Three months ago Ambrose Travers was in the Bahamas. He and a group of friends were there to cheer on Darren Millar as the latter lived out his Platinum Pass dream in the PSPC. It was such a good time that nobody wanted the party to end.

Now Travers is playing on Day 4 of the EPT Monte Carlo event, where he is one of just 30 players remaining. It’s something of a sequel to the PSPC festivities: while Travers battles with Sam Greenwood and Nicolas Chouity on the TV table, Millar and some of the same friends that cheered him on are here rooting for Travers.

“They’re the best friends in the world, they are,” he told PokerStars Blog this afternoon. “Darren did so well in the Bahamas, we couldn’t wait to get back home to get to the next tournament. PokerStars ran such a marvelous party there, we says, ‘What’s the next big event?’ The next big event was this one.”

So he jumped into a €5.50 satellite. Six hours later, after winning that first satellite and then the €55 and €530 qualifiers that it fed into, he’d earned himself a package to play in Monte Carlo.

“I came over here to play with the best players in the world, in the best place in the world,” he said. “I thought it would be great to get a min-cash. And now here’s 30 left out of 900.”

Travers says he doesn’t have any expectations from this point onward. But to make the final table would surely be something special, wouldn’t it?

“Oh!” he says, grabbing his chest and beaming a huge grin. “Heart-stopping. It would be absolutely heart-stopping.”

This week’s announcement of 12 new PokerStars Ambassadors has proved very popular, even with those not familiar yet with the list of new names.

So, let’s start one of those introductions right now. Here at the European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in Monte Carlo, we sat down for a chat with Steve Enríquez, one of Spain’s EPT commentators and one of the newest members of the red spade team.

PokerStars Blog: Hey Steve, congratulations on the PokerStars announcement. How have things been since the news broke?

Steve Enríquez: It’s a really huge announcement. It’s the dream of every poker player, and it’s come true. When you start playing poker, you always want to represent PokerStars. I’m very happy about it! My Twitter and Instagram are full of around 300 messages from people congratulating me.

For those not yet familiar with you, could you tell us your poker story so far?

I started playing poker in 2010 when I was 18, and I joined the PokerStars School in 2011, so it was very quick. I’ve been playing cash games from the start, but in 2014 I started playing multi-table tournaments. It went well! I won the Spanish Poker Championship in 2016, and I also finished second in a High Roller in Marbella on the Estrellas Poker Tour.

Last year I finished second in the first big tournament online in the new PokerStars client for Spain, France and Portugal. It was the first tournament with €1M guaranteed, and I finished second. It was a great achievement for me.

Not only are you an accomplished player, but you’re also a commentator and broadcaster.

Yeah, I’ve been doing the PokerStars EPT webcasts since 2013. That’s how I started broadcasting and doing television. I look forward to helping PokerStarsSpain on Twitch while also being an ambassador in the tournaments. It’s going to be a lot of fun for me.

EPT MONTE CARLO
LATEST | SCHEDULE | NEED-TO-KNOW | TIMELINE | IMAGE GALLERY | RESULTS

What are your plans, post-Monte Carlo?

My first plan is to play the Spanish Poker Championship next week in San Sebastian, and after that I’ll be at EPT Open Madrid. I’m then going to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker (WSOP), so it’s going to be tricky! The EPT Open Madrid dates fall in the middle of the WSOP, but I think I’ll figure it out. Then I’ll be heading to EPT Barcelona in August as I won the charity event on Tuesday night. I won a €10K package, amazing. I was going to play anyway, but now it’s for free!

Enriquez took down the Right To Play Charity event in Monte Carlo, winning a €10K EPT Barcelona package

As a Spaniard, why do you think people should try and qualify for EPT Open Madrid?

Madrid is an amazing city. You’ll have the best city in the world, in my opinion. Spain is the best place to eat. In summer there aren’t many football games because the summer is over, but you have tons of things to do. Theatre, music, concerts, the city is full of them. You can do a lot of things in Madrid. And of course, all of the pros will be in Las Vegas for the WSOP!

Do you have any tips you picked up in PokerStars School that you could share with any newbies?

Just play poker normally as you would at your house. Don’t change anything about your game. Relax and listen to the dealer all the time. Wait for your turn and don’t be anxious to move. Take the time you need, and do your thing. Some people when they play their first tournament they are nervous and they make mistakes with their raises because they don’t use their voice and they put in only one chip, for example, which is a call instead of a raise.

Finally, what’s it been like having one of your good friends, Ramon Colillas, not only take down the PSPC for more than €5 million but also sign with PokerStars as a Team Pro?

I’ve known Ramon for two years and he’s a really good guy. I wasn’t in the Bahamas sadly because when I finished second in the Marbella High Roller I also lost out on the Platinum Pass. But I messaged Ramon during the event. I think he will be fine and a great Ambassador for PokerStars.

You can win your seat to one of countless PokerStars live events around the world, including EPT Open Madrid. Click here to open an account and get started.

Scott Wellenbach has been the subject of an intense amount of press attention since taking third place in the PCA Main Event in January. But that doesn’t mean he’s gotten used to it yet.

Speaking on a sunny afternoon here in Monaco, Wellenbach was amid his latest flurry of attention — largely my fault. First he faced an on-camera interview in the players’ lounge for our friends in public relations, focused mostly on the topic he’s discussed with numerous publications around North America and Europe: his practice of giving away his poker profits to charity. Next up was a photo shoot in front of Sporting Club Monte-Carlo, where he was asked to tilt his head one way and then another, to look at the camera and then away from it, and to pose himself this way and that.

Scott Wellenbach sits near a tree outside Sporting Club Monte-Carlo, home of EPT Monte Carlo

Both of these diversions are a far cry from his “so-called normal life,” as he puts it a few times during our chat, where he spends much of his time at his computer with dictionaries and online resources to translate ancient Buddhist texts.

That’s something he’s used to. But this new-found attention, not so much. “It’s so novel that I feel not very good at it,” he says of the media spotlight as we walk the grounds near Sporting Club and Monte Carlo Bay, where he’s been staying all week as part of the EPT Main Event package he won on PokerStars. “I feel out of place and wish that I could be more articulate. Sometimes after the interview’s over and I’m falling asleep that night I go, ‘Oh shit, I wish I had said blah-blah-blah.’ I imagine with experience, like anything else, you learn how to do it.”

At least within the context of major live tournament festivals, Wellenbach is far more comfortable at the poker table. However, even that comfort level is a little lower than it was about a decade ago, when the fact that cell phones were mostly used for making calls meant they were banned from most tables.

“I’m not one for imposing restrictions on human beings,” he says. “But if people weren’t allowed to have phones at the table, I would personally enjoy the game more.

“Sometimes you come to these tournaments and you feel like to talk to the person next to you is an intrusion. I mean, no one’s that mean — if you ask them a question they’re usually take off their earphones and pay some attention. But I feel like you shouldn’t have to go that far, to inflict yourself. It’s like we’re gathered together here, and of course the focus is going to be the card game, but while we’re in this card game we could be interacting. I think there would be a lot more of that and it would become much more natural.”

A more natural feel would be welcome in part because Wellenbach finds himself drawn less to online poker than to its live counterpart, which offers the kind of human interactions that he just can’t get on the internet.

Scott Wellenbach in action at the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event

“Somehow online poker doesn’t have the same social dimension,” he says. “One of the things I’ve enjoyed about poker, whether it be one of these tournaments or the local card room, is that you sit down and you’re just talking with whoever ends up next to you from whatever walk of life they may be, and it’s really interesting. I was playing poker [on the U.S. east coast] and there was this guy who had been a professor in ancient Greek philosophy. He gave me a whole course on Plato’s Symposium while we were between hands.”

An online chat box, on the other hand, is a little less philosophical in tone. “Sometimes it can be very aggressive,” he says. “It’s people trying to get under one another’s skin. It’s not just conversation around the table.”

I suggest that outside of home-game-type settings or small-field, high-buy-in tournaments where the players all know each other, people tend not to see their opponents as real people. They feel free to say whatever want in a way they would never feel in person.

Wellenbach agrees. “You know, weird shit happens at a live poker table in a card room, but much less [than online]. Because it is a human being. You know that. You may be an asshole that day, but you’re probably going to be less of an asshole than online.”

Not that online poker is all bad. After all, online qualifiers are the reason Wellenbach is able to play in tournaments like the PCA and EPT Monte Carlo Main Events. In fact, he even suggests that online poker could be the long-term solution to the problem of the massive consumption of resources required for hundreds of people to travel to live tournaments all around the world.

Besides, as long as he keeps winning in those tournaments he’s qualified for online, he can also direct his profits to good causes — just as long as he remains prepared to roll with guys like me putting a recorder in his face.

This is only a short extract of a longer interview with Scott Wellenbach that will appear on PokerStars Blog in the coming weeks.

The 2019 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event has been good for players who qualified for the tournament online. Just ask Ryan Riess.

Ryan Riess is on a roll here in Monte Carlo

The 2013 WSOP Main Event champ is one of six players remaining in the hunt for this year’s title. Should he go on to win, he would become the first world champion to add an EPT Main Event title to his resumé. He would also earn a massive return on his initial investment, given that he earned his seat in a PokerStars online satellite.

