After Friday’s well-earned break, players returned for an action-packed session on Saturday night in the 2021 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), including the conclusion of the $10,300 PKO High Roller. All the latest…

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Benitez takes down $10K HR ($265K)
• Badziakouski clinches maiden title
• Deep runs for Lex, Tonkaaaa, Fintan and Spraggy
• Brilliant Boeken leads PLO HR

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Benitez takes down $10K HR ($265K): We’d never expect anything less from a SCOOP $10K, but the final table of the 53-H: $10,300 8-Max PKO High Roller was truly star-studded. The event had 122 total entries and when it got down to eight we had the likes of Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos (8th), Artur “mararthur1” Martirosyan (7th), Michael “imluckbox” Addamo (6th), Bruno “great dant” Volkmann (5th), Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins (4th), Daniel “oxota” Dvoress (3rd), and Dario “Secret_m0d3” Sammartino (2nd) battling it out. Yet none of them could stop Uruguay’s Francisco “Tomatee” Benitez from claiming his second SCOOP title (and the first for Uruguay this year), banking $118,647 plus $146,718 in bounties ($265,365 total). That score is more than double the amount Benitez won when he won a $1K version of this event back in 2018 ($128,217). He also won a WCOOP in 2019 when he took down a special edition $530 Sunday Million for $156,832. Brazil may be dominating in title wins, but Benitez continues to prove he’s one of South America’s very best online players.

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MORE ABOUT SCOOP:
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Badziakouski clinches maiden title: Speaking of the world’s best poker players, online or otherwise, the name Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski must always be mentioned. The Latvia-based Belarussian came close to winning his first SCOOP title earlier this week in the massive $25K High Roller (he finished runner-up to Joao “Naza114” Vieira for $352,019) but last night managed to clinch his maiden title in event 61-H, a $2,100 8-Max NLHE turbo, for $69,352. It took Badziakouski just three and a half hours to cut through the 172-entry field, eventually defeating Finland’s “Era_Koira” heads-up. The final table also included Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker (3rd), Laszlo “omaha4rollz” Bujitas (5th), PokerStars Team Pro Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot (6th), and recent Sunday Million Anniversary winner Vanessa “Niffller” Kade (7th). Now that he’s broken through, don’t be surprised to see Badziakouski start stacking up SCOOP trophies like he has done with live high rollers over the past few years.

Deep runs for Lex, Tonkaaaa, Fintan and Spraggy: Tonkaaaa finished sixth in the turbo won by Badziakouski for a $19,834 score, but he wasn’t the only member of Team PokerStars to enjoy a deep run on Saturday. Lex Veldhuis also reached an FT, finishing seventh in the action-packed $1,050 4-Max NLHE PKO (60-H) for $9,255 (inc. bounties). It was Brazil’s Luan “Pseudo_Fruto” Felipe who took it down for $41,692 (inc. bounties) and his first SCOOP title. Meanwhile, Fintan “easywithaces” Hand came agonisingly close to making Day 2 in the 57-H $1,050 Afternoon Deepstack, falling in 22nd ($3,015) out of 324 entries with 20 making Day 2. The likes of Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford, Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, and Joao “Naza114” Vieira remain fighting for that one. Finally, Benj “spraggy” Spragg also had a 22nd-place finish, his coming in the $215 edition of the 8-Max turbo. He won $1,403 for his efforts, while Austria’s “Matt1nho” clinched the title for $51,022.

Brilliant Boeken leads PLO HR: Whenever there’s a COOP event running, you can bet you’ll see Noah “Exclusive” Boeken making headlines. The former PokerStars Team Pro from the Netherlands has been a stalwart of European poker reporting for more than 15 years and already has two SCOOPs and three WCOOP titles under his belt, and now Boeken is the overnight chipleader with seven left in the $5,200 PLO 6-Max High Roller (58-H). With 6.09M in chips, he has more than double that of the next largest stack, Canada’s “roo_400” (2.9M). There’s $157,426 awaiting the winner, enough to potentially make this the largest win of Boeken’s COOP career should he close it out tonight.

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TODAY’S RESULTS

†inc. bounties
*after deal

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STAT TRACKER

We’re heading into a busy Sunday and already there’s been more than $68 million awarded in prize pools throughout the series. Here are the updated stats:

Entries: 888,112 (inc. 174,718 re-entries)
Prize pools: $68,419,893
First place payouts: $9,743,724 (inc. $1,568,390 in bounties)
Tournaments completed: 174
Tournaments ongoing: 7
Tournaments starting today: 18

(Note: Stats from completed tournaments only)

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INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!

