It’s Second Chance time at the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), but there are also still plenty of players making the most of their first chance. Here’s the latest from another very busy Sunday in SCOOP

TODAY’S HEADLINES

• $2 million-plus prize pools in Second Chance Main Events
• Winners from Mongolia, Thailand and two for China
• “Deeagie” adds SCOOP to MicroMillions success
• Yosifov’s decade-long journey hits new high

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Second chance attracts big names: The so-called “Main Event Second Chance” got started on Sunday night, with prize pools of $2.44 million for the $530 buy-in and $2.32 million for the $5,200 version. Nominally these tournaments offer a second crack of the whip at players who maybe missed out the first time but, obviously, the successful players themselves also have another go, and heaters tend to continue. In the $5,200 High version, Jans “Graftekkel” Arends leads the 42 remaining, with “EEE27” and Alex “dynoalot” Difelice, who both made the first Main Event final table, still alive too. So is “Anjeyyy”, of Ukraine, who won a Sunday High Roller earlier in the series, and Dominik “Bounatirou” Nitshce, who was a champion on Saturday night. In the $530 buy-in version, Pablo “pabritz” Brito, who finished second in the Main Event last week, is second of 640 players still remaining in that one. There’s also a $5K PLO Main Event currently under way, with Noah “Exclusive” Boeken and Andras “probirs” Nemeth in the top five and looking for another victory this year. Chun Lei “SamRostan” Zhou is leading at this stage. All these events resume tonight.

Jans “Graftekkel” Arends, left, and Chun Lei “SamRostan” Zhou lead high 2nd chance Main Events

Welcome to the SCOOP club, Mongolia: These major series on PokerStars always remind us of the extraordinary global appeal of poker. Yesterday we had first winners from Vietnam and Luxembourg, and today we can report on a first SCOOP title for “$ubuta1” of Mongolia. There were only two entries to the $530 Afternoon Deep Stack from the east Asian country (wedged between Russia and China) but both made the money. “bayaraa1002” finished 63rd for $1,302, but $ubuta1 beat all of the 734-entry field. That was worth $62,273.44 and a famous win.

Asian success continues across the festival: We are not done yet on the subject of Asia-based SCOOP champions. Both the medium and high buy-in versions of SCOOP-91, a PKO event, went to players from China. Before tonight, only three previous SCOOP 2020 titles had gone to players from the world’s most populous nation, but “dugui18” beat a field of 9,262 entries to win $63,147.46 (including bounties) in the $109 buy-in tournament and “miniross182” won $108,767.62 (including bounties) in the $1,050 buy-in version. That pushed China’s haul up to five.

From MicroMillions to SCOOP: “Deeagie“, who is based in Thailand, represents all that’s best about the low-stakes tournament scene on PokerStars. He or she is a low-stakes grinder, occasionally taking a shot at a special edition Sunday Million, but mainly playing the lower buy-in events – and making a good few splashes along the way. Six years ago, Deeagie turned $3.30 into $1,271 in a Badugi tournament during MicroMillions, and last night won a first SCOOP title, in the $5.50 Afternoon Deep Stack. This time the prize, after a heads-up deal with Romania’s “$-=IKU=-$29” was $8,680.27. Coincidentally, the winner of the medium buy-in event, Uruguay’s “mdf92” does something very similar. In August 2017, mdf92 won $212,109 for taking down the half-price Sunday Million. And last night, the Uruguayan turned $55 into $41,168 and a first SCOOP title after beating a field of 5,792.

Yosifov’s decade-long journey hits new high: In 2010, a 26-year-old Bulgarian player named Dimitar “trionojnika” Yosifov introduced himself on the Two Plus Two staking forum, asking for anyone who might be interested in investing in him, or coaching him, as he tried to make a serious go of his poker career. No one replied, despite Yosifov bumping the thread repeatedly with details of his latest successes, including second place in the Sunday Warm-Up and fourth in the Sunday Million, and “over 300k winnings this year”. It’s still unclear whether Yosifov ever managed to attract a backer, but he has since also won EPT side events in Barcelona and Prague, and finished fourth in a WSOP event in Vegas. Last night, Yosifov also won a SCOOP title, outgunning a 1,607-entry field in the $530 Sunday Cooldown, banking $104,629.25, including bounties. Maybe this kid was worth an investment after all…

Dimitar “trionojnika” Yosifov, from Prague side event winner to SCOOP champ

Moose denied by Chrosty in HORSE: The deep stages of the $530 HORSE tournament last night had all the familiar faces ready to bag another title: Dzmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich, Alexander “Kroko-dill” Zaichenko, Connor “blanconegro” Drinan and Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov were all among the 32 players in the money. But strangely all of them fell by the wayside before the tournament reached the final table, eventually leaving a heads-up battle between two fierce Nordic players. On the one side, there was Denmark’s Christian “CMoosepower” Elgstrøm, a former TCOOP Player of the Series. On the other, Finland’s “Chrosty“, who has been at the top of a few chip counts through this SCOOP, and made the final table in SCOOP-83-M, but hadn’t converted to a win. Until now. “Chrosty” managed to halt Elgstrøm in his tracks and deny the Moose a win in HORSE. “Chrosty” earned $22,578.75 and his first SCOOP success.