Riess was one of 105 players PokerStars qualifiers who played this tournament. Together they represented 11.3 percent of the 922-player field, or roughly one out of every nine participants.

As a group these qualifiers outperformed the rest of the field. In all, 22 of them made the money — that’s 16.2 percent, or roughly one in six, of all those who did so.

Click on an image in the gallery below and move left/right to view.

Benjamin Pollak overcame Koray Aldemir heads-up on the final night of EPT Monte Carlo, walking away with the €705,840 top prize in the €25,000 High Roller, his second major title in the past year.

It was a long haul to the championship. Sergio Aido came into the final day of the tournament with the lead, looking to score a Monte Carlo double when the day began at 12:30 p.m. CET with the stacks situated like so:

The final table of the €25,000 EPT High Roller, with the Main Event final in the background

Two players found their way to the rail during the first level.

Joao Vieira began the day with just 10 big blinds in his stack and made an early move when he picked up A♣4♥. Unfortunately for him Aido woke up with A♠J♥, which held to eliminate Vieira in ninth place.

Daniel Dvoress watches his tournament life slip away

The second elimination was more surprising. Daniel Dvoress sat just three big blinds off the lead when play began, but a rough ride meant he only lasted long enough for a single pay jump.

First Dvoress lost a race with A♠K♠ against Michael Addamo’s 10♥10♣ to double Addamo’s stack over 1.3 million. Left with just 10 blinds, Dvoress then jammed with 9♥8♥ and picked up a call from Laszlo Bujtas. The latter’s J♦J♠ was behind after the turn of the 7♣10♥7♦6♠ board gave Dvoress a ten-high straight, but the J♥ river gave him a full house and knocked Dvoress out in eighth.

The brisk start to the day’s action was no harbinger of things to come. The short stacks doubled as needed for the next three hours, making it look more and more likely that a cooler or a coin-flip situation would strike the next name from the lineup. It turned out to be the latter when EPT Prague Main Event finalist Laurynas Levinskas’s A♥K♣ couldn’t outrun Koray Aldemir’s J♣J♦, sending the Lithuanian to collect his payout in seventh.

Eliminating Levinskas boosted Aldemir’s standing before he took the lead minutes later with a triple-barrel bet that drove Marton Czuczor out of the pot. Then Laszlo Bujtas struck the next knockout blow in nasty fashion. He open-shoved an effective 14-blind stack from the small blind with Q♠9♣ only to see Aido call him with A♥A♣ in the big — and then he caught a queen and a nine on the flop, cracking Aido’s aces to eliminate him in sixth.

That put Aldemir over the 2-million-chip mark for the second time today. Pollak joined him there minutes later when he called an Addamo jam, holding A♦10♣ to Addamo’s A♣6♠. Addamo never got a hint of help from the board and departed in fifth.

Aldemir quickly jumped back in front, though, with a huge call on the river of a dangerous board. Holding A♣7♣ and facing an all-in bet from Bujtas, who had him covered, Aldemir used a time bank card, studied the A♥Q♣K♥3♦8♣ board carefully, and then slid a shot tower of chips forward for the call. His pair of aces was good — Bujtas had bombed the river with nothing more than an unimproved 10♠2♦.

Aldemir stacked up over 4 million with that win. And though Bujtas managed to work his remaining two big blinds into nine, he would fall in fourth minutes later when his A♥K♠ failed to hold against Czuczor’s K♣10♣.

With the table three-handed, the players decided to take a dinner break. Once they returned it only took 15 minutes for an action board to end Czuczor’s tournament. Czuczor saw a free flop from the big blind with K♣7♦ after Aldemir limped the button. Czuczor check-called 80,000 on the Q♣J♥7♣ flop and 350,000 after making two pair on the K♥ turn. When Aldemir shoved the Q♠ river Czuczor thought for a bit before calling, only to see that his kings and sevens were no good. Aldemir’s Q♦J♦ rivered a full house, knocking Czuczor out in third.

Heads-up for the title

Aldemir held the advantage with 4.525 million chips to Pollak’s 2.575 million as heads-up play began on the 40,000/80,000 level. He nearly put Pollak away within just a few minutes, calling with A♥8♦ for top pair when the Frenchman jammed with 10♠4♠ on the turn of a board reading A♠7♠K♦2♥. But Pollak’s flush draw came home on the Q♠ river, moving the two players’ stacks to within six blinds of one another.

Aldemir began pulling away again but found himself in a nasty spot half an hour later when he ran J♠J♦ into Pollak’s A♠A♥. That boosted Pollak into the lead with 5.15 million chips but the game was far from over. Over the next hour Aldemir chipped up until he was even with Pollak again. At that point they talked about a potential deal but didn’t settle on anything concrete. One more hour passed before they found themselves essentially even in chips and agreed on a chop down the middle, leaving €50,000 and the trophy on the table for the winner.

Even with the deal in place, play would continue for nearly another hour. Pollak finally began to wear Aldemir down, though the latter survived a desperate all-in with Q♦J♥, making a straight against Pollak’s K♦Q♠ to prolong the match. Finally Aldemir moved in with K♠10♣ on a king-high board and Pollak called with 9♦9♥. He needed help and he got it with the 9♠ on the river, making a set to close out the tournament.

“You’re a tough one to play against,” Pollak said to Aldemir shortly after his victory. “You gave me a headache for two hours.” This marks Pollak’s second major high roller title in the last year, following up on his EPT Barcelona €50K Single-Day High Roller win in August 2018.

Congratulations to both Pollak and Aldemir for overcoming some of the toughest poker players in the world and sharing in a massive deal at the end of another successful EPT Monte Carlo festival.

“You’re a tough one to play against,” Pollak said to Aldemir

* denotes results of a heads-up deal

The Salle des Etoiles, home of EPT Monte Carlo through the past decade, has hosted some of the European Poker Tour’s most memorable finals. This is a room accustomed to turbulence, where the superstars have prevailed as well as the underdogs, and where champions have been crowned after both marathons and sprints.

Tonight’s EPT Main Event final was an epic, and takes its place as a classic of the form. It was both fast and then very, very slow. It featured a former World Series champion and a couple of happy-go-lucky amateurs, as well as the chance of putting players from China or Hungary into the winner’s enclosure for the first time. It also must have broken at least two records: the first for the length of five-handed play — there were nine hours between the eliminations of the players in sixth and fifth — and the second for the number of double-ups. We lost count of those. And then there was a protracted three-handed deal negotiation, which probably challenged time records as well.

But amid all this sound and fury, there was only one constant: Manig Loeser. And by the time all the playing and the faffing, the faffing and the playing was over, through 273 hands, his crowning as champion felt inevitable. The unflappable 30-year-old from Bad Homburg, Germany, was the one man who had found the straightest path, mostly free from the bumps and the potholes. He built steadily and shrugged off the occasional flesh-wound before he found himself heads-up with China’s latest poker star Wei Huang.

Manig Loeser and his final opponent Wei Huang

Huang began the week happy just to be here, and ended it happier still, draped in his country’s flag. He fell one place short of the title, but there was no shame in that. There were no losers here, only one Loeser.

“I was pretty confident all the way, because I had the chip lead most of the time and I could win a lot of pots,” Loeser said. “But heads up I lost the chip lead and he played super-well, aggressive, so it was quite a fight.”

Loeser’s final haul was €603,777 to Huang’s €552,056. They were the two biggest prizes from a €4.47 million prize pool, built from 922 entries. And that trophy is sitting on a German mantlepiece rather than one in China.

EPT Monte Carlo Main Event final table players (l-r): Wei Huang, Manig Loeser, Nicola Grieco, Luis Medina, Viktor Katzenberger, Ryan Riess.

Luis Medina came back as the odd man out at the six-handed final table. Five players had heaps, but his 16 big blinds were always likely to be under threat fairly soon. The former Team PokerStars Pro from Portugal found pocket sevens on one of the first hands of the day, and somehow managed to avoid going broke against Viktor Katzenberger’s set of jacks. But with the blinds escalating, Medina shoved a handful of times and was eventually caught. Medina’s A♦3♣ lost to Loeser’s 7♠7♥. Medina won €152,800.

The end of the road for Luis Medina

With Medina gone, the dynamic changed again. Little could he have known that there was still more than 14 hours left. Nobody was under immediate threat, but now nobody also needed to fear busting and leaving a micro-stack to ladder. This liberation seemed to appeal most to Katzenberger, who edged into the chip lead thanks to two big hands, but was also picking spots to bully both Riess and the overnight leader Nicola Grieco.

The former pulled off a double-up to remain a threat — his sevens this time, cracking Huang’s aces — but Grieco had entered what seemed to be a terminal tailspin. His habits of making unconventional bets with unexpected hands, and talking readily to his opponents throughout the action, suddenly seemed to catch up with him. He slumped to seven big blinds.

But — and this was a final table full of “buts” — it then became Grieco’s turn to fly back in the right direction. He pulled off a series of double-ups, none more significant than when his aces held against Huang’s kings. Having so nearly hit rock bottom, he bounced back into the near chip-lead, tied only with the steady and emotionless Loeser.

