Medium Buy in Main Event Recap

The medium buy in tournament ended up more than doubling the $1.5 million guaranteed prize amount when 3,567 players each put up $1,050 to contest the first place prize of over half a million dollars.

The final table began with ministerborg holding the lead. He held 12.9 million chips, while the next highest stack was hunwei with 10.8 million:

Seat 1: scrooch025 (5374699 in chips)
Seat 2: ministerborg (12915172 in chips)
Seat 3: hunwei (10798611 in chips)
Seat 4: PSÄ! (4699534 in chips)
Seat 5: dknight10 (4307429 in chips)
Seat 6: Korn2005 (3558888 in chips)
Seat 7: carrycakes (4699546 in chips)
Seat 8: suarez_BG (4282408 in chips)
Seat 9: IRLMedic (2868713 in chips)

The third place finisher ended up being hunwei, when his QQ in the hole couldn’t out race the Ace-King of ministerborg:

PokerStars Hand #80814918182: Tournament #2012050402, $1000+$50 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level XLV (150000/300000) – 2012/05/21 19:51:50 ET
Table ’2012050402 32′ 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: ministerborg (22994950 in chips)
Seat 3: hunwei (16784134 in chips)
Seat 8: suarez_BG (13725916 in chips)
ministerborg: posts the ante 37500
hunwei: posts the ante 37500
suarez_BG: posts the ante 37500
hunwei: posts small blind 150000
suarez_BG: posts big blind 300000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ministerborg: raises 300000 to 600000
hunwei: raises 900000 to 1500000
suarez_BG: folds
ministerborg: raises 1645400 to 3145400
hunwei: raises 2554600 to 5700000
ministerborg: raises 17257450 to 22957450 and is all-in
hunwei: calls 11046634 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (6210816) returned to ministerborg
*** FLOP *** [4d 3s Ah]
*** TURN *** [4d 3s Ah] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [4d 3s Ah Jd] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hunwei: shows [Qd Qh] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
ministerborg: shows [Ad Kc] (three of a kind, Aces)
ministerborg collected 33905768 from pot
hunwei finished the tournament in 3rd place and received $296061.00.

Heads up play for the SCOOP Main Event Champion title began with ministerborg holding a 3-1 chip lead against suarez_BG. Small pots were traded back and forth, with mnisterborg winning the majority of the smaller pots, and suarez_BG a number of the larger ones.

The first all in and call since heads up started ended up with suarez_BG doubling up with Ace-Ten offsuit against the Ace-Seven offsuit of ministerborg. With that 34.2 million chip pot win, suarez_BG took a solid lead with 34.2 million in chips against ministerborg’s 19.3 million.

Ministerborg was quick to strike back, getting all in with pocket tens against suarez_BG’s Ace-King. His tens lead the whole way as the board ran out T-A-K-9-Q.

Once again it was ministerborg winning the majority of pots, mostly the smaller ones. Suarez_BG won a few large pots in a row, and suddenly the chipstacks were even at approximately 27 million chips each. Suarez_BG then went on a tear, winning pot after pot, both large and medium sized ones. On the final hand where suarez_BG held a chip advantage of 41.6M to 11.8M, he raised all in with pocket fives and was called by ministerborg’s unsuited Ace-Queen. The board failed to pair ministerborg and suarez_BG ended up the champion. He won just over $560,000 for his win, while ministerborg won $417,339 for his efforts.

Results: SCOOP 2012 Main Event – Medium buy in $1,050, $1.5 Million guaranteed
Entrants: 3,567 Prize Pool: $3,567,000

1. suarez_BG (Bulgaria) $560,019
2. ministerborg (Denmark) $417,339
3. hunwei (Australia) $296,061
4. PSÄ! (Malta) $205,102
5. carrycakes (Mexico) $152,703
6. scrooch025 (Belgium) $115,927
7. dknight10 (Costa Rica) $80,257
8. Korn2005 (Canada) $44,587
9. IRLMedic (Ireland) $28,536

High Roller Main Event Recap

The high stakes SCOOP 2012 Main Event tournament featured a staggeringly high buy in of $10,300. 517 players showed up, good enough double the $2.5M guaranteed prize pool. A number of PokerStars pros participated in this event, including: Ivan Demidov, Humberto Brenes, ElkY, Isildur1, johnduhamel, nanonoko and aakkari. The best PokerStars pro finisher was aakkari of Brazil, with a 16th place $41,360 prize finish.

Three handed with fairly even stacks, action was paused while players discussed a deal. GripDsNutz on the short stack (2.16M) was only interested in an even chop. Before PokerStars support stepped in all three players had tentatively agreed to this. But shortly after they responded, the chip leader, sp00led, at 3.19M chips said “backer said no. we have to work a better deal”.

Sp00led offered an even chop, plus playing for $80,000 as the Championship prize rather than the minimum $50,000. Still, GripDsNutz held firm on getting an even chop for the maximum amount, despite holding the shortest stack and 50% less chips than the current chip leader. Eventually they settled on $718,675 each, and paying $80k for the winner of the tournament.

It was sosickPL who ended up being the first to get knocked out after the deal, when his pocket eights fell to the nines of GripDsNutz.
Now heads up, sp00led jokingly asked to chop the $80k first prize, as he was out chipped nearly 4 to 1.

The heads up battle was a good demonstration of skilled, aggressive play. Chips flew back and forth with neither player wanting to give up an edge to the other. Sp00led clawed his way back into it, nearly evening up the chip counts at 3.3 million to GripDsNutz’ 4.46 million.

Sp00led took the chip lead the first time during heads up with a great hero call against the relentless three barrel bluffs by GripDsNutz:

PokerStars Hand #80819810737: Tournament #2012050403, $10000+$300 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXV (20000/40000) – 2012/05/21 22:46:41 ET
Table ’2012050403 37′ 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 8: sp00led (3208217 in chips)
Seat 9: GripDsNutz (4546783 in chips)
sp00led: posts the ante 5000
GripDsNutz: posts the ante 5000
GripDsNutz: posts small blind 20000
sp00led: posts big blind 40000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
GripDsNutz: raises 40000 to 80000
sp00led: calls 40000
*** FLOP *** [Kh Kc 6c]
sp00led: checks
GripDsNutz: bets 74645
sp00led: calls 74645
*** TURN *** [Kh Kc 6c] [7s]
sp00led: checks
GripDsNutz: bets 198465
sp00led: calls 198465
*** RIVER *** [Kh Kc 6c 7s] [5s]
sp00led: checks
GripDsNutz: bets 435345
sp00led: calls 435345
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GripDsNutz: shows [9d Qh] (a pair of Kings)
sp00led: shows [3s 6s] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
sp00led collected 1586910 from pot

In the end, it was GripDsNutz who claimed the PokerStars SCOOP 2012 Main Event High Roller Championship title. Pocket sixes will surely be his new favorite hand as they propelled him to winning nearly $800,000 in the tournament!

