Another Sunday, another SCOOP tournament with a guarantee more than doubled by the players on PokerStars. This particular Sunday, it was time for Event 20-Low, $27 No-Limit Hold’em, and by Monday afternoon a new SCOOP winner, ArielBahia, had been made.

22,013 players signed up for Event 20-Low. That’s about three times as many as played the WSOP Main Event last year, the most popular live tournament on the annual tournament calendar. And while the $27 price point of Event 20-Low differs dramatically from the Main Event’s $10,000, the 1st-place prize of $55,048.04 in Event 20-Low makes for a more magnificent ROI than the Main Event’s $9 million by double. Besides – it’s far easier to come up with $27 than it is $10,000.

3,150 players made the money in Event 20-Low. Among them were two PokerStars Georges: Team Online player George “jorj95” Lind (441st) and Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer (449th). Along with Team Online Player Randy “nanonoko” Lew, they were the only members of the Red Spade Brigade to crack the top 1,000 of the tournament.

Day 1 ended with johnster112 (11,745,702), yryryryr (8,655,326) and KortKongen (8,454,309) in the top three chip positions. johnster112 was eliminated in ¬¬ 14th place; the other two players both made the final table as 3rd and 4th in chips, respectively:

Seat 1: yryryryr (34305858 in chips)
Seat 2: 0nly4value (14273340 in chips)
Seat 3: TheUrsaraie (23594016 in chips)
Seat 4: Flowkid1 (34365768 in chips)
Seat 5: Sniper_Arnie (15441072 in chips)
Seat 6: KortKongen (28876905 in chips)
Seat 7: ElRupert (14809976 in chips)
Seat 8: kai183 (11540040 in chips)
Seat 9: ArielBahia (42923025 in chips)

Level 49: blinds 400k-800k, ante 100k
Average stack: 24,458,888

Take your places

When the first hand of the final table was dealt at 1:18pm, there were no previous *COOP winners left in the field. TheUrsaraie, Flowkid1 and ElRupert all had made previous *COOP final tables without notching the victory.

The first 25 minutes of the final table played out mainly as a pre-flop battle for chip position. Sniper_Arnie, among the short stacks to begin with, was not able to change that chip position. Down to about 9 million in chips, Sniper_Arnie shoved A♦ Q♥ from the blinds after Flowkid1, a big stack, opened for 2.5 million. Flowkid1 made a “math call” with 8♥ 5♥ and got lucky by rivering trip 8s, 7♣ A♥ 8♠ 4♣ 8♦ . That river 8 made Sniper_Arnie the first casualty of the final table.

A few minutes later the other short stack was on the hot seat. With blinds at 600k-1200k, TheUrsaraie called all in from middle position for 8 million after 0nly4value opened to 10 million. TheUrsaraie had suffered some terrible luck in the run-up to the final table and didn’t fare any better here, taking A♠ J♦ up against 0nly4value’s A♥ K♠ . Big Slick held up on a 5♠ 10♣ 2♥ 7♦ Q♥ board.

Flowkid1 gave up the chip lead to KortKongen a short time later by opening pocket 10s, then calling a three-bet shove from KortKongon, who tabled king-queen. A king on the flop was enough for KortKongen to drag the pot. The two changed places in the counts, with KortKongen climbing to about 57 million and the chip lead, and Flowkid1 dropping to 31 million.

Meanwhile, 0nly4value’s stack plummeted, then crashed completely after this piece of bad luck against ElRupert:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Coming up short

After the 2pm break, limits were up to 700k-1400k when ElRupert and KortKongen played the biggest pot of the tournament to that point. KortKongen started things with a raise 2.8 million; ElRupert responded by three-betting to 6.1 million and driving all other players out of the hand. KortKongen called, then check-called another 5.1 million on a queen-high flop, 2♣ Q♦ 6♠ . The turn fell 4♠ and brought another check from KortKongen. This time, however, when ElRupert bet 8.1 million, KortKongen check-raised all in for 50 million. ElRupert called all in for 21.1 million with pocket kings, leaving KortKongen’s pair of queens, K♠ Q♠ , drawing extremely thin. The 7♥ river was a brick that secured an 84.2 million chip pot, and the chip lead, for ElRupert.

