Even as the enormous Main Events got under way in the 2020 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), the exploits of one of PokerStars most popular Twitch streamers stole the headlines. His name is Fintan “easywithaces” Hand, and he’s a SCOOP champion. Learn more…
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• PokerStars Ambassador “easywithaces” streams to victory
• Third SCOOP title for Carrel
• Six Main Events obliterate guarantee
• “WhatIfGod” and “bokkie87” back for more
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
The man of the moment, Fintan “easywithaces” Hand
Fintan “easywithaces” Hand streams spectacular SCOOP success: Sunday was meant to be all about the Main Events, a series of tournaments so massive that all other news would seem irrelevant. But then along came Fintan “easywithaces” Hand to go all the way to the title in the $1,050 SCOOP-69-H Afternoon Deep Stack and push his way to the top of the bulletin. Hand won his first SCOOP trophy, in what he described as a career defining moment, streaming to more than 12,000 people live on Twitch. The reward for the PokerStars Ambassador was a $73,652.88 payday, but the money seemed almost by-the-by as Hand willed in the win through his sheer enthusiasm.
Even from two tables out, it was all about a personal duel with Antoine “A.Saout” Saout, who sat to Hand’s left as the field dwindled from the remaining 18 to the nine around the final. Saout was in the lead at that stage. But after the redraw, Saout, who has been to two WSOP Main Event final tables, was drawn to Hand’s right, and the balance of power shifted. Hand knocked out Tom “hitthehole” Middleton in sixth, and then won an enormous flip against Saout with A♦ 10♥ vs. pocket sixes hitting an ace on the river.
Alex “Pwndidi” Theologis went out in third, leaving Hand to do battle heads up against Saout. The ebullient Irishman made short work of the UK-based Frenchman, and won a brilliantly dramatic last hand. Hand turned a full house with A♠ 3♠ , on a board of 9♦ 9♣ 9♥ 3♦ and clicked the “Call Any/Check” box, anticipating Saout’s shove. Saout did indeed put his remaining 20 million forward and Hand’s boat was better than Saout’s A♣ J♠ to begin the incredible celebrations. (See Twitch Watch section below for more clips.)
Carrel picks up a third win: It’s actually going to take us until at least the third news item before we address the Main Event because there was another well-known winner doing his thing on Sunday night. Charlie “Epiphany77” Carrel is a former SCOOP Main Event champion, who banked the winner’s cheque of more than $1.2 million in 2017, alongside another PLO title that year. As he was playing this year’s Main Event, Carrel was also into Day 2 of SCOOP-70-H: $530 NLHE PKO, and ended up going all the way. His third SCOOP title came with a haul of $111,380.52, including $43,912.43 in bounties, and denied Owain “sngwonder” Carey a second victory of the year.
Another SCOOP title for Charlie Carrel
Main Events destroy guarantees: The prize pools in each of the six Main Events starting yesterday are absolutely enormous, each obliterating even their enhanced guarantees. What’s more, registration is still open, with prize pools certain to grow even further. There’s a staggering $6.08 million invested in the $1,050 buy-in hold’em, with 6,085 entries already collected. Meanwhile, the 562 entries (so far) in the $10,300 version means a prize pool of $5.62 million. It’s a similar success story in the PLO Main Events. Here’s the full list:
$109 NLHE, Low Main Event ($3.5 million Gtd)
Entries: 42,921 (so far) | Prize pool: $4,292,100
$1,050 NLHE, Medium Main Event ($5 million Gtd)
Entries (so far): 6,085 (so far) | Prize pool: $6.085 million
$10,300 NLHE, High Main Event ($5 million Gtd)
Entries: 562 (so far) | Prize pool: $5.62 million
$109 6-Max, PLO Main Event ($500K Gtd)
Entries: 6,126 (reg closed) | Prize pool: $612,600
$1,050 6-Max, PLO Main Event ($750K Gtd)
Entries: 997 (so far) | Prize pool: $997,000
$10,300 6-Max, PLO Main Event ($1.25 million Gtd)
Entries: 137 (so far) | Prize pool: $1.37 million
As expected, all of poker’s top stars are playing the events, and many bagged huge stacks last night. The chip leader in the $10K NLHE is Calvin “cal43688” Anderson, the player with more SCOOP titles (10) than any other. Meanwhile, cash-game titan Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger leads the PLO High, with Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi in third. Lex Veldhuis bagged in both the $10K and $1K hold’em Main Events, and Spraggy sits in 121st of 200 in the $10K too. These are four-day events.
