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In the early part of my career in poker, Shane Schleger became one of the first people I identified as a real person with a fake name. That is, everyone called him "shaniac," and that was cool, because that's who he was. Over time, it became common to call real people by their online names, but "shaniac" was among the first for whom it seemed normal to me. As the months and years passed, as I started to read more and more of Schelger's writing, for whatever reason, it started to occur to me that--like many of the people I would come to know in poker--the online names and online personas didn't tell much of anything about the real people these men and women were. It took getting to know them in real-world spots before you could get a sense for who they really were. Today, PokerStars Team Online released another in its series of short films about the people in its stable. No surprise here: Shane "shaniac" Schleger makes for a great subject. You can watch the film below or on its You Tube page. Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

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Some people need to know their limits. Event #25 offered players three chances to get their short-handed fixed-limit Hold'em game on. The high version of the event featured a $2,100 buy-in and drew 131 entrants, obliterating the $75,000 guarantee by creating a $262,000 prize pool. Jarcon86 came out on top and won $68,120.00. The even lasted just over 12 hours -- a quarter of which was spent at the final table -- and featured several big names. Team PokerStars Pro was represented by Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Theo Jorgensen. Team PokerStars Online was also in the field, with Randy "nanonoko" Lew and Richard "Tzen1" Veenman representing the virtual red spade. But only 18 players would cash this event and -- of course -- only six could make it to the... Final table Seat 1: OPTIMUS9RIME -- 71,396 Seat 2: blanconegro -- 110,594 Seat 3: StinkyToeFoo -- 113,427 Seat 4: jama-dharma -- 105,800 Seat 5: Jarcon86 -- 113,459 Seat 6: Sasuke234 -- 140,324 Stacks were fairly even when the final table started, but that couldn't last forever. Half the players started to chip up and the other half slid. No double SCOOP jama-dharma was the only player remaining to own a SCOOP watch. jama-dharma won SCOOP #9-H ($2,100 Mixed Hold'em) back in 2010. jama-dharma has skills in limit and even took the final table lead early on, chipping up to 145,000. Other players took notice: Sasuke234: chip leader is limit pro Sasuke234: we are all ***ed But that's when jama-dharma's descent started. Limits were 2,500/5,000 and StinkyToeFoo raised from middle position. jama-dharma re-raised and StinkyToeFoo four-bet. jama-dharma called and the flop came [4d][10s][kh]. StinkyToeFoo bet and jama-dharma called, bringing a [jc] on the turn. There was a round of checks and a [2h] on the river. StinkyToeFoo bet and jama-dharma called and mucked when StinkyToeFoo showed [ah][kd]. jama-dharma dropped to 126,050 and lost the lead to Sasuke234. jama-dharma then raised from the button and Sasuke234 called from the big blind, bringing an [ad][2d][as] flop. jama-dharma bet, Sasuke234 raised and jama-dharma called. The turn was a [3c] and jama-dharma check-folded to Sasuke234's bet. jama-dharma dipped below the six-figure and never crossed it again. OPTIMUS9RIME was also losing a bit during this time: RSS readers click through to play jama-dharma then dipped to 50,000 when blanconegro raised to 5,000 from the button. jama-dharma called from the big blind and the flop came [8c][4s][ks]. jama-dharma check-raised blanconegro and blanconegro called, bringing a [qh] on the turn. jama-dharma led out, blanconegro called and the river was a [4d]. jama-dharma put out one last bet and blanconegro called, showing [jc][8d] and taking down the 40,000 pot. jama-dharma showed [jd][5d] and was left with 51,000. jama-dharma then fell to Jarcon86. Limits were up to 3,000/6,000 and Jarcon86 raised from under-the-gun. jama-dharma called from the big blind and the flop came [as][6c][10c]. Jarcon86 bet, jama-dharma raised and a [10h] came on the river when Jarcon86 