Byran’s email included documents indicating a forthcoming change in the current Australian gaming legislation, the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. The documents included a new draft of this legislation. Recently, a Victorian regulatory review was quoted as saying that the current ban on in-play betting served “no useful purpose” due to the fact that it can already be done by phone.

This is a classic case of legislation needing to catch up with technology. Up until this point, the Australian government has so far taken up a “wait and see” approach to the issue of online gambling. They’ve been able to observe the effects of legalized poker legislation (such as that of France) as well as the anti-gambling legislation of the United States.

With any luck, the outcomes of the various case studies should prove to be very useful to Australian authorities. While the French opted to regulate online poker in their country, their legislation has resulted in high taxes as well as small and monopolized online poker sites. This is due to the legal requirement that French players are only allowed to play against other French players.

Australian brick and mortar poker games have some of the highest rakes in the world. This makes it likely that Australian players will not catch a break when it comes to the amount of rake they will need to pay in order to keep playing online.

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.

Now, Illinois is beginning to explore other areas of online gambling to increase its revenues.  In an amendment to a bill filed by state Senate President John Cullerton, Cullerton suggests that the state should form a “Division of Internet Gaming” as part of its lottery system.

In a letter sent to Illinois’ Governor, Pat Quinn, Cullerton wrote that the Division of Internet Gaming could help Illinois “position itself as a ‘hub’ for multi-state and international iGaming,” and that Illinois could “organize the first major poker pool.”

If the amendment is passed, Illinois may be able to add other forms of Internet gambling, including online poker, to its lottery system as early as next year.

SCOOP 2012 Event # 33 L $27

The lowest buy in tournament fielded nearly nine thousand players, thirteen away to be exact, and saw 5,873 rebuys as well as 3,972 add-ons. The total prize pool was nearly $500,000 nearly doubling the guarantee. After many grueling hours from this deep stacked tournament with an amazing structure for lots of play, the final table shaped up looking like this.

Seat 1: bloby (10,078,352 in chips)
Seat 2: zenonmika (2,387,790 in chips)
Seat 3: wasole (5,130,570 in chips)
Seat 4: jaco921 (4,205,594 in chips)
Seat 5: nikol1999 (7,343,489 in chips)
Seat 6: PaDiLhA SP (9,850,371 in chips)
Seat 7: Squishee_Bob (2,475,717 in chips)
Seat 8: TummerDK (5,340,406 in chips)
Seat 9: salamandryko (9,683,711 in chips)

The chips stacks were ptretty even for the top 4 and pretty close to even for the bottom 5 so it was anyone’s game to win. Unfortunately for Squishee_Bob it was not his day and he went out in 9th place when he shoved KcJs against chip leader Bloby’s pocket tens. Bloby took out another player in when his flush took out Zenonmika in 7th place. Unfortunately for bloby despite knocking out two players at the final table and coming in as chip leader, bloby went out in 3rd when he was knocked out by PaDiLhA and he collected $35k for his efforts.

In a rather short conclusion PaDiLhA ended the tournament by hitting a 9 with his A9o against nikol1999′s AJ when the money was put all in preflop. Congrats to all who made the final table.

1st PaDiLhA SP (Brazil) – $70,624.32
2nd nikol1999 (Bulgaria) – $51,788.00
3rd bloby (Switzerland) – $35,310.00
4th salamandryko (Peru) – $23,728.32
5th jaco921 (Russia) – $18,832.00
6th wasole (Norway) – $14,124.00
7th zenonmika (Belgium) – $9,416.00
8th TummerDK (Denmark) – $5,414.20
9th Squishee_Bob (Canada) – $3,648.70

SCOOP 2012 Event #33 M $215

The medium SCOOP #33 brought in many established tournament pros into the field with the top prize being $94,727, a hefty sum for any tournament player. With 1,425 entrants and over 1,000 rebuys and 852 add-ons this very tough field, combined with deep, deep stacks from the structure and the fact that it’s a rebuy tournament made for a lot of exciting play. With a 3 way all in final table bubble bursting, the final table was set and the players were as follows:

Seat 1: modogrinder (1,219,181 in chips)
Seat 2: sarnabul (522,395 in chips)
Seat 3: RinaFox (415,739 in chips)
Seat 4: Skämmes (1,344,893 in chips)
Seat 5: JBT449 (1,305,159 in chips)
Seat 6: SHIPP ITT (313,600 in chips)
Seat 7: vmp8888 (3,075,950 in chips)
Seat 9: im2tight (1,757,083 in chips)

The event ended with a three way chop between Sarnabul, vmp8888 and im2tight making a deal that left $6,500 for the winner. Sarnabul was out first in third and im2tight finished off vmp8888 heads up to claim the extra $6,500 and the SCOOP #33 M title.