This course of events bought Grieco another eight hours at the final table, but remarkably it earned him not a penny more. The five-handed marathon went on for more than 150 hands, and it was past 11pm local time — and numerous double-ups — that the dam finally swept Grieco away. He had A♠K♥ but Loeser flopped two pair with his 8♣7♥. And Grieco had to make do with the €206,590 he would have received if those aces had not held up.

Nicola Grieco’s ride ends in fifth

Grieco’s departure ramped up the pressure on Riess and Huang in particular. Both had been all-in more than once and survived, but when the two of them went at it, now with short-stacks, there could be only one winner. Riess had Q♣3♠ and Huang had J♦6♦, and the flop of Q♠A♥A♦ favoured only Riess. But the 10♦ turn gave Huang a bunch of outs, and the K♥ was one of them.

That horrific run-out sent Riess spiralling out of the tournament, falling short of his quest to become the first WSOP Main Event winner also to win on the EPT. He played some quite spectacular poker this week, and today wowed the crowds with a correct call with only ten high. (Spin through the complete play-by-play of today for all those details.) But he had to make do with fourth and €265,620.

A fine showing from Ryan Riess

Loeser had the big stack when three-handed play commenced, but Huang came into his own with a delightful all-in river bluff that forced Loeser to fold a straight. They took another tournament break and prepared to return to 45-minute levels, at which point they decided it might be prudent to strike a deal.

The three of them — Loeser, Huang and Katzenberger — were pretty much even in chips and after nearly an hour of posturing and requesting (and denying) “better than ICM” they agreed the following: Huang €552,056, Katzenberger €529,707, Loeser €525,716. The €76,061 left on the side would go to, and decide, the champion.

Deal negotiations in Main Event

The first thing they decided was that it wouldn’t be Katzenberger. He lost a major flip to Loeser when they got it all-in pre-flop (Loeser’s threes held) and Huang polished him off. Katzenberger’s final hand was A♦8♣ to Huang’s A♠K♣ and the poised and calm Hungarian walked quietly away.

Wei Huang rivers a chop against Viktor Katzenberger

The Chinese in the crowd, led by previous EPT runner-up Haoxiang Wang, now unfurled an enormous red national flag and stood anxiously behind it waiting to cheer on their latest challenger for the elusive EPT title. He battled gamely against Loeser during a heads-up battle that ran past 3am, even with the shortened levels.

In the end, it was probably Loeser’s greater experience that won the day: he kept the pots small, except the ones he knew he had a lock on. And in the last, he turned a straight with Q♥8♥ on a board of 9♣J♦5♠10♣ and faded Huang’s three outs. (He had K♠8♣). That was the end of that.

Chinese supporters back their man Wei Huang

“I can’t think straight at all right now,” Loeser told PokerNews, who provided our live updates at this event. “It was a super long final table. It was just really exhausting, they all played so good and put so much pressure on you. It’s just really exhausting to sit there so long and try to make good decisions.”

Loeser has been doing this a long time, and is greatly decorated in poker tournaments across the globe. He now also has an EPT title to add to Germany’s record haul. But the Chinese are inching ever closer.

We’ll be back for the EPT Open in Madrid next month, and then it’s World Series time and then it will be Barcelona again. Thanks for reading. Goodnight!

EPT Monte Carlo Main Event
Date: April 30 – May 4, 2019
Buy-in: €5,300
Entries: 922 (inc. 233 re-entries)
Prize pool: €4,471,700

See full results from EPT Monte Carlo

Here’s everything you need to know from the weekend on PokerStars.

• Brazil’s “tomnelz1″ wins Sunday Million for $110K
• China’s “zzwwzzwwzz” defeats stacked final table in $2,100 HR
• Top 5 High Roller Club results
• Top 5 results from the weekend majors

BRAZIL’S “tomnelz1” wins Sunday Million for $110K

Another Milly title for Brazil

There was a big turnout for the $109 Sunday Million yesterday, with 11,480 total entries creating a $1,148,000 prize pool. That purse was split between the top 2,042 players, and while both Fintan “easywithaces” Hand and Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg both made the cash, they fell in 976th and 1,583rd respectively.

There can only be one winner, and this week the prestige goes to Brazil’s “tomnelz1”. They banked $110,747 for their largest ever cash, in a career that has seen wins in the Bounty Builder $33 ($13K), a Bounty Builder Series title ($12K), and the $11 Mini Sunday Kickoff ($5K).

CHINA’S “zzwwzzwwzz” WINS HRC $2,100 HR

Every week the High Roller Club’s $2,100 Sunday HR proves to be one the toughest tournaments going. Yesterday was no exception, with many of the game’s best in battle.

There were 133 total entries this weekend, and after the bubble burst at 17 players the $266K prize pool was divided amongst them. The big money was at the top of course, and a stacked final table assembled.

Andras “probirs” Nemeth

The top two ranked online tournament players in the world–Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt (#1) and Andras “probirs” Nemeth (#2)–were among them, as were Jonathan “Proudflop” Proudfoot, Ivan “Negriin” Luca, and Joao “Naza114”  Vieira.

Ultimately, though, it was China’s “zzwwzzwwzz” who came out on top, adding $55,834 to his or her bankroll. Sunday was a great day overall for the Chinese player, who also finished fourth in the High Roller Club $530 Omania HR for $6,135, and third in the $215 NLO8 Sunday Supersonic for $3,703.

Here are the full results from the $2,100 HR:

1. “zzwwzzwwzz” (China) – $55,834
2. Jonathan “Proudflop” Proudfoot (UK) – $43,190
3. Andras “probirs” Nemeth (Hungary) – $33,414
4. Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt (Sweden) – $25,849
5. Ivan “Negriin” Luca (Argentina) – $19,996
6. Joao “Naza114”  Vieira (Netherlands) – $15,469

TOP 5 HIGH ROLLER CLUB RESULTS

TOP 5 WEEKEND MAJOR RESULTS

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EPT Monte Carlo is over for another year, and another superstar joins the ranks of established greats as champion of the prestigious Main Event. Manig Loeser, 30, of Bad Homberg, Germany, finally got his hands on an EPT title, prevailing from a final table that continued a tradition of prolonged last-day battles, stretching past 3am local time.

“It was quite a fight,” Loeser said as he got his hands on the trophy and sealed a €603,777 payday. He agreed a heads-up deal with China’s Wei Huang, who took €552,056.

In addition to Loeser’s extraordinary composure, the final will likely be remember mostly for a nine-hour session between the elimination of Luis Medina in sixth and Nicola Greico in fifth. Although such specific records aren’t kept, it seems highly likely that this was the longest period of six-handed play in any major tournament.

There was never much hope for Medina, who had only 16 big blinds coming into the final and was relatively quickly knocked out, but Grieco was the chip leader at the start of the day and might have been optimistic about chances for victory. As it was, he was fortunate not to have been eliminated within about 90 minutes of final table play, shedding chips with alarming haste. He mounted a comeback to keep himself alive, but it was all ultimately in vain. He did still fall in fifth–it’s just that it was nine hours later.

Ryan Riess, the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event champion, narrowly missed out on becoming the first WSOP winner to clinch an EPT title, falling in fourth, but not before his audacious and correct all-in call with ten high had wowed the crowds.

Two other hands brought similar gasps from onlookers: one was a bluff from Huang that got Loeser to fold a straight, and the other was simply the craziest chopped pot an EPT final has ever seen. Check out the video below.

This quick summary doesn’t really do justice to the part played in this final by both Huang and Viktor Katzenberger, both of whom came with a whisker of becoming their countries’ first EPT main event champions. China now has two second places, while Hungary still seeks a winner despite multiple final tables. Both of this week’s challengers showed they had what it takes to go better.

Relive the final table via our complete play-by-play coverage (in association with Poker News). Click through a gallery of Main Event images below, and see the full results on the results page.

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They’re played three-handed using a hyper-turbo structure. That means they take just minutes to play.

Plus, they start with the all-important spin.

This is the moment that reveals the prize pool you’re playing for.

It could be double your buy-in. It could be several times your buy-in. But if you hit the top tier you could be on your way to Las Vegas for a night to remember.

$10 UFC Spin & Go’s start today for a limited time

You can play these special UFC Spin & Go’s from today on PokerStars.

You have until 7 June to play these new events. Remember, they cost just $10 to play and you’ll find them under the UFC Spin & Go tab in the PokerStars client.

And if you hit the top tier you could find yourself bound for one of the sporting highlights of the year this July. There’s nothing like it.

CLICK TO START PLAYING $10 UFC SPIN & GO’S

Check out the UFC Spin and Go homepage for details of exactly what you can win, plus the terms and conditions.

Poker is such a popular game, even those who don’t play it know a lot about it. Or at least they think they do.

Poker may be getting more and more popular, but it’s still a game full of misconceptions.

Sometimes those myths are made worse by popular culture. Portrays of poker in movies and on TV tends to gloss over the specifics of what actually takes place.

So, people who actually play poker complain that “the movies never get it right”. That’s before they give their own account of how the game is played.

Then there are those who haven’t really played poker at all. They also advance opinions about the game, which only have significance over those who have yet to give poker a try.

