphany77” Carrel and Preben “prebz” Stokkan have noticed, which you might still be doing, this is going to help you a great deal. “The biggest mistake is not to have bankroll management” SAYS Robert “4bet_me” Rohr, who took down 68-M: $109 NLHE. “But sometimes it is worth taking a shot.”
There’s some excellent advice here for players of all bankrolls and abilities.
The SCOOP mistakes you’re making (according to the champions who beat you)
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
We’ve been catching up with numerous other SCOOP champions over the series, happy to share the secrets of their success, or simply to introduce themselves to the poker world. Most recently, the $55 Sunday Kickoff champ Fellipe “FellipeD” Drapichinski admitted, “This is the best moment of my career.” Read the full interview.
Meanwhile, hear from a whole host of other SCOOP champions:
Pedro “BigodinSagaz” Henrique: Following a path to success
László “Lackoo87gcb” Molnár: “I think I’m starting to like it!”
Cristian ‘Chapex’ Chapoñan: One for Peru
Jonathan “Corback_fr” Therme: Sunday Million winner left speechless
Nicolas “Nicoverlast” Wright: pacing a treadmill to success
Swedish pro Adam “pruttzz12” Jonsson: How to beat Urbanovich, Beresford and Kurganov
Vitor “vitoradiron” Adiron: “I’ll continue working on my failures”
Guilherme “teruliro” Orrico: Two WCOOPs and now one SCOOP
“plens” targets bucket-list EPT appearance
Tapio “PikkuHUMPPA” Vihakas: “I am as lazy as a human can be”
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
After a two-day break, Lex Veldhuis was back at the tables last night, but it seems the poker gods were punishing him for his absence. Pocket queens vs. pocket eights, flopped set? What could possibly go wrong?
It was Spraggy’s birthday a couple of days ago, but an opponent last night in the $55 NLHE offered him a belated present, making an all-in hero call with, well, “Not the winning hand this time.”
Ready to sign up for PokerStars and play SCOOP? Click here to get an account.
TOP TWEETS
Yesterday’s top tweeter Evan @purplepils99 Parkes, who plays on PokerStars as “PURPLE”K”99”, made a deep run in the $1,050 Thursday Thrill and booked a fifth-placed finish. Congratulations Evan!
Finished 5th in the $1,050 Thursday thrill for $31,825. Was an awesome stream! Thank you all for the support! #finaltable #SCOOP2020 #stakekings #twitchstreamer pic.twitter.com/uXbBdbhYfV
— Evan Parkes (@purplepils99) May 23, 2020
FOLLOW THE ACTION LIVE!
Poker News watched the Thursday Thrill play to its conclusion last night, and crown Manuel “BigFudge95” as its champion. You can relive the blow-by-blow action on their updates page.
After a night off tonight, their crack team of reporters will return on Sunday for the Main Event second chance. Here are their full plans for the rest of SCOOP:
LEADER BOARD LATEST
There wasn’t a whole lot of movement last night at the top of the SCOOP overall leader board, but all of the top five added a tiny number of points to their tallies. That suggests that each of them will continue to play the extended schedule in a bid to claim that additional $50,000 in cash. As ever, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira is streets ahead.
Latest standings:
1 – Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Netherlands, 1,615 points
2 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK, 1,375
3 – “krakukra”, Russia, 1,245
4 – Körrinho, Austria, 1,090
5 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 1,060
(Prizes: 1st: $50,000 + Trophy; 2nd: $20,000; 3rd: $10,000)
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
There were four wins for UK-based players and three for Brazilians last night, which keeps those two nations a long way clear at the top of the countries leader board. It’s an intriguing two-horse race, though, with Brazil’s clear mastery of the big field low buy-in events likely to prove decisive as the series progresses. Currently the UK leads by one – and with Belgians and Spanish and French and others all based in Britain, they might maintain the advantage. But this will be worth watching…
Latest standings:
38: UK
37: Brazil
25: Russia
17: Germany, Netherlands
11: Canada, Ukraine
Nine: Norway, Austria
Seven: Sweden, Mexico, Ireland
Six: Finland
Five: Greece, Hungary, Belarus
Four: Poland, Argentina, Lithuania, Romania
Three: China, Peru
Two: Malta, Denmark, Belgium, Lebanon, Japan
One: Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Uruguay, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Croatia, Macau, Cyprus, Moldova, Latvia.
STARTING TODAY
Day 24: Saturday, May 23
Saturday’s menu offers dishes for the refined palate alongside feasts for those addicted to binge-eating junk. While the connoisseurs will enjoy another airing for the five disciplines of HORSE, the thoughtless gluttons can go nuts at the re-buy buffet, with the low buy-in costing only $2.20 per bullet. Enjoy it, sadists.
10.30am ET – Event 90: NLHE 8-Max, Afternoon Deep Stack
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $60,000, $225,000, $300,000
1pm ET – Event 91: NLHE Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $200,000, $750,000, $750,000
2.15pm ET – Event 92: HORSE
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $20,000, $30,000, $100,000
3.30pm ET – Event 93: NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, Rebuy
Buy-ins: $2.20+R, $22+R, $215+R
Guarantees: $40,000, $150,000, $200,000
GET SCHOOLED
There are still tons of chances to join the SCOOP action. And if you’re thinking about doing that for the first time, or maybe are returning to the tables after a break, you will be well advised to read PokerStars School’s online tutorials. They are always relevant.
PokerStars School has all the information you need on how to get involved, how to make sure you have the right bankroll, how to play the satellites and how to play the tournaments themselves.
Click through to get yourself properly prepared:
Am I SCOOP ready? Planning, bankroll, mindset
Gearing up for SCOOP – General tournament strategy
Multi table tournaments (MTT) course
Poker satellite strategy
PREVIOUS SCOOP COVERAGE
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