The good fortune of ElRupert was equaled by the dwindling stacks of Flowkid1 and kai183. Down to 5.5 million, kai183 tried to get through four players with K♠ 2♠ . Button player (and big stack) ArielBahis called with A♠ 4♦ . Each player flopped a pair on the 2♥ 4♠ 6♥ flop; neither improved with the 7♦ turn or Q♣ river. A pair of 4s was good enough to send kai183 to the rail in 6th place.

Flowkid1, the other short stack, fared better, getting two double-ups in quick succession. First pocket queens held against KortKongen’s ace-ten. Then jack-ten won a race against ElRupert’s pocket 9s. Pocket pairs didn’t treat ElRupert well a few hands later, either, when pocket aces lost to yryryryr’s pocket 5s after a 5 flopped. In a flurry of a few hands, the chips were evenly spread among four of the five players, with only ArielBahia way out in front with 88 million.

It took one hand to change all that. KortKongen returned the favor to Flowkid1, making pocket queens work against Flowkid1’s ace-rag. That loss left Flowkid1 with less than 100k in chips. A 5th-place elimination followed on the next hand, leaving Flowkid1 still looking for that first *COOP victory.

ElRupert also will have to find that first victory at another *COOP final table. It was bad luck when ElRupert ran pocket 10s right into the pocket aces of yryryryr, who had ElRupert covered by just a few million. An ace on the turn sealed ElRupert’s fate as the 4th-place finisher.

The bitter end

Down to three players, ArielBahia led with 93.1 million in chips. yryryryr was in 2nd place (68.0 million) and KortKongen barely trailed in 3rd place (58.9 million). Limits were up to 800k/1600k but nobody was in danger of being considered a “short” stack. That, however, did not stop KortKongen and yryryryr from playing a pot for 118 million chips, with all the money going in pre-flop:

RSS readers click through to see replay

That bad beat knocked yryryryr out in 2nd place and left KortKongen as the chip leader heading into heads-up play against ArielBahia. The lead soon changed hands after a series of pre-flop raises found 158 million chips in the middle pre-flop, with ArielBahia tabled pocket queens against KortKongen’s pocket 9s. Queens held.

The stacks stayed relatively unchanged until ArielBahia put an end to the tournament about ten minutes later. KortKongen min-raised the button to 4 million pre-flop. ArielBahia called, then checked an all-small flop of 2♦ 4♥ 5♦ . KortKongen led out with a bet 3.95 million that ArielBahia raised to 8.65 million. The raise did not deter KortKongen from calling, then calling 9 million more on the 8♦ turn and calling all in on the 7♥ river. ArielBahia showed A♦ 3♦ for a flopped straight that turned the nut flush; both hands were good enough to beat KortKongen’s 2♠ 2♥ , a set of deuces.

It was another cooler of a hand, but I’m guessing that ArielBahia was fine with that. After all, that cooler ensured ArielBahia would be come the 2012 SCOOP Event 20-Low champion, and would win $55,000 and a Movado watch to boot.

2012 SCOOP Event 20-low, $27 NLHE results:

1st: ArielBahia ($55,048.04)
2nd: KurtKongen ($40,894.65)
3rd: yryryryr ($27,516.25)
4th: ElRupert ($22,013.00)
5th: Flowkid1 ($16,509.75)
6th: kai183 ($11,006.50)
7th: 0nly4value ($7,732.06)
8th: TheUrsaraie ($4,952.92)
9th: Sniper_Arnie ($3,301.95)

One whole week of SCOOP is in the books but there’s still another week to go. Check out all four leaderboards, as well as stats and the upcoming schedule of events, at the SCOOP home page.

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