There was a ton of high-stakes tournament action this weekend as the final few days of the 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker were contested on PokerStars. The Main Event will end later tonight and is set to restart at 17:00 PokerStars Lobby Time. The high buy-in Main Event found 615 players willing to pony up the $10,000+$300 entry fee including PokerStars sponsored professionals Daniel “kidpoker” Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Dennis Phillips, Chris “Money800” Moneymaker, and Barry “barryg1” Greenstein. There are currently 27 players remaining including PokerStars pro Angel Guillen who hails from Mexico. Joining Guillen is a “who’s who” of online tournament poker including chipleader Greg “DuckU” Hobson who is certainly no stranger to the Sunday Tournament Report. Hobson sits on more than 600,000 chips at t2,500/t5,000 blinds and has a nearly t70,000 advantage on his closest competitor. Hobson is a top-100 ranked online professional who has a handful of six-figure scores in major event just like this one. In fact, Hobson nearly won the World Championship of Online Poker’s Main Event in 2008 before falling in 2nd place to Scott Dorin for $459,030.
Hobson does have some elite company in the top-10 as just three spots behind him sits Benny “toweliestar” Spindler who is coming off a huge weekend that saw him make three major final tables just seven days ago. Sitting in 11th place with nearly t230,000 in chips is high-stakes cash game professional “RaiseOnce” who has a lot of question marks behind his identity. Some have even gone as far to suggest Phil Ivey or Patrik Antonius could be behind the account but nothing has been verified as of yet. Whoever is behind the account is clearly used to big scores as he/she has been playing a bunch of $200/$400 PLO as well as $1000/$2000 Limit games on PokerStars over the past month. A final player to keep an eye on is the winner of the 2009 WCOOP High Roller Main Event Kristoffer “Sumpas” Thorsson who took home $611,455 last September for taking down one of the toughest fields in online poker. Thorsson currently sits as one of the shorter stacks with just 28 Big Blinds. First place in the $10k Main Event is set to pay out $1,162,350 if there are no chip-chops along the way.
There are two other “Main” Events waiting to be restarted as the Medium and Low buy-in events are to be contested later today as well. The $1,000+$50 Medium tournament ended up fielding more than 3,600 players and has a $576,975 first-place prize. There are no PokerStars professionals left but solid tourney players such as “Believer82” and “Joey Capp” remain with a chance to take down more than half a million dollars later tonight. The low event only has 17 players remaining including well-known PokerStars Pro Andre “aakkari” Akkari who sits in 13th place with just under 20 Big Blinds left in his stack. One of the bigger events of SCOOP 2010 attendance-wise fell just short of the 20,000 entrant mark and ended up with a $1,918,800 prize pool with $191,892 slotted for the eventual winner. You can watch all of these events go down live tonight on PokerStars. If you have not downloaded the PokerStars software follow any of the links on this page to create an account and catch some major tournament action!
There was plenty of other SCOOP action going on yesterday as well as FullTilt running their typical Sunday Majors. The $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up SCOOP Championship saw a very familiar face make the final match as Scott “gunning4you” Seiver who has become quite famous lately due to his deep run in the ESPN televised NAPT Shoot Out were he finished 4th but won the Bounty portion of the event for $100,000. Seiver, also known as “mastrblastr” on FullTilt where he battles the likes of Durrrr heads-up for millions of dollars, won a WSOP bracelet in 2008 for more than $750,000. Seiver fell to another highly-ranked tournament professional “Skammes” who took down $360,000 for his victory.