called. Jarcon86 called jama-dharma's turn bet and the [qh] fell on the river. jama-dharma bet again and Jarcon86 raised to 12,000. jama-dharma only had 5,300 behind and folded. jama-dharma then folded his small blind and moved all-in for 3,800 on the button. Jarcon86 and Sasuke234 called from the blinds and checked down the [7d][8h][5h][7c][2s] board. Jarcon86 turned over [as][5c] and everyone else mucked. jama-dharma became our first final table elimination and earned $11,790 for finishing 6th. One more Sasuke234 was still the chip leader with 230,000 and StinkyToeFoo was in second with about 190,000. The elimination put Jarcon86 in a close third with 176,000. blanconegro and OPTIMUS9RIME on the other hand were hanging in with about 30,000 apiece. Limits went up to 4,000/8,000 and blanconegro managed to score a double up. blanconegro raised to 8,000 from under-the-gun and Sasuke234 re-raised from t

SCOOP is known and loved for its variety and its multiple buy-in levels. Still, some of the best events on the schedule remain no-limit hold'em freezeouts like Event #22-H. A two-day tournament with 30 minute levels, and a slow structure, this event featured plenty of room for post-flop play and lots of room for the kind of play that make for great railbirding. And with $1.25 million in guaranteed prize money, there was sure to be a first prize worthy of such a marathon tournament. Those qualities drew a field of 1,048 players to the tables on Monday, May 19th, building a total prize pool of $2,096,000. Late in the day the field had shrunk enough to begin paying out, and Team PokerStars Pro's Johnny Lodden made the cut (87th place, $4,820.80). When Level 20 concluded only 71 of the starters had made it through. Day 2 began with blinds and antes of 1.5K/3K/375 and a field led by the United Kingdom's Mr Negreanu with 434K. Others in the top 10 included former Super Tuesday winner Sheeter 200 with 325K, Team PokerStars Pro's Ivan Demidov (321K), multiple online Triple Crown winner Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski (315K), and Brian "$tinger 88" Hastings (300K). It was a good run for Team PokerStars Pro's Ivan Demidov Mr Negreanu (14th, $17,816), Hastings (31st, $8,593.60) and Demidov (21st, $9,641.60) fell short, but the others were still in the running when the final table began at 8:10 p.m. ET. Seat 1: Str8$$$Homey (1,829,685 in chips) Seat 2: Sonderskönig (1,399,712 in chips) Seat 3: pablox55 (2,461,490 in chips) Seat 4: tonydatiger5 (281,806 in chips) Seat 5: Sheeter 200 (299,005 in chips) Seat 6: Flufferd (1,876,152 in chips) Seat 7: David "WhooooKidd" Baker (468,029 in chips) Seat 8: poker41day (356,324 in chips) Seat 9: Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski (1,507,797 in chips) The blinds were at 10K/20K with 2.5K antes. With 2009 WCOOP Event 23 champion Str8$$$Homey and two-time WSOP bracelet winner and former SCOOP winner David "WhooooKidd" Baker also in the lineup, the stage was set for an epic final table battle - and the game itself lived up the setting. With three short stacks hovering between 14 and 18 big blinds there was plenty of incentive for action in the early going - and it mostly went in favor of the underdogs. Israel's poker41day was the first to chip up, doubling through Belgium's Flufferd after three-betting all-in with [Qd] [Qs] and getting called by [Tc] [Ts]. That boosted the Israeli player to a more comfortable 670K. Six hands later, a lot of pre-flop action and a friendly flop card led David Baker to double up to 958K: RSS readers, please click through for replay Not all of the short stacks were able to find spots to double up, though. Canada's tonydatiger5 had few chances through the first 41 hands, but on Hand #42 the Canadian player picked up [As] [Qh]. With a minimum raise to 50K by p0cket00 and a flat-call from Sonderskönig in front, tonydatiger5 three-bet to 175K. p0cket00 folded, but Sonderskönig four-bet and tonydatiger5 called all-in for 222K total. Sonderskönig's [Ks] [Jh] still trailed after the [6h] [2s] [3d] flop, but the [Kh] turn flipped things upside down. The [5d] fell on the river to end tonydatiger5's run in 9th place ($26,200). WhooooKidd chipped up to 1.4M thanks to