Poker

Doing well in an 8-Game Mix tournament requires a warehouse full of poker skills with flop, draw, and stud games in the rotation. The low version of the SCOOP 8-Game tournament brought a large crowd looking to show their chops to the world. 2,780 players registered for the tournament creating a nice $68,249 prizepool for just a $27 buy-in. The tournament played down as expected with the No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha generating a lot of aggression from those specialist while the Stud game were chipping away at stacks with the extra round of betting. Several big names were making moves late in tournament including Team PokerStar's George Danzer and COOP monster Shaun Deeb but neither would have a final say for the title. Play moved quickly from 3 tables down to the final table bubble with the short-stacks taking a stab for a double-up until jakobgold moved all-in during a Deuce-to-Seven TD hand holding a little over 1.5 big bets. Chip leader Kusu_a came along for the ride and made a better hand in the end to form the SCOOP 32-L final table. Russia was well represented with half the final table flying their flag and in the middle of the remaining field. Final table chip counts: Seat 1: Shpikachka (1,970,658 in chips) Seat 2: Name1ess0ne (892,991 in chips) Seat 3: Alximik1203 (3,102,880 in chips) Seat 4: Kusu_a (5,364,352 in chips) Seat 5: kr1voship (981,960 in chips) Seat 6: babefish (1,587,159 in chips) Shpikachka scooped, eliminated in 6th place Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, limits 100k/200k Shpikachka began the final table with a comfortable chipstack but half was lost during the early stages of play. kr1voship opened from middle position and called Shpikachka's 3-bet from the small blind before the [Th][8s][6h] flop. Shpikachka and kr1voship bet/called the flop and the [2d] turn before Shpikachka check/called all-in for the remaining 120,658. kr1voship: [7c][6s][4s][3d] Shpikachka: [Ad][Kd][Jh][Jc] kr1voship was sitting on a made low and a boatload of outs for the high versus the Jacks of Shpikachka. The [5c] completed the straight and Shpikachka was eliminated in 6th place for $1,219.60. babefish gets pipped in Razz, eliminated in 5th place Razz, Limits 100k/200k (20k ante and 30k bring-in) babefish was also a victim of early final table stack abuse and began a Razz hand with just 2.5 big bets as the bring-in with the [7s] in the door. Name1ess0ne completed with the [7d], Kusu_a called with [2s], kr1voship called with [6h], and babefish came along for the ride. Name1ess0ne opened with [7d][Qh] and it folded around to babefish who called with [7s] [5s]. babefish lead out on fifth street with [7s][5s][8h] and called all-in when Name1ess0ne raised with [6h][8d][9c]. Name1ess0ne: ([7h][4d])[6h][8d][9c] babefish: ([As][6c])[7s][5s][8h] babefish was alive for the double up until Name1ess0ne drew [Ad] on sixth street babefish's [9d] for a better 8-7. No help came for babefish with the [Ac] river and was eliminated in 5th place for $2,388.71. kr1voship hits the river, eliminated in 4th place 7 Card Stud, Limits 120k/240k (24k ante and 36k bring-in) The extra rounds of betting during the Stud hands begun to play a major part in chip movement and it was a Stud Hi hand which would end the night for kr1voship. With [Ac] in the door, kr1voship completed and was only called by Alximik1203 with [9s]. Alximik1203 on fourth with [9s][5h] kr1voship bet on fourth with [Ac][8h] and was called by Alximik1203 with [9s][5h]. Another round of betting by kr1voship with [Ac][8h][6s] and a call by Alximik1203 [9s][5h][7h]. kr1voship bet the last 213,474 of the stack with [Ac][8h][6s][Js] and was called by Alximik1203 with [9s][5h][7h][2c]. Alximik1203: ([Qh][9h])[9s][5h][7h][2c] kr1voship: ([6h][5d])[Ac][8h][6s][Js] Alximik1203 was ahead with the pair of Nine versus a pair of Sixes. kr1voship improved to Eights up with the river [8s] but was beaten when Alximik1203 hit the King high flush with the [Kh]. kr1voship hit on the rive