1. im2tight (Sweden) $94,727.56
2. vmp8888 (Romania) $83,671.59
3. sarnabul (Israel) $74,465.63
4. Josh “JBT449″ Bergman (Canada) $45,124.80
5. Skammes (Sweden) $32,516.40
6. RinaFox (Russia) $25,880.40
7. modogrinder (Costa Rica) $19,244.40
8. Mark “SHIPP ITT” Herm (Costa Rica) $19,244.40
9. Christopher “NigDawG” Brammer (United Kingdom) $12,608.40

SCOOP 2012 Event #33 H $2,100

The highest buy in Event #33 brought in 175 players that included 120 rebuys and 109 add-ons. This made for a prize pool of $808,000 with a first place purse of $173,720. This event brought out many of Stars’ red pros and many established nose bleed players as well. Shaun Deeb was searching for his 3rd win of the year but bubbled the final table in 12th place. The final table began with the following chip counts.
Seat 1: The-Toilet 0 (106,896)
Seat 2: römpsä (224,355)
Seat 3: Mafews (68,601)
Seat 4: HITTHEPANDA (49,100)
Seat 5: HC_68 (316,810)
Seat 6: Sphinx87 (74,329)
Seat 7: zugzwang16 (85,800)
Seat 8: Maxim Lykov (238,546)
Seat 9: RandALLin (47,563)

In the end it was Faraz Jaka aka The-Toilet who won all the monies beating HC_68 in a spirited heads up battle with the final hand ending like this.

HC_68 minraises the button for 12k
The-Toilet calls in the BB

Flop
Jd 7s 2s

HC_68 bets 12k.
The-Toilet check raises all in.
HC_68 calls.

HC_68 has TcTs
The-Toilet has 6s3s for a Flush draw.

The turn brought the Js giving The-Toilet a flush and the river bricked a 8h giving The-Toilet the win and $173,720.

1. Faraz “The-Toilet 0″ Jaka (Mexico) – $173,720
2. HC_68 (Austria) – $125,240
3. zugzwang16 (Uruguay) – $94,940
4. römpsä (Finland) – $70,700
5. Team PokerStars Pro Max Lykov (Russia) – $48,480
6. Sphinx87 (Poland) – $40,400
7. HITTHEPANDA (Canada) – $32,320
8. RandALLin (Mexico) – $24,240
9. Mafews (U.K.) – $16,160

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.

Owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and managed by Caesars Entertainment, the Harrah’s Cherokee currently offers electronic versions of card games such as poker and Blackjack.  If the casino is allowed to offer live dealer games, it is estimated that 400 new jobs will be created in a mountainous area of North Carolina that has seen an unemployment rate above 20 percent as recently as three decades ago.

In addition to creating jobs in the immediate vicinity around the Harrah’s Cherokee, which is located near the border North Carolina shares with neighboring Tennessee, the bill would allow the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to open as many as four satellite gaming establishments on other parts of the group’s reservation.

The bill is also expected to enable the Harrah’s Cherokee to generate more revenue overall which is desirable for the casino’s owners since a percentage of the establishment’s revenue is distributed among members of the Cherokee tribe. The bill will require the Harrah’s Cherokee to share some of the revenue it generates from live dealer games with the state of North Carolina, however, to preserve its exclusive right to offer table games in the state.

At the start of the 30-year deal, the state of North Carolina is expected to receive 4 percent of the revenue generated by the Harrah’s Cherokee.  North Carolina’s share of the establishment’s revenue will increase to 8 percent during the lifetime of the deal the bill outlines.  North Carolina intends to factor the additional revenue into its education budget.

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

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