We’ve been catching up with some of the stars of SCOOP to talk about their latest triumphs, including:

Dejan “dejanlc357” Kaladjurdjevic: First ever from Montenegro — and he’s won three!
Adan “verdao134” Aliaga’s note to self
ICM wizard Jargo “bungakat” Alaväli wins $131k
$5.50 to $5,228 payoff for Martin “SthImHero93” Eriksson
Daniel Almeida: Study brings success
Francesco “dottorsydUK” La Cognata makes the most of his free time
Elias “SinKarma” Gutierrez on winning title with 15,000 watching
Fagner “FagnerCR7” Brito one step closer to ambition of turning pro

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COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Only one new country–Uruguay–entered the race on Saturday, thanks to Benitez’s win in the $10,300 High Roller for more than a quarter of a million bucks. Brazil picked up an extra two though, maintaining their place at the top of the list.

Latest standings:

32 – Brazil
22 – Russia
14 – UK
10 – Sweden
9 – Netherlands, Finland
8 – Canada
7 – Poland
6 – Czech Republic,
5 – Germany, Hungary, Norway, Romania
4 – Denmark
3 – Austria, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Ukraine
2 – Belarus, Croatia, Latvia, Mexico
1 – Argentina, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, New Zealand, Uruguay, Uzbekistan

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TODAY’S ACTION

We hope you had a good night’s sleep but Sunday’s schedule is jam-packed with 18 SCOOP events kicking off today. As always the PKO Sunday Million editions look particularly juicy, with a $55, $530, and $5,200 High Roller kicking off.

8:05am ET

62-L: $5.50 NLHE PKO, Mini Sunday Kickoff SE, $50K Gtd
62-M: $55 NLHE PKO, Sunday Kickoff SE, $250K Gtd
62-H: $530 NLHE PKO, $400K Gtd

10:30am ET

63-L: $22 NLHE 8-Max, $175K Gtd
63-M: $215 NLHE 8-Max, Sunday Warm-Up SE, $500K Gtd
63-H: $2,100 NLHE 8-Max, Sunday Warm-Up SE, $1M Gtd

1:05pm ET

64-L: $55 NLHE PKO, Sunday Million SE, $600K Gtd
64-M: $530 NLHE PKO, $1M Gtd
64-H: $5,200 NLHE PKO, Sunday HR SE, $850K Gtd

2:15pm ET

65-L: $22 NLO8 6-Max, PKO, $60K Gtd
65-M: $215 NLO8 6-Max, PKO, $125K Gtd
65-H: $2,100 NLO8 6-Max, PKO, $200K Gtd

3:30pm ET

66-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, $100K Gtd
66-M: $109 NLHE 8-Max, $400K Gtd
66-H: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, $650K Gtd

5:05pm ET

67-L: $5.50 NLHE Turbo, PKO, Mini Sunday Cooldown SE, $40K Gtd
67-M: $55 NLHE Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown SE, $225K Gtd
67-H: $530 NLHE Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown SE, $400K Gtd

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LEADER BOARD LATEST

There was no change in the top spot in any of the leader boards, with Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna still reigning supreme in the overall standings.

Here’s how it looks:

Low
1 – FONBET_RULIT, Russia – 485 points
2 – phil_a-QQ, Germany – 420
3 – KaiHix, Netherlands – 410
4 – Muhonen, Finland – 370
5 – andreyayo9, Canada – 365

Prizes: 1st – $5,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $2,500; 3rd – $1,500 (20 players rewarded)

Medium
1 – aleksandrs10, Russia – 460 points
2 – Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio, Finland – 370
3 – römpsä, Finland – 360
4 – muggsyboges, Canada – 310
5 – Zapahzamazki, Russia – 300

Prizes: 1st – $10,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $7,500; 3rd – $5,000 (10 players rewarded)

High
1 – Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson, Sweden – 530 points
2 – Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, Sweden – 520
3 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland – 500
3 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, UK – 500
5 – RaiseUpBlind, Canada – 460

Prizes: 1st – $15,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $10,000; 3rd – $5,000

Overall Player of the Series
1 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland – 1,095 points
2 – aleksandrs10, Russia – 1,005
3 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, UK – 895
3 – Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio, Finland – 895
5 – Zapahzamazki, Russia – 850

Winner: $25,000 + Trophy

See official SCOOP page for more details

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WATCH! WATCH! WATCH!

PokerStars’ streaming army will be out in force during this SCOOP, with all of Lex Velduis, Spraggy, Fintan “easywithaces” Hand, Arlie “Prince Pablo” Shaban, Mason “Pyefacepoker” Pye and Georgina “GJReggie” James certain to be playing most, if not all, days.

The PokerStars central Twitch and YouTube account will also be streaming cards-up final table action five nights a week. Here’s the schedule.

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PREVIOUS ROUND-UPS

Day 1: Opening night salvos
Day 2: Bujitas and Brazil win big
Day 3: Shakerchi reigns as superstars dominate
Day 4: Double for Montenegro, plus Mateos and Malinowski
Day 5: Two in a night for Nevanlinna; three for Montenegro
Day 6: Lex denied by Padilha
Day 7: Two $1m+ prize pools, and more Lex
Day 8: Astedt and Mulder take customary titles
Day 8: Two in a night for Mattsson
Day 9: Viera crushes again as Moorman wins first
Day 10: Mateos does it again, huge night for Brazil

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