April 8th saw a huge turnout for PokerStars’ Event 14 of the Spring Championship of Online Poker. Event 14 was set up as a No-Limit Hold’em tournament with 6-max tables. In accordance with all other events for SCOOP, three tournaments made up the event – a low, medium, and high stakes tournament – each with a separate buy-in and prize pool. In total, 10,346 hopefuls showed up for the event, 1,788 people landed in the money, and three victors emerged with SCOOP titles and $521,380.03 in collective winnings.
The Event 14 Low tournament turned out to be the most popular one of the three, with 8,301 registering. The attractively low buy-in of $55 for a shot at the $250,000 guaranteed prize pool enticed so many that the prize pool ended up swelling to $415,050! After J. DeBarros busted as the money bubble player, 1,500 players were then left to start claiming their share of the money.
A handful of Team PokerStars Pros participated in the Low tournament, including Marcin Horecki, Vanessa Rousso, Maria Mayrinck, Peter Eastgate, Gavin Griffin (1226th), William Thorson (210th), and eventual winner Hevad “RaiNKhAN” Khan.
Before the final table could even be set, a unique situation played out, leaving five players to dish it out. While osten was busting in 7th place for $3,735.46, another two players were dueling it out. On another table, MrSmokey1 and gone all-in with pocket dueces and da ItchY 84 called. da ItchY 84, with AQ, flopped a pair of aces and sent MrSmokey1 home in sixth place. Final table play then started with just five players: da ItchY 84 (8,893,375 in chips), jmw71785 (4,584,434 in chips), Max Katz (12,243,497 in chips), RaiNKhAN (12,411,916 in chips), and calexc123 (3,371,778 in chips).
Khan immediately set the pace with agressive play, announcing in the chat box that the observers better get ready for the greatest show on earth. First to go was da ItchY 84 when his K9 couldn’t hold up against Max Katz’s pocket jacks. calexc123, one of the small stacks, was Max Katz’s next victim. The fourth place prize was given to calexc124 when his ace high preflop all-in failed to hold up against AJ. Continuing his roll, Max Katz then took on jmw71785 in a coinflip. After Max Katz bet, jmw71785 pushed all-in with A6 suited. Max Katz made the call with K9. The board fell 9c-3c-2c-2h-3h and jmw71785 had to settle for third place. It then came down to Khan, who was now shortstack with 9,742,789 in chips, and Max Katz with 31,762,211. Khan was able to double twice before finally taking out his opponent. With Th-3d-Jd-Qd-3s on the board, Khan pushed all-in. Max Katz check called all-in with KT for two pair. Khan, extremely excited, held the higher pair with AJ and was able to claim the PokerStars SCOOP watch and first place prize money of $58,107.01.
Here are the final table results:
1st place: RaiNKhAN ($58,107.01)
2nd place: Max Katz ($40,467.38)
3rd place: jmw71785 ($28,015.88)
4th place: calexc123 ($16,602.01)
5th place: da ItchY 84 ($8,301.01)
6th place: MrSmokey1 ($5,188.13)
The Event 14 $500 + $30 Medium tournament had a fairly large turnout with 1,714 players. The $500,000 guarantee was largely surpassed with the $857,000 generated prize pool. Here, a smaller number of players landed in the money, but of course their payouts were higher.
A number of Team PokerStars Pros also showed up to play in the medium stakes tournament. Quite a few of them also played in the low stakes. Chad Brown, Dario Minieri, Gavin Griffin, Marcin Horecki, Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate, Hevad Khan, and Vicky Coren, Vanessa Rousso (94th place), and William Thorson (116th) all showed. Rousso and Thorson were the only ones who placed in the money. Darus Suharto, WSOP 2008 Main Event final tablist also placed in the money in 194th place. MrSmokey1, the final table bubble boy in the low stakes tournament, finished in 77th.
The lucky six to make it to the final table were Roach11 (2,595,337 in chips), Unst0pab13 (697,293 in chips), thorladen (2,711,131 in chips), charder30 (645,040 in chips), doncarignano (1,131,806 in chips), gavz101 (789,393 in chips).
doncarignano, holding AQ, was the first to hit the rail when thorladen, with AT, sucked out on the river. It wasn’t long before fifth place spot was filled with charder30’s name. He went head to head with other shortstack Unst0pab13, pocket deuces against pocket sevens. Two hands later, thorladen went out in fourth when his KJ couldn’t hold against Roach11’s KQ and the pair of queens he flopped. With 6s-3h-5h-Qh on the board, the next big hand was gavz101’s call of Roach11’s all-in raise. When a Js fell on the river, gavz101 failed to catch his draw and hit the rail in third place. It was then Unst0pab13 and Roach11 left to face off. After building up his stack, Unst0pab13 had to thought he had it in the bag when he landed pocket aces. The two were all-in on the turn of 2d-6c-Td-3d. Roach11 held pocket fours. Then came the river, 4s. Ouch. Roach11 wasn’t disappointed though! He sucked out for $134,977.50 and a SCOOP watch. Not bad!
Here are the final table results:
1st Place: Roach11 ($134,977.50)
2nd Place: Unst0pab13 ($100,697.50)
3rd Place: gavz101 ($74,987.50)
4th Place: thorladen ($49,277.50)
5th Place: charder30 ($33,594.40)
6th Place: doncarignano ($19,196.80)
The third tournament making up PokerStars’ SCOOP Event 14 was the $5,200 NLHE, $1,250,000 guarantee. Only 331 players showed up for this high stakes tournament, but they were still able to surpass the the guarantee by $405,000. Of the hopefuls, 36 were able to share in the prize money.
Several Team PokerStars Pros showed up for the high stakes tier of Event 14. Those taking a shot at the money included Peter Eastgate, Daniel Negreanu, Dario Minieri, John Duthie, Ivan Demidov, Hevad Khan, and William Thorson, who made an apperance in all three Event 14 tournaments. Out of all the pros, Peter Eastgate was the only one who placed in the money in 24th.
It only took 12 hours and 10 minutes for the final table to be set. One of the players to make it had a very unique username. The table consisted of <x||||||>< (194,208 in chips), Hoss_TBF (311,605 in chips), garompon (398,061 in chips), Sifosis (529,181 in chips), gator93 (117,972 in chips), and agriffrod (103,973 in chips).
agriffrod was first to go, settling for sixth place. His pocket tens were no match for garompon’s pocket kings. Fifth place went to Sifosis, who, after being crippled by <x||||||><, also fell victim to garompon. garompon then put gator93 out in fourth and <x||||||>< in third, to face Hoss_TBF heads up. After 33 hands, a deal was agreed upon, giving $303,295.52 to garompon, $288,846.98 to Hoss_TBF, and leaving an additional $25,000 and the SCOOP watch for the winner. After more than 16 hours of total play, that winner turned out to be garompon for a grand total of $328,295.52.
Here are the final table results:
1st Place: garompon ($328,295.52)
2nd Place: Hoss_TBF ($288,846.98)
3rd Place: <x||||||>< ($190,325)
4th Place: gator93 ($132,400)
5th Place: Sifosis ($99,300)
6th Place: agriffrod ($66,200)