OFFICIAL SITE & SCHEDULE | RESULTS
LEADER BOARDS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
Clutch winner “WhatIfGod” does it again: Sweden’s “WhatIfGod” won two WCOOP titles within a week in 2014, and showed last night that the double win was no fluke. WhatIfGod picked up his second SCOOP title of this festival with victory in the $1,050 PKO Sunday Cooldown, earning $150,417.31, including $73,728.46 in bounties. Earlier this month, the Swede won the $530 NLHE Heads-Up Zoom event, for $37,691.13, but went even bigger with this one. The double double, six years apart, is a rare and superb achievement — particularly since the latest leg required beating the decorated Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren heads up.
One more for “bokkie87”: Bjorn “bokkie87” Verbakel first became a SCOOP champion in 2014 when he won a PLO Hi/Lo event, which is his favoured discipline. But six years later, he demonstrated that he’s pretty handy in two-card chicken as well when he won the medium buy-in Sunday Cooldown, earning $63,812.92, including $20,846.59 in bounties, and his second SCOOP title. Verbakel also has a win from the Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP), in a 5-Card Omaha event, so is happy when those blinds are escalating quickly too. He beat a 7,088-entry field in the PKO Cooldown last night, and did it in a little more than six hours start to finish.
Brazilians hog $109 podium: For the first time during this SCOOP, players from the same country occupied all three top spots in a tournament when “Portaluppi.7”, “bigfatfat” and “Péterson8” went 1-2-3 in the $109 Afternoon Deep Stack. The three of them are all Brazilians, and the former two did a heads up deal that gave bigfatfat the most money: $45,319.86 to Portaluppi.7’s $44,863.70. However Portaluppi.7 ended up winning the battle and taking the title, placing another victory in Brazil’s column this year.
TODAY’S RESULTS
| Tournament | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Prize |
| 69-L: $11 NLHE, Afternoon Deep Stack | 17,736 | $173,813 | hyggeLT | Lithuania | $15,768.41* |
| 69-M: $109 NLHE, Afternoon Deep Stack | 3,678 | $367,800 | Portaluppi.7 | Brazil | $44,863.70* |
| 69-H: $1,050 NLHE, Afternoon Deep Stack | 409 | $409,000 | easywithaces | Ireland | $73,652.88 |
| 70-L: $5.50 NLHE, PKO | 46,633 | $228,502 | fAArid88 | Brazil | $12,783.55† |
| 70-M: $55 NLHE, PKO | 18,996 | $949,800 | u3meha | Ukraine | $65,335.50† |
| 70-H: $530 NLHE, PKO | 2,112 | $1,056,000 | Epiphany77 | UK | $111,380.52† |
| 76-L: $11 NLHE, Turbo, PKO, Mini Sunday Cooldown SE | 20,591 | $201,792 | Hadoque | Germany | $12,372.96†* |
| 76-M: $109 NLHE, Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown SE | 7,088 | $708,800 | bokkie87 | Netherlands | $63,812.92† |
| 76-H: $1,050 NLHE, Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown SE | 1,117 | $1,117,000 | WhatIfGod | Sweden | $150,417.31† |
| Daily totals | 118,360 | $5,212,506 | $550,388 |
†inc. bounties
*denotes deal
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 213
Tournaments ongoing: 15
Starting today: 6
Entries so far: 1,435,062
Prize pools so far: $95,044,506
First-place prizes awarded: $13,518,886
Totals refer to completed tournaments only
INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!
Cristian “Chapex” Chaponan
We’re catching up with a lot of SCOOP winners this year, all happy to share their experiences of winning big.
Most recently, Cristian “Chapex” Chapoñan bagged another victory for Peru, and was quick to credit the enthusiastic Peruvian poker community for his success.
Click through to hear more from our long list of happy champions:
Previous winner interviews:
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
It was all about Fintan “easywithaces” Hand last night, whose run to the SCOOP title made for utterly compelling viewing and boosted his Twitch stream to the top spot in the poker category, even as the SCOOP Main Event was under way.