Results: SCOOP 2012 Main Event – High Roller buy in $10,300, $2.5 Million guaranteed
Entrants: 517 Prize Pool: $5,170,000
* denotes deal altered payout

1. GripDsNutz (Costa Rica) $798,675*
2. sp00led (Canada) $718,675*
3. sosickPL (Poland) $718,675*
4. UrMySponsor (Germany) $403,260
5. wizowizo (Germany) $284,350
6. hotmark777 (Lebanon) $219,725
7. r4st4f4ri (Germany) $168,025
8. römpsä (Finland) $116,325
9. B4d3m3!st3r (Germany) $85,822

Low Buy-in Main Event Recap

In the low buy in event, the final table began with a near tie for the chip lead. Flowstone80’s 55.2 million chip stack was just barely ahead of FrandsenDK’s 54.5 million:

Seat 1: jonath3501 (18550347 in chips)
Seat 2: flowstone80 (55184415 in chips)
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (54458130 in chips)
Seat 4: luznypapa (32000000 in chips)
Seat 5: slavOuchka (36206155 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (43352424 in chips)
Seat 7: T_Dot_D (37939308 in chips)
Seat 8: MrWeesy (10663332 in chips)
Seat 9: Fiskin1 (43565889 in chips)

The first final table casualty was MrWeesy, after his Ace-three fell to the pocket jacks of T_Dot_D:

PokerStars Hand #80809650237: Tournament #2012050401, $100+$9 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level LIII (800000/1600000) – 2012/05/21 17:52:42 ET
Table ’2012050401 936′ 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: jonath3501 (18054392 in chips)
Seat 2: flowstone80 (46283583 in chips)
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (47033130 in chips)
Seat 4: luznypapa (27400000 in chips)
Seat 5: slavOuchka (20606155 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (86810379 in chips)
Seat 7: T_Dot_D (32014808 in chips)
Seat 8: MrWeesy (17576664 in chips)
Seat 9: Fiskin1 (36140889 in chips)
T_Dot_D: posts small blind 800000
MrWeesy: posts big blind 1600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Fiskin1: folds
jonath3501: folds
flowstone80: folds
FrandsenDK: folds
luznypapa: folds
slavOuchka: folds
john_tri80: folds
T_Dot_D: raises 1615000 to 3215000
MrWeesy: raises 14161664 to 17376664 and is all-in
T_Dot_D: calls 14161664
*** FLOP *** [Ts 7c 2c]
*** TURN *** [Ts 7c 2c] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 7c 2c 5s] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
T_Dot_D: shows [Jd Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Fives)
MrWeesy: shows [Ad 3s] (a pair of Fives)
T_Dot_D collected 36553328 from pot
MrWeesy finished the tournament in 9th place and received $13276.80.

The next elimination happened shortly thereafter, when john_tri80′s unimproved Ace-King was good enough to beat slavOuchka’s Ten-Nine offsuit:

PokerStars Hand #80810857154: Tournament #2012050401, $100+$9 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level LIV (1000000/2000000) – 2012/05/21 18:16:58 ET
Table ’2012050401 936′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: jonath3501 (9504392 in chips)
Seat 2: flowstone80 (32933583 in chips)
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (41783135 in chips)
Seat 4: luznypapa (23850000 in chips)
Seat 5: slavOuchka (29622821 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (91993713 in chips)
Seat 7: T_Dot_D (81241467 in chips)
Seat 9: Fiskin1 (20990889 in chips)
slavOuchka: posts small blind 1000000
john_tri80: posts big blind 2000000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
T_Dot_D: folds
Fiskin1: folds
jonath3501: folds
flowstone80: folds
FrandsenDK: folds
luznypapa: folds
slavOuchka: raises 27372821 to 29372821 and is all-in
john_tri80: calls 27372821
*** FLOP *** [4h 8h 5s]
*** TURN *** [4h 8h 5s] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [4h 8h 5s 4c] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
slavOuchka: shows [Ts 9h] (a pair of Fours)
john_tri80: shows [Kh Ad] (a pair of Fours – Ace kicker)
john_tri80 collected 60745642 from pot
slavOuchka finished the tournament in 8th place and received $19915.20.

Players continued to drop off and at three handed play talk of a deal between the remaining competitors was brought up.

FrandsenDK on the short stack wanted 150k to make a deal, which was just slightly more than the 148k his stack was worth according to ICM. Fiskin1 the chip leader was set on a chip chop only, which neither other player was interested in.

Shortly after play resumed, Fiskin1 lost a huge pot, and with it, the chip lead:

PokerStars Hand #80812454560: Tournament #2012050401, $100+$9 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level LV (1250000/2500000) – 2012/05/21 18:50:15 ET
Table ’2012050401 936′ 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (77350839 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (93808421 in chips)
Seat 9: Fiskin1 (160760740 in chips)
FrandsenDK: posts the ante 312500
john_tri80: posts the ante 312500
Fiskin1: posts the ante 312500
FrandsenDK: posts small blind 1250000
john_tri80: posts big blind 2500000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Fiskin1: raises 2500000 to 5000000
FrandsenDK: raises 7800000 to 12800000
john_tri80: folds
Fiskin1: raises 147648240 to 160448240 and is all-in
FrandsenDK: calls 64238339 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (83409901) returned to Fiskin1
*** FLOP *** [Qh Tc 7d]
*** TURN *** [Qh Tc 7d] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [Qh Tc 7d Ac] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrandsenDK: shows [Qs Qc] (three of a kind, Queens)
Fiskin1: shows [4h 4s] (three of a kind, Fours)
FrandsenDK collected 157514178 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***

Fransden, with his newfound chip lead, asked if players now want to chipchop. But neither of the other players replied.

Fiskin1 ended up finishing in 3rd place after his pocket 5’s were edged out by john_tri80’s pocket sevens:

PokerStars Hand #80812517204: Tournament #2012050401, $100+$9 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level LVI (1500000/3000000) – 2012/05/21 18:51:38 ET
Table ’2012050401 936′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (152826678 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (90995921 in chips)
Seat 9: Fiskin1 (88097401 in chips)
FrandsenDK: posts the ante 375000
john_tri80: posts the ante 375000
Fiskin1: posts the ante 375000
john_tri80: posts small blind 1500000
Fiskin1: posts big blind 3000000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
FrandsenDK: raises 3000000 to 6000000
john_tri80: calls 4500000
Fiskin1: raises 81722401 to 87722401 and is all-in
FrandsenDK: folds
john_tri80: calls 81722401
*** FLOP *** [7c Ac Jh]
*** TURN *** [7c Ac Jh] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [7c Ac Jh 9d] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
john_tri80: shows [7s 7h] (three of a kind, Sevens)
Fiskin1: shows [5c 5h] (a pair of Fives)
john_tri80 collected 182569802 from pot
Fiskin1 finished the tournament in 3rd place and received $110640.00.
*** SUMMARY ***

Now heads up, a deal was quickly struck. The final hand where the Champion was crowned and given the remaining $30,000 went down shortly afterwards, with john_tri80 making a good hero call on the river with second pair:

PokerStars Hand #80813949645: Tournament #2012050401, $100+$9 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level LVII (2000000/4000000) – 2012/05/21 19:26:34 ET
Table ’2012050401 936′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: FrandsenDK (125578356 in chips)
Seat 6: john_tri80 (206341644 in chips)
FrandsenDK: posts the ante 500000
john_tri80: posts the ante 500000
FrandsenDK: posts small blind 2000000
john_tri80: posts big blind 4000000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
FrandsenDK: calls 2000000
john_tri80: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ad 7s Js]
john_tri80: checks
FrandsenDK: bets 4000000
john_tri80: calls 4000000
*** TURN *** [Ad 7s Js] [2s]
john_tri80: checks
FrandsenDK: bets 9000000
john_tri80: calls 9000000
*** RIVER *** [Ad 7s Js 2s] [3h]
john_tri80: bets 16000000
FrandsenDK: raises 92078356 to 108078356 and is all-in
john_tri80: calls 92078356
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrandsenDK: shows [5d 3d] (a pair of Threes)
john_tri80: shows [8c Jd] (a pair of Jacks)
john_tri80 collected 251156712 from pot
FrandsenDK finished the tournament in 2nd place and received $187000.00.
john_tri80 wins the tournament and receives $198725.75 – congratulations!

Results of SCOOP Main Event – Low buy in $109, $1M guaranteed
Entrants: 22,128 Prize Pool: $2,212,800
* Denotes deal altered payout

1. john_tri80 (Greece) $198,725*
2. Frandsen (Denmark) $187,000*
3. Fiskin1 (UK) $110,640
4. T_Dot_D (Canada) $88,512
5. flowstone80 (Germany) $66,384
6. luznypapa (Poland) $44,256
7. jonath3501 (UK) $31,089
8. slavOuchka (New Zealand) $19,915
9. MrWeesy (Germany) $13,276

Good game all and good luck next year at SCOOP 2013!

The previous records were set by PokerStars’ SCOOP 2010 when 461,936 entrants played for a total of $64,230,010 in prize money. It should be noted that SCOOP 2010 only had 33 different events, compared to this year’s 40 events.

