It was Day 22 of the 2020 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) yesterday, making this the longest SCOOP there has ever been. Who profited most from the first day of the extension? Read on…

TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Persistence pays for “Nacho124441”
• Irish one-two in Midweek Freeze
• Brazil closes gap at top of countries leader board
• Fusion Poker makes SCOOP debut

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Third time lucky for “Nacho124441”: Before last night, Mexico’s “Nacho124441” had made two final tables already during this SCOOP, but could only muster a seventh and a ninth place, falling short of the enormous prize money. But he or she showed that persistence pays off and blasted all the way to the title last night in the $2,100 NLHE PKO, winning a few bucks shy of $92,000. That haul was almost equally split between prize money and bounties. This time, the most well known players were left languishing down the results ladder, with Niklas “Lena900” Astedt out in ninth and Mike “SirWatts” Watson busted in 11th, for example.

Irish one-two: The high buy-in Midweek Freeze ended as a battle between the Irish as “zufo16” and “14alonso14” were the last two from the 630-strong field. There was no deal, just a straightforward heads-up ding-dong, resulting in the win for zufo16. He or she earned $61,202.11, leaving 14alonso14 with $42,756.70. The best known player at the final, Sweden’s Robin “robinho” Ylitalo, left in fifth with $14,578.93. Both the medium and low buy-in versions of the event went to Brazilians, with “k9 romeu” beating 5,703 others to win $40,534.56 in the $55 event and “ederson 1308” overcoming 15,832 to take the $8,635.37 first prize in the $11 tournament.

Colillas waits in the wings: It’s been a quiet SCOOP for Team PokerStars Pro Ramon Colillas, who is playing from a temporary home in Andorra. But the PSPC champion is very well placed going into the second day of SCOOP-84-H, which is a $530 buy-in NLHE event. Colillas is 18th of 49 remaining from a 745-entry field, with more than $63,000 up top. Fintan “easywithaces” Hand cashed the event, finishing in 61st.

Ramon Colillas well positioned for a first deep SCOOP run

TODAY’S RESULTS

†inc. bounties
*denotes deal

STAT TRACKER

Tournaments completed: 249
Tournaments ongoing: 9
Starting today: 9
Entries so far: 1,898,890
Prize pools so far: $132,774,254
First-place prizes awarded: $18,427,774

Totals refer to completed tournaments only.

INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!

Pedro “BigodinSagaz” Henrique, 2020 SCOOP #41-M champion

We’re catching up with a lot of SCOOP winners this year, all happy to share their experiences of winning big. Most recently, we talked to Pedro “BigodinSagaz” Henrique, who told us how he envisaged a path for his poker journey that he is still following, all the way to a SCOOP title. Henrique won $52K in Event #41-M.

Click through to hear more from our long list of happy champions:

László “Lackoo87gcb” Molnár: “I think I’m starting to like it!”
Cristian ‘Chapex’ Chapoñan: One for Peru
Jonathan “Corback_fr” Therme: Sunday Million winner left speechless
Nicolas “Nicoverlast” Wright: pacing a treadmill to success
Swedish pro Adam “pruttzz12” Jonsson: How to beat Urbanovich, Beresford and Kurganov
Vitor “vitoradiron” Adiron: “I’ll continue working on my failures”
Guilherme “teruliro” Orrico: Two WCOOPs and now one SCOOP
“plens” targets bucket-list EPT appearance
Tapio “PikkuHUMPPA” Vihakas: “I am as lazy as a human can be”
Catalina “catam18” Marmureanu”: A result for all women in poker
Paul “pistolp999” Kroezen: A triumph of perseverence
Adam “adamyid” Owen: Defeating end-boss “veeea”
Matt “MUSTAFABET” Ashton: Tournaments are practice for cash games
Antanas “Nr1InEurope” Bakaitis: “I’m no good at Texas Hold’em!
“MarkBang”: First out to last man standing
“thegodfisher”: Busy broker finds time to win SCOOP title
Oleg “Fukuruku” Vasylchenko: Poor student becomes richer
Michael “Malicious20” Cottier: $9.5K from a $2.20 buy-in tournament!
Dimitrios “papadatos69” Papadatos: Making most of downturn in tourism
William “Williaml666” Barbosa: Best feeling ever!
Last hand double-KO gives ‘PufuMiu’ win in Event #11-L

TWITCH WATCH

There are all sorts of reasons to watch the top poker streamers on Twitch. They’re entertaining, for one, and there are a load of giveaways, for two. But mainly you can learn so much about how to play this game, and here’s Fintan “easywithaces” Hand giving a full insight to his thought processes as he sniffs out a bluff:

That’s not to say Fintan can’t pull off the occasional bluff of his own:

Ready to sign up for PokerStars and play SCOOP? Click here to get an account.

