Two full days are now completed in this year’s Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), and the PokerStars tables are positively bursting with players. Of course, as so often happens, the cream is already rising to the top. Here’s the very latest…
TODAY’S HEADLINES
• Multiple winners Van Hoof and “rickv17” claim early SCOOP titles
• Three wins for British-based players
• Lex and Pyefacepoker serve up Twitch treat
• Guarantees obliterated again; more than 41,000 entries in SCOOP-05-L
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Former WSOP final table player, and multiple PokerStars tournament champion, Jorryt “TheCleaner11” van Hoof was back among the winners in SCOOP overnight when he took down SCOOP-02-H, the $2,100 NLHE 8-Max PKO. The victory came only a matter of months since he won something similar during WCOOP, and the final result demonstrated how important winning the last heads-up battle is in a PKO tournament. Van Hoof won $88,383.68 from the prize pool, the same as “0m3rtá”, who finished second. But Van Hoof’s bounty payout was $87,720.69, i.e. almost as much as the first prize, while 0m3rtá had to make do with $8,195.31, a tenth of Van Hoof’s haul. Van Hoof’s $176,104.37 payout was the biggest so far in this SCOOP, and he added another $7K or so by finishing 17th in the PLO High buy-in.
On the subject of multiple winners, the UK’s “rickv17“, who won two WCOOP titles in September last year, is already up and running in SCOOP. The as-yet unidentified British-based player won the $2,100 PLO 6-Max, banking $101,164.68 and pushing Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira into second place. rick17 was near the top of the Player of the Series leader board throughout WCOOP, and has been doing this for a long time. He won the WCOOP heads-up title all the way back in 2011.
Jorryt van Hoof is a proud Dutchman, but “TheCleaner11”, his online avatar, is registered in the UK these days, meaning his win goes on to the UK’s tally. The same applies to Manu “manuverd0n” Bardón, who is one of Spain’s top poker talents, but who lives in Cardiff, in the UK. We first caught up with him at UKIPT Marbella a couple of years ago, but now Bardón is a SCOOP champion. He won SCOOP-04-H $1,050 NLHE overnight, picking up $95,364.14. Brazil’s “pvigar” was second and former Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez came in third.
For the second time already in this festival, a player finishing second won a bigger prize than the player they lost to heads-up, thanks to their better deal-making prowess. Russia’s “EvnomiYa” picked up $44,185.66 for finishing second in SCOOP-03-M, which was a $215 buy-in PLO event. The winner, Poland’s “magiet12” won $43,362.61, which they agreed after “agacheck” was knocked out in third.
There’s going to be some brilliant streaming action to watch this evening, as Lex Veldhuis sits in seventh position, of 104 left, in the $530 NLHE 8-Max PKO event, which resumes later. Veldhuis is in a great spot, with the majority of the 1,893 entries already departed, and with $60K up top. That’s not including bounties, of course, and the prize pool is very close to $950,000. That’s not all because…
…Mason “Pyefacepoker” Pye is one of the newest recruits to the PokerStars ranks, best known for his popular Twitch stream where he specialises in mixed games. He is going to become a whole lot more popular if he keeps up his early SCOOP form: “Pye-Face21” is currently in the money in SCOOP-06-M $215 8-Game, sitting 18th of the 642 remaining. Tune in later today to see how he gets on. (He also cashed in 371st place in the low buy-in version.)There were more than 41,400 entries to SCOOP-04-L, an $11 NLHE tournament, which played its first day yesterday. That field breaks down to 27,650 unique players and 13,761 re-entries and makes it the biggest tournament so far in this festival. The prize pool is $405,827 which is jaw-dropping when you consider that the guarantee was $125,000. That’s more than three times what had been expected. Something very similar happened in the medium buy-in version of the event, where 8,022 entries came through the cash desk. That built a prize pool of more than $800,000, for a tournament with $300K guaranteed.