TODAY’S RESULTS

†inc. bounties
*denotes deal

STAT TRACKER

Tournaments completed: 282
Tournaments ongoing: 12
Starting today: 9
Entries so far: 2,144,385
Prize pools so far: $143,302,962
First-place prizes awarded: $19,723,192

Totals refer to completed tournaments only.

TWITCH WATCH

Lex Veldhuis played the $5,200 PLO Second Chance last night, and as ever offered a brilliant insight into an elite player’s mind. He lost the hand in the clip below — and it was a huge pot — but his explanation of his thought process almost makes it worth it.

You can always rely on Arlie “Prince Pablo” Shaban to show his emotions in a hand, and in this pot everything goes from A-Okay to head-in-hands in a matter of moments. It looks like being a massive outdraw, and then it ends in quads. Enjoy Arlie’s pain…

FEATURE! FEATURE! FEATURE!

In our most recent SCOOP feature, a whole gallery of SCOOP winners shared their answers to one crucial question: “What common mistakes do players make at the tables to make them exploitable?”

If you want to know what the likes of Charlie “Epiphany77” Carrel and Preben “prebz” Stokkan have noticed, which you might still be doing, this is going to help you a great deal. “The biggest mistake is not to have bankroll management” SAYS Robert “4bet_me” Rohr, who took down 68-M: $109 NLHE. “But sometimes it is worth taking a shot.”

Charlie Carrel and Preben Stokkan

There’s some excellent advice here for players of all bankrolls and abilities.

The SCOOP mistakes you’re making (according to the champions who beat you)

INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!

We’ve been catching up with numerous other SCOOP champions over the series, happy to share the secrets of their success, or simply to introduce themselves to the poker world. Most recently, the $55 Sunday Kickoff champ Fellipe “FellipeD” Drapichinski admitted, “This is the best moment of my career.” Read the full interview.

Meanwhile, hear from a whole host of other SCOOP champions:

Pedro “BigodinSagaz” Henrique: Following a path to success
László “Lackoo87gcb” Molnár: “I think I’m starting to like it!”
Cristian ‘Chapex’ Chapoñan: One for Peru
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

Ready to sign up for PokerStars and play SCOOP? Click here to get an account.

TOP TWEETS

Look who’s playing the Second Chance Main Event. Good railing potential here, assuming Will Kassouf uses the chat box as much as he does his actual mouth at the tables:

Poker News on the case

FOLLOW THE ACTION LIVE!

It was a very busy night at Poker News, where the crack team of live reporters followed two of the hold’em second chance main events, as well as the big buy-in PLO. Relive the blow-by-blow action:

$530 NLHE | $5,200 NLHE | $5,200 PLO

They’ll all play to a champion tonight, and Poker News will follow along again.

FULL UPDATES SCHEDULE

LEADER BOARD LATEST

It’s still Rui at the top. Can he go wire-to-wire at the top of this leader board? It’s looking increasingly likely by the day:

Latest standings:

1 – Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Netherlands, 1,680 points
2 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK, 1,400
3 – “krakukra”, Russia, 1,295
4 – Körrinho, Austria, 1,140
4 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, 1,135

(Prizes: 1st: $50,000 + Trophy; 2nd: $20,000; 3rd: $10,000)

COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Players from 44 different countries have now won a title during this year’s SCOOP after Mongolia and Thailand appeared on the countries leader board for the first time. China’s two titles pushed them up alongside Greece, Hungary and Belarus too.

Latest standings:

43: UK
37: Brazil
26: Russia
18: Germany
17: Netherlands
11: Canada, Ukraine
10: Norway
Nine: Austria
Eight: Mexico, Ireland
Seven: Sweden, Finland
Five: Greece, Hungary, Belarus, China
Four: Poland, Argentina, Lithuania, Romania
Three: Peru
Two: Malta, Denmark, Belgium, Lebanon, Japan, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Luxembourg
One: Kazakhstan, Slovakia, North Macedonia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Croatia, Macau, Cyprus, Moldova, Latvia, Vietnam.

STARTING TODAY

Day 26: Monday, May 25

The filling in today’s NLHE sandwich is a 5-Card PLO Hi/Lo 6-Max tournament, and if you can find a reason to fold any hand pre-flop, you’re a better player than 99 percent of the field. With a low buy-in of $5.50, it’ll be fun to try a new variant like this one.

1pm ET – Event 99: NLHE 8-Max, PKO
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $100,000, $350,000, $700,000

2.15pm ET – Event 100: 5-Card NLO8 6-Max, Turbo
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $20,000, $50,000, $100,000

3.30pm ET – Event 101: NLHE
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $75,000, $150,000, $250,000

GET SCHOOLED

There are still tons of chances to join the SCOOP 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. They are always relevant.

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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