There is a lot of buzz in the tournament community this week as the 2011 Spring Championship of Online Poker has finally gotten underway. The 38-event, 114 tournament mega-series will have millions of dollars on the line on a daily basis. The 2011 SCOOP runs from May 8th through the 22nd culminating with the $2,500,000 guaranteed Main Event. Satellites are running around the clock allowing players to qualify for big events for as little as $1 or by using Frequent Player Points. The FlopTurnRiver News Team will be covering these events in great detail so be sure to head to the News Section for updates on the biggest tournaments and their winners.
Even with SCOOP going strong there are still plenty of other events worth our attention. A few notes to make, there are still poker rooms open to Americans including Bodog and those on the Cake and Merge Networks. These rooms will surely grow as more and more Americans again get the itch to play online poker. For in-depth reviews of these rooms just click the Poker Rooms tab at the top of the page.
Bodog continues to run their Sunday $100,000 guaranteed; however, it also continues to struggle to reach its target prize pool. With a $150+$12 entry fee there needs to be 667 players in the event to top the $100k mark. Unfortunately this past weekend only 461 signed up forcing Bodog to pay out more than $30,000 in overlay. This is a great value for those who entered as it works out to nearly $67 more per player in the field. Sixth-place finisher “iLLNuGWichee” has seen great success on many different sites in the past having won the $50k Guarantee on FullTilt for $30,456, a $109 Freeze Out on Party Poker, and the $25k on Bodog. Finishing one spot better was “Roach11” who seems to be a recent convert from PokerStars where he won the 2009 SCOOP Event #14 Medium buy-in for $134,977. He also won the Wednesday Quarter Million and $215 re-buy during his time there. It seems his Bodog career is also off to a good start after banking $5,500 yesterday.
Taking home the title and a nice $25,000 score was “pelky33” who took home the biggest score of his career. Pelky33 appears to be another American poker player who found Bodog after playing on FullTilt and PokerStars for a long while. He won the Nightly $100k this past November on Stars for more than $21,000 and nearly final tabled the Sunday $750k back in 2008 on FullTilt.
Bodog Poker Sunday $100k Guaranteed
461 Entrants; $100,000 prize pool
1. pelky33 $25,000
2. fearless25 $15,000
3. xxGLBxx $9,500
4. ramy559 $7,000
5. R0ach11 $5,500
6. iLLNuGWichee $4,500
7. lemmerv1nn $3,500
8. schem11 $2,200
9. bigbench11 $1,700
To update an error in last week’s report, there were only a few rooms closing their doors to Americans this past weekend. Both Sportsbook and PlayersOnly left the market but plenty of rooms still remaining including Merge Poker’s Lock Poker and Carbon Poker. With an influx of player’s to their site their traffic now rivals that of 888Poker and even the OnGame Network. With more players come bigger tournaments, and because of this Merge decided to boost the guarantee of their biggest Sunday event up to $75,000 yesterday. The event failed to reach its guarantee as just 650 players entered the $109 event but it should continue to grow as more Americans look for online poker homes. With more than $18,000 up for the winner it came down to a battle between “des0oo7” and “MrMaholla”. The $7,500 in difference between first and second led to a solid heads-up contest eventually won by des0oo7.
Merge Poker Sunday $75k Guaranteed
650 Entrants; $75,000 prize pool
1. des0oo7 $18,750
2. MrMaholla $11,250
3. fmlsuck $5,625
4. PoisonousOyster $4,125
5. jammyjenny $3,375
6. jimb4246 $2,625
7. ADED420 $2,250
8. CavsWad $1,875
9. ydoitry $1,500
There were still a few of the typical Sunday events running on PokerStars yesterday. However with a lot of attention focused on the two SCOOP events both the $250k and Second Chance fell short of their guarantees. The $250k, with its $530 buy-in, tends to weed out a lot of small and midstakes grinders. This was quite evident yesterday as the $250k final table was full of high-stakes professionals including a few of the best players in the world. Taking 8th place was former world #1, Chris “Moorman1” Moorman. With more than $7,000,000 in online scores and millions more in live cashes Moorman is widely considered one of the greatest tournament players of his generation. He has four 6-figure scores to his name including a pair of $200k+ cashes on FullTilt. Just two months ago he nearly won the $1k Monday $2,000,000 Guaranteed before taking 3rd for $235,592. Finishing a few spots ahead of Moorman was Team PokerStars Member Pat “TorontoToro” Pezzin. His $13,500 score ranks outside his top-10 cashes on PokerStars that includes a win back in 2009 for $80,080.
Taking home the title amongst a 3-way chop was “Jackovich” who earned $38,294 after the pot was split based on chip counts. This was his biggest cash on PokerStars, edging bast a near miss in the $109r just three months ago for $31,185.