These “poker myths” are easy to fall for. But it’s only when someone sits down and joins a game that you recognise them as untrue.

Like the five listed below. How many of these do you recognise?

Myth #1: Poker is difficult to learn

Many people feel intimidated by poker. Some who are perfectly willing to gamble in other casino games are afraid to venture over into the poker room. They think the game is simply too hard to grasp.

It’s a reasonable fear.

Unlike other casino games, in poker you compete against other players (and not the house). That alone can be enough to cause hesitation. Especially those who are brand new to the game and who understand they’ll likely be up against opponents with more experience.

Texas hold’em is often described as taking “a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.” The fact is, while it probably takes most people more than a minute, learning hand rankings and the order of play isn’t that hard.

Not only is learning poker easier than most realize, learning how to win at poker also isn’t as hard as some think. It only takes a little bit of experience for many player’s skills to improve enough to become competitive, and even profitable.

Myth #2: Poker is all luck

People who don’t play poker sometimes equate it with other casino games like roulette or slots. That is games in which the player has no control over the outcome whatsoever when risking his or her money.

They also believe to win at poker you need to be dealt the strongest hands. But those who have played the game know this isn’t the case at all.

You can win at poker without the best hand. In fact, being dealt the best hand doesn’t guarantee you’ll win. If you play strong hands badly you’ll still often produce a negative result.

The cards you are dealt do affect your chances of success. But a poker player’s strategy also has a lot to do with whether or not a player wins or loses.

Myth #3: Poker is not a gambling game

This is the flip side of the previous myth, often an overstatement of the argument that poker is a “skill game.”

Poker is absolutely a game that over the long term tends to reward the better skilled players. But that doesn’t mean luck doesn’t matter at all. It can matter quite a bit, particularly in a given hand.

Poker tournaments provide the most dramatic example of this truth. For example, when a player at a final table goes all in with the better hand, only to lose and be eliminated.

Getting all in with pocket aces against a lesser pocket pair makes you about a 4-to-1 favorite to win. But that means once every five times your opponent is still going to beat you.

That’s just one example to how poker does involve gambling, even for better players who routinely manage to “get it in good.”

Myth #4: You have to have a good poker face to win

Probably one of the most exaggerated aspects of poker is the idea of “tells”. And players being able (or not able) to hide them at the table.

It’s certainly given a lot of attention in the movies. An eye twitch, or a player’s undue attention to his Oreo cookies (see John Malkovich in Rounders), increases the suspense surrounding a hand.

It’s true that when playing poker in a casino you’re better off not grinning madly every time you have a strong hand. Or trembling uncontrollably when trying to bluff.

But being able to put on a stoic, unrevealing poker face is only a small part of the game. Players often reveal a lot more about the strength of their hands by their betting patterns and via other cues. Tells only very occasionally crop up as significant.

Myth #5: Poker is a game played by outlaws

The historical legacy of poker as a “cheating game” played by “card sharps” still influences how some view poker today. Movies have contributed a lot to this impression as well, where more often than not poker scenes include players with cards up their sleeves.

It was absolutely the case in the 19^th-century. Games aboard steamboats and in the Old West saloons were full of cheaters employing a variety of methods to fleece the unwary. The stories of violence punctuating some of those games have also caused some to associate poker with danger (and criminality).

Modern poker rooms with licenses to operate employ a lot of surveillance to keep the games square. Online poker rooms also take extensive measures to ensure players are safe from cheating. That doesn’t mean players shouldn’t be mindful whenever something seems amiss, but sitting down in a game today is a lot different from what was the case back during the game’s early decades.

Today poker is a game played by all sorts of people at a wide variety of stakes. Certain myths about the game do persist. They highlight poker’s difficulty, risk, or “outlaw” status. But such ideas generally have more to do with the romance of poker than its reality.

When Dana White was asked when fans would see women compete in the Octagon back in 2011, the usually talkative UFC president responded with a single word.

“Never.”

The answer was not out of step with White’s previous position on the matter of women in the UFC. White had long resisted the idea. Even as women competed in other major promotions, creating stars like Gina Carano.

The duration of “never” is flexible for White, however. A women’s fight would not only happen in the UFC in 2013, it would headline UFC 157.

The Ronda Rousey show

White’s change of heart was spurred on by one woman. She was making her professional debut at about the same time White was trying to shut the cage door on the idea of women fighting.

Her name was Ronda Rousey.

Rousey, a former Olympic bronze medalist, had racked up a 6-0 MMA record in only 7 minutes 39 seconds of fight time. She was tossing opponents to the mat and armbarring them with a ferocity not previously seen in MMA. And she was marketable.

That marketability led White to change his tune. After the UFC purchased Strikeforce, Rousey was in a main event slot against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157. White made it clear the progressive step was about Rousey, and Rousey alone.

“I’m putting my toe in the water, and I’m checking it out,” White told MMAFighting. There’s no doubt, for people who say, ‘Oh, this is the Ronda Rousey show,’ [expletive] right it is. You’re absolutely right. I’m not trying to shy away from that and say, ‘Oh no, we’re getting into women’s MMA.’ This is the Ronda Rousey Show.”

White would also make it clear the experiment could have been a temporary one.

“I don’t know how long this is going to last,” he said. “This could last a year. This could be forever. The 135-pound division could fill up with tons of talent, and we could have tons of great fights. I can’t honestly sit here and predict what’s going to happen, but don’t kid yourself, this is absolutely the only reason this is happening is because of Ronda Rousey.”

Rousey would go on to defend her UFC bantamweight championship — which she received prior to her UFC debut for her status as Strikeforce champion — by submitting Carmouche with a first-round armbar.

The fight was so well received, and Rousey such an easy mainstream star, that White’s prior protestations and hesitation, almost immediately became a thing of the past.

Rousey continued to be central to the cause of women in the Octagon. She served as a coach opposite rival Miesha Tate on UFC reality show The Ultimate Fighter, before violently destroying her arm in a UFC 168 bout.

While running through opposition, she starred in Hollywood films, picked up corporate partnerships, hosted Saturday Night Live, and made herself at home on talk show couches across the world.

Her success also led many to wonder how much of the men’s 135-pound division she could beat. As well as odd side conversations on a hypothetical bout with boxing megastar Floyd Mayweather.

Her starpower helped the UFC find the faith to create more women’s divisions. It opened up the 115-pound flyweight division in 2014, before the 125 and 145-pound divisions opened in 2017.

Almost every champion falls, however, and Rousey fell hard.

In November 2015, a Holly Holm head kick left Rousey unconscious at UFC 193, ending her 12-fight winning streak. She would fade from the public eye before reentering the Octagon in December 2016 to face new champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 207.

Nunes would take only 48 seconds to defeat Rousey with strikes, and send Rousey into retirement from mixed martial arts.

The show goes on

While Holm was knocking Rousey out at UFC 193, Joanna Jedrzejczyk was continuing to build her star.

The then strawweight champion fought in the co-main event of the card, putting on another entertaining performance. Fans soon began gravitating toward her charming personality and violent striking style.

Cris Cyborg, a former Strikeforce and Invicta FC star, was named one of the women that fans wanted to see challenge Rousey.

Considered the most dangerous striker in any women’s division, Cyborg would not make her Octagon debut until May 2016 and UFC 198. She would go on to win the featherweight (145-pound) championship at UFC 214.

Nunes, the woman who disposed of Rousey in less than a minute, had won the 135-pound title from Tate, then knocked out Rousey, and picked up two more title defenses. That was before deciding to jump up a weight class and take on Cyborg this past December.

Rose Namajunas

Again, it took Nunes less than a minute to knock out a woman considered to be among — if not the — best in the world, finishing Cyborg to become a two-division champion. Cyborg had been on a 20-fight unbeaten streak. Nunes also became notable as the UFC’s first openly gay champion.

Jedrzejczyk’s run of dominance would come to a sudden end in the attempted sixth defense of her strawweight title. That was when she faced off with Rose Namajunas, a former contestant on The Ultimate Fighter, who’d lost in the show’s final bout to crown the inaugural champion of the division.

Namajunas scored a huge first round upset over Jedrzejczyk in their bout at UFC 217. Then proved it was no fluke with a unanimous decision victory in their rematch at UFC 223.

Still closing the show

The sport has evolved so much since Dana White’s proclamation that women would “never” fight in the UFC. But nowhere is that growth more apparent than in the female divisions.

What was once the “Ronda Rousey show” has become multiple divisions featuring depth, talent and stars.

This weekend, Namajunas will step back into the Octagon and defend her championship for the first time since that April 2018 win over Jedrzejczyk. She faces off with Jessica Andrade in the main event of UFC 237.

Two women in the strawweight division, both talented and accomplished, will headline a major event in Brazil. They’ll headline the show with future hall of famers such as Anderson Silva, Jose Aldo and B.J. Penn below them on the card.

And it’s happening because they’re the rightful fighters to be in the main event.

Women in the Octagon have gone from “never” to owning the cage and closing the show.

It’s one of the best times of the year at PokerStars: SCOOP is right around the corner.

With more than $115 million in guaranteed prize money, including a $1 million guaranteed event every day of the schedule and $11.5 million guaranteed across three Main Events, SCOOP 2019 is the biggest tournament series in PokerStars history. The only real problem is figuring out how to maximize your ability to take the biggest share of that money for yourself.

