The first weekend has come and gone in the 2016 Spring Championship of Online Poker while players are settling in to grind the series. Monday brought around a new variation on the SCOOP schedule with a little short-handed No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo.
Split pot poker with none of those pesky bet-sizing limitations.
The sixth tournament in the series also juiced things up by making it a Progressive Super-Knockout event with $100 of the $215 medium buy-in going to the regular prize pool and another $100 into a bounty prize pool. Knock someone out, get half of their bounty while the other half is applied to your own head. Players earn money while making themselves a bigger target.
The event drew 766 entrants to put $76,600 in each of the prize pools, more than doubling the $25,000 Guarantee placed on the tournament. The last 96 players would earn a piece of the main prize pool but everyone was eligible for bounty money from the beginning.
Day 1 of the tournament paused the action at the end of Level 28 with 11 players still around with a chance for the title. There was a big name leading the way when they came back with Ari “BodogAri” Engel holding the biggest stack. Engel has success both live and online; earning his COOP title in the 2014 SCOOP Low Main Event while also the proud owner of eight World Series of Poker Circuit rings.
jon011 was the 2013 SCOOP High NL Draw champion and the only other former COOP champ among the returning 11, though SiiliSuhonen came close in WCOOP 2010 with a runner-up finish to Andrey “Kroko-dill” Zaichenko in the Pot Limit Omaha/8 event.
Jason Mercier and Jason Somerville were the only two members of Team PokerStars to slide into the money, though neither was around when the tournament paused for the day.
With the average stack at 58 big blinds, the returning players were under no pressure at the restart. It took the first hour of Day 2 play to reach the final table bubble and they got there at the expense of Engel. He was leading at the restart and most of the first hour of play, then ran into two big hands against lautokastar.
One level into hand-for-hand action and those two were heads up with the board reading Q♦ 9♥ 7♥ 4♦ . lautokastar had Engel covered and moved all-in with a flush draw K♦ 9♦ 7â™ 3♥ to get a call from Engel’s flopped set A♥ 10♥ 9♣ 9â™ . Engel had to dodge eight river outs but lautokastar completed his flush on the 2♦ river to send Engel out and set the final table.
Seat 1: Narcis “Narcisus90” Nedelcu (796,876 in chips)
Seat 2: SiiliSuhonen (614,124 in chips)
Seat 3: xaffer (2,107,823 in chips)
Seat 4: RedPh0enix (619,283 in chips)
Seat 5: lautokastar (2,862,865 in chips)
Seat 6: -kadlatko- (659,029 in chips)
Blinds: 10K/20K with 2.5K Ante
SiiliSuhonen floats on a boat, eliminated in 6th
SiiliSuhonen was the shortest stack to start the final table, but having more than 30 bigs didn’t exactly put him in the danger zone. He found an early big hand and took a stand.
It was a three-way pot between SiiliSuhonen, Narcis “Narcisus90” Nedelcu, and xaffer looking at the 8♥ 4♦ 4â™ 10â™ board. Nedelcu led out for 96,000 and SiiliSuhonen moved all-in with the overpair Kâ™ K♣ 10♣ 9♥ . xaffer let his hand go and Nedelcu called with flopped trip fours 6♣ 5♥ 4♣ 2♥ .
SiiliSuhonen had only four outs to stay in the game but Nedelcu boated up on the 2â™ river to scoop the pot and send SiiliSuhonen out in 6th place for $2,298.
-kadlatko- sees monsters, eliminated in 5th
-kadlatko- had no particular reason to get frisky with plenty of chips, but then found a big Omaha/8 starting hand at the short-handed table. He picked up A♠K♥ J♠2♥ and three-bet shoved after an open from chip leader lautokastar.
-kadlatko- quickly saw his fate when lautokastar called with the better hand A♣ A♦ 8♦ 2â™ then watched the set-giving A♥ 10♦ 3♦ flop. It left -kadlatko- drawing very thin and he couldn’t find a miracle on the K♣ turn or 9♣ river to go out in 5th place for $3,830.
Slowing them down, Nedelcu runs out in 4th
The four remaining players were deep and sharp and in no real hurry to mix it up. They went at each other for more than two hours without anyone picking up another bounty. Not that there weren’t chances, but the nature of hi/lo games showed its face with plenty of chopped pot.
