Plenty more card-playing action took place on the virtual felts for the 2024 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on PokerStars yesterday, with several poker variants taking centre stage.
Champions were crowned in Razz, Mystery Bounty, and Fixed Limit Hold’em events, which saw some familiar faces add to their legacies while Team Lex continued to dominate the inaugural SCOOP League.
So, sit back, grab a cup of coffee and check out these latest SCOOP highlights.
Eighth SCOOP Title for Leonard
Patrick “pads1161” Leonard is the latest name to enter the eight-time SCOOP winners club after tasting triumph in SCOOP 59-M: $530 NLHE [Wednesday Mystery]. The Brit joined Ole “wizowizo” Schemion and Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson as the only other players with eight titles, with only luminaries such as Niklas “Lena900” Astedt (nine titles), Andrey “Premove” Skvortsov, Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser and Calvin “cal42688” Anderson (ten titles) having more.
Leonard’s SCOOP Titles
Leonard added the extra notch to his belt, defeating “Alister307” in a very one-sided heads-up battle that awarded him the $26,322 up top. In addition to his $9,317 bounty prize, Leonard’s final payout reached $35,639.
Despite that, “Alister307” was actually the big winner on the day, thanks to pulling the top mystery bounty prize of $25,000. In the end, their total prize came out to $48,998, which was $13,000 more than what Leonard received.
Overall, the event attracted 724 entries, creating a $362,000 prize pool that smashed the $250,000 guarantee. Several PokerStars ambassadors were also in contention. Lex Veldhuis narrowly missed out on the final table, bowing out in 11th place for $5,488 after Benjamin Spragg finished in 40th for $834.
Laurie Tournier, Sebastian Huber, Parker Talbot and Fintan Hand found themselves on the wrong side of the rail ahead of the money bubble.
SCOOP 59-M: $530 NLHE [Wednesday Mystery] Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Bounty | Prize | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick “pads1161” Leonard | United Kingdom | $9,317 | $26,322 | $35,639 |
| 2 | Alister307 | Belarus | $28,958 | $20,040 | $48,998 |
| 3 | SSchranck | United Kingdom | $12,167 | $15,258 | $27,425 |
| 4 | Blaz ‘Scarmak3r’ Zerjav | Slovenia | $2,508 | $11,617 | $14,125 |
| 5 | Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden | Finland | $1,075 | $8,844 | $9,919 |
| 6 | Cesar1no | Malta | $5,000 | $6,734 | $11,734 |
| 7 | FelipeAA23 | Brazil | $10,375 | $5,127 | $15,502 |
| 8 | babygabriiel | Brazil | $8,225 | $3,903 | $12,128 |
| 9 | kirill1845 | Belarus | $5,375 | $2,972 | $8,347 |
Memorable Night for Chew and “Klopp4zeKop”
In the high version of the Wednesday Mystery Bounty, which came with a $2,100 buy-in, Stevan “random_chu” Chew topped the 144 entry-field for his maiden SCOOP win. The Australian denied Jans “Graftekkel” Arends a fourth title after coming out on top in their heads-up duel. Chew added $50,751 to his bankroll while Arends took home $30,390.
Similar to the Medium edition, the Mystery Bounty prizes had a significant influence on who won the most money. Malta’s “Klopp4zeKop” binked the $30,000 envelope, making up for half of the $60,000 he collected in bounties. His fourth-place result produced a $73,527 payout, the largest SCOOP prize of the day.
SCOOP 59-H: $2,100 NLHE [Wednesday Mystery] Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Bounty | Prize | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stevan “random_chu” Chew | Australia | $24,167 | $26,584 | $50,751 |
| 2 | Jans “Graftekkel” Arends | Netherlands | $9,167 | $21,223.00 | $30,390 |
| 3 | aminolast | Canada | $42,500 | $16,944.00 | $59,444 |
| 4 | Klopp4zeKop | Malta | $60,000 | $13,527.00 | $73,527 |
| 5 | avr0ra | Thailand | $10,800.00 | $10,800 | |
| 6 | Dominykas “Mikensonas” Mikolaitis | Lithuania | $8,622.00 | $8,622 | |
| 7 | Christian “WATnlos” Rudolph | Austria | $9,167 | $6,884.00 | $16,051 |
| 8 | Jonathan “Proudflop” Proudfoot | Ireland | $5,496.00 | $5,496 | |
| 9 | Kelvin “Kelvin_FP:AR” Kerber | Brazil | $5,000 | $4,388.00 | $9,388 |
Smiljkovic Leads the $10,300 Thursday Thrill PKO
SCOOP 65-H: $10,300 NLHE [Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill High Roller] was the most expensive buy-in event that ran, although it has yet to reach its conclusion.
Leading the way is high roller Daniel “SmilleThHero” Smiljkovic, who has the chip lead on the nine-handed final table, that features notables such as Alisson “heyalisson” Piekazewicz and Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky.
An $80,237 prize awaits first and second place, plus any additional bounties that are picked up along the way.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Bounty | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel “SmilleThHero” Smiljkovic | Austria | $23,125 | 1,613,421 | 115 |
| 2 | spud989 | United Kingdom | $28,906 | 1,425,798 | 102 |
| 3 | Succeeed | Austria | $13,750 | 868,999 | 62 |
| 4 | flerrehuve | Sweden | $5,000 | 758,238 | 54 |
| 5 | AchoBogdanov | Bulgaria | $8,750 | 649,470 | 46 |
| 6 | starwins 🙂 | Denmark | $5,000 | 563,569 | 40 |
| 7 | Eccentric_BG | Bulgaria | – | 489,841 | 35 |
| 8 | Alisson “heyalisson” Piekazewicz | Brazil | $2,500 | 287,464 | 21 |
| 9 | Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky | Ukraine | – | 143,200 | 10 |
Kerber’s Two Wins Not Enough for Team Spraggy
In a stunning performance in the Fixed Limit Hold’em streets, Team Spraggy pick Kelvin “Kelvin_FP:AR” Kerber bagged his fifth and sixth SCOOP titles after taking down SCOOP 64-M: $109 FLHE [6-Max], and SCOOP 64-H: $530 FLHE [6-Max].
The two victories paid out a combined score of $11,057, which boosted his daily taller to over $20,000 after his ninth-place finish in the High Mystery Bounty event netted him a further $9,388.
Despite this, Kerber’s efforts were insufficient to lessen the deficit between Team Spraggy and Team Lex.
Thanks to Jerry “perrymejsen” Odeen getting his seventh SCOOP accolade in SCOOP 60-M: $109 Razz and Leonard’s Mystery Bounty win, Team Lex increased the gap by a further 185 points.
Team Tonkaaa and Team Fintan continue to trail behind and will need their horses to hit a canter for any hopes of coming out on top.
| Team | Points | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Lex | 7,880 | +1,190 |
| Spraggy | 6,225 | +1,005 |
| Tonkaaaa | 3,835 | +385 |
| Fintan | 3,225 | +340 |
SCOOP Results from Thursday, May 16
* includes bounties, ** denotes three-way deal
Never Miss a PokerStars Tournament Again
Have you used the PokerNews Online Tournament Calendar yet? Our free-to-use tool allows you to see upcoming and in-play tournaments at several online poker rooms, including PokerStars. You can apply filters to narrow your search, including buy-in, game type, and even prize pool guarantees, enabling you to find your perfect online poker tournament in seconds, all without leaving PokerNews!
Editor & Live Reporter
Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.