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Wait a second. Stevie Chidwick didn't have a SCOOP title? Wait another second. David Bach didn't have a SCOOP title? These things simply couldn't be true. When I was introduced to the shy Chidwick years ago, he was the guy who was literally winning a dozen WSOP seats just so he had some extra cash. At that point, David Bach had already been around forever. Chidwick Bach So, you're telling me neither man had a SCOOP title...until last night? Apparently that was the case. But they both took care of that issue, as you'll see below. We've collected the results from overnight and posted them below. You can read any of our wrap-ups by clicking on the headlines. zxz_ takes 1st with number 1 in Event #27-L ($27 FL Triple Draw 2-7) Entrants: 1,668 Prize pool: $40,949.40 Places paid: 216 1. zxz_ (Ukraine) *$6,043.45 2. Ceegee87 (Mexico) *5,587.40 3. VEVAT (Russia) $3,685.44 4. crack2 (United Kingdom) $2,456.96 5. dexmorgan77 (Germany) $1,637.97 6. Megaheiner (Germany) $1,023.73 *Denotes a two-way deal. What a rush! aDrENalin710 goes worst to 1st in Event 27-M ($215 FL Triple Draw 2-7) Players: 376 Prizepool: $75,200 Places paid: 48 1. aDrENalin710 (Russia) - $12,434.45* 2. CandyJohnson (Norway) - $11,566.62* 3. Ig123456789 (Ukraine) - $11,154.93* 4. Tamsusis (Lithuania) - $5,828.00 5. kingkai (Norway) - $4,324.00 6. Zackary "Thrash370" Koerper (Costa Rica) - $2,820.00 * denotes 3-way deal Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick champ of Event #27-H ($2,100 FL Triple Draw 2-7) Players: 96 Total prize pool: $192,000 Places paid: 12 1. Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick (United Kingdom) $52,320 2. Bryan "Brryann" Ruiter (Netherlands) $35,040 3. Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (Mexico) $26,880 4. 7Be/\eC7 (Belarus) $18,240 5. Unkn0wn123 (Uruguay) $13,440 6. Rory "Mafews" Mathews (United Kingdom) $10,080 2jokerSpb has the last laugh in Event #28-L ($27 Stud Hi/Lo) Players: 2,148 Prizepool: $52,684.30 Places paid: 272 1. 2jokerSpb (Russia) $8,189.80* 2. A_Sh4dy_0ne (Netherlands) $6,573.93* 3. bigslikluck3 (Israel) $5,822.34* 4. Mario "Pokerccini" Puccini (Germany) $3,687.90 5. Leon_Javur (Estonia) $2,634.21 6. late_entry (Mexico) $1,580.52 7. ACforKP (Australia) $1,053.68 8. ironOne (Norway) $526.84 *= reflects the results of a three-way deal that left $500 in play for the winner gnat777 flies wire-to-wire in Event #28-M, $215 Stud Hi/Lo Entries: 463 Prize pool: $92,600 Places paid: 64 1st place: gnat777 (Ukraine) $13,717.81* 2nd place: Wallyayay (United Kingdom) $12,850.65* 3rd place: Jordan "iMsoLucky0" Morgan (Mexico) $13,490.30* 4th place: cyberkanguru (Germany) $6,945 5th place: ilushan (Russia) $4,630 6th place: culibrk1 (Vzech Republic) $3,241 7th place: Irish Jack (Ireland) $2,315 8th place: Lyndon360 (New Zealand) $1,852 * - denotes results of a three-handed deal David "Gunslinger3" Bach takes second SCOOP in Event #28-H ($2,100 Stud Hi/Lo) Entrants: 95 Prize pool: $190,000.00 Places paid: 12 1. Gunslinger3 (Panama) $51,775.00 2. gunning4you (Canada) $35,150.00 3. WhooooKidd (Mexico) $26,600.00 4. buzzard1881 (Canada) $18,050.00 5. BUMM73 (Russia) $13,300.00 6. RZA4444 (Canada) $9,975.00 7. Osten (Norway) $8,075.00 8. jakz101 (Canada) $6,175.00 Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

The Boardwalk can’t catch a break. For the past two decades, Atlantic City’s casino industry has been under siege from gaming competition in neighboring states. The Southern New Jersey seaside resort, where saltwater taffy was created in the late 1800s, which thumbed its nose at Prohibition in the 1920s and was the inspiration for the board game Monopoly, once owned the monopoly for casinos in the East. But starting in the mid-1990s, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and New York legalized gaming. The competition, combined with the recession, took away business and caused Atlantic City’s annual casino revenues to fall more than 41 percent between 2006 and 2012. A comprehensive reform package pushed by Gov. Chris Christie in 2011 that created the Atlantic City Tourism District and focused new attention on boosting the city’s 12 hotel-casinos — nine on the famous Boardwalk and three in the Marina district — was just beginning to take hold in October. Then Superstorm Sandy washed ashore. Atlantic City evacuated residents while casinos and other businesses closed as a precaution. The city was spared the brunt of the storm, but emotional damage remains. “It’s a shame because it felt like we had some momentum building before Sandy hit,” Tropicana Atlantic City President Tony Rodio said in an interview in late April. Rodio has spent 30 of his 33 years in the gaming industry working in Atlantic City. “No question, we had taken some tiny steps forward and then got pushed five steps back,” Rodio said. “It’s really hard to say if the whole effect of Sandy is behind us.” In April, figures released by the Division of Gaming Enforcement showed Atlantic