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Home / News / SCOOP 2021: Shakerchi reigns again as superstars dominate Day 3 of SCOOP

A staggering 19 tournaments played to a conclusion in the 2021 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on Tuesday night, and there were some very familiar winners. Who? Read on…


TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Shakerchi makes it five in HORSE
• Familiar Brazilians back at it
• Starman “BowieEffect” downs Geilich
• Streamer outdoes the streamers
• Vousden bosses the bosses


BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi: Five up

Shakerchi makes it five: Our detailed list of multiple SCOOP champions may suggest that Calvin “cal42688” Anderson is never going to be caught at the top. He has ten titles and nobody else has more than six. But Anderson doesn’t play too much these days, while many of the chasing pack still do — none more so than the positively tireless Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi. Last night, Shakerchi handed out another lesson in SCOOP, blasting through the $2,100 buy-in HORSE field and picking up his fifth career SCOOP title. Shakerchi has now won SCOOP events in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020 and 2021, including the Main Event, which earned him $1.468 million. This latest triumph came with a payout of $35,425, which may be small change in his world, but will give him the confidence for another charge during this series. Despite being twice the age of many of his adversaries, Shakerchi is still the sharpest mind at every table, and he has laid down a real marker once again. Finland’s Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio narrowly missed out on his second title of the year, finishing third in this one.

Four for Leqenden: On the subject of multiple champions, “Leqenden” also deserves mention. Although very little is known about the player from Belarus, Leqenden’s name crops up repeatedly during major tournament series on PokerStars, and last night we read it again. Leqenden won the $1,050 buy-in Win The Button turbo, beating a field of 267 entries and taking $50,964. That’s a fourth career SCOOP title for Leqenden, only one behind Shakerchi, and as many as the likes of Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt, Andras “probirs” Nemeth, et al.

Andy “BowieEffect: Wilson: Winner of the battle of the Brits

Starman! “BowieEffect” downs Geilich: SCOOP-04-H finally concluded on Tuesday night, three days after it started, and it came down to a battle of the Brits. After 443 of the 445 entries to this $2,100 buy-in hold’em PKO had departed, Andy “BowieEffect” Wilson sat opposite Ludovic “ludovi333” Geilich and battled heads-up for the title — and the final, crucial bounty. On this occasion, Wilson, a recent guest on the Poker In The Ears podcast came out on top and bagged a total $151,779, including bounties of $82,297. Geilich, who previously won a SCOOP stud event in 2018, had to settle for $69,482 from the prize pool and $14,468 in bounties, giving Wilson about $68K more. This was a really star-studded final, with EPT Malta champ Aliaksei Boika in third and the three-time Sunday Million winner Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov fourth. Read more about Andy “BowieEffect” Wilson, including how he got that name.

Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden: Huge high roller win

Vousden out-sharks the sharks: There was another absolute constellation of superstars at the final table of the $5,200 buy-in SCOOP-08-H event, which attracted 176 entries and had a prize pool of $880K. Three of the last four were Matthias “iambest2” Eibinger, Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood and Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski, who have all won Super High Roller titles on the EPT and are regulars in the highest buy-in tournaments further afield. They were competing this time, however, at the SCOOP tables, where a different kind of shark makes its home. And they don’t come any sharkier at PokerStars than Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden, who has two SCOOP, two WCOOP and a Sunday Million titles among $9 million in lifetime tournament scores. Although Vousden’s live record is relatively modest, this was very much his domain and he made short work of this final. Vousden banked another $177,176, eventually beating Eibinger heads-up. That’s three titles in SCOOP now for the Finn.

Thiago “KKremate” Crema: One of Brazil’s best

Crema back for more: The aforementioned Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden also made the final table of the $1,050 NLHE PKO Freezeout, which played all the way through last night, but this time finished in sixth. That left two more top names to do battle heads-up, with Platinum Pass winner (and all round tournament boss) Thiago “KKremate” Crema facing off against Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet. Van Fleet, who usually streams his tournament runs on Twitch, is based in Canada these days, while Crema has done all his damage from his native Brazil — and this time the money headed to South America, rather than North. Crema won $75,116, including bounties of approximately half of that. It was his second career SCOOP title, having previously won an Omaha Hi/Lo tournament in 2016.


MORE ABOUT SCOOP:
SCHEDULE & RESULTS | SATELLITE GUIDE | SERIES HIGHLIGHTS
FULL SCOOP RESULTS | YEAR-BY-YEAR | MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS
OFFICIAL SCOOP PAGE | ALL BLOG REPORTS | DOWNLOAD AND PLAY!


Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins: Off the mark in SCOOP

WCOOP crusher Martins off the mark in SCOOP: Anyone who follows online tournament poker will be very familiar with the name Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins (or Yuri Dzivielevski, to use his other name). His incredible WCOOP last year, in which he won three events, helped propel him back to the top of the Pocket Fives online poker rankings. To the surprise of nobody, Martins has made his mark in SCOOP 2021 already too, last night winning the $215 buy-in HORSE tournament, earning $17,024. Martins similarly won a HORSE event during WCOOP, as well as a Draw and a NLHE tournament, so this is a man who knows his variants. The only real shock is that this is the first time he has won a SCOOP title. Seems safe to say, it won’t be his last.

Bruno “great dant: Volkmann: SCOOP winner at last

Another Brazilian great gets his first: In all, there were four Brazilian champions again last night, with Bruno “great dant” Volkmann adding to his huge list of achievements in the single day $2,100 NLHE Freezeout. Volkmann has more than $9 million in online tournament earnings, but somehow had never won during SCOOP despite being heads up four times. He finally got one to stick when he defeated Mexico’s “EzPaTuLa” and won $74,191 for his efforts. Like Martins, now Volkmann is off and running, expect plenty more to follow.

Sick for “fpsik”: We still talk a lot about the 2009 achievement of Terrence “Unassigned” Chan, who won both the high and the medium buy-in limit hold’em event on the same night in 2009, a feat that has never been matched. It still hasn’t been matched, but Austria’s “fpsik” pulled off his own downgraded version of it last night. fpsik finished second in both the low and medium buy-in versions of SCOOP-12, the 5-Card Draw, losing heads up to “Bragbag” of Sweden in the $11 buy-in tournament, and to Andrey “Kroko-dill” Zaichenko in the medium. Unfortunately, poker is cruel and no one remembers who comes second — not even if you do it twice in one night. As for Zaichenko, that’s a third career SCOOP title for him, adding to limit Omaha and Badugi wins from 2011 and 2018 respectively. Zaichenko also finished seventh in the high buy-in version of this event, which was won by “Chillolini” of Norway. Chillolini also won a Draw event in 2016.

Streamer “bungakat” outdoes Spraggy and Colillas: There was a two-pronged Team PokerStars attack in the $530 NLHE SCOOP-08-M last night, with both Ben “Spraggy” Spragg and Ramon “RamonColillas” Colillas making the last ten of a 1,739-entry field. However, Spraggy went out in 10th, just short of the final, while Colillas perished in eighth. Ordinarily, that would have left Twitch viewers very disappointed, with nothing to watch, but in this case the opposite was true. The man who went on to win it, Jargo “Bungakat” Alaväli, from Estonia, is also a Twitch streamer, and his subscribers saw him take it down, every step of the way. Alaväli was in for three bullets, but made his investment pay as he took away $131,477.13. It’s his first SCOOP title, and he seemed understandably happy:

Another huge-field win for “CrAzY_sTeFaN”: Stefan “CrAzY_sTeFaN” Piele Dragos is hardly a household name, but he has made his mark a number of times in PokerStars tournaments and last night won a second career SCOOP title. It came in the $11 buy-in PKO turbo, over a field of 16,275, and was worth $12,091, including bounties. These monster fields are very much Dragos’s comfort zone: he previously beat 12,971 entries to the title in a $55 Deep Stack SCOOP tournament, in 2019. But don’t think he can only play low stakes. Dragos was also a part of the biggest deal in PokerStars history, when he chopped the 14th Anniversary Sunday Million with Alex “AAAArthur” Brito in 2020. Dragos won $921,328 in that tournament, eventually finishing second. Dragos is a 32-year-old pro from Bucharest, Romania, and certainly a lot less crazy than his name would have you believe.


TODAY’S RESULTS


†inc. bounties
*denotes deal


STAT TRACKER

Another 19 tournaments finished on Tuesday night and these stats enjoyed another huge boost. We’re only three days in and prize pools have passed $15 million!