That’s where PokerStars School comes in. From free SCOOP satellite tickets and guides to help you plan your SCOOP schedule, to strategy tips to help you adjust to the deep structures better than your opponents, PokerStars School is full of promotions and good advice to take you from zero to SCOOP in no time flat.

Free SCOOP tickets to win in PokerStars School satellites

Get ready to win your share of $115 million in guaranteed prize money

PokerStars School is running four satellites over the next two weeks that will award a total of 90 free SCOOP tickets between them. All you need to enter is a School SCOOP EN Ticket, and there are plenty of ways to get one.

Click through to the PokerStars School SCOOP page and click on the button to get one free School Pass ticket. If you also make your first real-money deposit on PokerStars you’ll receive three more School SCOOP tickets, plus five School EN tickets and 10 Masters League EN tickets. For another free School SCOOP ticket, you can leave a comment at the bottom of the page telling what SCOOP tournament you’d like to play and why.

Once you have your tickets in hand, use them to play in these freerolls with SCOOP tickets for the top finishers:

SCOOP Planning, Bankroll, and Mindset

Being prepared means bigger stacks when the big money is on the line

With dozens of events being contested over two weeks in May, SCOOP presents the average player with a raft of challenges when it comes to planning, bankroll management, and maintaining a winning mindset. Thinking carefully about your own strengths and bankroll considerations before you ever register for a single SCOOP event can make a massive difference in your results.

The best way to tackle these challenges is to make like a Boy Scout and be prepared. And the best way to be prepared is to look over Pete Clarke’s checklist. By training yourself to think in a long-term, disciplined manner before the start of a slower SCOOP event, you’ll find an edge over those who are still in turbo mode.

Gearing up for SCOOP

SCOOP tournaments aren’t like the tournaments you play the rest of the year. They take multiple days to play out, the fields are large, and the stacks remain deep much longer than most players are used to. Preparing for these variations can be the difference between a decent cash and a deep run with potentially life-changing money up for grabs.

Good thing, then, that Pete Clarke is full of great advice on how to make the most of SCOOP’s unique nature. He tells you about the importance of scoping out the table before taking risks, gathering reads on your opponents, and three-betting aggressively with a chip advantage — among other topics — in Gearing Up For SCOOP: General Tournament Strategy.

How the pros prepare for SCOOP

One of the best ways to learn the game of poker is to watch the members of Team PokerStars play live on Twitch. It stands to reason, then, that one of the best ways to learn about preparing for a massive tournament series like SCOOP is to see how the pros get ready. Lucky for you that PokerStars School caught up with four members of Team Pro — Fintan “Easywithaces” Hand, Felix “Xflixx” Schneiders, Ben “Spraggy” Spragg, and Lex “L. Veldhuis” Veldhuis — to see how they get ready for SCOOP.

Felix, Fintan, Spraggy, and Lex

This piece has everything from what events they’re planning to play and how they structure their schedules during the series, to their expectations heading into the two-week grind and what advice they have for PokerStars School members playing SCOOP for the first time. It’s the kind of perspective you can only get from players who have done it all before.

Check it all out in How Pros Prepare For SCOOP.

10 SCOOP Tournaments you should play

Be sure to choose the best tourneys for your skill set & bankroll

Now that you’ve checked out all the advice on offer and prepared yourself mentally for the unique challenges of SCOOP, it’s time to plan out which events you’re going to play.

From the perspective of players with modest bankrolls, one of the best things about SCOOP is how many affordable and high-value events there are on the schedule. This year a number of tournaments with buy-ins as low as $5.50 and $11 offer the chance to claim a share of prize pools worth anywhere between $100,000 and $150,000. This is the kind of value you just don’t find every day of the week and it’s a big part of what makes SCOOP so special.

Check out 10 SCOOP Tournaments You Should Play for the rundown on some of the best value on this year’s schedule.

Other new PokerStars School content you might enjoy

• Article: 5 Poker Players Types Who Under-Achieve – for upping your mental game with the big money on the line
• Strategy: 5 Tips for Mastering Pot Control – for those sticky situations against tricky opponents
• Video: Heads-Up Strategy: An Introduction – for when there’s only one opponent between you and the title
• Winners Wall: Nick Binks a Big Spin! – for perspective on how big wins come along
• Question of the Week: What are your top 3 tips for winning big poker tournaments? – for the community perspective on what it takes to win a huge tourney

Open a PokerStars account today and start learning from PokerStars School. Click here to get started, and then click here to register for PokerStars School.

Winter came and winter fell. We’re now left with a dream of spring, and a battle that kicks off this Sunday.

No, we’re not talking about S8E5 of Game of Thrones and the impending battle of King’s Landing, which coincidentally also runs on Sunday night. Sorry about that.

We are, of course, referring to one of the most exciting times in the online poker calendar: the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) 2019.

What it lacks in dragons, SCOOP makes up for with 67 events spread across three buy-in tiers (low, medium, and high), a record $75 million in guaranteed prize pools, and a minimum of $1 million guaranteed every day throughout the series.

Whatever your game of choice, SCOOP has it covered with tournament variants in no-limit hold’em (NLHE), pot-limit Omaha (PLO), 2-7 single draw, win the button, 5-card PLO, and the ever-popular progressive knock-out (PKO) events.

THE NIGHT’S WATCH

As there are so many events at varying buy-ins, picking out only five “players to watch” ultimately became a fruitless endeavour.

Instead, we’ve picked out five players for the medium and high buy-in tiers, plus a couple for those who might specialise in non-NLHE events too.

They’ll no doubt all be in action right from the off on Sunday, and who knows? You might even find yourself sat next to one of them throughout SCOOP (although, for your sake, we hope not).

Let’s kick things off with the Medium tier.

(All player rankings are provided by PocketFives.com)

CHARLIE “JIZOINT” COMBES

Combes is currently ranked 17th in the UK, according to PocketFives.com

If you’re looking for some inspiration prior to this SCOOP, check out the story of legendary British pro Charlie “JIZOINT” Combes. In our interview, Combes told us that after a year away from the game he felt that he had fallen far behind the curve. However, upon undertaking a new coaching and study regime, he’s finding his form once again.

In March of this year, Combes’ comeback was cemented with a Sunday Million chop for $83K. Expect to see “JIZOINT” putting in a good grind over the next couple of weeks.

FINTAN “easywithaces” HAND

The moment Fintan Hand won the $530 Bounty Builder

No Twitch streamer has been chalking up big results quite as consistently as Fintan “easywithaces” Hand in recent months. He boasts victories in everything from the $55 Sunday Marathon to two recent wins in the $530 Bounty Builder for a combined $61K.

Plus, Hand is one of the guys you can actually watch, as the PokerStars Ambassador will be streaming all of his play live on Twitch.

MORE ABOUT FINTAN HAND
INTERVIEW | $530 BOUNTY BUILDER WIN | $109 BATTLE ROYALE WIN |
$44 BOUNTY BUILDER WIN

CONOR “1_conor_b_1” BERESFORD

Connor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford: Flying high in the online rankings

Fresh from his deep run in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event last week, Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford returned to the online felt with a vengeance, finishing second in the $109 Sunday Kickoff last week for $9,703, and placing seventh in the High Roller Club’s $1,050 Sunday Warm-up on the same day for $9,300.

Beresford, who is currently ranked 15th in the world, already has a big SCOOP title to his name, having taken down a $2,100 4-max event in 2016 for $171K. He’s a force to be reckoned with in any buy-in he chooses to play.

DAN “NukeTheFish” WILSON

Ireland’s Dan “NukeTheFish” Wilson has long been a force at the medium to high buy-in PokerStars schedule and has more recently been seen crushing in the High Roller Club too.

This past Saturday he took down the High Roller Club’s $530 Daily Supersonic for $15,904. He doesn’t have a SCOOP title yet, but we think this could be his year to capture a trophy.

ARTEM “veeea” VEZHENKOV

Three-time Sunday Million winner Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov might have a better résumé than anyone when it comes to that buy-in level. He also has a SCOOP title, a WCOOP title, two Super Tuesday titles, and just about everything else going too.

Could “veeea” be victorious in 2019? Our guess is yes.

TAKING YOU HIGHER

We’re now moving into High Stakes territory…

NIKLAS “Lena900” ÅSTEDT

You can’t make a list of players to watch without featuring the world No 1, can you?

Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt

Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt is a crusher of the highest calibre, as anyone who plays the high stakes tournaments will tell you.

Åstedt took down two SCOOP titles last year: one in a $530 re-buy event, and another in a no-limit Omaha 8 event showing he’s no one-trick pony.

There’s not a lot we can say about this man other than this: he’s amazing. Watch him.

LEX VELDHUIS

We could say the same for Lex Veldhuis, as he’ll actually be streaming his cards-up high stakes SCOOP schedule live on his Twitch channel.

Lex Veldhuis: watch him live during SCOOP

Veldhuis told Joe Ingram last week that he’ll be taking this week off before SCOOP to chill out, study, and prepare for the grind. That makes us confident that you’ll see Veldhuis make some deep runs.