two pots against Argentina's pablox55, each worth more than 520K. Then Sheeter 200, desperate with just four and a half big blinds, moved all-in for 115K before the flop on Hand #55 with [Ad] [8c]. p0cket00 raised to isolate with [Ac] [Ks] and won the 330K-chip pot when the board fell [6d] [3h] [5d] [Td] [4s], sending Sheeter 200 to the rail in 8th place ($42,968). Around and round they went With play seven-handed, the remaining players were stacked like so: Seat 1: Str8$$$Homey (1,079,380 in chips) Seat 2: Sonderskönig (1,312,603 in chips) Seat 3: pablox55 (2,681,890 in chips) Seat 6: Flufferd (1,417,503 in chips) Seat 7: David "WhooooKidd" Baker (1,350,974 in chips) Seat 8: poker41day (386,398 i

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Hey Shaun? Yeah, you. Shaun Deeb. The dude with more SCOOP watches than limbs. Hear that? Shhhhhh... listen! Those are footsteps, Shaun. Calm down, it's not the cops. It's just Calvin Anderson chasing down your record. It's safe for now, but let me tell you, the guy had a pretty sick day. First stop was Day 2 of Event #22-M. Came in 14th out of 8,000-something players. All the while, he was still grinding #25-M. Yeah, man. 6-max LHE. He made the final table in the middle of the pack and then came from behind heads-up to beat Nick Abou Risk for the title. Yeah, I know you won five. But now he's won four. And you won four of those five all in the same year, so...it could happen? Not saying I doubt you or anything, but I'd keep an eye out. Calvin "cal42688" Anderson won his first SCOOP watch in 2010, topping a $16.50 buy-in turbo PLO event. A year later, he won the next two in a single 24-hour period, one in Stud Hi/Lo, the other in Razz. Today, at his ninth career SCOOP final table, Anderson won his fourth title in as many disciplines of poker, topping Event #25-M ($215 FL Hold'em 6-Max). 639 players came out to min-raise their way to fame and fortune, the prize pool topping out at $127,800. 84 places were paid with first place set to earn $23,643.00. More than a dozen Red Spades were in the field, including Victor Ramdin, Theo Jorgensen, Liv Boeree, and Chad Brown, but when it came to cashing, they went 0-14. The betting limits were up to 10,000/20,000 on the final table bubble. With less than three big bets remaining, as1025 picked up [Kh][Jc] and raised to 20,000. Jonstarz three-bet, and as1025 capped. The rest of as1025's chips went in on the [Ts][9h][3s] flop and jonstarz revealed [9s][9d] for middle set. As1025 needed a queen or running cards to survive, but got the [6c] and [4h] instead. Jonstarz raked in the pot and as1025 departed in seventh place, setting the final table. Final table chip counts Seat 1: b8chatz (503,245 in chips) Seat 2: nabourisk (207,358 in chips) Seat 3: Truelove13 (787,158 in chips) Seat 4: nimzon (579,554 in chips) Seat 5: cal42688 (517,266 in chips) Seat 6: jonstarz (600,419 in chips) Truelove13 won't wait "I need a new watch," cal42688 quipped as cards went in the air. He certainly had his work cut out for him at this final table, which featured a two-time UKIPT champion in Nick "nabourisk" Abou Risk as well as nimzon, who made a SCOOP final table in this same format in 2009, albeit with a $5,200 buy-in. Truelove13 brought the chip lead into the final table but couldn't hang onto it for long. With the board reading [Ah][9h][5h][5s] on the turn, jonstarz capped the betting and Truelove13 called. Truelove13 check-called one more bet when the [Ks] hit the river, jonstarz revealing [Kh][7h] for a flopped flush. Truelove13 fell to 336,000 and ground his way back to 400,000 before jonstarz flushed him out again. In a three-way pot with nimzon, jonstarz turned a queen-high flush and nearly tripled his stack. Down to 80,158 in chips, Truelove13 capped the betting preflop vs. nabourisk and tossed his last 158 in on a [Ad][4s][3s] flop. Both had flopped top pair, but nabourisk was winning the kicker war, his [As][Kd] dominating Truelove13's [Ac][9d]. Truelove13 did not improve, the turn and river falling the [Ts] and the [Jd] to send him home in sixth place. nabourisk nicks nimzon Nimzon dropped to 391,000 in the early going when nabourisk turned trip sevens and nimzon called him down. Only a few minutes later, nimzon slipped to only 159,000 after the aforementioned three-way pot where jonstarz turned a queen-high flush (see replayer above). Nimzon ground his way back up to 277,000, but suffered a cooler against nabourisk. The betting was capped three ways preflop, then capped again between nabouris and nimzon on the [8d][5d][3h] flop. Nabourisk check-called 40,000 on the [Jd] turn and another 40,000 on the [Jc] river to learn his [Qd][Qc] had survived. Nimzon's [Td][Th] was

