The 2021 renewal of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) is just around the corner, with players anticipating a packed 25 days of action — and $100 million in guaranteed prize pools. It begins on Sunday and will be quite a ride.

Our schedule page is fully searchable, which means you can type in your favourite game, or your preferred buy-in, or the dates you know you’ll be available, and find out what’s on offer. With tournaments covering 18 variants and buy-ins ranging from $2.20 to $25,000, you should find what you’re looking for.

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But if that sounds like too much effort, allow us to point to some particular highlights.

SCOOP 2020 KEY DATES

Sunday April 25, 2021
NLHE Main Event
Buy-ins: $109, $1,050, $10,300
Guarantees: $3 million, $5 million, $5 million

Only one event could possible guarantee prize pools of $18 million across its three tournaments, and that’s why they call it the Main Event. As is now traditional, the SCOOP Main Event has a buy-in of $109 at the “low” level, $1,050 at the “medium” and $10,300 at the high. There’s $3 million guaranteed in the first of those, and $5 million in each of the other two events. Last year’s winners in the high and medium categories, “Alexgirs” of Belarus and “HayashiJoão” of Brazil, each won more than $920,000. It will be something very similar this time around. It’s not to be missed.

Tuesday April 13, 2021
$25,000 NLHE Super High Roller
Guarantee: $1.5 million

Whether or not you have $25K spare, it’s worth making a note of the date for the SCOOP Super High Roller. It is certain to attract the densest concentration of poker’s superstars doing battle for one of the series’ highest first prizes. The final stages will be streamed live on PokerStars’ Twitch and YouTube channels, and it’s certain that many of the game’s most recognisable names will be in contention. Last year a certain Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer won it, the first SCOOP title of his career, and picked up more than $520,000. O’Dwyer went on to win the $10K High Roller event last year too.

SCOOP-01 Phase Event
Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
Guarantees: $200,000, $1 million, $2 million

The biggest field in SCOOP always accumulates for the so-called Phase event, which both kicks off and concludes the entire series. These are the tournaments that have multiple starting days, known as “phases”, running many times per day, even before SCOOP proper begins. (They’re running already, in fact.) Players are permitted to play as many Phase 1s as they want. If you bag chips, you’re through to Phase 2, which essentially plays as a freezeout on Tuesday, April 27. This multiple-entry format ensures tens of thousands play the lower buy-in versions, which cost $2.20 and $22 to enter. The guarantees sit at $200K, $1 million and $2 million and are usually blown away.

TOURNAMENT FORMATS

People like Texas Hold’em and the schedules for major tournament series tends to reflect that. But SCOOP also has tons of tournaments across all variants of the game and so mixed-game specialists should also get a huge buzz from this April’s events. Here’s a breakdown of what’s going on:

No Limit Hold’em: 216 tournaments (72 events)

Other hold’em:
Fixed-limit Hold’em: Event #52
6+ Hold’em (aka Short Deck): Events #40 (PKO), #101

Omaha
Pot Limit Omaha: Events #5, #14, #47, #58, #73, #93
Fixed-limit Omaha Hi/Lo: Event #21
5-Card PLO (6-Max PKO): #42
NL Omaha Hi/Lo: Events #11, #38, #65, #88

Stud
Seven-card Stud: Event #69
Seven-card Stud hi/lo: Event #23

Draw games
2-7 Single Draw (no limit PKO): Event #71
FL 2-7 Triple Draw (fixed limit): Event #44
5-Card Draw (no limit, PKO): Event #11
Badugi: Event #78
Razz: Event #49

Mixed games:
8-Game: Events #27, #83
HORSE: Events #9, #76
NLHE/PLO mix: Event #96

There are 117 tournaments played with a Progressive Knockout bounty format and a further 3 tournaments (Event #99) with a Total Progressive Knockout Bounty Zoom format.

TOURNAMENT SPEED:

If you want to get something done quickly, look for the hyper-turbos on the schedule. If you want to take it slow, a huge chunk of the schedule allows for the maximum amount of play.

Hyper-turbos: Events #30, #102
Turbos: #7, #16, #25, #36, #46, #56, #61, #67, #75, #85, #89, #94, #97, #99

The remainder of the tournaments are either regular or slow speed.

KEY NUMBERS

No. of events: 102
No. of tournaments (inc. low, medium & high): 306
Lowest buy-in: $2.20 (SCOOP-1-L: Phase 1 NLHE)
Highest buy-in: $25,000 (43-H: NLHE, Super High Roller, $1.5M Gtd)

Total series buy-in: $258,650
(Based on one entry, every tournament)

Total series guarantees: $100 million

Lowest guarantee: $10,000 (78-L: $11 FL Badugi 6-Max)
Highest guarantee: $5,000,000 (92-M: $1,050 NLHE Main Event & 92-H: $10,300 NLHE, Main Event)

PLAYER OF THE SERIES

The popular SCOOP leader boards will return this year, offering an additional incentive to players who plan to put in the volume. Players win points based on finishing positions in SCOOP tournaments, which then qualify them for the leader board. The top ranked players in the leader boards then win additional prizes. There are four leader boards in all, at the low, medium and high buy-in levels, plus an overall leader board, which aggregates all three.

Prizes are as follows:

Low
1st – $5,000 + Trophy
2nd – $2,500
3rd – $1,500
4th – $1,000
5th – $500
6th-10th – $300
11th-20th – $150

Medium
1st – $10,000 + Trophy
2nd – $7,500
3rd – $5,000
4th – $2,500
5th – $1,500
6th-10th – $1,000

High
1st – $15,000 + Trophy
2nd – $10,000
3rd – $5,000

Overall Player of the Series
$25,000 + Trophy

See official SCOOP page for more details

WHAT’S GONE BEFORE

For the first time, all the results from previous SCOOP tournaments are available together. Click through to our full results page to look through 12 years’ of data from this magnificent series.

Every renewal has always concluded with a Main Event, whose champions include some of the game’s most decorated players. Here’s a quick look back at the Main Event.

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

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

2020

Low: auercan (Latvia) – $371,750.73
Entries: 46,238 | Prize pool: $4,623,800

Medium: HayashiJoão (Brazil) – $920,066.91
Entries: 6,475 | Prize pool: $6.475 million

High: “Alexgirs” (Belarus) – $920,596.81
Entries: 609 | Prize pool: $6.09 million

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