He’s enjoyed some nice results of late, including a win in the Sunday Warm-up for $34K. We’ll certainly be watching the most popular poker in the world throughout SCOOP. Will you?

ROMAN “RomeOpro” ROMANOVSKY

It seems like not a week goes by where we don’t write about a big High Roller Club score for this guy.

Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky

Currently ranked fifth in the world, Ukraine’s Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky has been crushing of late, and he has a SCOOP CV that anyone would be proud of.

Last year he not only took down two events for a combined $262K, he also finished second in the $25K High Roller for a massive $442K payday.

We’re pretty sure we’ll be writing about him a lot over the next couple of weeks too.

ANDRAS “probirs” NEMETH

You might have seen Andras “probirs” Nemeth on live streams recently, as the Hungarian pro has taken to playing more live Super High Roller events. What you might not have known is that he’s also ranked No 2 in the world online, and has long been considered one of the best on the virtual tournament felt.

Andras “probirs” Nemeth

Nemeth has three SCOOP titles already (2015, 2017, and 2018). The one he won last year was the same $25K that “RomeOpro” finished second in, and for his win Nemeth banked $576K.

We’d be shocked if we don’t see Nemeth put up big results this year.

“girafganger7”

The Belgian player has a WCOOP title ($196K – 2017) and two Turbo Series titles (2019 and 2017 for a combined $123K) already under his belt, plus plenty of close calls in SCOOP events. In 2017, “girafganger7” finished second in the $215 11th anniversary Sunday Million for $292K, so he knows a thing or two about navigating his way through those huge medium-to-high buy-in fields.

A former worldwide No 1 ranked player, he’s currently ranked fourth. Will this SCOOP be where “girafganger7” makes the push back to the top spot?

OUTSIDE OF NLHE

Shaun Deeb

SHAUN “shaundeeb” DEEB

He may only ever play online poker during the SCOOP and WCOOP, but when he does, Shaun Deeb gets results.

We spoke to him last year before WCOOP, where he retold the now infamous story of him missing the birth of his son to capture another title.

Deeb’s SCOOP titles came in PLO8 and HORSE, while he has WCOOP titles in just about every game going.

If he puts in a big grind this year, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the winner’s list.

SAMI “LarsLuzak” KELOPURO

Finland’s Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro is great at just about every game, and is currently ranked #9 in the world.

He took down the $10K SCOOP NLHE Main Event in 2011 for $735K, and his other SCOOP win came in a NLHE event too. But he has so many close calls in PLO and mixed game events (including a runner-up WCOOP finish in the $10K eight-game last year) that we’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on him in 2019.

That’s it.

Good luck with your own grinds this SCOOP, which kicks off on PokerStars this Sunday. And remember, if you bust everything, there’s always Game of Thrones on TV.

And what do we say to the Gods of poker?

Not today.

Unless they ask if you’d like to win a SCOOP title. In that case, answer: “Yes please.”

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

Flowers are in bloom, the skies are blue, and tens of millions of dollars are up for grabs, too.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

The Spring Championship of Online Poker begins this weekend and there’s a reason we’re so excited about it here at the PokerStars Blog. The biggest names in the game routinely turn out for SCOOP tournaments, earning eye-popping prizes against the world’s very best competition.

There are other things like it, but nothing really tops SCOOP. Here’s what you can expect from the next two weeks here at PokerStars.

ALPHABET SOUP

SCOOP was the first PokerStars tournament series to offer tiered buy-in levels for every event on the schedule. Same game, similar structure, three different buy-in levels.

Look in the SCOOP lobby in the PokerStars client and you’ll notice there are three tournaments labeled “Event #1.” First is #1-L, with a $2.20 buy-in. Then there’s #1-M, with a $22 buy-in. Finally there’s #1-H, with a $215 buy-in.

This is the beauty of SCOOP: players of every bankroll level are able to challenge themselves again huge fields of players from around the world with the possibility of booking a massive return on their investment.

SERIOUSLY BIG MONEY

You’re gonna need a bigger case for all the money SCOOP is awarding

SCOOP always brings out the big guarantees. This year is no different in substance, only in scale:

• SCOOP 2019 features $75 million in guaranteed prize pools — the most of any PokerStars series ever held
• Every day on the SCOOP 2019 calendar features at least one tournament with a minimum guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000
• The three Main Events are guaranteeing a combined $11.5 million
• Special Editions of favorite tournaments like the Sunday majors, Super Tuesday, and Thursday Thrill

THE DAYS ARE JUST PACKED

Two weeks of poker around the clock

There’s never a dull moment during SCOOP. Each day’s schedule is packed with poker goodness. The opening day features a schedule of 18 tournaments and no single day has less than nine tournaments.

Not only does SCOOP give you a chance to win big money on almost any bankroll, you can win playing almost any variety of poker. Besides the standard No-Limit Hold’em tourneys, titles are up for grabs in a variety of Omaha, Stud, Draw, and mixed-game disciplines. This year, for the first time, that variety includes tiered Pot-Limit Omaha Main Events.

DEEP STACKS AND SLOW STRUCTURES

In many respects SCOOP tournaments have more in common with major live poker tournaments than they do with other online poker tournaments. Many SCOOP events are two days long, and they all feature deep stacks and slow structures that lend themselves to intriguing, entertaining poker. They’re just as much endurance contests as they are tests of poker skill.

THE STARS WILL SHINE BRIGHT

Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt took two SCOOP titles in 2018

With so much money up for grabs, everybody shows up for SCOOP — especially the world’s best players. Count on seeing lots of familiar names in the daily reports. Then count on seeing them again before the series is done — double winners are relatively common. (Ten players, including world-beating crushers like Lena900 and RomeOpro, achieved this feat last year.)

You can also count on those familiar names turning up in all sorts of tournaments as they chase the prizes for winning the SCOOP Leader Board.

BRILLIANCE FROM CALVIN “CAL42688” ANDERSON

No one has crushed SCOOP as consistently as Calvin Anderson

More than any other player’s, Calvin “cal42688” Anderson‘s name has become synonymous with SCOOP success. If we knew you had a crystal ball that could see the future and you told us it said Anderson was going to win four events this year, we might raise our eyebrows a bit higher than usual — but we’d still believe you. That’s how good his track record has been during SCOOP.

Anderson won the SCOOP Player of the Series award in 2014. He nearly did it again last year, when he collected the ninth and tenth SCOOP victories of his career, extending a record that was already his alone. He also collected more knockout bounties than anybody else during the two weeks of SCOOP en route to finishing second behind Finland’s “calvin7v” on the overall Player of the Series leaderboard.

SATELLITES, SATELLITES, SATELLITES!!!

A robust satellite schedule is your SCOOP ace in the hole

With all these tournaments on the schedule, you’d better believe there are satellite feeders that can give you the full SCOOP experience for just a fraction of the cost.

One of the fastest ways to qualify for SCOOP is to play in special Spin & Go tournaments awarding tickets for SCOOP events. For as little as $2, you can battle with two other players for SCOOP tickets in a hyper-turbo, winner-take-all format. Players in the $215 version can win $1,050 or $10,300 SCOOP tickets, and they also have a shot to play for a cool million dollars.

There are also MTT and sit & go satellites running around the clock for almost every event on the schedule. Bottom line: if you want to play a SCOOP event but you’re on a budget, it isn’t hard to find a way to get in the game.

“Who is Evy Widvey Kvilhaug,” you might be asking yourself, “and why is she the featured guest on the latest episode of Poker In The Ears?”

That would be a dead giveaway that you weren’t paying a lick of attention during our coverage of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event last week, in which case: a) we’re resisting the urge to say shame on you, and b) it’s time to make up for your mistake by having a look back at what you missed.

Take your time. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. We’ll wait.

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, the next thing you’re probably asking yourself is, holy crap, what in the world was it like to go from qualifying for €55 to knocking out three players in a row on the TV table at an EPT Main Event?

“There was so much going on there,” she tells Stapes and Hartigan, starting at 24:20 of the episode, of her insane start to Day 4. “What was going on in my mind was, ‘Oh no, I’m all-in on the first hand!’ When [my pocket jacks] held up I was thinking, okay, I can relax a bit.”

Then she picked up pocket aces. “It was an easier call, but I was thinking, ‘Is someone joking with me? What is happening?'” And then, after the aces held, it was jacks again. “It was such a shock, there were so many emotions going through me, that I don’t remember much of it, actually.”

Check out Episode 152 of Poker In The Ears — including a full #EPTMonteCarlo recap at 13:20 and a Breakfast Club-themed installment of “Superfan vs. Stapes” at 50:25 — on Soundcloud, iTunes, or Spotify. And if you want to help the boys out, make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast.

From next week, you’ll find short deck 6+ Hold’em Sit & Go’s, as well as regular tournaments, on the PokerStars client. It’s another first for the industry.

PokerStars launched online 6+ Hold’em cash games back in January. The game uses a “short deck” with cards lower than a six removed from the deck. It plays out like regular hold’em, with a few exceptions. All players post an ante, and a flush beats a full house.

It makes for a game that’s typically full of action, and popular among both high and low stakes players.

You can look forward to seeing these 6+ Hold’em “side events” as SCOOP gets into full swing. Here’s what to expect.