Shaun Deeb has five SCOOP titles in his brief professional career. Deeb is like the Tiger Woods of the Spring Championship of Online Poker because he's the master of his own domain and chasing his own ghost. Then again, Deeb has not won any SCOOP events in 2013. Is he losing his edge? That's how much supreme excellence we expect out of Deeb, due to his stupendous and super-human feats at the poker table. In case you haven't been paying attention, Deeb was a bridesmaid twice already this year with a pair of second-place finishes in SCOOP events. When the day began, Deeb sat second overall for Player of the Series, an impressive accomplishment considering he had not won a single 2013 SCOOP event... so far. I know what you're thinking. If you listen to the tin-foil hat-wearing donks in certain poker forums, then you might actually believe the urban legend that Shaun Deeb is not human and he's either an alien-hybrid from another solar system, or a cyborg with superior artificial intelligence that was created by the CIA at a clandestine, underground test facility in the remote Nevada desert. Who knows the true origins of Shaun Deeb? One thing is for certain... whenever Deeb plays, everyone gets the hell out of his way because it's only a matter of time before he steamrolls right over you. If you blink, you're road kill. Shaun Deeb: Man or Machine? But this was not destined to be Shaun Deeb's night. Deeb embarked on a another deep run and final tabled yet another SCOOP event, but he fell short of winning his 6th SCOOP title when he exited in fifth place in Event #24-H Mixed NL/PLO. ImaLucSac was the fortunate one who shipped Event #24-H and thwarted Deeb's attempt at padding his stats. SCOOP Event #24-H $1,050 Mixed NL/PLO attracted a 362 runners. It seems like a small number, but the field was loaded with several hundred of the premier mixed game connoisseurs. The top 45 places got a cut of the $362,000 prize pool, with $70,047.00 set aside to the eventual champion. This mixed event featured alternating rounds of NLHE and PLO, which meant they played NL during odd-numbered levels and gambled it up with PLO during even-numbered levels. Team PokerStars Online taking a shot at a SCOOP crown in this event included Mickey "mement_mori" Peterson, Jorj95, nkeyno, Pessagno. Team Pros participating in Event #24-H included Theo Jorgensen, George Danzer, Chad Brown, Richard Toth, Eugene Katchalov, Toni Judet, Vivian Im, and Lex Veldhuis. Only 45 players advanced to the money. Theo Jorgensen and mement_mori were among the fortunate players who secured themselves a cash. With 100 to go Theo Jorgenson held a sizable lead with almost twice as many chips as second place, but as the tournament raced toward the money bubble, Jorgensen slipped toward the middle of the pack. Right after the money bubble burst, Team PokerStars Pro Jorgensen hit the skids and was knocked out in 44th place. Jorgensen earned a $2,172 play day. Not long afterwards, Team Online mement_mori bounced in 37th place, which also paid out $2,172. With 18 remaining on the final two tables, high-stakes grinder zivziv held the lead with 267K. With 11 to go, Markush13 was out in front with Deeb sitting close by in second place. With ten players remaining and vying for the final table, action went hand-for-hand. Former big-stack, zivziv, unceremoniously bubbled off the final table in tenth place when his [Kd][Qd][Jh][9s] lost to fuddebuf's [Jc][Tc]8h][7d]. The board ran out [Ts][8c][6c][8d][Qs], and although zivziv rivered a Queen-high straight, it failed to beat fuddebuf's full boat. The final table was set and Deeb was in the hunt for another SCOOP title. Event #24-H Final Table Chip Counts: Seat 1: shaundeeb (228,151) Seat 2: ihaveAAdream (27,444) Seat 3: Markush13 (381,260) Seat 4: ILYAK1717 (187,312) Seat 5: fuddebuf (602,732) Seat 6: ImaLucSac (62,820) Seat 7: pokerkluka (78,395) Seat 8: Schinken777 (135,666) Seat 9: shtirlitz_ (106,220) The final table

