It’s all getting very serious as we enter Main Event weekend at the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). Big prizes and some of the biggest names in the game. Read all about it…
TODAY’S HEADLINES
- Juan “malaka$tyle” Pardo wins $500K and his second title
- Two biggest first prizes of this year’s SCOOP awarded
- “ROFLShove” and “MUSTAFABET” back among the winners
- Koon, Foxen, Watson, Drinan and Chouity also champions
- Three titles in a night for Irish players
- First prizes of more than $10m now awarded
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
The two biggest first prizes so far of this year’s SCOOP went to known tournament bosses overnight. London-based Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo banked $549,421.48 for victory in the $25,000 High Roller, shortly after Kahle “ROFLShove” Burns had netted $125,587.08 plus another $186,484.37 in bounties, totalling $312,071.45, in SCOOP 49-H PKO. That’s Pardo’s second title of SCOOP 2019, but by far the biggest, outstripping the $47,520 he won in the shootout event. Remarkably, however, that’s not even close to ROFLShove’s biggest SCOOP score: in 2017, the Mexico-based player won $787,000 with his Main Event title.
Juan “malaka$tyle” Pardo
Our list of double champions added another name overnight when Matthew “MUSTAFABET” Ashton, a former challenger for WSOP Player of the Year, won the high buy-in version of SCOOP 50 Razz. MUSTAFABET previously won the Limit Stud H/L, and has another SCOOP title from 2016 as well as WCOOP victories from 2009 among heaps of other accolades.
Few people in world poker have been playing as much 6+ (or short-deck) poker over the past few years as Jason “jakoon1985” Koon, and the man who tops the all time money list for short deck last night won one of the first SCOOP titles in the discipline, earning $28,913.68 in SCOOP 73-M. That’s barely a buy-in in the games he usually plays, but underlines his abilities in this format.
Jason Koon, back among the SCOOP winners
Former PCA winner Mike “SirWatts” Watson picked up the title in the high buy-in 6+ event, proving that he was a decent person for PokerStars Blog to learn the game from, when we put 6+ under the spotlight a few months ago. Watson has also been putting the hours in in live 6+, and this was his reward: a near $95,000 payday, pushing “OLD TIME GIN” into second and denying him his second SCOOP title in as many days.
Adam “Adamyid” Owen came close to pulling off one of SCOOP’s rarest feats: winning two titles at different buy-ins in the same event. Owen finished sixth in the SCOOP 50-H at the same time that he was also on the final table of SCOOP 50-M, finishing third. Terrence “Unassigned” Chan once won two at the same time, in limit hold’em, but Owen narrowly missed out on joining him.
COOP titles for Nicolas “niccc” Chouity are hardly rarities. The former EPT Grand Final champion has wins in WCOOP from 2011 and three SCOOP titles from 2015 (two) and 2012. And this time he won SCOOP 51-M Heads-Up. He defeated “lbtrading” in the final for a $18,567.27 result. He also cashed in seventh in SCOOP 70-M at the same time.
Connor “blanconegro” Drinan brought his career online cashes close to $7.5 million when he took down SCOOP 70-M for $167,574.54 after a chop with “Grisha813. Drinan is another multiple COOP champion, with two WCOOP victories from 2017 and one from 2016.
Alex “bigfox86” Foxen started the day on the final table of the $25,000 buy-in High Roller event, and though he busted that in eighth, he still finished the Friday grind with a SCOOP title, finishing first in SCOOP 54-H Zoom. Foxen appeared to have come from nowhere over the past two years to be a fixture on the global high roller circuit, and the No 1 ranked player on the GPI. But SCOOP watchers have seen him before: in 2015 he won his first SCOOP title and had a conversation with Stephen Bartley about cup-cakes.
Alex “bigfox86” Foxen
Until yesterday, the only SCOOP 2019 titles won by Ireland were both by the same person, “luckymo32”. But three more Irish players joined the party overnight as “Druidden“, “DanielT999” and “UIDuffer” all won.