Hand got some maximum value from some big hands:
He made some gutsy bluffs at the business end:
And Hand’s success made waves across the whole of the poker streaming community:
Ready to sign up for PokerStars and play SCOOP? Click here to get an account.
TOP TWEETS
Fintan keeps it simple:
Can’t believe we won.
Holy fuck.
— Fintan Hand (@EasyWithAces) May 18, 2020
Meanwhile, @EnzoEV2 notices precisely why Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira is such a leader board beast. Translation: “Cool man Rui Ferreira plays phase 2 for $2.2 and is in a tournament for $10,300 at the same time!”
#SCOOP2020
Прикольный человек Руи Фирейера играет phase 2 за 2,2$ и параллельно турнир за 10,300$) pic.twitter.com/C5jxMgIy6C— Enzo (@EnzoEV2) May 17, 2020
FOLLOW THE ACTION LIVE!
Poker News on the case
At the same time, the Sunday Warm-Up will play to a winner, as will the Phase event. Poker News is covering those events too.
LEADER BOARD LATEST
First of all, check out our dedicated leader board post, which has all the latest news about prizes and standings, particularly now that SCOOP has been extended.
Meanwhile, here’s a look at how the current “overall” and Week 2 low, medium and high leader boards look. Remember, these are updated on the official leader boards page daily, so be sure to check there for latest updates.
As noted by the tweeter above, the tendency of Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira to play everything going, and to play it very well, explains his continuing dominance of the overall leader board.
Overall
1 – Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Netherlands, 1,270 points
2 – krakukra, Russia, 1,005
3 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK, 960
4 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 865
5 – Körrinho, Austria, 840
Overall leader board runs through entirety of SCOOP.
Low (Week 2)
1 – Jab0c0, United Kingdom, 185 points
2 – FONBET_RULIT, Russia, 180
3 – filfedra, Czech Republic, 170
=4 – ISmellToast, Canada, 165
=4 – JUCA_PIRAMA1, Brazil, 165
Week 2 prizes: 1st – Trophy and $5,000; 2nd – $2,500; 3rd – $1,500. Top 25 win prizes.
Medium (Week 1)
1 – Fabahaba, Finland, 205 points
2 – TheDrunkLife, Hungary, 195
3 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland 170
4 – Körrinho, Austria, 165
5 – Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, Russia, 160
Week 2 prizes: 1st – Trophy and $7,500; 2nd – $5,000; 3rd – $2,500. Top 10 win prizes.
High (Week 2)
1 – Joao “Naza114” Ferreira, Netherlands, 320 points
2 – Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Canada, 315
3 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, United Kingdom, 310
4 – Connor “blanconegro” Drinan, Mexico, 290
5 – Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara, Japan, 285
Week 2 prizes: 1st – Trophy and $10,000; 2nd – $7,500; $5,000.
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
There are no prizes for any winners on the countries leader board. It’s just something we track on the blog out of interest. That means we can extend it through all 372 tournaments in SCOOP this year without worrying about reneging on our Terms & Conditions.
The extension will be a blessing for players from Russia and Brazil, in particular, as it offers them the chance to rein in the dominant UK. British players still have a comfortable lead at the top of the standings, but look over their shoulders now and see yellow and green, with the Latin Americans having edged ahead of Russia.
Latest standings:
31: UK
25: Brazil
23: Russia
16: Netherlands
15: Germany
10: Canada
Nine: Ukraine
Seven: Norway
Six: Austria, Sweden
Five: Mexico, Ireland
Four: Greece, Belarus, Hungary, Finland, Poland, Argentina, Lithuania
Three: China, Romania, Peru
Two: Malta, Denmark, Belgium
One: Japan, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Uruguay, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Lebanon, Croatia, Macau, Cyprus
STARTING TODAY
Day 19: Monday, May 18
The Main Event may be already under way, but there’s still more than $2.5 million in guaranteed prize pools over six tournaments starting today. That’s SCOOP. It’s all hold’em, and it’s all pretty fast-paced, but hop in for some 8-Max PKO or a nine-handed turbo.
2.15pm ET – Event 77: NLHE 8-Max Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $275,000, $850,000, $1 million
5pm ET – Event 78: NLHE Turbo
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
Guarantees: $125,000, $250,000, $300,000
GET SCHOOLED
With SCOOP now extended, there are still tons of chances to join the 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.
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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