Event number 30 of PokerStars’ SCOOP 2012 was action-packed and took surprisingly little time to determine the winners. It was a Turbo “SuperKnockout” 6-Max bounty tournament, in which half of each player’s buy in became a bounty on their head. This prize structure, along with the quick 5 minute blinds turbo structure and 6 handed tables, had players fighting hard to build a stack and knock out opponents as often as possible.

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