TOP TWEETS

Evan @purplepils99 Parkes plays on PokerStars as “PURPLE”K”99” and is sitting pretty in the $1,050 Thursday Thrill. He is 11th of 61 returning overnight and is looking to stream his deep run:

Good sweat too for Paul “jim5432” Romain, who has 17 big blinds and a dream in the low buy-in version of SCOOP 84.

Poker News on the case

FOLLOW THE ACTION LIVE!

Poker News watched the latest SCOOP Thursday Thrill last night, with Rui “sousinha23” Sousa leading the charge. They will reconvene tonight to watch it play to a champion, and you can follow along all the way.

Poker New are also getting themselves ready to push on through the SCOOP extension. Click for the full schedule to see their plans:

FULL UPDATES SCHEDULE

Still no catching Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira

LEADER BOARD LATEST

While the final standings of the official SCOOP Week 2 leader boards are still being confirmed, and prizes awarded for the winners, we can take another look at the “Overall” leader board, whose race now extends to the end of the series. With $50,000 awarded to the overall winner, this is not to be sniffed at.

SEE OFFICIAL PLAYER OF THE SERIES PAGE

Current standings are as follows, with the only real surprise being the fact that three of the top five players have not actually won a SCOOP title this year, including Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, who has led the Player of the Series race almost from the very start.

1 – Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Netherlands, 1,605 points
2 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK, 1,365
3 – “krakukra”, Russia, 1,225
4 – Körrinho, Austria, 1,085
5 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 1,055

(Prizes: 1st: $50,000 + Trophy; 2nd: $20,000; 3rd: $10,000)

COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

Of only six tournaments to conclude on Thursday night, Brazilian players won three of them. That’s half. In case you couldn’t work it out. It was a significant hat-trick because it now brings Brazil equal top of the countries leader board, with 34 tournament victories so far during SCOOP. The UK whiffed last night, as did Russia, and so Brazilians were the big movers.

Latest standings:

34: UK, Brazil
24: Russia
17: Germany
16: Netherlands
11: Canada, Ukraine
Nine: Norway
Seven: Sweden, Austria, Mexico, Ireland
Five: Greece, Hungary, Finland, Belarus
Four: Poland, Argentina, Lithuania, Romania
Three: China, Peru
Two: Malta, Denmark, Belgium, Lebanon, Japan
One: Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Uruguay, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Croatia, Macau, Cyprus, Moldova, Latvia.

STARTING TODAY

Day 23: Friday, May 22

Our friends over at OP-Poker are especially delighted to see Fusion make its debut on the SCOOP schedule. They like all things innovative over there. There’s a handy explainer of Fusion poker on the Blog, but basically it’s like hold’em before the flop and Omaha afterward, with a third and fourth hole card being given to players on flop and turn. For $5.50 in the low buy-in, you can give it a try.

If it’s too complicated, or too weird, the rest of the day’s schedule is no limit hold’em, with some characteristically tasty guarantees.

1pm ET – Event 87: NLHE
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $100,000, $300,000, $500,000

2.15pm ET – Event 88: Fusion 6-Max
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $15,000, $40,000, $100,000

3.30pm ET – Event 89: NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, PKO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $100,000, $250,000, $400,000

GET SCHOOLED

With SCOOP now extended, there are still tons of chances to join the action. And if you’re thinking about doing that for the first time, or maybe are returning to the tables after a break, you will be well advised to read PokerStars School’s online tutorials. They are always relevant.

PokerStars School has all the information you need on how to get involved, how to make sure you have the right bankroll, how to play the satellites and how to play the tournaments themselves.

Click through to get yourself properly prepared:

Am I SCOOP ready? Planning, bankroll, mindset
Gearing up for SCOOP – General tournament strategy
Multi table tournaments (MTT) course
Poker satellite strategy

PREVIOUS SCOOP COVERAGE

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