David "WhooooKidd" Baker finally got it. Baker had come so close to his second SCOOP watch several times this series. Baker finished 2nd in the $2,100 NLHE near the beginning of the SCOOP and then finished 3rd in Event #28-H ($2,100 Stud Hi/Lo) just two days ago. He made another final table in between that one and his victory today. In fact, Baker was playing the final table in Event #35-H ($2,100 NLHE Turbo 2X-Chance) while he was working his way to victory in Event #33-H. Baker finished 3rd in Event #35-H for $168,510 and then got his second SCOOP watch a few hours later. David Baker busting out of a tournament, something that didn't happen here Event #33-H attracted 128 players and created a $256,000 prize pool. Some of the players to contribute to that prize pool were Team PokerStars Online players jorj95, talonchick and nkeyno. Also present were Team PokerStars Pros Andre Akkari, Jonathan Duhamel, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Eugene Katchalov, Jose Ignacio Barbero and ElkY -- who finished 16th for $3,328. Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer was also in the field and made another final table this SCOOP. It was an impressive final table that started with a bubble. FTB Ana Marquez took a commanding lead with three tables left. She held 140,000 while her closest contender came in at 75,000. Marquez's lead it lasted until we made it to the bubble. That's when Eric "AceQuad" Brix took over. The game was Razz and limits were 2,500/5,000 with a 500 ante. Marquez brought it in with a [kh] and plattsburgh raised with a [4s]. AceQuad re-raised with a [7h], Marquez folded and plattsburgh four-bet to 7,500. AceQuad called and players kept betting. plattsburgh: (X)(X) / [4s][8c][qc][9h] / (X) AceQuad: (X)(X) / [7h][10d][10s][5s] / (X) plattsburgh led out with bets on fourth, fifth and sixth street and AceQuad called all the way. plattsburgh then checked on the river and AceQuad bet 5,000. plattsburgh called and mucked when AceQuad turned over [2s][3h]/[6d] for a [7][6][5][3][2]. AceQuad was up to 122,141 and plattsburgh fell to 28,000. AceQuad then took the lead away from Marquez. plattsburgh brought it in with a [9h] and AceQuad raised with a [7c]. Marquez re-raised with a [2h] and only AceQuad called. AceQuad: (X)(X) / [7c][6s][8h][ks] / (X) ana marquez: (X)(X) / [2h][4h][5c][qc] / (X) Marquez bet on every street and AceQuad called down. After calling on the river, AceQuad showed [4s][2c]/[7d] for [8][7][6][4][2] while Marquez showed [9c][5s]/[jc] for [j][9][5][4][2]. AceQuad inched into the lead with 147,000 while Marquez was down to 144,000. AceQuad increased his lead by crippling plattsburgh and Marquez burst the bubble. plattsburgh brought it in with a [5c] and Marquez raised with a [4s]. plattsburgh re-raised, Marquez 4-bet and plattsburgh made it 10,000, leaving himself with 354. Marquez called and the rest of plattsburgh's chips went in on fifth street. plattsburgh: ([ad])([2h]) / [5c][3s][5s][qh] / ([kc]) ana marquez: ([6d])([7s]) / [4s][8d][kh][jc] / ([9s]) plattsburgh's [q][5][3][2][A] was too high and Marquez won the pot with [9][8][7][6][4]. plattsburgh finished 7th and won $8,320.00 for the final table bubble. We were now down to our... Final table Seat 1: WhooooKidd -- 87,951 Seat 2: ana marquez -- 154,901 Seat 3: GeorgeDanzer -- 87,574 Seat 4: MUSTAFABET -- 73,894 Seat 5: osten -- 71,289 Seat 6: AceQuad -- 164,391 Every single player at the final table had been at a major online final table before, and won it. David "WhooooKidd" Baker took down SCOOP 19-H ($5,200 PLO) in 2009 for $215,000. Ana "ana marquez" Marquez won SCOOP 05-H ($1,050+R NLHE Turbo) for $255,035.10 just last week. George "GeorgeDanzer" Danzer in seat 3 has a bunch of online victories including two WCOOPs and two SCOOPs. Danzer's first SCOOP came in 2010 in the 9-M ($162 Badugi). Danzer's more recent SCOOP was, well, more recent. A lot more recent. Danzer also got a SCOOP last week, taking down Event #12-H ($2,100 NL 2-

The "high" SCOOP events always attract tough, competitive fields, and Event #31-H, a $2,100 buy-in no-limit hold'em "knockout" event, was no exception. Spread over two days, the tourney saw tough competition from start to finish as players grittily defended their knockout bounties, with highland of Canada ultimately being the only one of 626 entrants to avoid giving up a bounty to win the SCOOP watch. highland earned $174,074.23 for the win, plus a few extra bucks thanks to having knocked out a half-dozen players along the way. Meanwhile lehout of the Netherlands made it to heads-up and a final table deal with highland, thereby ensuring a nice $156,000 prize as well. That field of 626 created a total prize pool of $1,261,390, way over the $750K guarantee for Event #31-H. The top 72 finishers divided the regular prize pool, while every knockout earned players $405 apiece along the way drawn from the bounty pool. From 626 to 9 The first day saw the 