A few other “majors” ran on PokerStars yesterday including the Sunday500 and Second Chance. That duet along with FullTilt’s Brawl, $750k, and Mulligan there was more than enough to go around for those unable to make deep runs in any of the SCOOP finale’s. The $500k guaranteed fielded a solid final table including FullTilt professional Caio Pimenta who finished in 5th place for $26,136. 3rd-place finisher “Doulas12” added another big score to his resume by taking home more than $50,000 late last night. This was his biggest cash on PokerStars since winning the Sunday Million back in 2008 for more than $184,000. Eventual winner Corey “comandr_cool” Burbick is one of the best online MTT players in the world. The top-1o ranked professional has made our report numerous times for major victors and took down the $530 re-buy SCOOP Event #3 just two weeks ago for more than $183,000. He has made a few other major final tables in 2010 including a 3rd place finish in the Warm-Up in MArch for $77,402. With this win it appears he has surpassed the $3,000,000 mark in cashes between the world’s two largest poker sites!
PokerStars Sunday $500k Guaranteed
1,056 Entrants; $528,000 prize pool
1. Comandr_Cool $91,133
2. probirs $66,000
3. doulas12 $50,160
4. HoldumGod $36,749
5. caio_pimenta $26,136
6. nickpr $20,856
7. J.Strassmann $15,576
8. WatchTheSea $10,296
9. kleath $5,808
The Second Chance on PokerStars continues to benefit from it’s guarantee being upped to $250,000 lately as the tournament once again cracked the $300k prize pool mark. The one and only Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb made a short-lived final table appearance before busting in 9th place. The two-time PokerStars Tournament Leaderboard winner took home just over $4,000 for his deep run which is a minor sum for a player with more than $3,000,000 in cashes on PokerStars over the past few years. Deeb is a well-known character in the online poker community who grinded an insane amount of tournaments in winning those TLB crowns in 2007 and 2008. He recently announced his “retirement” which apparently was short-lived as he seems to be back on the wagon and grinding away. Eventual winner “ramondemon77” is a solid mid-stakes tournament regular with more than 20 five-figure scores on his resume including multiple wins in the $109r including a victory just two weeks ago for more than $42,000.
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $250k Guaranteed
1,547 Entrants; $309,400 prize pool
1. ramondemon77 $55,692
2. lhetmein $40,222
3. Trapomp $30,940
4. Akumila $23,205
5. smerks $16,243
6. oncommand $13,149
7. fhaugen $10,055
8. OGURI $6,961
9. shaundeeb $4,331
FullTilt was in post-FTOPS XVI mode this past weekend with their Mini-FTOPS still running alongside the $400k Brawl, $750k Guaranteed, and $200k Mulligan. There were plenty of big names on hand including a lot of FullTilt sponsored professionals looking for a six-figure pay-day. The Sunday Brawl continues to thrive with its earlier start time. The $240+$16 buy-in event sets aside $40 for a player every time he/she eliminates a fellow competitor. Looking to bust the plethora of amateurs in the field were more than 20 FullTilt sponsored professionals including five-time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, the best female player in the world Annette “Annette_15” Oberstad, and former WSOP Main Event champion Carlos Mortensen. Two FullTilt pros nearly crashed the final table but fell just short including two-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen who busted in 30th place.
The final table might have been devoid of red names but it did house a few big names such as 7th place finisher Adam “ProbBluffingYou” Shuman who is better known as “ASPoker8” on PokerStars where he has made a name for himself in $10k qualifiers and the step system. Overall he has more than $1,200,000 in cashes between the two sites including a near miss FTOPS Event #4 last November where he finished 4th in the $216-cubed for $52,752. Joining Shuman at the final table was Christian “da_professional” Lacobellis who has shipped multiple re-buy events on FullTilt including the $85k and $200k Guaranteed respectively. His fourth place finish here netted him $38,646 which ranks as just the fifth-best score of his career on FullTilt. He has put in a ton of volume on FTP in the past and now has more than $2,200,000 in cashes on the world’s 2nd biggest poker site. Sunday Brawl winner “asudetrefla” had not seen much success on FullTilt in the past having just one $1k+ score to his name entering the final table. That all changed yesterday as he shipped the Brawl and $107,468 for taking home the title.