Despite the larger number of events, this new record is impressive since it comes just one year after Black Friday and the forced exit of US players from PokerStars and other online poker sites. It is estimated that PokerStars lost nearly one third of their traffic when the US market was locked out by the US Department of Justice. This new record shows that international online poker is still thriving. Participants in this year’s SCOOP 2012 came from all over the world; over 150 different countries were represented.

Buy ins for SCOOP 2012 ranged from $5.50 to the $10,300 high roller main event. All series long the large guaranteed prize pool amounts were being exceeded with ease. In some tournaments the prize pool ended up being triple or even four times more than the original guaranteed amount.

Day 2 of the Main Event is currently running and in a few hours will reach the final tables of each of the three tournaments. Tune into FTR News later this evening to see the results and recap of the SCOOP 2012 Main Event.

Event #37′s low end tournament had a buy-in of $200 + $15 and a guaranteed prize pool of $125,000.  Attracting 1,414 competitors out of a maximum of 16,384, the tournament’s total prize pool reached $282,800 with a possible first place prize of $42,768.04.  The tournament paid the top 128 finishers between $735.28 and $42,768.04 apiece.

Event #37′s middle tournament had a buy-in of $2,000 + $100 and a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000.  With 256 entrants out of a maximum of 1,024, the middle tournament’s prize pool topped out at $512,000 and offered a first place prize of $112,640.  The tournament rewarded its top 32 finishers with a payment of at least $5,632.00

Event #37′s high tournament had a buy-in of $20,500 + $500 and a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000.  Almost a sellout, the tournament attracted 28 participants which left only four seats unoccupied.  The high tournament ended up with a total prize pool of $574,000 with a possible first place prize of $258,300.  The tournament’s third and fourth place finishers were expected to receive $86,100 each, with the person winding up in second getting $143,500.

Event #37 Low NL Hold’em $200 + $15

The second day of competition in the low tournament started with 64 players engaged in heads up play at 32 tables.  It took less than thirty minutes for the first ten players to be knocked out of Event #37′s low heads up tournament.  With each receiving $1,295.22, the first ten players knocked out were:  jimmychin, gwaag, delaney_kid,”OPIGGYBANK,” sarnabul, Bluffomat, KKremate, SexyFunTimes, bojabaas, and alimounda.

Coming out of the first break, it didn’t take long for another six players to be eliminated from the low tournament with each of them earning $1,295.22 for their respective efforts.

With only eleven players left in the tournament, qpuni$her_ defeated MrJovelli who ended up in tenth place receiving $4,077.97.  LFB TUBI was the next out, finishing in ninth place overall, after losing to oxyzak who went on to face zoro555 in the next round.  RunThisTable was the next competitor to be ousted, losing to goxomago.  RunThisTable was followed by ndscott, zoro555 and _qpuni$her_, leaving four to compete.

Trying to win a seat at the tournament’s final table, oxyzak squared off against sonik4 while gozomago took on dontdoitlol. The first to claim a seat at the final table was sonik4 and the second was goxomago.

With more than a three-to-one chip advantage, sonik4 was in command less than 30 minutes after the final table was seated.  Dropping goxomago down to a total of $3,057 in chips, sonik4 collected even more chips with the following hand:

PokerStars Hand #80764888501: Tournament #2012050371, $200+$15 USD Hold’em No Limit – Match Round XI, Level II (30/60) – 2012/05/20 20:15:49 ET
Table ’2012050371 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: sonik4 (15353 in chips)
Seat 2: goxomago (4647 in chips)
sonik4: posts small blind 30
goxomago: posts big blind 60
*** HOLE CARDS ***
sonik4: raises 60 to 120
goxomago: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Tc Qd 8c]
goxomago: checks
sonik4: bets 180
goxomago: calls 180
*** TURN *** [Tc Qd 8c] [4s]
goxomago: checks
sonik4: bets 450
goxomago: calls 450
*** RIVER *** [Tc Qd 8c 4s] [5c]
goxomago: checks
sonik4: bets 840
goxomago: calls 840
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sonik4: shows [Qc Ah] (a pair of Queens)
goxomago: mucks hand
sonik4 collected 3180 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3180 | Rake 0
Board [Tc Qd 8c 4s 5c]
Seat 1: sonik4 (button) (small blind) showed [Qc Ah] and won (3180) with a pair of Queens
Seat 2: goxomago (big blind) mucked

A few hands later, sonik4 put goxomago all-in and won the tournament on the following hand:

PokerStars Hand #80764995784: Tournament #2012050371, $200+$15 USD Hold’em No Limit – Match Round XI, Level II (30/60) – 2012/05/20 20:19:01 ET
Table ’2012050371 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: sonik4 (17063 in chips)
Seat 2: goxomago (2937 in chips)
goxomago: posts small blind 30
sonik4: posts big blind 60
*** HOLE CARDS ***
goxomago: raises 60 to 120
sonik4: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Jc 3c 4d]
sonik4: checks
goxomago: bets 150
sonik4: raises 270 to 420
goxomago: raises 420 to 840
sonik4: raises 16103 to 16943 and is all-in
goxomago: calls 1977 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (14126) returned to sonik4
*** TURN *** [Jc 3c 4d] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 3c 4d 6h] [9d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sonik4: shows [4h 4c] (three of a kind, Fours)
goxomago: shows [Qc Kc] (high card King)
sonik4 collected 5874 from pot
goxomago finished the tournament in 2nd place and received $27213.84.
sonik4 wins the tournament and receives $42768.04 – congratulations!
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5874 | Rake 0
Board [Jc 3c 4d 6h 9d]
Seat 1: sonik4 (big blind) showed [4h 4c] and won (5874) with three of a kind, Fours
Seat 2: goxomago (button) (small blind) showed [Qc Kc] and lost with high card King

The top ten finishers in Event #37′s low heads up, no limit Hold’em tournament are as follows:
1. sonik4   $42,768.04
2. goxomago  $27,213.84
3. dontdoitlol  $13,605.50
4. oxyzak   $13,605.50
5. _qpuni$her_  $ 7,579.04
6. zoro555   $ 7,579.04
7. ndscott   $ 7,579.04
8. RunThisTable  $ 7,579.04
9. LFB TUBI  $ 4,077.97
10. MrJovelli  $ 4,077.97

Event #37 Middle NL Hold’em $2,000 + $100

Sunday’s round of heads up play in the middle tournament started with just 16 players at eight tables. Helio TYF was the first to claim a victory in Event #37′s middle tournament, knocking Jorj95 out in 16th place.  Jorj95 received $10,752 for finishing in that position.  Collecting as much as Jorj95, Bohni16 and Lecher1991 were the next two contestants to be eliminated from the middle tournament.

More than three hours since it began and with only seven players left, the middle tournament’s first heads up winner of the day, Helio TYF, was embroiled in a match with Moorman1.  Returning from a break at 4pm EST, Moorman1 had $15,876 in chips while Helio TYF had only $4,124 with the blinds at $40/$80.  Within twenty minutes of returning to the table, Moorman1 called Helio TYF’s all-in bet for more than $4,000 in a hand that could have ended the match between the two.  Both players turned over A-10, however, so play continued with Helio TYF quickly amassing more than $5,000 in chips.

With Helio TYF successfully collecting more than $7,500 in chips, 1BigAceHole was eliminated from play at another table by KRab42, finishing seventh overall.  Shortly thereafter, Helio TYF took over the chip lead from Moorman1 with the following hand:

PokerStars Hand #80754550648: Tournament #2012050372, $2000+$100 USD Hold’em No Limit – Match Round VI, Level V (60/120) – 2012/05/20 16:35:15 ET
Table ’2012050372 3′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Moorman1 (14232 in chips)
Seat 2: Helio TYF (5768 in chips)
Moorman1: posts small blind 60
Helio TYF: posts big blind 120
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Moorman1: raises 120 to 240
Helio TYF: raises 300 to 540
Moorman1: raises 540 to 1080
Helio TYF: raises 540 to 1620
Moorman1: raises 12612 to 14232 and is all-in
Helio TYF: calls 4148 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (8464) returned to Moorman1
*** FLOP *** [4d 8d 5d]
*** TURN *** [4d 8d 5d] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [4d 8d 5d Ts] [6h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Helio TYF: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Moorman1: shows [Qh Ah] (high card Ace)
Helio TYF collected 11536 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11536 | Rake 0
Board [4d 8d 5d Ts 6h]
Seat 1: Moorman1 (button) (small blind) showed [Qh Ah] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 2: Helio TYF (big blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won (11536) with a pair of Aces

In the end, Helio TYF defeated Moorman1 with two pairs, 7s and 8s, with Moorman1 having only a pair of 8s, landing Moorman1 in fifth place overall.  Helio TYF went on to beat Banderivets in the next round and earned a seat at the tournament’s final table.  Joining Helio TYF at the final table was w00tLOL who defeated KRab42 to earn a seat.