City’s 12 casinos collected $228.5 million in gaming revenues, a decline of 12.1 percent from a year ago. Gaming revenues have declined in 54 of the past 56 months. In 2006, gaming revenues were an all-time high of $5.2 billion. The 2012 total of $3.05 billion was the lowest figure since Atlantic City casinos cracked the $3 billion mark in 1992. In the first four months of 2013, gaming revenues are down 12 percent. But that’s not the whole story, Atlantic City casino and tourism leaders say. Nongaming indicators from 2012 showed upticks in luxury and sales tax collections. The hotels’ overall nongaming revenues grew almost 3 percent. “For someone who just wants a night of gambling, it’s now in their backyard,” said Caesars Atlantic City General Manager Kevin Ortzman, who also oversees Bally’s Atlantic City and the Showboat. “We have to do what Vegas did in the ’90s and that’s reinvent ourselves as a resort destination,” Ortzman said. “We need to highlight our nightlife, our restaurants, the beach and the boardwalk. We’re more than just gaming.” FOCUS NOT ON GAMBLING ALONE The Atlantic City Alliance, which was created through Christie’s reform package, has the task of marketing the casino industry. The agency is housed in Boardwalk Hall, an event arena built in 1929 and supplanted in 1997 by the Atlantic City Convention Center. The Alliance’s $30 million annual budget is funded by the casinos, but that doesn’t mean it pitches only gaming. Last year’s advertising campaign — “Do AC” — didn’t display one gaming moment, and the current campaign has just a smattering of casino shots. “Our goal is to go back to our roots and focus on Atlantic City as a tourist destination,” Alliance President Elizabeth Cartmell said. “We need to point out the diversity of offerings and mix of activities we have in this market.” Cartmell also said the city needs to copy Las Vegas in drawing visitors through nongaming amenities. Many of the same restaurants operated by celebrity chefs and high-end eateries found on the Strip are also on the Boardwalk and the Marina. When Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville opens Memorial Day at Resorts Atlantic City, the restaurant will be just down the Boardwalk from the Hard Rock Cafe in the Trump Taj Mahal and the House of Blues in the Showboat. Many of the casinos

About a month before the EPT, I received an invitation to participate in the Million Euro Cash Game at Monte Carlo. One million euro buyin, no-limit hold'em, blinds of 1k/2k. It was to be, I believe, the biggest non-private cash game ever run in Europe, and definitely the biggest one ever to be televised or live-streamed. It was a lot to be excited about, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to participate. There was also a lot to be stressed about. First of all, the logistics of getting a million euros from my PokerStars account to a casino in Monte Carlo in a timely fashion were non-trivial, though that's not the sort of material that makes for a compelling blog post. There's the issue of risk management - how much of my own action should I take and how much should I sell? And to whom? And, of course, I couldn't let myself underestimate the emotional impact of playing for the highest stakes I'd ever played in my life and of doing so in front of such a large worldwide audience. It's so easy to make mistakes when you're playing for higher sums of money than you are accustomed to. It's tempting to be too cautious, a little gun shy. Those sorts of mistakes can be very costly. It's also easy to overcompensate, blasting off on a bad bluff or making a too-heroic call because you're determined not to let the stakes make you timid. When post-flop action amounts to, "I'll bet a BMW," "I'll raise a starter home," "I'll re-raise a McMansion," it's hard not to be distracted by the surreality and the massive excess of it all. When I got to Monte Carlo, it didn't seem to be a certainty that the game would run at all. The week leading up to the appointed Saturday was filled with discussions and rumors of who would and would not be playing, whose money had or had not arrived. No one had accounted for a French bank holiday and it seemed uncertain that several players, myself included, would get their money in time. At one point, around the middle of the week, I had resigned myself to the belief that the game probably wouldn't run, and that if it did it would probably be without me. However, Saturday rolled around and things had worked themselves out. My wire turned up at about the last possible minute, and out of the ten or so possible players, a group of six definites had solidified. As soon as Viktor Blom, Talal Shakerchi, Niklas Heinecker, Sam Trickett, Paul Newey, and I were all eliminated from the 25k tourney that had started the previous day, the game would commence. The buy-in was reduced to 500k, but the stakes were kept at 1k/2k. Pretty soon after we started, I played the biggest pot of my life. Talal opened to 7k in the cutoff, and, with effective stacks