I'm no detective. If you present me with a locked room mystery, I'm likely to make a few polite inquiries and then, stymied by the apparent unsolvable nature of the mystery and the incomplete information in front of me, throw my hands up in the air and say, "The butler did it," even though the butler never, ever does it. Crack the code, solve the puzzle, save the day. Isn't that the way detective fiction goes? Seems to be just as true for tournament poker. Whoever cracks the code of the other players first stands the best chance of being anointed the champion at the end of the tournament. In SCOOP 2013 Event 24-M, that honor went to wadzon. Long before the final table began, however, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov showed off his mixed game mystery-solving skills in Event 24-M. He made a spirited run through the field before bowing out in 43rd place, good for $502.88. He was joined on the money side of the results list by Team Online player Caio Pessagno, who finished in 187th place. The double elimination of Yoo4 and ridziarz in a PLO hand on the final table bubble meant that only eight players took seats at the final table instead of the usual nine. Seat 2: flodopoker (1715074 in chips) Seat 3: Fishtripp (161686 in chips) Seat 5: henri72 (1107965 in chips) Seat 6: wadzon (438500 in chips) Seat 7: teckidtq (825324 in chips) Seat 8: anusgutten (2179820 in chips) Seat 9: xhiti_b (2184429 in chips) Level 32: PLO, blinds 15k-30k Average: 998k (33 BBs) Slow beginnings As the final table started, both Fishtripp (5.5 BBs) and Mikleler (12 BBs) were in danger of busting out. At the other end of the spectrum, anugutten and xhiti_b were neck-and-neck for the chip lead. anusgutten got out of the gate first by taking 240,000 chips off of xhiti_b on the second hand of the final table. Short-stacked Fishtripp never made it out of the gate at all. Fishtripp was put out to the proverbial pasture in 8th place by xhiti_b. Fishtripp opened pre-flop for pot to 105k, then called all in on a [9s][jd][4c] flop for 56k more. At that point, Fishtripp's [ah][qh][jc][5c] had the lead with a pair of jacks, but xhiti_b's [6s][kh][td][3h] turned a king-high straight and then ducked Fishtripp's river outs to a full house. xhiti_b was involved again just before the 11pm break when Mikleler caught an unlucky river card to exit in 7th place. The chips were all in pre-flop - all 277k of them for Mikleler. xhiti_b's single-suited queens [qc][qc][7d][5s], didn't look like they'd hold against Mikleler's [ac][jh][ts][8h] after the board developed [7s][td][6c][9d] by the turn, giving Mikleler a straight. But the river [2d] improved xhiti_b to a diamond flush to send Mikleler crashing to the rail. Despite these eliminations, xhiti_b wasn't building much of a chip lead. With 6 players left and blinds at 20k-40k NLHE, anusgutten and xhiti_b both had about 2.4 million in chips. flodpoker and henri72 were virtually tied with about 1.4 million each, and wadzon and teckidtq were the short stacks. anusgutten staked a claim to the chip lead for a second time, first by taking another 500,000 chips from xhiti_b in a pot that went to showdown and then by knocking out teckidtq in 6th place. teckidtq tried open-shoving for 533k from the cutoff, but anusgutten had been dealt [as][qs] and got right in there. teckidtq showed two 8s but couldn't fade anusgutten's overcards, as an "ace from space" hit the river to improve anusgutten to the winning hand. Deal off, game on When the game switched to 25k-50k PLO, flodopoker inquired, "anybody interested in a deal?" Nobody responded. The band marched on, with anusgutten again falling back to the pack and henri72 taking over the chip lead for the first time. It got worse for anusgutten when anusgutten got on the wrong side of set over set against wadzon to drop all the way to 4th in chips out of the remaining 5 players. henri72 made a huge stride forward in the counts by eliminating flodpoker in 5th place. flo