FullTilt Sunday Brawl $400k Guaranteed
2,647 Entrants; $529,400 prize pool
1. asudetrefla $107,468
2. ZiZaZeppo $69,351
3. Ship It Nubs $51,352
4. da_professional $38,646
5. tblightning3 $26,999
6. xxxLIKANxxx $18,000
7. ProbBluffingYou $12,176
8. nirvanakc $8,470
9. nypitbull24 $6,352
The $750k continues to struggle to get enough entrants to reach its guarantee and yesterday was no exception as the tournament fell three players short of the the necessary 3,500 entrants. You could not blame the FullTilt contingent for their lack of attendance as more than 40 Red Pros were on hand including some really big names who do not typically play in the $750k. One of those big names, David Benyamine, made a deep run before busting in 52nd place. The high-stakes professional from France is one of the most recognizable faces in poker due to his many appearances in “High Stakes Poker” on the Game Show Network. The newest FullTilt sponsored professional, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger is an up-and-coming superstar who recently shipped a WSOP circuit event at Caesar’s Palace. The young internet sensation has battled it out at the highest of stakes against some of the best in the world over the past few years and more than held his own. Other big names in the $750k included Erick Lindgren, David Pham, Brandon Adams, Isaac “Menlo” Baron, “Miami” John Cernuto, and Scott Clements. Despite all of the bracelets and WPT victories on hand no one besides Benyamine was able to crack the top-200 yesterday.
Runner-up Joe “sampson724” Sampson is better known as “ender555” by the online tournament community. Ebanks has been somewhat quiet lately but this $80,250 score will certainly make some noise. In the past Ebanks has dominated both FullTilt and PokerStars high-stakes tournaments having taken down more than $2,500,000 in cashes. Despite all his past success this appears to be the biggest score of his career online surpassing a $77,702 cash for winning the $109r last August on Stars. He has many other major final tables on his resume including multiple trips in the Sunday500 where he has finished in 2nd and 3rd with in the past few years. Tony “Bond18” Dunst is a well-liked figure in the online poker world and has quite a following on some major poker forums. Dunst is also a fairly accomplished tournament player with more than $1,000,000 in cashes between FTP and PokerStars. Taking down the title and more than $132,000 was “Marsall1121” who is a solid mid-stakes grinder having won nearly $500k on FullTilt before this victory.
FullTilt Sunday $750k Guaranteed
3,497 Entrants; $750,000 prize pool
1. Marsall1121 $132,788
2. sampson724 $80,250
3. DwayneStacey $52,500
4. pairAShilton $41,400
5. TheOracle8 $31,050
6. Bond18 $23,025
7. anvil510 $17,250
8. squeezeboxx $13,500
9. zoedoe $10,050
The $200,000 guaranteed Sunday Mulligan finished off a long day of online tournaments that saw more than $15,000,000 in guaranteed money up for grabs between the two world’s two premier poker sites. Jeff Madsen once again wielded the FullTilt torch as he made another deep run in a Sunday major online to fall short in 38th place. Madsen was the only Red Pro to make the money in the Mulligan amongst a small but good group of professionals that included Annette Oberstad, Andrew Feldman, and Isaac Baron. James “P0KERPR0” was the first player eliminated at the final table as he walked away with just $3,705 for a hard days work. The former monthly TLB winner has had tremendous success on FullTilt in the past having finished 2nd in FTOPS Event #10 in 2008 for $157,500 as well as winning the Hold’em Double Shoot-Out in 2007 for more than $70,000. The final two players, “StepOnU” and “SHiP THAT” decided to chop the remaining prize pool and call it a day. StepOnU took home slightly more than his competitor and recorded the biggest score of his career on FullTilt. Runner-Up SHiP THAT had final tabled this very event last July but made an early exit in 8th place.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1,235 Entrants; $43,460 prize pool
*2-way chop
1. StepOnU $45,460
2. SHiP THAT $43,460
3. Obvamentz_IMO $25,009
4. blaniac $20,069
5. NYpokerguy $15,141
6. TotalScience $11,115
7. dfunks222 $7,163
8. boNeZee $5,187
9. P0KERPR0 $3,705