Friday, 29th March 2024 06:30
Home / Uncategorized / SCOOP: Terrence “Unassigned” Chan becomes Event 20-M FL Hold’em champion
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Event 20? It’s a little tough to believe that we’ve made it through to the 20th event of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) in only ten days. But the wild ride certainly wasn’t over yet, as other events were wrapping up to take us to the series finale. But for the players in Event 20 tonight, it was one of the few chances remaining to pick up a coveted SCOOP title, and FLHE was the only things on their minds.

A total of 540 players took to the felt for the medium stakes version of Event 20, which required a $500 + $30 buy-in. That pushed the prize pool up to $270,000, well past the $200 guarantee established by PokerStars. In the end, the last 78 survivors would pick up a portion of that pool, though an impressive $51,300 was waiting for the winner.

A number of Team PokerStars Pros came to the felt for this limit version of hold’em, including Katja Thater, Victor Ramdin, Bill Chen, Noah Boeken, Marcin Horecki, Gavin Griffin, Vanessa Rousso, and Barry Greenstein. It was none other than 2008 WSOP main event finalist Ylon Schwartz who squeaked into the money to become the first player to cash in this tournament, taking home $783.00 for 78th place.

All the while, the ever-so quiet Steve Paul-Ambrose was still representing for Team PokerStars. Though never dominating the leaderboard, he was slowly but surely making a run at the final table…until that run came to a screeching halt when he was knocked out in 22nd place. The $1,890.00 prize was awarded him for the solid effort.

That left the rest of the field fighting for spots at the final table. As the last two tables played out, there were three players dominating with their chip stacks – Unassigned, jasjas11, and Lest@t Lion. They were so far ahead of the pack that the shorter stacked players were at least facing a 2-to-1 deficit, if not more in some cases.

As action continued, there were eight players approaching the nine-hour mark of the tournament, and with the elimination of Kenny Rap in eighth place, hand-for-hand play kicked in to find the final table bubble player. Ultra-short stacked Victor510 was able to double through jasjas11 to stay alive, and then split a sizable pot with Lest@t Lion to sit more comfortably, while Unassigned flew to the bottom of the leaderboard. A double-up for him through MCJS provided some life there as well. Finally, though, it was the following hand that left teacuppoker on the rail with $5,643.00 for the seventh place finish. The hand played out as follows:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The final table was then set:

Seat 1: savagegamble (462,364 in chips)
Seat 2: MCJS (252,442 in chips)
Seat 3: Unassigned (449,672 in chips)
Seat 4: Victor510 (133,704 in chips)
Seat 5: Lest@t Lion (425,988 in chips)
Seat 6: jasjas11 (975,830 in chips)

SCOOP Event 20 - Medium final table screen shot.JPG

It should be noted that as Unassigned headed into action in this event with a chance of becoming a SCOOP champion, he was in the high stakes tournament of Event 20 at the same time, holding on to a solid chip lead with five players remaining. Two SCOOP final tables in one night is no easy task.

One of the players fighting for round after round was savagegamble, but finally relegated to a stack of below 100K chips, it was time to move. It was savagegamble and jasjas11 to the flop that appeared 10♣ J♥ 3♥ , at which point savagegamble bet, jasjas11 check-raised, and savagegambled pushed all-in with J♦ 4♦ . The top pair wasn’t bad as jasjas11 called with Q♥ 10â™  for middle pair, but the turn came K♥ and the river Aâ™  to give jasjas11 the runner-runner straight. That left savagegamble as the final table’s first casualty, finishing in sixth place for $8,397.00.

It took nearly a half hour to find the next victim, and it just happened to be one of the most talkative players at the table. Down to only 44,442 chips, MCJS reraised all-in preflop after Lest@t Lion made the initial raise. The three callers were jasjas11, Unassigned, and Lest@t Lion, though Unassigned got out of the way after a bet on the A♣ Q♣ 2♥ flop. Then came the 5♥ turn and 7♣ river, at which point Lest@t Lion showed A♦ 3♠ for top pair, but jasjas11 showed A♥ 10♠ for that same pair with the better kickers. MCJS simply mucked and left in fifth place with $13,500.00 in prize money.

Suddenly, the game sped up. A player who had balanced a relative short stack since coming to the final table finally pushed preflop with A♦ 7♦ , and Victor510 had to feel confident when Unassigned called with K♠ 9♣ . The board ran out 4♣ 10♣ Q♥ K♦ 7♣ to give Unassigned the best pair and eliminate Victor510 in fourth place with $18,900.00.

Within moments, another player was ready to gamble. Lest@t Lion reraised the pot preflop after an initial raise from jasjas11 and a reraise from Unassigned. jasjas11 folded, but Unassigned called to see the flop come 10♣ 6♦ 5♠ . Betting and calling led to the A♥ on the turn, at which point, Lest@t Lion bet out, but Unassigned check-raised, which prompted an all-in move from Lest@t Lion with A♣ J♠ . Unassigned called with A♠ K♠ and won the hand after the river came 2♠ . Lest@t Lion left in third place with $27,675.00.

And then there were two. Their counts were:

Seat 3: Unassigned (1,612,980 in chips)
Seat 6: jasjas11 (1,087,020 in chips)

Right out of the gate, Unassigned dominated the action, winning pot after pot. jasjas11 was able to take some key hands so the chip disparity didn’t become overwhelming. But jasjas11 had no intention of giving up, and the two subsequently battled for nearly an hour, exchanging the chip lead and giving it all they had.

Unassigned jumped back out to a significant lead at that hour mark, and jasjas11 hit the following hand to stay alive:

RSS readers click through to see replay

It only took another five minutes or so to end the match. jasjas11 fought back but couldn’t overcome the hits, and he sat with only 212,320 going into the final hand. The two went to see a 4♣ 4â™  8♦ flop, and more betting and raising took them to the A♣ on the turn. Unassigned bet out, and jasjas11 responded with an all-in call holding Q♣ 6♣ and the flush draw. Unassigned showed K♥ 3♣ for the same pair on the board but with a king kicker. The 9♦ on the river ended it, and left jasjas11 with a second place finish and respectable $37,800.00 prize for the effort.

Terrence “Unassigned” Chan claimed his first SCOOP victory of the series, and the title came with a champion’s watch and $51,300 in winnings. And at the same time, he continued to fight a heads-up battle in the $5200 FLHE event on another table, going back and forth with shaundeeb for a second title. While that remains unresolved at this time of this posting, a congratulations is in order for this one!

SCOOP Event 20-Medium Final Table Results:

1st place: Unassigned ($51,300.00)
2nd place: jasjas11 ($37,800.00)
3rd place: Lest@t Lion ($27,675.00)
4th place: Victor510 ($18,900.00)
5th place: MCJS ($13,500.00)
6th place: savagegamble ($8,397.00)

The SCOOP main event is just around the corner, so check out the satellites and get yourself a seat!. Visit the SCOOP page for all of the details, the leaderboard page to track your favorite players (or yourself), or the PokerStars.tv site for all of the event highlights.

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