626 entrants play all of the way down to 33 players, with prepstyle71, Jeremiah "Believer82" Vinsant, and rh300487 having successfully negotiated their way to occupy the top spots in the chip counts overnight. Near night's end two Team PokerStars Pros were eliminated after making it to the cash -- Henrique "Henrique.P" Pinho (62nd) and Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero (49th). Pinho earned $3,527.51 for his finish, having added no extra money as he never recorded a knockout, while Barbero took away $4,031.44 plus another $2,025 for collecting five bounties. Meanwhile Team Online member Mickey "mementmori" Petersen survived to make it to the second day of play, but unfortunately for Petersen his Thursday would be a short one, ending after he got the last of his short stack in with [Ah][Jd] against the [7s][7c] of rh300487 and failed to improve. Petersen claimed $5,039.30 for the 33rd-place finish, plus another $810 for grabbing a couple of knockouts along the way. They were approaching the two-hour mark of Day 2 when just 18 players were left, with prepstyle71 still up on top with more than 543,000, and Believer82 and rh300487 still holding onto the next two positions in the counts. Over the next two-and-a-half hours the field was whittled down to nine. Rodrigo "caprioli" Caprioli (18th), Emil "Maroonlime" Patel (17th), and Naza114 (16th) each took $8,062.88 from the prize pool plus some bounties for each. Zach "nofingclue11" Clark (15th), BgsaPnaples (14th), and fortunaVine (13th) made $10,078.60 plus bounties. And rh300487 (12th), Maxxx72alba (11th), and Rory "Mafews" Mathews (10th) each made $12,094.32 plus a few bounties as well, with the 12 picked up by rh300487 ultimately tying for the most claimed by anyone in the tournament. prepstyle71 continued to lead as the final table began. Seat 1: pokerturo (Germany) -- 202,484 Seat 2: Craig "mcc3991" McCorkell (United Kingdom) -- 283,403 Seat 3: toril274 (Russia) -- 290,455 Seat 4: lehout (Netherlands) -- 282,919 Seat 5: TIPCHIK321 (Russia) -- 72,460 Seat 6: Jeremiah "Believer82" Vinsant (Canada) -- 477,646 Seat 7: prepstyle71 (Canada) -- 1,057,747 Seat 8: highland (Canada) -- 144,275 Seat 9: guinor (Brazil) -- 318,611 Working from 9 to 5 Only one player at the final nine had yet to pick up a single bounty -- that being the short stack TIPCHIK321 -- and as it would happen that would remain so as TIPCHIK31 hit the rail in ninth on the final table's fourth hand. The blinds were 3,000/6,000 when lehout raised to 12,179 from early position, then TIPCHIK321 reraised all in for 69,460. It folded back to lehout who called right away, turning over [Ac][Kd] while TIPCHIK321 showed [5c][5s]. The flop came [4c][Kc][Qh] to pair lehout's king, and after the [2d] turn and [4d] river, TIPCHIK321 was out in ninth. Play continued, and in the last hand before Day 2's four-hour break, the blinds were 3,500/7,000 when toril274 open-pushed all in for 102,570 from middle position, then chip leader prepstyle71 reraised all in over

Event 35-Low of SCOOP 2013 called for a little NLHE turbo rebuy action. Given the low price point and the chance for a second bullet if the first bullet blew up in a player's face, turnout was huge. Almost 12,000 players vied for the SCOOP title in Event 35-L. At the end of a tidy five-and-a-half hours, it went to BOOGANDEHAH after a see-saw final table. In a field as big as this one, nobody expected any Team PokerStars Pros or PokerStars Team Online players to make the final table. And none did. But six of them did break through into the money of Event 35-L. They were led by Team Online player Caio Pessagno, who made it as far as 170th place ($230.81) before expiring. He was joined on the Team Pro side of things by Cristian "el grillo" de Leon, who was bounced from the tournament in 217th place ($196.62). Randy "nanonoko" Lew, Henrique Pinho, Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen and Andre Coimbra also cashed in the event. Still, the amount that all the Team Pros and Team Online players earned combined was insignificant compared to the $59,000 that awaited the winner at the end of the final table: Seat 1: PokerStarJ2 (11580565 in chips) Seat 2: BOOGANDEHAH (10632756 in chips) Seat 3: BWFCLEE (14947452 in chips) Seat 4: zenonmika (5259130 in chips) Seat 5: wiredoor (4278239 in chips) Seat 6: imcastleman (5878420 in chips) Seat 7: eazynow007 (3962248 in chips) Seat 8: T-BooGiE (22892576 in chips) Seat 9: theboss77777 (7623614 in