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 171
Tournaments ongoing: 6
Entries so far: 764,245
Prize pool so far: $69,863,658
First-place prizes awarded: $10,522,298.21
TODAY’S RESULTS
| 48-L: PLO H/L | $5.50 | 4,122 | $20,197 | Druidden | Ireland | $2,887.68 |
| 48-M: PLO H/L | $55 | 1,103 | $55,150 | The TJS | UK | $8,862.02 |
| 48-H: PLO H/L | $530 | 312 | $156,000 | Perrymejsen | Sweden | $29,347.79 |
| 49-L: Progressive KO Mini Thursday Thrill | $109 | 6,588 | $658,800 | FKAXM | Brazil | $66,966.51† |
| 49-M: Progressive KO Thursday Thrill | $1,050 | 1,191 | $1,191,000 | GamadGADOL | Malta | $161,282.91† |
| 49-H: Progressive KO High Roller | $10,300 | 109 | $1,090,000 | ROFLShove | Mexico | $312,071.45† |
| 50-L: Limit Razz | $22 | 1,763 | $35,260 | vlaviusz | Romania | $5,731.68* |
| 50-M: Limit Razz | $215 | 380 | $76,000 | serkku21 | Finland | $14,440.00 |
| 50-H: Limit Razz | $2,100 | 73 | $150,000 | MUSTAFABET | UK | $40,875.00 |
| 51-L: Heads-Up | $22 | 2,048 | $40,960 | Harley7900 | Germany | $5,170.47 |
| 51-M: Heads-Up | $215 | 512 | $102,400 | niccc | Lebanon | $18,567.27 |
| 51-H: Heads-Up | $2,100 | 108 | $256,000 | J0hn Mcclean | UK | $76,800.00 |
| 70-L: 8-Max High Roller | $215 | 2,946 | $589,200 | Godfatti | Netherlands | $85,100.33 |
| 70-M 8-Max High Roller | $2,100 | 498 | $1,000,000 | blanconegro | Mexico | $167,574.54* |
| 70-H: 8-Max High Roller | $25,000 | 83 | $2,035,575 | Malaka$tyle | UK | $549,421.48 |
| 53-L: Progressive KO | $22 | 6,286 | $61,603 | mnammnam | Czech Republic | $6,794.07† |
| 53-M: Progressive KO | $215 | 1,451 | $145,100 | DanielT999 | Ireland | $17,208.03† |
| 53-H: Progressive KO | $2,100 | 283 | $283,000 | UIDuffer | Ireland | $48,061.13†* |
| 54-L: Zoom | $11 | 12,855 | $62,990 | tonyraad | Brazil | $7,994.68 |
| 54-M: Zoom | $109 | 4,702 | $235,100 | passie100 | Germany | $30,594.64* |
| 54-H: Zoom | $1,050 | 820 | $410,000 | bigfox86 | Canada | $68,904.03 |
| 73-L: 6+ Hold’em | $55 | 1,775 | $100,000 | NiekJans | Netherlands | $13,730.05* |
| 73-M: 6+ Hold’em | $530 | 243 | $150,000 | jakoon1985 | Canada | $28,913.68 |
| 73-H: 6+ Hold’em | $5,200 | 54 | $270,000 | SirWatts | Canada | $94,915.40 |
ONGOING TOURNAMENTS
SCOOP 72 — NLHE Progressive KO 6-Max
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg edged into the cash in the medium buy-in evening, finishing 653rd for $96.16, plus another $62.50 in bounties.
SCOOP 52 — NLHE
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
“Graftekkel” leads the way in the high buy-in version of this one, seeking his second SCOOP title and close to $180K. There are some other real sharks in the 41 remaining, including Wiktor “limitless” Malinowski, in second, Kahle “ROFLshove” Burns in fourth and OLD TIME GIN in ninth. Oh, and there’s Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo in 17th too.
STARTING TODAY
SCOOP 55 — NLHE Deep Stacks
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
When an ordinary stack is just too darn shallow.
SCOOP 56 — 8-Game
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
Your last chance during this SCOOP to go through all the games: Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit Hold’em, Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, Limit Razz, Limit Seven Card Stud, Limit Stud Hi-Lo, No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha.
SCOOP 57 — NLHE Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
One of the most popular formats, with a low buy-in of only $5.50.
SCOOP 58 — Pot Limit 5-Card Omaha
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Learn how to play first, then if you’re looking for some more information, PokerStars School have got you covered.
SCOOP 59 — NLHE
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
Nothing fancy, but still the best way to round off a full day.
PREVIOUS SCOOP COVERAGE:
DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAY 10 | DAY 11 | DAY 12