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Home / Uncategorized / SCOOP 2014: ZeNioXXX rides the wave to victory in Event #30-L ($11 NLHE)

Poker is a game of waves. There will be periods where it feels like the tide is going out. You can’t find a hand to save yourself and you feel like you’re going to be left stranded high and dry. Then there are other times where it’s wave upon wave of chips where the cards are falling your way and you’re floating on a monster stack. We saw a perfect example of those waves today on the final table of Event #30-L of the 2014 Spring Championship of Online Poker. UH Big Tex started like a house on fire, then ttouch77 complained about a lack of cards before going on a heater of his own. But in the end, the biggest waves went the way of Lithuanian ZeNioXXX who closed out an impressive victory for almost $20,000 in prize money and the SCOOP title.

Event #30-L of the 2014 SCOOP brought out a massive field of 15,889 for a two-day $11 No Limit Holdem event. The six-figure prize pool guarantee was easily surpassed as $158,890 in prize money would be shared among the top 2,025 place finishers.

The sea of virtual humanity was sprinkled with a few red spades as the Team PokerStars Pros rolled up their sleeves to try and navigate through the enormous field of contenders.

Andre Akkari, Grzegorz Mikielewicz, Max Lykov, Natalie Hof, Naoya Kihara, Mickey Petersen, Bertrand Grospellier, Caio Pessagno, Matthias de Meulder, Marcin Horecki and Nacho Barbero were some of the Team PokerStars Pros we spotted short of the money, along with Mexico’s Rucco who bubbled in 2,026th place.

Bryan Huang (1,722nd – $19.06), George Danzer (1,580th – $22.24) and Tyler Frost (875th – $34.95) all made it to the money but were eliminated on Day 1 of play.

A total of 32 levels were played on Day 1 which would see the field reduced to just 196 players with Arnie_D from the United Kingdom leading the way with 1,638,257 chips. The surviving players had locked up $73.08 but all eyes were still on the top price of $19,971.63 when Day 2 commenced.

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Day 2

It would take another six hours of play on Day 2 to reduce the surviving 196 players to a final table of nine. That moment would come when 3aDRoTiShe ran A♦ 8♥ into the dominant A♣ J♥ of emjkemjk. Four clubs on board delivered the nut flush to emjkemjk to eliminate 3aDRoTiShe in tenth place and set our final table as follows:

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Final Table Line Up
Seat 1: emjkemjk (10,360,170 in chips)
Seat 2: Adam “Roothlus” Levy (10,776,686 in chips)
Seat 3: MF_21 (7,196,264 in chips)
Seat 4: petirossi (4,011,711 in chips)
Seat 5: Sesbik888 (4,584,622 in chips)
Seat 6: JJThunder (5,633,675 in chips)
Seat 7: ttouch77 (7,416,460 in chips)
Seat 8: ZeNioXXX (17,727,407 in chips)
Seat 9: UH Big Tex (11,738,005 in chips)

Adam “Roothlus” Levy, the only former SCOOP champion on the final table, won a nice early pot with ace-queen, but the first major strike would see petirossi clash with UH Big Tex.

petirossi three-bet jammed A♦ K♦ and UH Big Tex made the call with 10♣ 10♦ to see the pair hold true on the board of 2♥ 2♠ 7♥ 7♠ Q♣ . petirossi finished in ninth place for $953.34.

It would be the start of a nice heater for UH Big Tex who also dispatched of MF_21 a short time later. UH Big Tex opened with an under-the-gun raise, before emjkemjk put in a three-bet. MF_21 cold four-bet jammed all in over the top, but UH Big Tex wasn’t going anywhere, moving all in as well. emjkemjk ran for cover as MF_21 found that Q♣ Q♥ was no good against UH Big Tex’s Kâ™  K♣ . The board fell J♦ 4♥ 7♣ 4♦ A♣ to leave an unfortunate MF_21 to depart in eighth place for $1,430.01 in prize money.

JJThunder landed a big double up with king-jack making trips against ZeNioXXX’s ace-queen, but ZeNioXXX would get revenge with ace-nine spiking an ace against JJThunder’s pocket eights in a preflop clash.

It would be the start of a mighty rush for ZeNioXXX who moments later flopped a set sevens on a baby board to land a big double up through UH Big Tex’s pocket jacks.