of just over 500k, I three-bet to 23k on the button with [Qs][Ts]. The blinds folded, and Talal made it 52k. I called. The flop came a beautiful [Js][8s][5s], and he bet 75k. I called. The turn was an offsuit [A], he continued with a bet of 125k, and I called. The dream runout continued with a river offsuit [Q]. Talal checked, I shoved for just over 250k into a pot of just over 500k, and he deliberated only briefly before calling. He didn't say what he had, but my first guess would be a set of aces. If you're wondering, yes, winning a million euro pot feels as good as you think it would. Even when it is just a brutal cooler in a four-bet pot. The couple hours following this hand went well but were relatively uneventful. The biggest pot I played was one in which I opened [A][K] under the gun and got four callers. I c-bet an [A][K][Q] rainbow flop and called a checkraise from Niklas. The turn paired the [Q], and he checked. With 175k in the pot and around 425k to play, I decided to turn my hand into a bluff. I bet 105k and he folded on the turn, but I was undecided if I was going to fire the rest on the river if he called. When we took a break for dinner, I was up a bit over 600k. Despite my early good fortune in the game (or possibly because of it), I found m

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Bach took down Event 28-H for $51,775 while Chidwick earned $52,320 for topping the Event 27-H field. The big names have been doing just fine at SCOOP this year and yesterday Jordan Morgan, Thor Hansen, Calvin Anderson and Rory “Mafews” Mathews all made final tables. At this point it doesn’t even seem to be a surprise that Shaun Deeb is first on the SCOOP leaderboard with 84 events played and a staggering 465 points. Here’s a look at a couple of the highlight-reel final tables: Chidwick Outlasts cal42688, Mafews to Win $52k Stephen "Stevie444" Chidwick   Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick came out on top of a field of 96 players to win Event 27-H $2,100 FL Triple Draw 2-7 for $52,320. Chidwick, who once won over 100 WSOP Main Event packages before he was even old enough to play the series in Las Vegas, beat a final table that included Cal “cal42688” Anderson and Rory Mathews. Mathews busted early but Anderson, who won his fifth SCOOP title earlier this week, made a serious run at the title. Anderson was finally derailed in third place but still earned $26,880 for his efforts. Chidwick went on to beat Dutch pro Bryan “Brryan” Ruiter heads-up to officially take down his second SCOOP title. Here are the complete final-table results: 1. Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick (United Kingdom) $52,320 2. Bryan "Brryann" Ruiter (Netherlands) $35,040 3. Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (Mexico) $26,880 4. 7Be/\eC7 (Belarus) $18,240 5. Unkn0wn123 (Uruguay) $13,440 6. Rory "Mafews" Mathews (United Kingdom) $10,080 David “Gunslinger” Bach Smokes Competition to Earn $51k Thor Hansen made another final table.   David Bach once again proved his Stud dominance by outlasting 95 players to win $51,775 in Event 28-H $2,100 Stud Hi-Lo. Bach actually won this same event in the 2010 SCOOP. Of course Bach’s most memorable win is the $50k H.O.R.S.E. event at the WSOP in 2009. The Gunslinger had some competition at the final table from another very good Stud player – Thor “Osten” Hansen. Hansen already has a SCOOP title this year as he beat Shawn Buchanan heads-up to win Event 11-H $2,100 Stud. It wasn’t to be for Hansen in this event as he soon found his way to the rail in seventh place for $8,075. It eventually came down to Bach vs. gunning4you for the title and it was Bach who got the last shot in. Here are the results of the final table: 1. David "Gunslinger3" Bach (Panama) $51,775.00 2. gunning4you (Canada) $35,150.00 3. WhooooKidd (Mexico) $26,600.00 4. buzzard1881 (Canada) $18,050.00 5. BUMM73 (Russia) $13,300.00 6. RZA4444 (Canada) $9,975.00 7. Thor "Osten" Hansen (Norway) $8,075.00 8. jakz101 (Canada) $6,175.00 Visit www.pokerlistings.com

It's tough to be a live-plus-online pro in Asia. Unlike Europe, which has lots of live events fairly close together and friendly online tournament times, Asian live tournaments are far-flung and major online tournaments start in the middle of the night. Since the start of the year from Singapore to Macau, Shanghai, and Perth before heading back to Singapore for a week. Then I was in Korea for two weeks. After two weeks in Korea I went straight to Sydney for a week, then Singapore for 5 days, and then back to Melbourne for another two weeks. I know that sounds glamorous. And I do count my blessings often. I find myself fortunate to be in a new city every month or every week rather than being stuck in a cubicle for a few years at a time. It's all about balance, knowing where your place is and counting your blessings. But dealing with all those different time zones, and different starting times in each time zone, can be very tiring. For example, in Australia it's really common