OFFICIAL SITE & SCHEDULE | RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
TODAY’S RESULTS
Event | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Prize |
02-L: $22 NLHE, PKO, Mini Thursday Thrill SE | 27,948 | $558,960 | Chucha87 | Russia | $32,743.06 |
02-M: $215 NLHE, PKO, Thursday Thrill SE | 5,840 | $1,168,000 | SiiQnesS | Germany | $107,763.62 |
02-H: $2,100 NLHE, PKO | 575 | $1,150,000 | TheCleaner11 | UK | $176,104.37 |
03-L: $22 PLO, 6-Max | 8,790 | $175,800 | Naneeck | Russia | $24,646.29 |
03-M: $215 PLO, 6-Max | 1,697 | $339,400 | magiet12 | Poland | $43,362.61* |
03-H: $2,100 PLO, 6-Max | 265 | $530,000 | rickv17 | UK | $101,164.68 |
04-H: $1,050 NLHE | 539 | $539,000 | manuverd0n | UK | $95,364.14 |
08-L: $11 NLHE, Turbo | 13,739 | $134,642 | vozzz | Netherlands | $16,704.92 |
08-M: $109 NLHE, Turbo | 3,022 | $326,000 | PokerHoney91 | Germany | $38,778.74* |
08-H: $1,050 NLHE, Turbo | 326 | $326,000 | PaGaOVelhinho | Brazil | $60,585.40 |
*denotes deal
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 12
Tournaments ongoing: 9
Entries so far: 200,318
Prize pools so far: $5,924,964.60
First-place prizes awarded: $781,363.18
TOP TWEETS
I assume we’re all joining Mason Pye’s #MixedGamesMovement, right?
Couldn’t have asked for a better start to SCOOP. Tomorrow is all about potential. Thanks for the support today and I’ll hopefully see you all tomorrow for Day 2 of the $215 8-Game. Let’s. Just. Win. Going LIVE at around 19:00 BST. #MixedGamesMovement pic.twitter.com/FJPs0KBcsc
— Mason Pye (@pyefacepoker) May 2, 2020
TWITCH WATCH
Watching Lex Veldhuis play poker is fun, of course it is. But it also offers a real education, and here’s a fine example. Veldhuis was sitting pretty in SCOOP-05-H last night when he faced an enormous shove from his table-mate “daltonhb”. The call would be for most of Lex’s stack, and this was a $1,050 buy-in tournament. But Veldhuis took his time, analysed the situation, and pressed the button. Was he right?
Ready to sign up for PokerStars and play SCOOP? Click here to get an account.
BACK OF THE NET
A round-up of the best SCOOP coverage from across the web:
Poker News: Charlie “Epiphany77” Carrel recalls his 2017 SCOOP Main Event win
The British pro chats with Oliver Biles of Poker News about a landmark success — the last person besides Gianluca Speranza to win the SCOOP Main Event. This is a fascinating 30-minute chat.
Don’t forget: Poker News is also providing live coverage of some SCOOP events. Today is SCOOP-10-H $1,050 NLHE PKO. Here’s the full live coverage schedule.
COUNTRIES CHALLENGE
Twelve titles have already been decided, which gives us a first chance to look at which countries are crushing SCOOP. OK, “crushing” might be premature, but here are the early leaders:
Three wins: UK
Two wins: Brazil, Russia, Germany
One win: Greece, Poland, Netherlands
As stated above, at least two of the “British” successes are thanks to players relocating to the United Kingdom from other parts of Europe, but that’s the way it goes at the moment.
STARTING TODAY
Day 3: Saturday, May 2
Today you can head back to the beginning of two distinct eras of poker: the Wild West and then the poker boom of the late 1990s. In the case of the former, we have a 5-Card Draw event starting at 2.15pm ET, which was the game of choice for the desperados of the 19th century saloons — albeit not in the progressive knockout bounty format that we have here. Then at 3.30pm ET we have the first rebuy event of SCOOP, which recalls the crazy card-clubs of the early boom years and bellows of “Chips!” ringing out across dingy basements. With buy-ins starting at $2.20, this could be wild.
10.30am ET – Event 9: NLHE 8-Max (Afternoon Deep Stack)
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $50,000, $175,000, $300,000
1pm ET – Event 10: NLHE Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $200,000, $500,000, $750,000
POKER NEWS LIVE COVERAGE STARTS TODAY
2.15pm ET – Event 11: 5-Card Draw (Progressive KO)
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $15,000, $25,000, $40,000
3.30pm ET – Event 12: NLHE with rebuys
Buy-ins: $2.20+R, $22+R, $215+R
Guarantees: $25,000, $100,000, $200,000
GET SCHOOLED
It’s already clear from the opening two day of SCOOP that this is going to be an enormous festival, with huge fields in every event. There’s never been a better time to learn from the pros on every aspect of MTT strategy, and PokerStars School is the absolute best place to go.
The MTT course, which is available for free, talks you through all stages of a tournament, from the early, through middle and then late phases. There are 10 lessons and 13 videos, and with the Afternoon Deep Stack starting today, here’s where you can brush up to make the most of that hefty chip allocation.
POKERSTARS SCHOOL HOMEPAGE
MULTI-TABLE TOURNAMENT (MTT) COURSE
PREVIOUS SCOOP COVERAGE
Back to Top