It wasn’t Zoom Poker, but at times, it sure felt like it. In just over five hours, more than 15,000 players were whittled away, leaving a single champion. Perhaps one day we’ll see a Zoom tournament or even a Zoom SCOOP event, but in the meantime, we have the 6-Max SuperKnockout Turbo format to keep things moving. Event #30-L was the raging keg party of the 2012 SCOOP; someone went too hard too fast, someone got pushed in the pool, and the random European guy turned into the big man on campus. Tonight, that random European guy was triantafill. Although triantafill didn’t claim the largest share of the prize pool, he shipped his first SCOOP title and brought home a $18,142.39 payday.

15,331 players entered event #30-L ($27 NLHE SuperKnockout 6-Max Turbo). $13 from each buy-in went to the main prize pool and $13 went to the bounty pool, creating two prize pools of $199,303 apiece. Knock out one player and you get half your buy-in back. Knock out more than one and you’re freerolling the rest of the way. Sounds pretty nice, right? Two dozen members of Team Pro and Team Online thought so, including Vanessa Selbst, Jonathan Duhamel, Shane “shaniac” Schleger, Liv Boeree, and Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen. Four bearers of the mighty red spade finished in the money– Marcin Horecki (2,059th), Christophe DeMuelder (835th), George “Jorj95” Lind III (459th), and George Danzer (453rd).

An utterly brutal elimination set the final table. Facing the 600,000 big blind on the next deal, N2266 open-shoved for 602,576 from under-the-gun. Skalala min three-bet to 1.2 million and marroca5 moved all-in for 14.5 million, having skalala covered. Skalala gladly called off his remaining 10 million, turning over A♣ A♠ . Marroca5 tabled A♥ Q♥ while N2266 showed J♠ 7♠ . All was right for skalala’s aces on the K♣ 9♥ 2♦ flop. The 3♥ on the turn left N2266 drawing dead, but it was the J♥ on the river that put the dagger in skalala’s heart as marroca5 caught running hearts to make the nut flush. N2266 went out in seventh place, earning $1,694.07 while skalala took home $2,391.63 for sixth.

Final table chip counts:

Seat 1: RiAb80 (7,386,128 in chips) 
Seat 2: marroca5 (26,926,735 in chips) 
Seat 3: hunnia94 (16,419,272 in chips) 
Seat 4: triantafill (21,576,834 in chips) 
Seat 5: Oczar (4,346,031 in chips) 

The early action saw RiAb80 and Oczar’s chip positions essentially reversed, RiAb80 falling to short-stack status with 4.4 million while Oczar chipped up to 6.3 million. With the action folded to him in the small blind and the only player at the table who could not bust him sitting in the big, Oczar made a pretty standard shove with Q♦ 4♦ . Unfortunately for him, RiAb80 woke up with 10♣ 10♠ , the pocket pair holding to double him up to 9.07 million. Oczar was left with less than 2 million in chips and moved them in two hands later from under-the-gun. Both RiAb80 and triantafill called. Although both active players checked the A♣ 7♣ 2♠ flop, triantafill check-folded to RiAb80’s 2,000,000 bet on the turn. RiAb80 turned over K♥ 7♥ for trips, Oczar drawing dead with K♣ Q♥ . Oczar was out in fifth place, earning $3,986.06 while RiAb80 claimed his bounty.

The field down to four and the blinds up to 500,000/1,000,000, everyone agreed to pause the action and discuss a deal. Final table host (and 2012 SCOOP champion) George “Jorj95” Lind III presented the players with chip count chop numbers and although hunnia94, RiAb80 and triantafill quickly agreed to them, marroca5 refused to make a deal for anything less than a $22,000 share. His opponents were quick to remind him of the size of the blinds and the speed of the structure, but marroca5 held his ground, believing he had an edge over the others:

triantafill: its a turbo dont forget this
marroca5: yeah but I have a considerable advantage and I specialize in turbo sitngos……srry guys you can take 1.2 from 2nd and 3rd and we have a deal
marroca5: if not I prefer to play

What marroca5 left out was the fact that he’s already won a SCOOP event this year. And he had to beat Justin Bonomo to do it. Marroca5 also has a WCOOP title, earned last fall in stud hi/lo.

Triantafill, RiAb80, and hunnia94 agreed to give up $400, $500, and $250 from their shares and it was enough to satisfy marroca5. With a deal in place and $2,000 still left on the table, action resumed.

It didn’t take long before hunnia94 picked up 3♦ 3♥ and three-bet shoved for 12.5 million. Triantafill snap-called with Q♠ Q♣ , the board running out ten-high to send hunnia94 to the rail in fourth place. He earned $12,824.80 for his finish while triantafill moved into the chip lead with 31.7 million.

Second-in-chips marroca5 made a move at the wrong time against triantafill, three-bet shoving for 23.9 million from the big blind after triantafill min-raised the button. Triantafill called with A♦ K♦ , marroca5’s 7♣ 10♦ needing some serious help on the board. Although marroca5 turned a gutshot straight draw, his ten-high never improved. Marroca5 may have finished in third place, but he took home the largest share of the prize pool at $21,985.79.

Heads-up chip counts:

Seat 1: RiAb80 (15,559,124 in chips)
Seat 4: triantafill (61,095,876 in chips)

Triantafill entered heads-up play with a 4 to 1 chip advantage and never let go. It only took a few hands before all the money went in on a coinflip, triantafill’s Q♥ 10♠ racing against RiAb80’s 2♥ 2♣ . Triantafill hit top pair on the Q♠ 6♣ 5♣ flop and made trips on the turn with the Q♣ . Although the the club gave RiAb80 a little hope with a flush draw, the K♠ fell on the river, sealing the win for triantafill.

Congratulations to triantafill on an excellent run and his first SCOOP title. He earned $18,142.29 for the win while runner-up RiAb80 banked $13,208.57.

2012 SCOOP Event #30-L ($27 NLHE SuperKnockout 6-Max Turbo) results

Entrants: 15,331
Places paid: 2,100

1. triantafill (Greece) $18,142.29*
2. RiAb80 (Germany) $13,208.57
3. marroca5 (Colombia) $21,985.79*
4. hunnia94 (Hungary) $12,824.80*
5. Oczar (Poland) $3,986.06
6. skalala (Austria) $2,391.63

*= reflects the results of a four-way deal that left $2,000 in play for the winner

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

Back to Top