to start a tournament at noon but in a place like Macau it's common to start at 6pm or 8pm. At home in Singapore, the big online tournaments like the Sunday Warm-up and the Sunday Million start at 1am and 430am. It's tough to make a schedule out of all of this. It was easier when I was in my early 20s. Now I think, "I'm flying to Melbourne in a week, I should start preparing for the time there." I'll check the schedule and see that all the days start at noon local time, which is 10am in Singapore. I'll start waking up in Singapore as if I'm already in the Melbourne time zone. I try to make sure I get my sleep and don't eat too much at night. There's even a strange diet tip that suggests you should starve yourself for 12 hours before you arrive in your new time zone. That's really extreme but I've found it to be very useful. Jumping from an 8pm schedule to a 12pm schedule to a 430am schedule is mostly about preparation. The good thing is that if I get really tired, I just give online a miss. Online will always be online, but live events are much more infrequent. They require the most preparation. I try to arrive to a new city at least three days before the Main Event in that city. I play as much of the side events and satellites as possible in order to get used to the surrounding and the time. My first few days I might be ready to fall asleep at the tables but I try to power through it. And if I bust early - say I know in the coming days that the Main Event is going to be 12pm-10pm and I bust from a satellite at 4pm - I'll play online for a while, just to make sure I won't feel sleepy the next few days. That doesn't always work though. When the going really gets tough, I try to find a couple of friends to go for a nice lunch or nice dinner. That's the great thing about live poker. You actually get to see people, catch up, and find out what's going on with them. There are pros and cons of travelling. I've been doing this for five years and I think the grass is always greener on the other side. But there's nothing I'd rather be doing. I treat poker just like a job, but this job takes me far away from home for weeks at a time. Many jobs do that, but I have the choice whether I want to go to these events or not. I like it quite a bit, even if the varied hours sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Bryan Huang is a member of Team PokerStars Pro

We have good tournament directors around the world, but sometimes they and their partners make really bad decisions, and often the reason that they do is they aren't playing poker every day. What we need to have happen at all major events is to have a committee of players who can be called on to assist TDs with difficult decisions and thus avoid this problem. A Committee to Consult What I am suggesting is similar to what is often in place at bridge tournaments. There you'll see five people who are known to be thoughtful, expert players chosen to serve as a committee to help rule on certain decisions that arise. Poker is different from bridge, of course, since in bridge every player plays to the last hand while in poker, players will bust out from the tournament. Even so, we could appoint a committee of players at each event and from those whoever is still around or on call could be consulted when difficult decisions arise. The selection of such players should be carefully done, of course. You can't just pick those who play tournaments once in a while to serve on such a committee, but need players who play regularly and thus have the most experience facing various situations that come up in tournament poker. Let me talk about a few examples of what, in my view, were poor decisions by otherwise good tournament directors that might have been avoided if there were such a committee of players on hand to have helped. Decisions, Decisions Once I played in a televised tournament, and a three-way hand came up in which one player went all in, then the next folded his hand, but one of the cards flashed as he did. The dealer instinctively went to turn the card over, and I stopped her to say she shouldn't do that, because doing so would give the third player an advantage -- namely, extra information that the guy who went all in didn't have. Then, there was a meeting of the people running the event which concluded the card had to be turned over. Even on the TV broadcast they said I was wrong regarding the situation, but the fact is anyone who plays no-limit hold'em on an everyday basis would agree that if someone moves all in without seeing a flashed card, then you can't let another person who, say, has a pair of sevens, get to see if a seven has been thrown away. I think it would have been much better to have had those who play the game make the decision in such a spot. More recently a situation came up at the EPT. A player would count up his chips for a call. As he started to move his chips forward, he'd say "raise." Having seen it happen on at least one previous occasion, the tournament director warned the opponent