PokerStars Sunday $250k Guaranteed
489 Entrants; $250,000 prize pool
*3-way chop
1. Jackovich $38,294
2. AverageGreg $33,230
3. GreaWW $35,851
4. armenioz $19,250
5. Pat Pezzin $13,500
6. PieterGvh $10,625
7. justnl2 $8,125
8. Moorman1 $5,625
9. Obär89 $3,825
The Sunday Second Chance fell short of its guarantee for what has to be one of just a few times in the past 5 years. The day’s latest starting event only saw 596 enter forcing PokerStars to pay out $5,800 in overlay. With the SCOOP events getting deeper it seems a lot of players were too busy focusing on the million dollar guaranteed events to sign up for the Second Chance. The final table was quite anticlimactic as the last six players decided to chop the remaining $77,000 in the middle. Taking home the biggest piece of the buy was 3rd place finisher “Pret” who held the chiplead during the time of the chop. Eventual winner “Victor chuch” earned the 2nd most, $14,153, but would have won nearly $10,000 more had he played the event out. This was the biggest cash of his career on PokerStars, besting a final table bubble finish in the Sunday500 in February for $10,764.
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $125k Guaranteed
596 Entrants; $125,000 prize pool
*6-way chop
1. Victor chuch $14,153
2. PanamaRespec $13,651
3. Pret $15,133
4. Gala_Terry $12,009
5. Flufferd $10,925
6. Lugubre $9,500
7. slhansenx444 $4,062
8. StarsCraft $2,812
9. eisenhower1 $1,912
FullTilt continues to run their Multi-Entry events allowing players to buy-in to a single tournament up to six times. This has helped them get well past their guarantees in their Sunday events including the $750,000 guaranteed. Yesterday there were more than 4,500 entries creating a nice $911,000 prize pool. Even without their American professionals in attendance FullTilt was still well represented by the likes of Caio Pimenta, Marco Liesy, and Mike “Timex” McDonald. There were a handful of professional entries that made it into the top-100 but none could mount a serious charge at the title.
The final table had some online pros on hand including 6th place finisher Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal who has won the $125k Rush, Sunday Mulligan, and $1k Double Shootout on FullTilt in the past. Runner-up Griffin “Flush_Entity” Benger is a Canadian poker professional who earned $112,964 after falling heads-up to “King2173”. The six-figure score was easily the biggest of his online career, besting a win in the Absolute Poker $150k Guarantee in March for $40,810. The $163,069 first-place check went to King2173 who made up for a near miss in FTOPS XX Event #44 earlier this year where he took 2nd place for $131,612.
FullTilt Poker $750k Guaranteed
4,555 Entrants; $911,000 prize pool
1. King2173 $163,069
2. Flush_Entity $112,964
3. SuitedAces44 $80,897
4. GIAMPP $60,126
5. rnasta $44,639
6. Intervention $30,974
7. waterfish101 $20,953
8. Visdiabuli $14,576
9. gherkan $10,021
The Sunday $200,000 guaranteed on iPoker came close to its guarantee but fell short by 56 entrants. The $11,200 in overlay was a nice little bonus for those involved. 8th place finisher Bidibankroll nearly won this event last month before falling in 3rd place for $16,000. Runner-up “Opearga116” scored $22,000 after falling to “IamMMM” heads-up. This was his 2nd five-figure score on iPoker, besting a $10,845 cash in this very event last November for a 5th place finish. There isn’t a lot of information about the winner “IamMMM” making him one of many this past Sunday to take down a career-changing score. The $42,000 first place check was more than was paid out for the winner of the Bodog $100k, Sunday Second Chance, and Merge $75.
Titan Poker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
944 Entrants; $200,000 prize pool
1. IamMMM $42,000
2. Operga116 $22,000
3. metalrazor $16,000
4. HKFrank $12,000
5. ssandi75 $10,000
6. NVsanya $8,000
7. Thewolf1234 $6,000
8. Bidibankroll $4,000
9. 123pokerhuis $2,800
The Sunday $250k on Party Poker also came close but ultimately fell short of its guarantee as well. With 1,190 players entering the $215 event, Party was forced to pay out $12,000 in overlay. The final table was full of players who had not seen much success on Party Poker in the past. Once “tashca2004” fell in 6th place the remaining players did not have a single five-figure score amongst them. With more than $52,000 slated for the winner that was all about to change. In fact, the final five all scored at least $11,875 and eventual winner “c__this” took home the biggest piece of the pot. His $52,500 was easily the best score for a player who does not play many online events. Runner-up “KNAAPINEN” had seen more success than his heads-up adversary but could not put that experience to good use as he fell in 2nd place for $30,000.
Party Poker Sunday $250k Guaranteed
1,190 Entrants; $250,000 prize pool
1. c__this $52,500
2. KNAAPINEN $30,000
3. G4brielP $18,125
4. doublesnow7 $14,375
5. PhilFlipFlop $11,875
6. tascha2004 $9,375
7. TheZipMan $7,125
8. canastalady $4,750
9. n3edle $3,625
10. Yuvacik $2,500