Entries: 194,563 (inc. 34,021 re-entries)
Prize pools: $15,843,171
First place payouts: $2,321,248 (inc. $368,028 in bounties)
Tournaments completed: 36
Tournaments ongoing: 9
Tournaments starting today: 12

(Note: Stats from completed tournaments only)


TWITCH WATCH

All of Spraggy, tonkaaa and Fintan “easywithaces” Hand bagged chips at the end of the first day of the $1,050 Super Tuesday Special Edition and will return tonight with their eyes fixed on the $146K first prize. Here’s the moment Hand realised this was on…

Undoubtedly the best thing about watching Twitch is the opportunity to share in the streamers’ great successes. Sometimes it can feel like having an invite to an exclusive party. But the reality of poker is that there’s just as much heart-break, and Twitch streamers also have to suffer that in public. Despite two excellent deep runs last night, Mason “Pye_Face21” Pye was left devastated to bubble the final table in the $109 buy-in 5-Card draw. Here’s that moment:


COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Tournament wins were spread far and wide last night, with players from Mexico, Estonia, Sweden, Moldova and Belarus all winning a first for their countries. Four titles went to Brazil, of course, but Russia moved alongside the UK with three wins last night. It’s hotting up, with 16 nations already represented.

Latest standings:

9 titles – Brazil
5 – Russia, UK
2 – Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Romania
1 – Belarus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Sweden


PLAYER PROFILES AND INTERVIEWS

Five in one year for Connor Drinan

We’ve been taking a look back at some of SCOOP’s most decorated performers. Here’s our series of SCOOP’s greatest players of all time:

Calvin “cal42688” Anderson
Mike “SirWatts” Watson
Shawn “buck21” Buchanan
Connor “blanconegro” Drinan
Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira


TODAY’S ACTION

Ever found yourself sitting at a 6-Max table and thinking there are just too few players? But then you switch to 8-Max and it’s too many? Well, Wednesday night in SCOOP is just for you with a 7-Max freezeout. Buy-ins are at the $55, $530, $5,200 range for that one. There’s also a NL Omaha Hi/Lo event, which should be a cracker. Here’s today’s full line-up:

12.30pm: SCOOP-17 NLHE Deep Stacks
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $50K, $125K, $125K

1.05pm: SCOOP-18 NLHE 7-Max Freezeout
Buy-ins: $55, $530, $5,200
Guarantees: $250K, $400K, $750K

2.15pm: SCOOP-19 NL Omaha H/L PKO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $50K, $100K, $200K

3.30pm: SCOOP-20 NLHE 8-Max PKO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $100K, $300K, $400K

(All timings are ET)


LEADER BOARD LATEST

With 36 tournaments now completed, it’s time to take a first look at the Player of the Series leader boards. And there’s no surprise to find Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio leading overall having won one event, finished third in another, and made at least two more deep runs. Tahkokallio also leads the “medium” leader board.

Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz’s two runner-up finishes put him in contention in the overall standings, but he leads the “high” buy-in race as both those results came in the top buy-ins.

Here’s how they stand, and a reminder of the prizes:

Low
=1 – Alex_Vol, Russia – 140 points
=1 – KaiHix, Netherlands – 140
=3 – Stefan “CrAzY_sTeFaN” Piele Dragos, Romania – 130
=3 – Jeka3200, Russia – 130
5 – neto gol, Brazil – 120

Prizes: 1st – $5,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $2,500; 3rd – $1,500 (20 players rewarded)

Medium
1 – Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio, Finland – 145 points
2 – Alexander “Kroko-dill” Zaichenko, Russia – 140
=3 – bigpapyboss, Canada – 130
=3 – römpsä, Finland – 130
5 – aleksandrs10, Russia – 125

Prizes: 1st – $10,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $7,500; 3rd – $5,000 (10 players rewarded)

High
1 – Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, Austria – 215
2 – Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden, Finland – 180
3 – Bruno “great dant” Volkmann, Brazil – 155
4 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland – 150
5 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, United Kingdom – 145

Prizes: 1st – $15,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $10,000; 3rd – $5,000

Overall Player of the Series

1 – Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio, Finland – 335 points
2 – aleksandrs10, Russia – 280
3 – Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, Austria – 240
4 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland – 235
5 – Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden, Finland – 215

Winner: $25,000 + Trophy

See official SCOOP page for more details


WATCH! WATCH! WATCH!

PokerStars’ streaming army will be out in force during this SCOOP, with all of Lex Velduis, Spraggy, Fintan “easywithaces” Hand, Arlie “Prince Pablo” Shaban, Mason “Pyefacepoker” Pye and Georgina “GJReggie” James certain to be playing most, if not all, days.

The PokerStars central Twitch and YouTube account will also be streaming cards-up final table action five nights a week. Here’s the schedule.

SCOOP 2021 broadcast schedule

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