Meanwhile JJThunder was down to eight big blinds which were committed preflop with A♦ 7♦ but the timing couldn’t be worse as ZeNioXXX woke up with Aâ™  A♥ . There were no miracles on the board of 2♣ K♥ 8♣ 4♦ 5♥ to leave JJThunder to exit in seventh place for $2,780.57.

Adam “Roothlus” Levy had been sitting pretty quiet, but he got himself right into the thick of the action with the elimination of emjkemjk. From under the gun, emjkemjk moved all in for just over ten big blinds with Roothlus moving all in over the top to isolate. The table folded around and it was emjkemjk’s A♣ Q♦ racing with Roothlus’ 9♣ 9â™  . The board bricked out 4♥ 5â™  7♦ Kâ™  4â™  to see former Sunday Million winner emjkemjk out in sixth place for a $4,290.03 score.

The very next hand and ZeNioXXX was back into the action with the elimination of Sesbik888. Again it was an under-the-gun shove from the short stack as Sesbik888 moved all in for ten big blinds with Aâ™  9â™  but ZeNioXXX again found another big pair with Kâ™  K♣ and made the call. The board arrived 10♥ 3♣ 2♥ 9♦ 10♣ which didn’t change a thing as Sesbik888 was removed in fifth place for $5,878.93 in prize money.

Just like that, we were down to four.

ttouch77 said, “this is what ive been getting all FT” before flashing 10â™  3â™  and folding the big blind. But perhaps that little gripe was the spark required for the start of a nice comeback for ttouch77.

The very next hand, with just six big blinds, ttouch77 doubled up a jack-eight catching an eight to better UH Big Tex’s ace-queen. Then one hand later, ttouch77 doubled again, finding a little luck with ace-ten against ZeNioXXX’s ace-queen when a perfect ten hit the flop.

ttouch77 was on a roll and it only got better when Adam “Roothlus” Levy moved all in from the button with A♥ 7♥ . ttouch77 was sitting in the small blind with A♦ Q♥ and made the call with a favourable board of 5♣ 10♦ Qâ™  Q♦ 9â™  sealing the deal. Roothlus missed out on adding another online title to the resume, but still took home $7,467.83 for fourth place.

ttouch77 was on fire but ZeNioXXX still held a healthy chip lead into three-handed play. ttouch77 collected a nice pot with two pair against UH Big Tex before UH Big Tex was fortunate to get away with a chopped pot against ZeNioXXX:

RSS readers click through to see replay

UH Big Tex may have survived the first all-in clash, but two hands later, wasn’t quite as fortunate. UH Big Tex moved all in from the button with Kâ™  Q♣ and ZeNioXXX made the call in the big blind with Aâ™  J♦ . The board ran out 8♥ 2â™  2♣ A♣ 4♦ to pair the ace and eliminate UH Big Tex, another former Sunday Million winner, from the tournament in third place for $10,645.63.

Heads-up Chip Counts
Seat 7: ttouch77 (24,257,631 in chips)
Seat 8: ZeNioXXX (55,187,369 in chips)

ZeNioXXX had a strong chip lead, and after taking down the first heads-up pot, it was all over on hand number two:

RSS readers click through to see replay

ttouch77 tanked on the river and didn’t want to have to call it off, but it was a tough fold with top pair as ZeNioXXX showed the straight to take down the pot and the title!

A great run from the Kiwi ttouch77 to finish in second place after being severely short-stacked during the final table. $13,871.09 should be a nice consolation, but the SCOOP title and $19,871.63 goes to Lithuania as ZeNioXXX is our champion! Congratulations!

SCOOP-30-L: $11 No Limit Holdem – $100K Guaranteed
Entrants: 15,889
Prize Pool: $158,890.00
Places Paid: 2,025

1. ZeNioXXX (Lithuania) $19,871.63
2. ttouch77 (New Zealand) $13,871.09
3. UH Big Tex (Mexico) $10,645.63
4. Adam “Roothlus” Levy (Canada) $7,467.83
5. Sesbik888 (Czech Republic) $5,878.93
6. emjkemjk (Canada) $4,290.03
7. JJThunder (United Kingdom) $2,780.57
8. MF_21 (Brazil) $1,430.01
9. petirossi (Brazil) $953.34

If you missed out today, then don’t worry as there are plenty more opportunities for you to grab yourself a slice of the SCOOP pie. There are 45 different events, all with low, medium and high buy-in levels to suit players of all budgets. A total prize pool of $40 million is guaranteed with the series running right through until May 18th. Head to the SCOOP home page for more details.

Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.

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