• 6+ Hold’em games start May 17 at 14:30 ET
• Buy-ins of $22, $215 and $2,100
• On-demand Sit & Go’s will be available during the month at $2.50, $7 and $15

The first ever live 6+ no-limit hold’em tournament was played at the PokerStars and Monte Carlo® Casino EPT last month.

Italian pro Dario Sammartino won the event, collecting a first prize of €23,100. You can read more about how he did that here.

It serves as an additional feature over the next two weeks of SCOOP, which starts this Sunday.

• $75 million guaranteed in SCOOP events, with $115 million guaranteed during the series on PokerStars
• 67 events with three tiers of buy-in, meaning 201 tournaments in total
• A $1 million guaranteed event every day over the two-week Series
• $5 million guaranteed Main Event

PokerStars Ambassadors will be among those up to their elbows in SCOOP action.

Felix Schneiders will be there from the very start for the Sunday Kickoff SE: “I like to start a series with the first event that will be played. This one is especially action heavy since it’s 8-Max.”

Lex Veldhuis will also be taking advantage of the opening Sunday.

“Sunday tournaments are already the biggest ones of the week,” he said. “Now imagine SCOOP Sundays. Nobody misses these, and I mean nobody. SCOOP Sundays are what tournaments are all about. Poker players plan their year around these. Just talking about them gets me really fired up. You’ll see me out there grinding all of them.”

The new 6+ Hold’em games will initially be available to PokerStars players on dot com and dot eu. Games will be rolled out across different regions in future.

You can learn more about 6+ Hold’em here. And check out the SCOOP homepage for tournament schedules over the next two weeks.

PokerStars Ambassador Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg takes down the $27 Deepstack and $33 Bounty Builder in back-to-back nights, both streamed live on Twitch.

It’s always nice to get a win under your belt and give your bankroll a welcome boost, especially with just two days before the start of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP).

But you know what’s even better? Two wins in two days.

Spraggy kicked off his winning ways on Wednesday night when he took down the $27 Deepstack for $1,249. On the final table, he made it look easy…easy to make quads, anyway.

Not long after that he took it down. “Obviously we’re just making a lot of very strong hands,” he said, as he turned two pair in what proved to be the final hand.

“It feels good to win a tournament again,” Spraggy said after that victory. “Obviously it’s not an absolutely massive one, but it feels good to take down the first place.”

He wouldn’t have to wait long to take down a massive one.

Last night (Thursday May 9) Spraggy went at it again.

He managed to build a big stack early in the $33 Bounty Builder, locking up more than three times the buy-in bounties before the tournament even reached the money bubble.

He made some great reads along the way, including this value shove in a spot where many players might have opted just to check back. He even called his opponent’s hand correctly.

Fast forward all the way to heads-up, and Spraggy had a 2:1 chip lead. When he got it in with Q♥Q♣ versus his opponent’s K♥3♦ and a king hit the flop, though, he was ready for a long heads-up battle.

Thankfully a long battle wasn’t needed when a queen hit the river.

For that victory, Spraggy banked $5,365 plus $4,371 in bounties.

Now it’s SCOOP time. Keep those trophies coming, Spraggy.

Opening a PokerStars account is easy. Click here to get an account in minutes.

November 12, 1993 was the first time the world was exposed to the UFC. That night changed the way the world thought about fighting when a skinny Brazilian ran through the field, winning three fights by quick submission.

Royce Gracie put jiu jitsu on the map, in what was an event created largely to prove the effectiveness of the Gracie style of fighting. He was, in fact, selected for his unimposing physique.

The first wave

Asked in 2013 why he chose his brother to represent the family in that initial tournament, Rorion Gracie said: “By putting someone like Royce in the cage, with a skinny body and totally physically unimpressive, we showed everybody that little guys can be tough too if they know Gracie jiu-jitsu. People say, ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’ That was the message we wanted to put across, and it worked out great.”

Royce would win the tournaments at UFC 1, 2 and 4 — failing to win the third event when he had to withdraw after winning his opening round bout.

His performances, and the ease with which he dispatched men who “looked the part” of vicious fighters, had done the trick. Not only for his family’s legacy, but in establishing the UFC as the new home of fighting. It also showed Brazil to be home to some of the toughest and most technical men in the world.

Other Brazilians would rise up in the post-Gracie UFC. Marco Ruas won the UFC 7 tournament but Vitor Belfort was the next Brazilian to truly cause a stir.

Belfort blasted through the four-man UFC 12 heavyweight tournament. He used boxing skills and hand speed previously unseen in the Octagon. He returned at UFC 13 and stopped fan favorite beer-bellied brawler Tank Abbott in 52 seconds. Belfort would compile a 5-1 record between 1997 to 1999. He would return for two additional stints in the UFC before retiring in May 2018.

As the fighting world adapted to (and adopted) jiu jitsu, Brazilians stayed at or near the top of the rankings.

The greats

In addition to the first wave of Brazilian fighters, other men would establish themselves as among the best fighters the world has ever seen.

Anderson Silva burst onto the UFC scene as the living embodiment of a video game character. He won the UFC middleweight championship in his second bout in the Octagon. Then won 16 straight UFC bouts, usually doing anything and everything he wanted to his opponents.

Wanderlei Silva’s best days came in the PRIDE ring in Japan, but he was one of the most feared fighters on the planet for most of his career.

Until the arrival of Conor McGregor, Jose Aldo was the best featherweight to ever compete in mixed martial arts. He was also arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.

Cris Cyborg, Lyoto Machida, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (and twin brother Antonio Rogerio Nogueira), “Shogun” Rua, Jacare Souza… the list of true fighting greats from Brazil is long, and their accomplishments too numerous to count.

Brazil (15) is second only to the United States (68) in division champions in UFC history.

Uh Vai Morrer

But Brazil is not special in the world of MMA for its fighters alone.

The fans are ravenous and create an entirely unique atmosphere unmatched in the world.

One of the defining traits of Brazilian crowds is chanting “Uh Vai Morrer” at foreign fighters competing against Brazilians. The chant translates to “You are going to die.” Only in the world of the UFC is this somehow a charming quality, but it’s expected to the point of being a demand of crowds when the Octagon rolls into town.

MMA website BloodyElbow.com put together a great feature on the history of the chant:

UFC 237

This weekend, the UFC returns to Brazil for UFC 237. The event will be held at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, and will feature some iconic Brazilian fighters.

In the main event, Jessica Andrade faces off with strawweight champion Rose Namajunas.

Living legend Anderson Silva faces off with Jared Cannonier in the middleweight co-main event.

Jose Aldo, the previously mentioned former pound-for-pound king, will look to run his winning streak to three when he faces Alexander Volkanovski.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira fights for only the second time since November 2016 when he takes on Ryan Spann.

And plenty more men and women will enter the Octagon Saturday as they look to continue a UFC tradition that dates back to UFC 1 – the skinny kid fighting to sell his family’s art to the masses.

The “Uh Vai Morrer” chants will be flowing in Rio.

UFC 237 takes place Saturday at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. It features two talented women battling for the strawweight championship on the main event, and a host of legends fighting on the rest of the card.

So, what do you need to know heading into the event? Let us guide you through.

The main event

At UFC 217, Rose Namajunas (8-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) did what many thought was unthinkable. She defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk to capture the UFC strawweight title. Jedrzejczyk had been  14-0 coming into the bout and was a massive favorite over the then 6-3 Namajunas.

Namajunas not only won the bout by first round knockout, she won the rematch at UFC 223 by unanimous decision. It removed any doubt as to her status as the strawweight queen.

The first bout with Jedrzejczyk was actually Namajunas’ second shot at the strawweight title. It came after losing to Carla Esparza in the final bout of season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter — a bout which crowned the first ever champion at 115 pounds.

Her UFC 237 opponent is familiar with the same taste of defeat in a title fight. Jessica Andrade (19-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) fought Jedrzejczyk for the gold at UFC 211. She lost a clear cut unanimous decision one bout before Namajunas knocked off the then-champ.

Since the loss, Andrade has rattled off three consecutive victories. In the last she knocked out Karolina Kowalkiewicz, the last woman to beat Namajunas, in under two minutes.

Namajunas sits as a slight betting favorite ahead of the event, something she recently theorized about:

“I think maybe because I wear my heart on my sleeve, I take my emotions and I think maybe some people take that for weakness,” Namajunas told MMAjunkie.com. “Also I’m long and lengthy so maybe some people think I’m not strong or whatever, but it’s also more than that. I am strong, but it’s also being mentally strong, spiritually strong, everything. The whole package.”

The legends

While the story of many on the card is far from told, we do know there are three sure-fire UFC Hall of Fame talents fighting Saturday.

Anderson Silva (34-9 MMA, 17-5 UFC) is one of the greatest fighters to ever walk the Earth and is the greatest middleweight of all time. He won his first 16 fights in the UFC, and won the middleweight title in his second bout. He successfully defended the championship 10 times.

Silva is only 1-5 (with a no contest due to a drug test failure overturning another win) since he lost his middleweight title to Chris Weidman in July 2013. Time is cruel to all, but especially cruel to fighters. Still, Silva has shown he can still go and has guts to spare.