After play was paused to see if the two final contestants could reach a deal, the players agreed to each accept $82,160 in winnings and continue their match with an additional $20,000 going to the winner.  Play resumed with Helio TYF enjoying a slight chip lead.

Having fallen behind in chips after a while, Helio TYF reclaimed the chip lead with the following hand:

PokerStars Hand #80761261058: Tournament #2012050372, $2000+$100 USD Hold’em No Limit – Match Round VIII, Level III (40/80) – 2012/05/20 18:41:15 ET
Table ’2012050372 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: w00tLOL (14629 in chips)
Seat 2: Helio TYF (5371 in chips)
w00tLOL: posts small blind 40
Helio TYF: posts big blind 80
*** HOLE CARDS ***
w00tLOL: raises 120 to 200
Helio TYF: calls 120
*** FLOP *** [7s 7c 7d]
Helio TYF: checks
w00tLOL: bets 264
Helio TYF: calls 264
*** TURN *** [7s 7c 7d] [8s]
Helio TYF: checks
w00tLOL: bets 612
Helio TYF: calls 612
*** RIVER *** [7s 7c 7d 8s] [Jd]
Helio TYF: checks
w00tLOL: bets 1420
Helio TYF: raises 2875 to 4295 and is all-in
w00tLOL: calls 2875
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Helio TYF: shows [Js 7h] (four of a kind, Sevens)
w00tLOL: shows [Jh Ah] (a full house, Sevens full of Jacks)
Helio TYF collected 10742 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 10742 | Rake 0
Board [7s 7c 7d 8s Jd]
Seat 1: w00tLOL (button) (small blind) showed [Jh Ah] and lost with a full house, Sevens full of Jacks
Seat 2: Helio TYF (big blind) showed [Js 7h] and won (10742) with four of a kind, Sevens

Ultimately, though, w00tLOL claimed victory at the final table of Event 37′s middle tournament.  Because of the deal struck between w00tLOL and Helio TYF, w00tLOL received $102,160 and Helio TYF walked away with $82,160.

The top ten finishers in Event #37′s middle heads up, no limit Hold’em tournament are as follows:

1. w00tLOL   $102,160
2. Helio TYF  $ 82,160
3. KRab42   $ 35,840
4. Banderivets  $ 35,840
5. Moorman1  $ 19,968
6. CDarwin2  $ 19,968
7. 1BigAceHole  $ 19,968
8. Xereles   $ 19,968
9. Vojta_R   $ 10,752
10. jama-dharma  $ 10,752

Event #37 High NL Hold’em $20,500 + $500

The final day in Event #37′s high heads up tournament began with only four players at two separate tables.

Off to a fast start, it took less than twenty minutes for Sauce123 to knock Canadian pistons87 out of the high tournament in fourth place.  Pistons87 collected a payment of $86,100 as a result.

Sauce123 had to wait for the last round of heads up play to begin as Also11 and ragen70 battled it out at another table to see which of them would face Sauce123 at the final table.  In the end, it was Also11 who prevailed and entered a heads up match with Sauce123, with ragen70 banking $86,100.

Ultimately, Sauce123 defeated Also11 after a hard-fought heads up battle that lasted less than an hour.  Sauce123 received a payment of $258,300 for coming in first in the high tournament while Also11 received $143,500 for finishing in second.

The event featured tournaments at three buy in levels, low, medium and high. The low event was a $13+13+1 buy in, $100k guaranteed drew 15,331 players, smashing the guaranteed amount and yielding a total prize pool of just under $400,000.

The remaining players made a deal during 4 handed play, giving the massive chip leader marroca5 of Columbia the lion’s share of the remaining prize pool. He locked up just shy of $22,000, which was a solid amount more than the original 2nd place prize of $18,934 and surprisingly close to the first prize of $27,297.

However, after the deal was made, the fortune of marroca5 quickly changed and he ended up going out in 3rd place. He still ended up being the big winner of the tournament. The first place finisher, triantafill of Greece ended up with the second most winnings at $18,142.

Event 30 – SuperKnockout Turbo 6 max – Low buy in $27 ($13+13+1) Results
Prizes listed here do not include bounty winnings
* denotes deal altered prizes

1. triantafill (Greece) $18,142*
2. RiAb80 (Germany) $13,208*
3. marroca5 (Columbia) $21,985*
4. hunnia94 (Hungary) $12,824*
5. Oczar (Poland) $3,986
6. skalala (Austria) $2,391

The medium buy in tournament featured a buy in of $215 ($103+$103+$9) and $200K guaranteed. It attracted 3,664 players for a total prize pool of over $754,000. Play lasted less than 4 and a half hours, with player “neto gol” of Brazil taking down the SCOOP championship title and $48,497 in winnings.

Event 30 – SuperKnockout Turbo 6 max – Med buy in $215 ($103+103+9) Results
Prizes listed here do not include bounty winnings

1. neto gol (Brazil) $58,497
2. Runninggreat (Canada) $42,645
3. C. Darwin2 (Sweden) $31,323
4. c0mte (Findland) $20,001
5. EaX40 (United Kingdom) $12,106
6. carlitos350 $6,604

The high $2,100 buy in, $400K guaranteed event had 661 runners, including 18 Team PokerStars Pros. Some of the more well-known pros in attendance were Isildur1 (finished 544th), ElkY (finished 426th) and johnnylodden (finished 384th). Only two PokerStars pros ended up finishing in the money, Randy “nanonoko” Lew placed 47th for $2,710 and George Danzer who finished 60th for $2,303.

These high stakes players understood the important of such a large bounty on their strategy for the tournament. With a full half of the prize pool allocated to knocking out other players, there was a huge amount of gambling going on very early. Players were all trying to build the largest stack at their table, enabling them to go after the lucrative bounties. Multi-way all ins were common and players dropped like flies early on.

As the final table neared, players tightened up as this meant there was less relative value in going after the large bounties compared to the value of finishing highly. First prize was $128,729, the equivalent of more than 125 of the $1,025 player bounties.

At 4 handed play the stacks were quite even, and a deal was reached among the remaining players. Bleu329 of Thailand eventually went on to win the SCOOP 2012 Champion title and $93,438 plus his bounty prizes.

Event 30 – SuperKnockout Turbo 6 max – High buy in $2,100 ($1,025+$1,025+$50) Results
Prizes listed here do not include bounty winnings
* denotes deal altered prizes

1. bleu329 (Thailand) $93,438*
2. pmahoney22 (Mexico) $85,917*
3. FU_15 (Honduras) $85,615*
4. Gonalez259 (Germany) $75,584*
5. OBVAMENTS (Mexico) $33,876
6. G1a1u1s1s (Brazil) $21,071

PokerStars SCOOP Event #23 – Low Buy-in ($27)
The low buy-in tournament cost players $27 to enter. This small buy-in attracted 10,253 poker players which created a stunning $263,075 prize pool. The top 1,400 players in the tournament would take home a piece of the pie with the champion winning $25,439.50.

The final four looked as follows:
Seat 1 – marodon – 25,758,023 chips
Seat 2 – capeta333 – 3,131,662 chips
Seat 3 – Faaalk – 8,499,588 chips
Seat 4 – saadleb – 15,225,727 chips

There was a break in the action for all four players to discuss a deal. They finally came to terms on a deal that would set aside $2,000 for the eventual champion.