chips) Level 51: blinds 300k-600k, ante 75k Average: 9.67 million (16 BBs) T-BooGiE started the final table with a sizable lead over the field, but in a turbo tournament chip leads tend not to mean very much. Still, those big stacks do have at least a little room to sit back and wait. The short stacks certainly do not. The two shortest players, eazynow007 and wiredoor, tangled on the 4th hand of the final table. eazynow007 shoved for 3.6 million from second position with [kh][qd]; wiredoor called from the big blind with [6d][as]. Things were looking good for eazynow007 after a queen-high flop, but wiredoor hit running straight cards to bounce eazynow007 out the door. theboss77777 got to play exactly two hands at the final table. In the first, theboss77777's pocket treys were rivered by zenonmika's [ad][9c] to cut theboss77777's stack in half. Three hands later theboss77777 picked up another pocket pair, a pair of 7s, and shoved all in. This time BOOGANDEHAH was the player on the opposite end of the flip, with [ad][jh], and again the decisive card came on the river. BOOGANDEHAH paired aces to end theboss77777's day in 8th place. After the 10pm break the blinds were up to 500k-1000k. That increase put the most pressure on zenonmika and wiredoor. zenonmika was forced to go with [ah][6h] on the button when action folded around. imcastleman called in the big blind with [kc][jd] and paired on a [qh][2d][jc] flop. zenonmika missed the entire board and exited in 7th place. While the short stacks were immolating, T-BooGiE's chip lead vanished. It started slowly - blinds and antes here, then a forefeited raise there. T-BooGiE's stack kept going down and down and down. T-BooGiE decided to go for broke with [qd][8d] after opening to 2.4 million and being three-bet all in by wiredoor for 11.7 million. wiredoor showed down [as][kc] and flopped a king to remove almost all doubt from the matter. That hand didn't eliminate T-BooGiE, but it may as well have. Down to only 423k, T-BooGiE wound up all in with [7h][3h] against big blind imcastleman's [jd][5d]. Nobody improved, allowing imcastleman's jack-high to send former big stack T-BooGiE out of the tournament in 6th place. As the chips continued to move around the table, former short stacks wiredoor and imcastleman became the big stacks. imcastleman's time in the spotlight was shortlived; PokerStarJ2 doubled through imcastleman with pocket 10s to wrest the chip lead away and drop imcastleman back to the pack. With blinds at 800k-1600k, it was BWFCLEE's bad

Turbo events are perfect for impatient people whom want instant gratification. Turbo events are tournaments specifically designed for people seeking extreme, high-pressure situations. This is not the type of tournament for someone with alligator blood pumping through their veins. Slow and steady does not win this particular race. Instead, of patience and passiveness, you have to be willing to sprint out of the gate and never stop running at full throttle. From a spectator perspective, turbo events often run so fast that if you blink, you'll miss the final table. SCOOP Event #35-M took a little over five hours from start to finish. During that time, FellipeNunes, a seasoned veteran from Brazil closing in on $1 million in career earnings, faded a field of 2,963 players in an all-out sprint. SCOOP Event #35-M attracted 2,963 runners. They contributed 1,344 re-buys and boosted the prize pool to $861,400. The top 378 places paid out with $136,101.53 set aside to the eventual champion. Six notables cashed in Event #35-M. Among those fortunate folks to secure themsleves a cut of the prize pool were: Team PokerStars Pro Vivian Im (369th), Team Online nkeyno (339th), Team Online mement_mori (283rd), Team PokerStars Pro mattidm (241st), Team PokerStars Pro David Williams (63rd), and Team PokerStars Pro Christiam "el grillo" de León (40th). PokerStars Team Online members who took a shot at a SCOOP title, but failed to cash included: nanonoko, Jorj95, WizardOfAhhhs, acoimbra, Pessagno, and Baalim. Team PokerStars Pros who participated but did not cash included ElkY, Vanessa Rousso, Lex Veldhuis, Chad Brown, Liv Boeree, Ike Haxton, Eugene Katchalov, Joe Cada, Nacho Barbero, Angel Guillen, Marcin "Goral" Horecki, and George Danzer. Christian "el grillo" de León won the Team Pro last longer after his deep run with a 40th place performance. "el grillo" busted in a three-way pot with [As][7c] against UhhMee's [Ad][Kc] and san-ok135's [Ah][6h]. UhhMee dragged the pot and el grillo hit the virtual rail in 40th place, which paid out $1,852.01. In this turbo-boosted format, 75% of the field was liquidated in under two hours. 