The 2020 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) gets under way on Thursday, April 30 and runs until May 19. There are 240 tournaments and guaranteed prize pools of more than $85 million. It is, in a word, enormous. Here’s a closer look at the SCOOP schedule, breaking down everything we know so far.

HEADLINE FIGURES

Here’s the top line.

Number of events: 80
Number of tournaments: 240
Total prize-pool guarantees: $85,627,000

THE PRICE OF POKER

Ever since the first SCOOP festival in 2009, tournaments have taken place at three buy-in levels: low, medium or high. It means that players of all bankrolls and abilities can play, and have a chance of coming out on top.

Play wherever you like as SCOOP gets started

Highest buy-in
$25,000
Event 52-H: NLHE Super High Roller

Lowest buy-in
$2.20
Event 01-L: $2.20 NLHE, Phase Event
Event 12-L: $2.20+R NLHE, Turbo

NB: 11 other tournaments with $5.50 buy-ins

One buy-in for every tournament: $212,687.90
Average buy-in: $759.60

WHAT ARE WE PLAYING?

Breaking down the schedule by variant played:

No Limit Hold’em: 165 tournaments
PLO: 21
PLO8: 6
NLO8: 9
5-Card PLO: 6
8-Game: 6
HORSE: 6

There are 75 PKO tournaments on the schedule

Of the tournaments above:

75 are played with Progressive KO bounties
30 are turbo tournaments
3 are played on Zoom tables

HOW MANY AT THE TABLE

PokerStars tournament tables are nine-handed. Unless they’re not. Here’s how the SCOOP schedule breaks down by maximum number of players at the tables.

Nine-handed: 99
8-Max: 84
6-Max: 48
4-Max: 3
Heads-up: 6

THAT’S A GUARANTEE

You can do your counting when the dealing’s done

Tournaments with $1 million or more guaranteed: 25

Biggest guarantee
$5 million
Event 74-H $10,300 Main Event
Event 74-M $1,050 Main Event

Biggest non-Main Event guarantee
$2 million
Event 1-H $215 NLHE Phase Event
Event 52-H: $25,000 NLHE 8-Max, Super High Roller

Biggest guarantee in relation to buy-in
Event 01-L: $2.20 NLHE [Phase Event], $200K Gtd
Guarantee is 90,909 times the buy-in

Biggest guarantee in relation to buy-in (non-phase event)
Event 74-L: $109 Main Event, $3M Gtd
Guarantee is 27,523 times the buy-in

BUSIEST DAY

Sunday May 3
Events: SCOOP-13 through SCOOP-18
Tournaments: 18
Guaranteed: $7.505 million
Start times (all ET): 8am, 10.30am, 1pm, 2.15pm, 3.30pm, 5pm

LEADER BOARD LOWDOWN

The popular Player of the Series leader board returns this year, offering a $20,000 cash prize, plus an exclusive trophy, for the most consistent performer across the 20 days of SCOOP.

Additionally, there are two leader boards for each of the Low, Medium and High categories, split by date — Week 1 and Week 2.

Week 1 runs: April 30 through May 9
Week 2 runs: May 10 through May 19

Top-placed finishers in Week 1 leader boards win tickets for SCOOP events
Top-placed finishers in Week 2 leader boards win cash prizes

Full details to follow.

MAIN EVENT SPECIFICS

When: Sunday, May 17, 1pm ET
Buy-ins: $109, $1,050, $10,300
Guarantees: $3 million, $5 million, $5 million

All the previous SCOOP ME High champions

Previous champions:

2009

Low: JannotLapin (France) – $151,203.71
Entries: 18,747 | Prize pool: $1,874,700

Medium: JC “JC Alvarado” Alvarado (Mexico) – $502,086
Entries: 3,198 | Prize pool: $3,198,000

High: Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth (Ireland) – $963,338
Entries: 502 | Prize pool: $5,020,000

2010

Low: midjat (Switzerland) – $191,892.59
Entries: 19,188 | Prize pool: $1,918,800

Medium: Mr.M.M0ney (Netherlands) – $443,137.50
Entries: 3,675 | Prize pool: $3,675,000

High: Ryan “toetagU” Fair (USA) – $1,162,350
Entries: 615 | Prize pool: $6,150,000

2011

Low: fittungen (Sweden) – $168,574.13
Entries: 16,782 | Prize pool: $1,678,200

Medium: Goldenboys (UK) – $365,386.88
Entries: 2,505 | Prize pool: $2,505,000

High: Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro (Finland) – $504,691.09
Entries: 380 | Prize pool: $3,800,000

2012

Low: john_tri80 (Greece) – $198,725.75
Entries: 22,128 | Prize pool: $2,212,800

Medium: suarez_BG (Bulgaria) – $560,019
Entries: 3,567 | Prize pool: $3,567,000

High: Nicholas “GripDsNutz” Grippo (Chile) – $798,675
Entries: 517 | Prize pool: $5,170,000

2013

Low: MLiz (Israel) – $189,015.34
Entries: 23,045 | Prize pool: $2,304,500

Medium: Nicolau “nicofellow” Villa-Lobos (Brazil) – $472,209.35
Entries: 4,039 | Prize pool: $4,039,000

High: Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (Sweden) – $1,096,200
Entries: 580 | Prize pool: $5,800,000

JC Alvarado, Nikolau Villa-Lobos, Ari Engel and Kahle Burns all won either medium or low SCOOP main events

2014

Low: Ari “BodogAri” Engel (Canada) – $187,669.27
Entries: 21,545 | Prize pool: $2,154,500

Medium: LexaLucky666 (Belarus) – $635,379
Entries: 4,047 | Prize pool: $4,047,000

High: Ivan “vandir4rek” Soshnikov (Russia) – $1,048,000
Entries: 657 | Prize pool: $6,570,000

2015

Low: Apostolis “apostolis20” Bechrakis (Greece) – $203,176.89
Entries: 22,164 | Prize pool: $2,216,400

Medium: tollgate (Australia) – $609,206.86
Entries: 4,238 | Prize pool: $4,238,000

High: Mustapha “lasagnaaammm” Kanit (Italy) – $1,304,720
Entries: 694 | Prize pool: $6,940,000

2016

Low: mmleandro (Brazil) – $196,058.77
Entries: 24,591 | Prize pool: $2,255,978

Medium: Andres “Educa-p0ker” Artinano (Spain) – $578,621.27
Entries: 5,026 | Prize pool: $4,786,661.88

High: Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (UK) – $1,468,000.88
Entries: 824 | Prize pool: $8,000,001.76

2017

Low: madalain (Austria) – $221,516.37
Entries: 23,316 | Prize pool: $2,331,600

Medium: Kahle “ROFLshove” Burns” (Australia) – $787,312.19
Entries: 5,033 | Prize pool: $5,033,000

High: Charlie “Epiphany77” Carrel (UK) – $1,200,899.97
Entries: 693 | Prize pool: $6,930,000

2018

Low: Cashcid Linc (Germany) – $267,583.62
Entries: 26,361 | Prize pool: $2,636,100

Medium: Wildace_hun (Hungary) – $783,165.95
Entries: 5,508 | Prize pool: $5,508,000

High: Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza (Italy) – $1,133,160.03
Entries: 654 | Prize pool: $6,540,000

2019

Low: Jack Wastes (Brazil) – $315,955.11
Entries: 33,987 | Prize pool: $3,398,700

Medium: jakobgold (Mexico) – $688,558.42
Entries: 5,475 | Prize pool: $5,475,000

High: Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza (Italy) – $1,028,203.24
Entries: 662 | Prize pool: $6,620,000