Faaalk ran over the final table and built up a chip stack of 24,435,890. Marodon and Faaalk were left heads-up with marodon at 28,179,110 chips. Eventually, Faaalk built a 4-to-1 chip advantage. In the last hand of the tournament, both players ended up all in. Faaalk held pocket jacks while marodon was hoping to pull an ace with his Ah4h. Unfortunately for marodon, neither the ace nor the flush came on the 7d4s3s6h9c board. Marodon busted as the runner-up but left with the most money ($20,165.18). Faaalk won the tournament but was only awarded $12,676.12 due to the deal previously set.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #23 – Medium Buy-in ($215)
A total of 2,205 showed up to play the medium buy-in tournament of SCOOP Event #23. The prize pool of $441,000 more than doubled the guarantee of $200,000. As expected with the format, the tournament sped by quickly. It only took five hours for the 2,205 number to dwindle down to 200 and another five hours for the final five to be reached. The final table began with five players to avoid an imbalance of players. It looked as follows:
Seat 1 – forhayley – 2,228,010 chips
Seat 2 – LFmagic – 1,534,775 chips
Seat 3 – pkrbt – 894,617 chips
Seat 4 – wywrotX – 1,871,262 chips
Seat 5 – swordfish007 – 4,496,336

The final table boiled down to forhayley from Russia and LFmagic from the United Kingdom. Both players eventually got it in with forhayley holding QcTs and LFmagic holding AsJd. The 8h5sKhAdJc proved to be a miracle board (and river) for forhayley as he caught a rivered straight. The huge cooler sent LFmagic to the rail with an extra $41,511.33 sent to his account. Forhayley won $68,125.68 for his first-place finish.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #23 – High Buy-in ($2,100)
FlopTurnRiver member, nutsinho, made a deep run in the feature tournament. A total of 390 players agreed to pay the $2,100 buy-in which created a $790,000 prize pool. Nutsinho entered the final five action with the largest stack at 150 big blinds. A deal was struck at the final table giving nutsinho most of the money. The rest of the players would have to play for the SCOOP title, watch, and $6,000 leftover for the eventual champion.

Nutsinho was knocked out when he called an all-in bet with a flush draw against the flopped straight of pistons87. @nutsinho commented on Twitter:

Chopped the $2k 4-handed scoop for $107k as the chip leader when we were down to 5. Finished 3rd so I missed out on some street cred

Pistons87 finally took the tournament when he won a flip with AcTs against g.karolis’ pocket nines. The paydays were as follows:

Pistons87 – $106,336
g.karolis – $100,308

nutsinho – $107,054

JRADF79 – $89,009

AaronBeen – $76,504

With 50,000 seats available, Event #21′s low level tournament attracted a total of 24,185 entrants and ended up with a prize pool of $604,625.  Out of all of the participants at the $25 + $2 level, 3,150 of them received part of the tournament’s prize pool, with potential earnings ranging from $42.32 up to $60,475.83, depending on where a person finished in the competition.

Even though it wasn’t a sellout, Event #21′s mid-level tournament still had 7,383 entrants and a prize pool totaling $1,476,600.  This NL Hold’em tournament rewarded the play of its top 990 finishers with payments beginning at $339.61.

The high level tournament had 951 entrants out of a possible 10,000.  The tournament’s prize pool swelled to $1,902,000 and people who finished in the top 108 positions received prize payments.  Possible prizes in this tournament ranged from $3,994.20 for those who finished in positions 100 – 108, up to a possible $344,262 for the individual who finished in first.

Event #21′s $25 + $2 NL Hold’em Tournament

The final table in this tournament included the following nine players:  Achuttam, Cipkalo N.P, feloone, GUSANO444, killaherni, uaredead lol, umbroSS, WhattUBluff and wilmy_x.

Wimy_x, from Spain, was the first to be eliminated from play followed closely by uaredead lol, from Sweden.  Shortly after uaredead lol’s elimation, WhattUBluff finished in seventh place overall.  Before anyone else was eliminated, feloone took over the chip lead from umbroSS with some aggressive, all-in play.

Achuttam was eliminated next after sitting out briefly following the hand detailed below:

Seat 6: feloone (69241439 in chips)
Seat 8: Cipkalo N.P (46340105 in chips)
Seat 9: Achuttam (25918033 in chips)
umbroSS: posts the ante 200000
GUSANO444: posts the ante 200000
killaherni: posts the ante 200000
feloone: posts the ante 200000
Cipkalo N.P: posts the ante 200000
Achuttam: posts the ante 200000
killaherni: posts small blind 800000
feloone: posts big blind 1600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Cipkalo N.P: folds
Achuttam: raises 1600000 to 3200000
umbroSS: folds
GUSANO444: raises 4800000 to 8000000
killaherni: folds
feloone: folds
Achuttam: raises 17718033 to 25718033 and is all-in
GUSANO444: calls 14223354 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (3494679) returned to Achuttam
*** FLOP *** [2s 5c 4c]
*** TURN *** [2s 5c 4c] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [2s 5c 4c 9c] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Achuttam: shows [Qh Ad] (high card Ace)
GUSANO444: shows [Ah Kd] (high card Ace – King kicker)
GUSANO444 collected 48046708 from pot
Achuttam is sitting out

Immediately before the final table went to its first break, killaherni took over the chip lead from feloone with a total of $66,490, 282 chips compared to feloone’s $65,841,439.  Going into the break, GUSANO444 had $28,041,387 in chips while Cipkalo N.P had $39,740,105 and umbroSS had $41,736,787.

Once play resumed, GUSANO444 was quickly eliminated from the final table.  With the lowest chip stack equaling $57,673,574 and the highest being $63,335,764, play was halted to see if the four remaining players could reach a deal that would net an amount between $37,000 and $39,000 in winnings for each player, with an additional $8,000 reserved for the table’s ultimate victor.  After considering the entreaties expressed via chat by the other three remaining contestants, killaherni finally agreed to the suggested deal.

The final table ended with a heads up match between feloone and killaherni with feloone winning.

Results of the final table played in Event #21’s low NL Hold’em event are as follows:

1. feloone   $ 46,492.19
2. killaherne  $ 37,399.49
3. umbroSS   $ 37,320.25
4. Cipkalo N.P  $ 38,609.83
5. GUSANO444  $ 18,138.75
6. Achuttam  $ 12,092.50
7. WhattUBluff  $  8,494.98
8. uaredead lol  $  5,441.62
9. wilmy_x   $  3,627.75

Event #21′s $200 + $15 NL Hold’em Tournament

The final table of this tournament included the following nine players:  AJacejackAJ, Bohni16, ConeSnail9, dragonwarior, Gigacide, hustla16, JonnyBigSlic, Killer_ooooo, and Pressure777.

Down to four players, AJacejackAJ assumed control of more than half of the chips in play at the final table before folding to hustla16′s all-in bet of more than $6,000,000.  A few hands later, Killer_ooooo successfully eliminated Bohni16 on the following hand:

hustla16: folds
Bohni16: raises 6195123 to 6495123 and is all-in
AJacejackAJ: folds
Killer_ooooo: calls 6195123
*** FLOP *** [2c 7h 6h]
*** TURN *** [2c 7h 6h] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [2c 7h 6h Qh] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Killer_ooooo: shows [Qs As] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
Bohni16: shows [Qd Ks] (two pair, Queens and Sixes – lower kicker)
Killer_ooooo collected 13290246 from pot

At the ensuing break, AJacejackAJ had $44,162,850 in chips while Killer_ooooo had $21,695,047 and hustla16 held on to $7,972,103.  Not long after returning to play, AJacejackAJ successfully eliminated Killer_ooooo from the table to face short stack, hustla16, heads up.  With facing an opponent with more than $70 million in chips while clinging to a stack of less than $4 million, hustla16 humorously asked AJacejackeAJ if the player would consider an even chop before losing the brief heads up battle for first place.