90% was gone in 2.5 hours. After 3 hours, only 100 players remained. By the time the tournament reached its fourth hour, we were down to the final two tables. With 18 players remaining on the final two tables, bullyon held the lead with 2 million. With 10 to go, action went hand-for-hand. Short-stacked kimokh made a final stand with [Kh][3h] versus GearUp777's [As][Qd]. The board ran out [Tc][9c][2c][Jh][Ah] and GearUp777 dragged the pot with a pair of Aces. Lebanon's kimokh was bubbled off the final table in tenth place. the final nine were set. SCOOP Event #35-M - Final Table Chip Counts: Seat 1: san-ok135 (5,584,710) Seat 2: bullyon (2,406,295) Seat 3: GearUp777 (3,084,120) Seat 4: DwnByDaBrdge (704,692) Seat 5: DeathBlow500 (2,891,352) Seat 6: 7HE__D__ASH (103,8854) Seat 7: theNERDguy (1,814,974) Seat 8: FellipeNunes (2,478,814) The final table commenced during Level 45 with blinds at 80K/160K and a 20K ante. Russia's san-ok135 held the overall lead with 5.5 million. DwnByDaBrdge was the shorty with 704K. 07Papi eliminated in 9th place It did not take very long before we saw the first elimination at the final table. 07Papi open-shoved for 1,171,189, and san-ok135 tried to pick him off. 07Papi took [Ad][4d] into battle against san-ok135's [As][Jd]. The board ran out [Js][7s][6d][7h][Ts], and san-ok135 won the pot with two pair. 07Papi became the first player to exit the final table. For a ninth-place finish, 07Papi collected $7,321.90. DwnByDaBrdge eliminated in 8th place Less than an orbit later, we saw the second bustout. DwnByDaBrdge raised to 584,865, theNERDguy shoved for 1,314,974, and DwnByDaBrdge called all-in for 524,519. DwnByDaBrdge trailed with [Ad][5s] against theNERDguy's [Ac][Js]. The board ran out [8d][7d][2h][As][6c]. DwnByDaBrdge failed to improve and theNERDguy won the pot

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If the 2012 SCOOP was the Year of Shaun Deeb, 2013 is shaping up to be the Year of the Repeat. With over 30 events still on the docket, six players have already won their second career SCOOP titles: George Danzer, David "Gunslinger3" Bach, Charlie "JIZOINT" Combes, Anders "Donald" Berg, Andoni "Pollopopeye" Larrabe, and Benny "toweliestar" Spindler, not to mention Rodrigo Caprioli who picked up his third watch and Calvin "cal42688" Anderson who earned his fourth. Tonight, Peter "Belabacsi" Traply joined this exclusive club, bagging his second SCOOP watch and over $284,000 after defeating a deadly final table in Event #35-H. One for each wrist This high-rolling turbo tourney attracted 562 players, their 260 rebuys pushing the final prizepool up to $1,644,000. 63 places were paid with first place set to earn $312,360. 15 Red Spades joined the action including Eugene Katchalov, Vanessa Rousso, Isaac Haxton, ElkY, Angel Guillen, and Joe Cada, but none finished in the money. The blinds were 12,500/25,000 on the final table bubble with the average stack hovering around 10BB. With 306,533 remaining, Festivuss open-shoved with [5c][5d], but couldn't fade Belabacsi, whose [Ac][Jc] spiked a jack on the turn to send him home in tenth place. Final table chip counts Seat 1: zoraleonas (124,761 in chips) Seat 2: Also11 (379,460 in chips) Seat 3: Danny98765 (407,828 in chips) Seat 4: JBT449 (510,046 in chips) Seat 5: Belabacsi (1,237,518 in chips) Seat 6: LaurisL91 (169,991 in chips) Seat 7: Faith#1Virtu (660,441 in chips) Seat 8: WhooooKidd (307,089 in chips) Seat 9: lechuckpoker (312,866 in chips) Zoraleonas lasted an orbit before 30,000 of his remaining 84,000 was swallowed up by the big blind. WhooooKidd moved in for 358,000 from the button and zoraleonas called all-in, his [Ah][5s] up against [Qc][8d]. Zoraleonas kept the lead on the ten-high flop but WhooooKidd spiked an eight on the turn to end his run in ninth place. Also11 cut LaurisL91's stack in half when his pocket nines stood up to [Ac][Tc]. Left with 266,000, LaurisL91 shipped it in from middle position with [Qh][9c] only to go out in eighth place when he ran into WhooooKidd's pocket kings. Five whole minutes passed before Danny98765 moved in for 180,000 and Faith#1Virtu reshoved for 553,000 from the small blind. WhooooKidd called from the big for a three-way showdown. Danny98765 [Jh][9h] Faith#1Virtu [Qs][Jd] WhooooKidd [Ah][Qd] Although WhooooKidd kept his