In his previous four bouts, he lost a competitive decision to Hall of Famer Michael Bisping. Then lost after stepping in very late notice to face Daniel Cormier at light heavyweight to save a major UFC 200 bout. Then defeated Derek Brunson, and lost a gutsy decision to Israel Adesanya (who went on to win the interim middleweight championship in his next bout).

Silva appears to have no strong push to become champion again, but loves the sport and wants to continue competing. Oh, and he really, really wants a fight with Conor McGregor.

His opponent, Jared Cannonier (11-4 MMA, 4-4 UFC) said he has designs on knocking out the legend and running his winning streak to two and attempting to stabilize an up and down Octagon career.

“I know I can knock him out,” Cannonier recently told MMAFighting.com. “All I gotta do is touch him. He’s no different from the next man. He can get knocked out, too. All I gotta do is touch your chin or hit the up side of your head, you know? Or I can just wrap my arms around your neck and choke you out.”

The other Brazilian legend on the card is Jose Aldo (28-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC), who takes on Alexander Volkanovski (19-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC).

Aldo once owned an 18-fight winning streak, 15 of which came in the UFC and it’s now-defunct sister promotion WEC. After winning the featherweight championship he successfully defended the title nine times, stamping himself as arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world before catching a knockout in just 13 seconds against Conor McGregor at UFC 194.

Aldo has a 3-2 record since that loss, beating UFC legend Frankie Edgar and losing twice to current featherweight champ Max Holloway.

He’ll have his hands full with the powerful Volkanovski.

B.J. Penn (16-13-2 MMA, 12-12-2 UFC) is already in the UFC Hall of Fame. His .500 record in the UFC is not an appropriate measure of his overall place in the promotion’s history. Penn has lost six consecutive fights, placing him in a tie for the very dubious record of longest losing skid in UFC history. If you mix in his draw prior to those six losses, he is on the longest winless stretch in company history.

But in his prime, Penn was a dominant force in the lighter weight classes of the UFC. One of the few men to make his pro debut in the UFC Octagon, Penn was the lightweight division’s early star but failed twice to win the lightweight title. First he lost to Jens Pulver in an upset at UFC 35, and then battled Caol Uno to a draw at UFC 41.

At UFC 46 he jumped to welterweight for a title bout and pulled off a massive upset of hyper-dominant welterweight champion Matt Hughes to capture gold at 170 pounds. He would then leave the promotion for two years before returning and losing two welterweight title opportunities. Then he returned to lightweight, finally capturing the 155-pound belt that had eluded him in his early career.

Penn’s career was defined by taking on the best the sport had to offer and capturing two major championships. Now 40, battling a massive winless skid dating back to November 2010 and being dogged by domestic abuse allegations, he’s looking for some bright spot during a massive life downswing.

Penn faces fellow veteran Clay Guida (34-18 MMA, 14-12 UFC) in a bout Guida says should have happened a decade ago.

The full card

MAIN CARD

• Strawweight Championship – Rose Namajunas © vs. Jessica Andrade
• Middleweight – Anderson Silva vs. Jared Cannonier
• Featherweight – Jose Aldo vs. Alexander Volkanovski
• Welterweight – Thiago Alves vs. Laureano Staropoli
• Lightweight – Francisco Trinaldo vs. Carlos Diego Ferreira

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Light Heavyweight – Antônio Rogério Nogueira vs. Ryan Spann
• Lightweight – Thiago Moises vs. Kurt Holobaugh
• Women’s Bantamweight – Irene Aldana vs. Bethe Correia
• Lightweight – B.J. Penn vs. Clay Guida

EARLY PRELIMINARY CARD

• Women’s Flyweight – Luana Carolina vs. Priscila Cachoeira
• Welterweight – Warlley Alves vs. Sérgio Moraes
• Bantamweight – Raoni Barcelos vs. Carlos Huachin

Don’t forget our other casual fan resources ahead of UFC 237 including our Idiot’s guide to the UFC and UFC Glossary.

Due this July, Purposeful Practice for Poker by Dr. Patricia Cardner and Gareth James provides poker players a wealth of concrete advice about the “right sort of practice” they should pursue in order to improve their games.

Building on the work in her earlier books Peak Poker Performance and Positive Poker, Cardner shares knowledge gained while earning two doctorates (including one in psychology), working as a licensed professional counselor, and her time at the poker tables where she’s earned more than six figures’ worth of cashes in tournaments.

In Purposeful Practice for Poker, Cardner collaborates with tournament coach Gareth “Gazellig” James to show players how to make the most out of their study time away from the tables. They present and explain “purposeful practice” and how it can apply to poker, providing numerous techniques and exercises players can do to start improving right away.

Here’s an excerpt in which the pair explain the difference between “passive” and “active” learning, and how the latter is much more beneficial to those seriously looking to up their games.

Passive Versus Active Learning

Think back to the last time you learned something new in poker. Not when you had a Twitch stream on in the background while you played a Sunday session, passively listening to the streamer discuss their strategies or when you listened to a poker podcast on your daily commute. That is passive learning. You’re not doing anything but listening. We’re talking about the time you took a deep dive into a poker concept, theory, or idea and you were so curious and motivated that you actively took steps to understand it more. You took the time to actively link what you learned to your own game. During your sessions you would see similar situations pop up time and time again. You made mistakes, you learned from them, you made the connections between what you were learning and what you were experiencing. You posted the idea in your study group. You spent time discussing the concept with your poker friends. You did everything you could to deepen your understanding.

If you haven’t ever learned something in an active way, then that is about to change.

The Learning Cone (Dale’s Cone of Experience)

Source: Adapted from E. Dale, Audiovisual Methods in Teaching, 1969, NY: Dryden Press

During the 1960s, Edgar Dale theorized that learners retain more information by what they do rather than what they hear, read or observe. The least effective method of learning is at the top of the cone. This includes learning from information like reading strategy articles and forum posts and listening to podcasts. If you’re reading this book, you’ve probably consumed educational poker content at some point in your poker career. If you read a lot of strategy articles and listen to a lot of poker podcasts you’re probably not making the most of your time and are employing the least effective method of learning. Dale believed that people generally remember 10% of what they read and 20% of they hear. As the co-hosts of the popular Poker On The Mind podcast we obviously don’t want you to stop listening but, instead, want you to recognize that it is less effective than other methods. Having said that, we do encourage discussion of the ideas we present and a lot of our show concepts and topics can be used as a starting off point for your own learning. Listening to podcasts is great, but it’s not the most effective way to learn unless you do some work to transform it into an active process.

The cone looks at the average retention rate for various methods of teaching and learning. The closer you get to the bottom of the cone, the greater the learning and the more information you are likely to retain. It really highlights the importance of active learning over passive learning. According to Dale, we should design educational activities that build upon more real-life experiences. In poker, this means learning from real hands that you play. While it’s certainly educational to watch the Super High Roller games on TV, learning about why they do something and then trying to apply it at your local $100 bar league game might not be the best thing to do. You can work out why the best players in the world are doing what they’re doing, but also recognize that they are doing it because they are playing against the best players in the world.

Active learning is how adults learn best. You can make your learning more active by discussing hands with friends, collaborating with them, thinking critically about hands, spots and situations, solving problems and connecting your new learning and understanding to the games you play.

Here are some examples of passive and active learning in poker:

Passive

• Reading an article or forum post
• Listening to a podcast
• Watching live streams
• Watching a training video

Active

• Joining a study group and participating in discussion
• Contributing constructively to a forum or Facebook group
• Teaching what you know to someone else
• Running simulations

Watching training videos and live streams are a more effective way of retaining information and learning, but they are still examples of passive learning. Taking notes on the video or stream, though? Now we’re talking. We’re starting to get to the most effective way of learning… active learning.

The Learning Cycle

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” – David A. Kolb (Kolb, 1984, p. 38).

Extending Dale’s Cone of Experience idea that we learn and retain more from what we do rather than we read, see or watch, Kolb’s Learning Cycle takes the experiential learning idea and puts it into a continuous sequence of development. He says that to learn effectively, a learner must actually have a concrete experience. They would then reflect on this experience to review what has been done and experienced. This is followed by the process of making sense of what happened, drawing comparisons between what they already know and drawing on theory to further their understanding. The final stage encourages learners to work out how they are going to apply their newfound knowledge and put it into practice. As Dale’s Cone of Experience also explained, it’s important to place the learning in context that is relevant to you.

Source: Adapted from D. Kolb, Experiential Learning, Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, 1984, N.J.: Prentice-Hall

As you can see, taking an active role in the learning process takes some effort. It is far easier to passively consume learning materials, but in the end you don’t really learn much and it actually wastes time! Having said that, let’s get into how to plan out your study sessions so that you can increase your knowledge as quickly as possible.

Purposeful Practice for Poker is available for pre-order in paperback and as an e-book at D&B Poker.

D&B Publishing (using the imprint D&B Poker) was created by Dan Addelman and Byron Jacobs 15 years ago. Since then it has become one of the leading publishers of poker books with titles by Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Little, Mike Sexton, Chris Moorman, Dr. Patricia Cardner, Lance Bradley, Martin Harris and more, all of which are available at D&B Poker.