The results of Event 21′s mid-level final table are as follows:

1. AJacejackAJ  $224,595.00
2. hustla16  $166,117.50
3. Killer_ooooo  $118,128.00
4. Bohni16   $ 81,213.00
5. Pressure777  $ 62,017.20
6. Dragonwarior  $ 47,251.20
7. Gigacide  $ 32,485.20
8. ConeSnail9  $ 17,719.20
9. JonnyBigSlic  $ 11,443.65

Event #21′s $2,000 + $100 NL Hold’em Tournament

This tournament’s final table included the following nine contestants:  Exan13, 10IsTheYear, hook2120, I’am_Sound, ImDaNuts, JACK-CRACK-R, JRADF79, ministerborg, and trontrontron.

After the tournament’s 2:30pm EST beginning, play at the final table wrapped up with a heads up battle between ImDaNuts and ministerborg, who maintained the largest chip stack at the table for hours, which began 8 ½ hours after the $2,000 + $100 tournament began.  Although ImDaNuts managed to surpass ministerborg’s chip count at certain points of the heads up match, ministerborg pulled out a victory in the end.

The results of this high-level tournament’s final table are as follows:

1. ministerborg  $ 344,262.00
2. ImDaNuts  $ 247,260.00
3. JACK-CRACK-R  $ 185,445.00
4. 10IsTheYear  $ 138,846.00
5. hook2120  $  97,953.00
6. trontrontron  $  78,933.00
7. JRADF79   $  59,913.00
8. I’am_Sound  $  42,034.20
9. Exan13   $  24,345.60

It has been reported that Pokerstars is facing a €200 million tax bill, while bwin.party owes €60m and Sportingbet/Miapuesta owes €50m. Other sites with a smaller Spanish player base will owe smaller amounts in back taxes, should they choose to receive an online license to be able to continue allowing Spanish players.

The potential licensees are of course outraged by this demand, especially since Spain had no legislation whatsoever regarding online poker until February 2011. The original legislation permitted current operators to continue in Spain, before official licenses were to be issued, as long as they paid taxes beginning in July 2011.

Although Pokerstars would have to pay the most to stay in the Spanish market, they may well pay it in order to retain the lucrative market. Current online poker legislation in Spain includes a stipulation for a segregated player pool, similar to that of France and Italy. For example on Pokerstars, players located in France may only play on Pokerstars.fr against other French players. This legislation could end up giving Pokerstars a near monopoly on the Spanish online poker market. Pokerstars already has the largest Spanish player pool and the other operators may simply drop out of the Spanish market rather than pay 4 years in back taxes.

There is a chance, although very small, that this Spanish market development could open some doors for other networks to move in. Smaller networks, which currently have only a small 4-year tax bill to pay, could be poised to swoop in and offer Spanish players a solid platform on which to play online poker. This is a longshot however, as the Cara de Poker Spanish only iPoker skin just recently closed, moving all of its players over to PokerStars in December of 2011.

In all likelihood, it will be Pokerstars that will soon earn its place as the largest Spanish poker site. Although at this juncture it appears that it will cost them a very significant amount of money to do so.

All three levels of the tournament absolutely crushed the guarantees of $750k for the high, $400k for the medium, and $250k for the low. In fact, the actual prize pools ended up being nearly double what was originally hoped for, which meant a total of $2.5 million up for grabs in Event 16 alone.

PokerStars SCOOP 2012 Event 16 – Low

The low version of Event 16 was gigantic as expected. 12,572 players registered for $27 a piece, which meant 1620 players getting paid. 5,669 re-buys helped swell the prize pool from its guarantee of $250,000 to $456,025.

2011 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up Martin Staszko made a deep run, but he ultimately fell short in 54th place for $661.23. Fellow Team PokerStars member Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero made up for it, however, as he made the final table with the second place stack. Joining him at the final table was Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb, one of the most recognizable names in the online tournament world. Shaundeeb was looking for his second 2012 SCOOP title in three days, as he had already won the High version of Event 10 for $41,600.

After the first two knockouts of the final table, nachobarbero went on quite the run as he sent the next five players packing. One of his victims was shaundeeb, who settled for 5th place and $18,241.

Barbero found himself heads-up with a healthy chip lead against PetjeXL. While this put him in great position to win his second ever SCOOP title, some things aren’t meant to be. PetjeXL was able to get back into it when his 78 suited cracked nachobarbero’s JJ in an all-in preflop confrontation. PetjeXL wore nachobarbero down from there, eventually getting it in with A9 against A4. The best hand held up for PetjeXL, giving him $62,255.69 and the crown of SCOOP Event 16 Low Champion.

1 – PetjeXL – $62,255.69
2 – Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero – $44,006.41
3 – Highmach – $31,921.75
4 – Darryn83 – $22,801.25
5 – Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb – $18,241
6 – -Homer_Jay-t – $13,680.75
7 – emoe119 – $9,120.50
8 – R0BtheT0P – $4,560.25
9 – vandir4rek – $2,850.15

PokerStars SCOOP 2012 Event 16 – Medium

The medium version of Event 16 brought in 2,710 players at $215 each. After 1,186 additional re-buys during the 90 minute rebuy period, the prize pool was an impressive $779,200. This meant that 342 players would make the money and that first place was scheduled to make over $123k! Bjorn “Bjoerni89″ Schneider made the best showing of anyone on Team PokerStars, finishing in 12th place for $5,064.80.

When the final table was formed, gast117 was the overwhelming chip leader with over two and a half times his closest competitor. He used that stack to his advantage from the onset of the final table, constantly putting players all-in for their tournament lives and ramping up the pressure. In fact, he was responsible for 4 of the first 5 busts at the final table. When just four players remained, they decided to make a deal and left $8,000 for first place.

When the cards were back in the air, gast117 went back to throwing his weight around and busted BertusBul in 4th place. WatchOutFish was next to go in 3rd after getting 3-outered by gbmantis. This meant that gast117 and gbmantis were playing heads-up for the remaining $8,000.

It took just five hands for heads-up play to conclude. Though gbmantis was able to pull slightly ahead for one hand, his stack was crippled during the third hand. He had to settle for 2nd place, but he received $84,852.53 for his troubles. Congratulations to gast117 who was able to utilize his chip lead and finish the final table where he began when it started – on top.

1 – gast117 – $108,000
2 – gbmantis – $84,852.53
3 – WatchOutFish – $72,500.84
4 – BertusBul – $62,014.83
5 – wiper22 – $34,674.40
6 – goldpiggy – $26,882.40
7 – lehout – $19,090.40
8 – TocalaSam – $11,298.40
9 – bestofiraq – $6,623.20

PokerStars SCOOP 2012 Event 16 – High

It is no surprise that the high version of Event 16 featured some of the most talented players in the world. 474 players made the initial buy-in of $2,100 with another 203 needing to buy-in again. When the rebuy period was over, the prize pool was up to $1,354,000, which meant that the winner was scheduled to receive almost $260k.

Jason Mercier made the best run for Team PokerStars, exiting in 44th place for $7,447. Numerous other notable players fell short of the final table, including Steve “gboro780″ Gross in 29th place ($8,124), Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen in 19th place ($9,478) and Andrew “RunThisTable” Lichtenberger in 14th place ($14,894).

The final table had tons of star power anyway, with Pascal “Pass_72″ Lefrancois, William “Altrum Altus” Reynolds, and Frederik “Fred_Brink” Jensen all present. Of these three, Pass_72 was the first to bust as he doubled up WushuTM and then busted in 7th place shortly afterwards. B00mslang went on a rush after that, taking out Dajvey, WushuTM and Dimadu in that order.

That left Altrum Altus, Fred_Brink, and B00mslang to battle it out for the remaining $594k in play. Altrum Altus was the first of the three to bust, as he got it in with A4 against B00mslang’s A9. He had to settle for $142,170 and 3rd place.

Now that they were heads-up, Fred_Brink and B00mslang took a look at the chip-chop numbers. They were, however, unable to come up with terms they both could agree on, so play restarted with B00mslang holding a formidable three to one chip lead. The last hand had Fred_Brink got it in badly with A2 against B00mslang’s A6. B00mslang managed to hold yet again, which meant that he was the proud owner of a SCOOP title and $259,832.60. Congratulations to him and all the rest of the final table!