lead, Danny98765 had draws for days on the [Th][8s][5h] flop, and hit a flush when the turn came the [4h]. The river was the [8c], giving Danny98765 the 585,000 main pot and WhooooKidd the 745,000 side pot. Faith#1Virtu was squeezed out and hit the rail in seventh place. The button made one more trip around the table before JBT449 moved in for his last 270,000 and Belabacsi reshoved for 1.4 million from the big blind. Belabacsi's [Ah][2h] held up against [Kh][5h] and JBT449 departed in sixth place. On the very next deal, Danny98765 found [As][2c] UTG and shoved for 413,000. WhooooKidd reshipped on the button with pocket tens and sent Danny98765 to the rail in fifth, the board running out [Ks][7c][5d][Jc][7s]. Next to shove was lechuckpoker, who did so on the next deal with [Jd][8d]. Also11 reshoved from the small blind with [Ah][Qd] and although lechuckpoker flopped a jack, Also11 rivered an ace to end his run in fourth. With three players remaining and the blinds up to 30,000/60,000, Belabacsi led with 1.74 million, WhooooKidd was a strong second with 1.4 million and Also11 the short stack with 960,000. However, WhooooKidd suffered a devastating blow when he lost a 1.95 million flip vs. Also11, his pocket threes falling to [Ad][7d]. Five hands later, WhooooKidd picked up [Ks][7d] on the button and moved in for 513,000. Belabacsi found [Ad][8c] in the small blind and paired his ace on the flop to eliminate WhooooKidd in third place. This was David "WhooooKidd" Baker's third SCOOP final

It can be intimidating going up against players who have a history with SCOOP wins, as well as a proven Team PokerStars Pro. But meneerbeer stayed focused and persevered despite the odds. Even during heads-up and facing aDrENalin710, who just won a SCOOP two days prior and clearly had momentum, meneerbeer took control. That was a winning formula, and meneerbeer now has a SCOOP title, too. ***** Some judge the best tournament poker players in the world solely on their performances in No Limit Hold'em. But in today's world of multiple poker variations, the 8-Game mix has become the new standard for judging all-around poker skills. The abilities required to best a tournament filled with Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit Hold'em, Limit Omaha H/L, Limit Razz, Limit Stud, Limit Stud H/L, No Limit Hold'em, and Pot Limit Omaha are many, and it takes years to become skilled in all of those games. Event 33 was set up to find those players. The medium level buy-in of $215 gave players the chance to prove themselves in all eight games. With 120 minutes of late registration and a $50K guarantee for extra motivation, a sizeable crowd gathered for the 8-Game festivities. Players: 594 Guarantee: $50,000.00 Prize pool: $118,800.00 Paid players: 78 The money bubble burst more than a few hours into the action, leaving 78 players remaining, including several members of Team PokerStars. Team Online's George "Jorj95" Lind was the first to exit in the money in 73rd place, and Team Pro David Williams wasn't far behind with a 67th place elimination. But continuing on to the last few tables was Team Pro Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero, riding high on the top half of the leaderboard. About 20 minutes past the eight-hour mark, only two tables remained. Players like Bryn Kenney and Fabrice Soulier exited as the final table neared, CMoosepower exited in eighth place to start hand-for-hand play. FatmanScoops then got involved with meneerbeer on a [9s][Ks][8h][Jc] board. Betting was capped, and FatmanScoops was all-in with [Qs][Qd]. But meneerbeer showed [Kd][9c], which held up to the [5h] on the river and eliminated FatmanScoops in seventh place with $2,482.92. A final table lead for Amke The final table began in a Limit Hold'em round, with blinds of 12K/24K and these players' starting stacks: Seat 1: Amke (871,491 in chips) Seat 2: meneerbeer (377,834 in chips) Seat 3: milanissimo8 (769,633 in chips) Seat 4: nachobarbero (326,374 in chips) Seat 5: aDrENalin710 (373,793 in chips) Seat 6: kaivari (250,875 in chips) After the first 30 minutes of play, aDrENalin710 was the new chip leader, followed by meneerbeer and Make, while milanissimo8 fell to the lower half of the leaderboard. Kaivari, on the other hand, only seemed to lose ground. In a 7-Card Stud round, aDrENalin710 raised, kaivari reraised, and aDrENalin710 called on third street. All of kaivari's chips went in on fifth street, and the final hand showed [Kc][Kd][Jd][8h][4d][3s][4s]. But