That’s all, folks. The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) 2019 has come to an end.
While those of you who grinded day in and day out for the past two weeks are no doubt looking forward to a well-earned rest, it’s a sad day for those of us on the rail. What will we do with our mornings now that there are no new SCOOP lobbies for us to scour in search of huge results?
Well, for starters, it gives us time to reflect on what an amazing tournament series the 2019 SCOOP has been.
This was the largest tournament series in the history of online poker. It became the first series to produce an overall prize pool topping nine figures. When play wrapped up yesterday, the total amount awarded in prizes was an astounding $105,133,091.
Final SCOOP numbers
There were 219 tournaments, an incredible 1,024,232 total entries, and more than $15.5M awarded in first-place prizes.
That’s all down to you guys.
No matter the game, the field, the buy-in, PokerStars players turned out in force and produced some incredible events and even more incredible storylines.
Lex Veldhuis was streaming SCOOP start to finish
It’s thanks to Twitch streamers like Lex Veldhuis, Benjamin Spragg, Fintan Hand, Felix Schneiders, and everyone who gave poker fans a glimpse behind the curtains and the hole cards, letting us follow along with some epic tournament journeys.
It’s thanks to the players who used their precious time away from their computers to speak to us and tell us their stories throughout the series. Like Richard “Girlyjack” Preston, the cafe owner from John Hesp’s hometown who won a SCOOP event whilst working a shift. Or Russian beast Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, who topped the leaderboard in not one, not two, but three categories (low, high, and overall). Or big winners like Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert and Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs, whose interviews we’ll be bringing you this week.
Mateus Zilberknpop helped Brazil to 36 SCOOP titles
It’s thanks to the country of Brazil, whose players topped the country rankings with 36 SCOOP titles won, almost double the 19 won by players in both the UK and Russia.
It’s thanks to the double winners — Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah, Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, Russia’s “Bagrovui”, Tomas “luckymo32” Geleziunas, Brazil’s “felipebeltra”, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Kahle “ROFLShove” Burns, Belgium’s “merla888”, Matheus “zilbee” Zilberknop, and Guilherme “guilherme12” Decour (who won two titles in one day) – for showing us that you should never rest on your laurels. You’ve got to get back out there and get after it.
And finally, it’s thanks to Austria-based Italian Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza. He took down the $10K SCOOP Main Event last year, and this year he won another title in a Super Tuesday Special Edition. But he waited for the final day to truly create headlines.
The undefeated Gianluca “Takanza” Speranza
Speranza successfully defended his $10K Main Event title last night, in what must truly be one of the most astounding accomplishments in online poker history. He’s now $1.03M richer, and something of an online poker legend.
But alas, SCOOP is now over.
Thanks to everyone one who took part in this year’s SCOOP and made it the spectacle we always hoped it would be.
Same again (but bigger) next year?