1 – B00mslang – $259,832.60
2 – Frederik “Fred_Brink_ Jensen – $192,945
3 – William “Altrum Altus” Reynolds – $142,170
4 – Dimadu – $108,320
5 – WushuTM – $75,824
6 – Dajvey – $57,545
7 – Pascal “Pass_72 Lefrancois – $44,005
8 – Ky3He4uKKK – $30,465
9 – dirty.brasil – $22,476.40

Event 13 Low buy in $20+$5 bounty+$2, $200k gtd

An astounding 17,806 players participated in the smallest buy in tournament of this event. Final table play began with agahlol holding a substantial lead with over 28 million in chips. Sitting in second place was GRneau with nearly 15 million in chips, with the next closest opponent, yvydendyvy, holding 8.5 million chips.

Seat 1: TRootwalla (6294762 in chips)
Seat 2: yvydendyvy (8555853 in chips)
Seat 3: black666 (5416284 in chips)
Seat 4: agahlol (28277914 in chips)
Seat 5: floodgates1 (7039416 in chips)
Seat 6: persii (7914987 in chips)
Seat 7: SwaggaBear (3498832 in chips)
Seat 8: GRneau (14976997 in chips)
Seat 9: 111malik111 (7054955 in chips)

The action was non-stop and just 60 hands later it was heads up with 111malik111 at 46.5 million holding a slight lead over agahlol and his 42.5M.

The first two dozen hands ended mostly preflop, with agahlol taking them down with relentless aggression. 111malik111 then doubled up when his trip kings turned into a rivered boat, to beat agahlol’s turned straight. 111malik111 gained a huge 3.5:1 lead thanks to a lucky river.

Agahlol then took his turn to double up a few hands later, when his A5 held up against 83 suited. The stacks were essentially even again. The action slowed and the players traded small pots back and forth. Neither player wanted to make a mistake now that it was anyone’s game.
The lull in the action didn’t last for very long. The final hand saw numerous raises and both players getting all in on an innocuous flop of 653 with two spades. 111malik111 was in the lead with pocket tens, but agahlol was in great shape, holding J-5 of spades. The turn bricked, but the river was a spade. The winner was agahlol, who took down the SCOOP Champion title along with $41,661. 111malik111’s second place finish earned him $30,270.

Results: Event 13-Low $20+$5 bounty+$2 fee, $200,000 Guaranteed prize pool
17,806 entrants Total Prize pool: $356,120. Total Bounty pool: $89,030 (Prizes listed do not include bounty wins)

1. Agahlol $41,661
2. 111malik111 $30,270
4. GRneau $23,147
5. Persii $16,025
6. SwaggaBear $12,464
6. Yvydendyvy $8,903
7. floodgates1 $6,054
8. black666 $3,205
9. TRootwalla $2,136

Event 13 Medium buy in: $200+50+15, $300k gtd

The Final Table of the medium stakes tournament began with javiklet holding the lead with 4.9 million in chips. The average chip stack was 1.85M. One PokerStars Team Pro made it to the final table, Chirstophe de Meulder “chrisdm”, of Belgium, with a slightly below average 1.7M chips.

Seat 1: trujustrus (1731787 in chips)
Seat 2: harif1988 (1602807 in chips)
Seat 3: soandre (1198177 in chips)
Seat 4: wasylekk (759261 in chips)
Seat 5: javiklet (4930505 in chips)
Seat 6: allucan3at (2049164 in chips)
Seat 7: Mikaroc (1483190 in chips)
Seat 8: chrisdm (1725169 in chips)
Seat 9: BOOOOMMMMMMM (1164940 in chips)

During 5 handed play, chrisdm ended up all in from under the gun in what would turn out to be the biggest pot of the tournament thus far. However, his pocket jacks received no help against the pocket kings of trujustrus. His 5th place exit earned him $28,629. Play was paused briefly while players quickly came to a deal for the remaining funds. With most of the money locked up, the 4th and 3rd place finishers were soon decided.

Heads up play started with Trugustrus and Javiklet in a dead heat. Javiklet had a slight edge with just below 8.4 million chips, vs Trugustrus’ 8.25 million. The SCOOP 2012 Event 13 Champion was decided in just 11 hands after heads up play began. Trujustrus was gaining momentum and chips as he won the majority of the pots leading up to the final hand.

Javiklet, sitting on a 3.4M chip stack, made a minimum raise with A-J from the button. Trujustus continued his aggression, with a large all in from the big blind. Javiklet called and they were off to the races with AJ against Trujustus’ K-Q.

A king on the flop, followed by a second king on the turn put the last nail in Javiklet’s coffin. His second place finish earned him $73,421. Trujustus walks away with the SCOOP Champion title and $82,379.

PokerStars Hand #80295571568: Tournament #2012050132, $200+$50+$15 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level XLIII (60000/120000) – 2012/05/11 18:41:39 ET
Table ’2012050132 304′ 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: trujustrus (12991615 in chips)
Seat 5: javiklet (3653385 in chips)
trujustrus: posts the ante 15000
javiklet: posts the ante 15000
javiklet: posts small blind 60000
trujustrus: posts big blind 120000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
javiklet: raises 120000 to 240000
trujustrus: raises 12736615 to 12976615 and is all-in
javiklet: calls 3398385 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (9338230) returned to trujustrus
*** FLOP *** [Ks 7c 8c]
*** TURN *** [Ks 7c 8c] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [Ks 7c 8c Kh] [3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujustrus: shows [Kd Qc] (three of a kind, Kings)
javiklet: shows [Ad Jh] (a pair of Kings)
trujustrus collected 7306770 from pot
trujustrus wins the $50 bounty for eliminating javiklet
javiklet finished the tournament in 2nd place and received $73421.48.
trujustrus wins the tournament and receives $82379.28 – congratulations!

Results: SCOOP Event 13-Med $200+$50 bounty+$15, $300,000 Guaranteed Prize pool
3,329 entrants, Total Prize pool: $665,800. Total Bounty pool: $166,450 (Prizes listed do not include bounty wins)
* denotes a deal altered payout

1. Trugustrus *$82,379
2. Javiklet *$73,421
3. Mikaroc *$58,132
4. Harif1988 *$62,054
5. Chrisdm $28,629
6. BOOOOMMMMMMMM $21,971
7. Allucan3at $15,313
8. Soandre $8,655
9. wasylekk $5,326

Event 13 High buy in: $2,000+$500+$100, $400k gtd

The Final Table bubble of the high buy in tournament lasted quite some time, but eventually it was K_0_S_T_Y_A of Russia whose fate was sealed as “bubble boy”. Final table play began with whereisdonny holding the chip lead at 572k chips. The average chip stack at this point was 278k.

Seat 1: whereisdonny (572460 in chips)
Seat 2: UhhMee (437228 in chips)
Seat 3: JBT449 (458968 in chips)
Seat 4: Fiskin1 (70628 in chips)
Seat 5: ROSTBURK (302314 in chips)
Seat 6: WushuTM (296396 in chips)
Seat 7: Ansgar2000 (115205 in chips)
Seat 8: zugzwang16 (99594 in chips)
Seat 9: Mafews (152207 in chips)

Three handed there was no shortage of action at this high stakes final table. Chips were flying around the table in pair over pair confrontations pre-flop, as well as post-flop such as in the 1.25 million chip pot where ROSTBURK’s flopped trips with K5 on a Q-5-5 two diamond board had to fade two cards against the A-7 of diamonds held by whereisdonny.