aDrENalin710 had a flush with [7h][4h][7d][Jc][Kh][5h][6h], and that eliminated kaivari in sixth place with $3,694.68. Milanissimo8 was low in chips but did double through aDrENalin710 to stay in action, and nachobarbero did the same through amke. A big hand then developed in Stud H/L. It started with a raise from meneerbeer with [8c], all-in reraised from milanissimo8 with [Ks], and call from nachoberbero with [7d] and meneerbeer. Fourth street brought a bet from meneerbeer with [7c] and check-call from nachoberbero with [9s], and they both checked on fifth street with [7s] for meneerbeer and [9d] for nachobarbero. Ultimately, meneerbeer showed [6s][4d][8c][7c][7s][8h][7h], and nachobarbero turned over [3h][5c][7d][9s][9d][6h][Ac]. They split the side and main pots, while milanissimo8 simply mucked and departed in fifth place with $5,940.00. Nachobarbero was short and doubled through amke again, but a few rounds later, nachobarbero was involved again. The NLHE hand started with a small blind raise fr

There are days in poker when you can't even win the blinds and days where it seems as if you can do no wrong. At the final table of SCOOP 2013 Event 31-M, $215 NLHE (Knockout), it looked as if Steve "Illini213" Barshak was going to have one of the latter type of days and absolutely run over the whole table on his way to the title. But M1ghtyDucks stood up to the bully starting when play become four-handed, and for that reason it was M1ghtyDucks who grabbed the SCOOP title in this event. Event 31-M was another of the two-day events that are sprinkled liberally across the SCOOP 2013 calendar. It was also a knockout event; $41.25 of each of the 3,823 $215 buy-ins went into a knockout bounty pool. Knock out a player and collect their bounty. None of the Team PokerStars Pros made Day 2 of this event, although Henrique Pinho did manage an ITM finish on Day 1. He drove about halfway through the 495 ITM places, finishing in 260th place for $401.94 with two knockouts. The Team Pros were all on to other events by the time that the last nine players took their seats at the Event 31-M final table, just after the 5pm break. Seat 1: CHIQUIDEALER (919049 in chips) Seat 2: LukeFromB13 (2118427 in chips) Seat 3: M1ghtyDucks (2849770 in chips) Seat 4: Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Goto (1953755 in chips) Seat 5: Respect_Lt (2017109 in chips) Seat 6: bugiaso (2696750 in chips) Seat 7: -PABLIN-ARG- (831342 in chips) Seat 8: jknack10 (3722654 in chips) Seat 9: Steve "Illini213" Barshak (2006144 in chips) Level 39: blinds 25k-50k, ante 6250 Average: 2.12 million (42.5 BBs) All Barshak all the time jknack10 had the pole position at the start of the final table, but the table was loaded with players who had already made COOP final tables across their PokerStars careers. The most notable example was Barshak, who won a WCOOP event last autumn and who came into the final table with direct position on jknack10. Barshak proved just how dangerous he can be by dominating the final table during the first 25 minutes of play to more than double up to 4.5 million chips - and take over the chip lead - without going to showdown once. Barshak's good turn came at the expense of most of the rest of the table. It was as if the other eight players were all playing reactive poker to what Barshak was doing, and paying the price for it. The short stacks, however, managed to double up when they needed to do so. CHIQUIDEALER made ace-king work all in pre-flop against jknack10's ace-queen; -PABLIN-ARG- trended dangerously downward until winning a flip with pocket 8s against Respect_Lt's [kd][td] to climb back up to 900k. It thus fell to Respect_Lt to be the first player eliminated. In the 40k-80k level, Respect_Lt opened for the minimum, 160k. Action passed to LukeFromB13 in the big blind, who three-bet shoved for 1.5 million. Respect_Lt had only 1.13 million behind the original raise and snap-called with two 10s. LukeFromB13 showed down two queens and earned the first final table knockout when neither player improved. Just before the 6pm break, Barshak finally went to his first showdown. Pre-flop he raised the minimum to 160k from second position and was called by LukeFromB13. Barshak checked an ace-high flop, [7h][as][2c], then called LukeFromB13's bet of 235,650. Both players checked when a second ace hit the turn. On the river [3d] the action was checked again. Barshak tabled [ac][8s] for trip aces to drag the pot and cross the 6-million chip mark. After the break, -PABLIN-ARG- doubled up for a second time when [kd][2h] got there against jknack10's [ac][6h] in a battle of the blinds. Once again, however, all the double-up did was restore -PABLIN-ARG-'s count to 920k. LukeFromB13 announces a presence Barshak, on the other hand, kept going up. Two more big pots without showdown pushed his stack north of 7 million as the players began the 50k-100k level. It was three times the average stack. Barshak's next closest opponent, LukeFromB13, had 2.8 million but