Narcis “Narcisus90” Nedelcu was up and down during that time until he pushed it one hand too far. He moved all-in for 1.8 million after a RedPh0enix open and lautokastar call. RedPh0enix shoved over the top to isolate and Lautokastar mucked his hand.
RedPh0enix: A♠Q♠6♣ 4♦
Nedelcu: J♥ 10♦ 3♥ 2♣
RedPh0enix was statistically ahead then hit top pair on the Q♥ 5♥ 2♦ flop with Nedelcu finding bottom pair/flush draw. Nedulcu improved to two pair on the J♠turn but was topped when the river came 6♠to scoop the high and low for Nedelcu. It was a long stretch of action but Nedelcu, the former Super Tuesday champion, out in 4th place for $5,362 and $2,715 in bounties.
xaffer’s short stack sent out in 3rd
Nedelcu had his 1.8 million stack courtesy of a double through xaffer, leaving the Russian with only a handful of big blinds. RedPh0enix did him a ladder-up favor by taking out Nedelcu but xaffer’s tournament didn’t last much longer. Seven hands to be exact.
He had a small double up on the fifth hand then open/shoved two hands later for 547,630 total before RedPh0enix put another 5 million on top to get heads up. xaffer was in trouble with 8♦ 3♦ 3♠2♠against 6♥ 6♣ 5♦ 4♥ and RedPh0enix added a flush draw on the K♣ K♥ 9♥ flop.
The 5♣ turn left xaffer with four outs to remain in the game but RedPh0enix found an overkill flush on the 5♥ river to send xaffer out in 3rd place and set up the heads-up match.
RedPh0enix survives tough battle to win Event #6M title
Seat 4: RedPh0enix (5,732,303 in chips)
Seat 5: lautokastar (1,927,697 in chips)
Blinds: 35K/70K with 8,750 Ante
RedPh0enix began heads-up play with a healthy lead but it didn’t take long for lautokastar to even it up. His comeback hand came when he was all-in and behind with A♣ 10♦ 6♥ 2♦ against A♦ K♦ Q♣ 2â™ . lautokastar flopped top pair, turned two pair, and took 3/4 of the pot with the same low on the 10♥ 8♦ 4♣ 6â™ 4♥ board.
That status remained the same for the next 30 minutes before RedPh0enix turned the tables in the last two hands of the tournament. The stacks were getting closer and RedPh0enix called a shove from lautokastar after limping his button. RedPh0enix needed to catch with his A♠5♠3♠2♠against K♣ K♠8♥ 6♦ which he did on the 10♥ 3♥ 3♣ flop.
The 4♣ turn left lautokastar only two outs to win the championship but the 7♠river scooped the pot for RedPh0enix. The hand left lautokastar with 1.5 million and they went in the middle from the button on the next hand. RedPh0enix called and the hands were tabled.
RedPh0enix: J♠6♦ 4♦ 2♦
lautokastar: 10♥ 9♦ 4♥ 3â™
Both hit bottom pair on the Q♠7♣ 4♠flop but RedPh0enix improved to jacks-up on the J♦ turn. With no low draw, lautokastar had four scoop outs (and four more chops) but the 10♣ river was not one of them. RedPh0enix dragged the last pot of the tournament to pick up his first major championship, the $13,596 top prize, and $5,370 in bounty money.
Both players are regulars in the No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Hyper Turbo Heads Up tables and it was RedPh0enix outlasting lautokastar for the big win.
SCOOP-06-M ($215 NL Omaha Hi/Lo 6-Max, Progressive Super-Knockout) results
Entrants: 766
Total prize pool: $153,200
Places paid: 96
1. RedPh0enix (Russia) $13,596.50 + $5,370.58 in bounties
2. lautokastar (Australia) $10,072.90 + 3,954.66 in bounties
3. xaffer (Russia) $7,660.00 + $3,496.28 in bounties
4. Narcis “Narcisus90” Nedelcu (Romania) $5,362.00 + $2,715.23 in bounties
5. -kadlatko- (Czech Republic) $3,830.00 + $1,367.18 in bounties
6. SiiliSuhonen (Finland) $2,298.00 + $987.50 in bounties
Back to Top