PokerStars Hand #80298365164: Tournament #2012050133, $2000+$500+$100 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXI (6000/12000) – 2012/05/11 19:45:46 ET
Table ’2012050133 51′ 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: whereisdonny (1462508 in chips)
Seat 5: ROSTBURK (620498 in chips)
Seat 6: WushuTM (421994 in chips)
whereisdonny: posts the ante 1500
ROSTBURK: posts the ante 1500
WushuTM: posts the ante 1500
WushuTM: posts small blind 6000
whereisdonny: posts big blind 12000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ROSTBURK: raises 12000 to 24000
WushuTM: folds
whereisdonny: calls 12000
*** FLOP *** [5s Qd 5d]
whereisdonny: checks
ROSTBURK: bets 28500
whereisdonny: raises 41500 to 70000
ROSTBURK: raises 65450 to 135450
whereisdonny: raises 1301558 to 1437008 and is all-in
ROSTBURK: calls 459548 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (842010) returned to whereisdonny
*** TURN *** [5s Qd 5d] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [5s Qd 5d 9c] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
whereisdonny: shows [7d Ad] (a pair of Fives)
ROSTBURK: shows [Kh 5h] (three of a kind, Fives)
ROSTBURK collected 1248496 from pot

Despite all the action, 3 handed play lasted quite some time. Chips seemed to move around and around the table, with the lead changing hands multiple times throughout the course of the shorthanded final table.

Eventually there was another casualty. ROSTBURK raised pocket sixes from the small blind and WushuTM shoved his short stack all in with AK. The board was no help and WushuTM found himself exiting in 3rd place, netting $102,280. With that win, ROSTBURK solidified the chip lead, with 1.7 million in chips to whereisdonny’s 806,000.

It took over 75 hands of heads up poker to determine the eventual winner. ROSTBURK 3bet from the big blind against whereisdonny’s opening raise. Whereisdonny took a little time and then called in position. The flop came A-7-3 rainbow and ROSTBURK lead out for a little under 40% the size of the pot and whereisdonny called. The turn brought an 8, which put two spades on the board. ROSTBURK now checked, then whereisdonny chose to make a small bet, which ROSTBURK called.

The river brought an interesting 6 of spades up, completing possible straights and back door spade draws. ROSTBURK checked once again, to which whereisdonny then made a pot sized bet all in for the rest of his stack. ROSTBURK snap called with the nut flush, the A-5 of spades, while whereisdonny showed a helpless bluff, Q-9 offsuit. ROSTBURK is the winner of the SCOOP 2012 Event #13 high buy in event! He takes home a solid $190,380 and the championship title.

PokerStars Hand #80301401032: Tournament #2012050133, $2000+$500+$100 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXIV (10000/20000) – 2012/05/11 21:14:49 ET
Table ’2012050133 51′ 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: whereisdonny (1209330 in chips)
Seat 5: ROSTBURK (1295670 in chips)
whereisdonny: posts the ante 2500
ROSTBURK: posts the ante 2500
whereisdonny: posts small blind 10000
ROSTBURK: posts big blind 20000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
whereisdonny: raises 21400 to 41400
ROSTBURK: raises 61100 to 102500
whereisdonny: calls 61100
*** FLOP *** [3s Ad 7c]
ROSTBURK: bets 81500
whereisdonny: calls 81500
*** TURN *** [3s Ad 7c] [8s]
ROSTBURK: checks
whereisdonny: bets 142000
ROSTBURK: calls 142000
*** RIVER *** [3s Ad 7c 8s] [6s]
ROSTBURK: checks
whereisdonny: bets 880830 and is all-in
ROSTBURK: calls 880830
*** SHOW DOWN ***
whereisdonny: shows [Qh 9s] (high card Ace)
ROSTBURK: shows [As 5s] (a flush, Ace high)
ROSTBURK collected 2418660 from pot
ROSTBURK wins the $500 bounty for eliminating whereisdonny
whereisdonny finished the tournament in 2nd place and received $140280.00.
ROSTBURK wins the tournament and receives $190380.00 – congratulations!

Results: SCOOP Event 13-High $2000+$500 bounty+$100 fee, $400,000 Guaranteed Prize pool
501 entrants, Total Prize pool: $1,002,000. Total Bounty pool: $250,500 (Prizes listed do not include bounty wins)
* denotes a deal altered payout

1. ROSTBURK $190,380
2. whereisdonny $140,280
3. WushuTM $102,705
4. Ansgar2000 $78,156
5. UhhMee $55,110
6. JBT449 $42,585
7. Mafews $32,565
8. Fiskin1 $22,545
9. zugzwang16 $16,633

PokerStars SCOOP Event #3 boasted a short-handed table, turbo format, and allowed rebuys/add-ons. This created the perfect synergy for action and attracted players looking for a loose and aggressive tournament. With the event being so popular, PokerStars decided to divide it and make it a two-day event.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #3 – Low ($5.50 buy-in) – $150,000 guaranteed
The SCOOP Event #3 low buy-in tournament only cost $5.50 to enter with $5 buy-ins. A total of 20,244 poker players registered looking for a piece of the huge prize pool. There were 38,211 re-buys and 10,526 add-ons creating a prize pool of $344,905 which crushed the $150,000 guarantee set by PokerStars. Only 2,700 players would make the money with the winner taking home $42,954.69.

The final table looked as follows:
Seat 1 – leopeluca – 31,596,932
Seat 2 – Suodi – 22,747,081
Seat 3 – /7aXaH-777 – 45,475,517
Seat 4 – Pr0fiteer – 17,616,181
Seat 5 – morten85 – 33,284,008
Seat 6 – Respect4life – 77,275,281

The first knockout came when Respect4life min-raised to 2 million chips in the cutoff and called a 5 million chip three-bet from Suodi in the small blind. Suodi bet 8 million into the TcKs5s flop and got a call. Suodi shoved on the 3h turn to 14,322,081 and Respect4life called showing KcQc for top-pair. Suodi’s AhQd couldn’t suck out and Suodi was out in sixth place.

Play eventually winded down to a heads-up battle between Respect4life and /7aXaH-777. With 164 million chips, Respect4life had a 100 million chip lead on /7aXaH-777. In the final hand, /7aXaH-777 min-opened to 3.6 million and called a 8.1 million three-bet. The flop came 8h8cKs and Respect4life bet 7.2 million. /7aXaH-777 called and the turn was a Js which was checked through. On the 5c river, Respectforlife bet 21,457,858 and was met with a shove by /7aXaH-777. Respect4life called with his AcKh (for two-pair) and beat /7aXaH-777’s bluff with AsTs. Respect4life collected $40,292.83 for his efforts while /7aXaH-777 won $33,555.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #3 – Medium ($55 buy-in) – $300,000 guaranteed
The medium tournament of the SCOOP Event #3 cost players $55 to buy-in. A number of big name poker professionals joined in on the fun such as Ana Marquez and ElkY. ElkY made it to Day 2 and was eliminated in 53rd place for $1,095.10.

The tournament, like all SCOOP Event #3 tournaments, took two days to finish. In the last hand, FlashYy raised to 550,000 in the small blind with Mihay28 shoving all of his 6,600,000 chips into the pot. FlashYy called and showed AdKh while Mihay28 held pocket fours. The KdTd5d flop spelled out bad news for Mihay28 and he was unable to hit a four on the turn or river. Mihay28 took home $58,575.25 for his second-place effort while FlashYy won a huge $80,224.05 payday.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #3 – High ($530 buy-in) – $150,000 guaranteed
The PokerStars SCOOP Event #3 high tournament has been the talk of the online poker community for good reason. The famous Viktor “Isildur1” Blom pulled the nearly impossible and won back-to-back SCOOP events. This was his second SCOOP title in two days and this particular one boosted his bankroll by $160,000.

A total of 486 players entered the event with 740 rebuys and 374 add-ons taking place in the first hour. This shattered the $400,000 guarantee and created an $800,000 prize pool that was to be shared by 54 players. PokerStars professional Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was knocked out in 56th place, just missing the money.

The final hand started with Blom raising to 44,000 in the small blind and calling a 132,000 three-bet by Ruxandescu. The Js9c7c flop eventually brought Ruxandescu all-in and Blom called. Blom had a 9d8s for middle-pair while Ruxandescu’s 6c5c was drawing to an inside straight flush. The 9s turn and 8d river gave Blom a full house, a second SCOOP title this year, and $160,000. Ruxandescu collected $118,400 for his runner-up placement. The rest of the final table finished as follows:

1st – Isildur1 – $160,000
2nd – Ruxandescu – $118,400
3rd – BiatchPeople – $88,000
4th – Sussie Smith – $60,800
5th – B4d3m3!st3r – $44,400
6th – snake8484 – $28,400