With the possible exception of poker players who have a constitutional bias to playing so tight they can safely fall asleep at the table, everybody loves a knockout tournament. Though it is possible to run deep in tournaments without knocking anyone out, it's never a preferred path. So knockout tourneys add a little extra reward for playing good, aggressive poker, making sure that even players who don't go deep can still earn a little something for their time. In Event #31-L, a no-limit hold'em knockout tournament, $20 of every $27 buy-in went to the regular prize pool and $5 to the bounty pool. A field of 16,764 players turned up yesterday afternoon to kick off the first day of play, building a total prize pool of $419,100 - $83,820 of which was set aside for bounties. After 40 levels of play they concluded Day 1 with only 35 players remaining. The leader in KOs at the end of Day 1 was gosuopossum1 of the Ukraine, with 31 total. These 10 players led the chip counts: anco197 (Germany) 7.43M, 18 KOs AMG_hit (Russia) 7.02M, 12 KOs Coll Bratr (Czech Republic) 6.70M, 15 KOs Haifishmudda (Germany), 5.73M, 6 KOs bahiaaj (Qatar) 4.96M, 20 KOs KKremate (Brazil) 4.75M, 10 KOs Silverearth (Austria) 4.23M, 11 KOs Jeff "jeff710" Hakim (Canada) 3.76M, 5 KOs ar_gio13 (Greece) 3.48M, 9 KOs Gagarin007 (Russia) 3.08M, 11 KOs gosuopossum managed to maneuver to 14th place ($1,005.84) and remained the KO leader through the end of the tournament despite not earning another one on Day 2. Meanwhile four of the top 10 leaders from Day 1 kept pace and made the final table, which started an hour and 49 minutes later after play resumed. They and these other five players came together with blinds and antes at 125K/250K/31.25K: Seat 1: Gagarin007 (7,876,331 in chips) Seat 2: Jeff "jeff710" Hakim (11,093,772 in chips) Seat 3: leggo-boys (5,960,360 in chips) Seat 4: R4lti (15,290,144 in chips) Seat 5: blank seat (3,118,220 in chips) Seat 6: NoNeed23Bet (10,887,734 in chips) Seat 7: skarpet2 (6,914,596 in chips) Seat 8: Silverearth (15,140,006 in chips) Seat 9: Coll Bratr (7,538,837 in chips) Austria's blank_seat came to the table with the shortest stack, worth just shy of 13 big blinds, and managed to tread water for the first dozen hands thanks to a couple of blind steals. On Hand #13, with the blinds and antes up to 150K/300K/37.5K, everything fell apart. Fellow Austrian Silverearth opened for 750K in early position and blank_seat jammed for 3.42M with [Ad] [Ks]. It was a trivial call for Silverearth with [As] [Ah]. The [2c] [4s] [4c] flop presented no danger, and though the [Kd] gave blank_seat a few outs on the turn none of them came home on the [9c] river. That sent blank_seat packing in 9th place ($2,011.68). Most of the pots after that first knockout continued to be taken down before the flop. Those that didn't tended to toward the United Kingdom's NoNeedTo3Bet or Canada's Jeff "jeff710" Hakim, who had come to the final table in third and second in chips, respectively. The next major confrontation didn't come until Hand #35 on the 250K/500K/62.5K level, when NoNeedTo3Bet opened for 1M under the gun with [5h] [5c]. The Czech Republic's Coll Bratr responded with a third bet to 8.32M, holding [Ac] [Jh], and NoNeed23Bet made the call with 9.47M left behind. The [3d] [Js] [Jc] flop was all Coll Bratr needed, and the [9d] turn and [Th] river officially shipped the Czech player the 17.89M-chip pot. Just four hands later Russia's Gagarin007, who had slipped to 3.24M over the first several orbits, moved all-in before the flop with [Qc] [Qs]. A flat-call from jeff710 didn't entice anybody else into the pot, so Hakim's [Kc] [Kh] were only up against the one opponent. The [Kd] [7c] [2s] flop left Gagarin007 in need of running queens for four of a kind, but the [2h] came on the turn and left the Russian player drawing dead. Like a dagger the [Qd] fell on the river, ending Gagarin007's tournament in 8th place ($3,017.52). The very next hand sa