involved by saying, "Hey, the last time he did this, he had the nuts." The tournament director may have thought that was a sufficient way to deal with the situation, but if you got a committee together to decide what to do, I think it would've quickly determined that the angle-shooter should not be able to profit from his angle. Instead, the TD should've told the angle-shooter he wouldn't profit from the move in the future. In other words, if his opponent called the so-called "raise" and had the better hand, he would get the extra chips. However, if the angle-shooter had the best hand, he would not get any more chips. A third example came up in a tournament when Player A raised with two kings from early position. It folded to him in the small blind where Player B had not seen Player A's raise. He then moved all in and when the short stack in the big blind folded, Player B mucked his hand before Player A could act. The tournament directors decided that Player B would only lose the amount of their bet and no more. They went into the rulebook and found a rule to cover the situation, but these rulebooks are written by tournament directors not poker players. I discussed this situation with other players, and several other rulings were proposed, rulings which were different from what actually happen

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David "Gunslinger3" Bach is a stud. Not only is this Bach's second SCOOP victory, it's his second SCOOP victory in the same event. Back in 2010, Bach won the $2,100 Stud Hi/Lo and now he decided it was time for another SCOOP. While the field only had 95 players, it was as tough as you could get. There were several stud specialists including Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero, George Danzer, ElkY -- who won the WSOP Stud Championship in 2011 -- Jonathan Duhamel, Eugene Katchalov, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Alexander Kravchenko. Team PokerStars Online Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome and George "jorj95" Lind III were also in the field. While these players didn't make it to the final table, there was a whole other batch of Stud pros who made... The final table Seat 1: gunning4you -- 85,577 Seat 2: RZA4444 -- 10,848 Seat 3: BUMM73 -- 22,664 Seat 4: osten -- 58,571 Seat 5: jakz101 -- 80,288 Seat 6: buzzard1881 -- 96,336 Seat 7: Gunslinger -- 40,026 Seat 8: WhooooKidd -- 78,690 Players were cooped up a bit at the final table. Half of the players had previously won a PokerStars COOP event with two winning a SCOOP and another two winning a WCOOP. Whooookidd and Gunslinger3 both won SCOOPs before while osten and jakz101 were the WCOOP champions. Like Bach, Thor "osten" Hansen's victory came in a stud event, the $320 7-card stud. One down RZA4444 had been the short stack during the money bubble and the final table but managed to hang on. RZA4444 would also avoid being the first player out of the final table. Limits were 2.5K/5K with a 500 ante and jakz101 was chipped down to under 20,000. On jakz101's final hand, WhooooKidd brought it in with a [5d] and jakz101 raised. WhooooKidd called. Whooookidd: ([6d])([9d])[5d][9h][kd][4d]([6h]) jakz101: ([4s])([8c])[ad][8s][7s][qc]([4h]) jakz101 bet on fourth street and WhooooKidd called. jakz101 fired again on fifth street and WhooooKidd raised. jakz101 moved all-in for 12,637 and WhooooKidd called. jakz101 had a pair of eights and WhooooKidd had a flush draw. WhooooKidd hit the flush on 6th street and there was no low hand. jakz101 was our first final table elimination and took home $6,175.00 for 8th place. No double COOP Then our remaining WCOOP champion was eliminated. Thor "osten" Hansen was down to 13,382 by the time of jakz101's elimination and went all-in the following hand. It was a split plot so osten only chipped up to 16,632. Then he went all-in again. buzzard1881 brought it in with a [4d] and Gunslinger3 raised with a [7h]. BUMM73 and osten called showing a [6c] and [5c] respectively while buzzard1881 re-raised. Everyone called and we had a large pot. Gunslinger3: (X)(X)[7h][qs][6s] osten: (X)(X)[5c][10d][jh][ks](X) BUMM73: ([4h])([7s])[6c][ad][8s][js]([5h]) buzzard1881: ([2c])([7d]) [4d][kh][5d][3s]([kd]) BUMM73 bet fourth street and everyone called. BUMM73 fired again on fifth street and osten raised all-in for 9,132. buzzard1881 and BUMM73 called while Gunslinger3 folded. BUMM73 check-called a bet on sixth street and took the initiative on the river. buzzard1881 raised and BUMM73 called. Both players had straights but BUMM73's was higher. buzzard1881 took the low with [7d][5d][4d][3s][2c] osten was out in 7th, earning $8,075.00. Hanging on As we mentioned before, RZA4444 was the tournament short stack during a few key moments. RZA4444 had managed to stay alive each time and even managed to chip up some. Then the Canadian player lost a chunk. WhooooKidd brought it in with a [3d] and RZA4444 raised with a [3s]. Gunslinger3 re-raised with an [as] and RZA4444 called. RZA4444: (X)(X)[3s][5s][9d][jc](X) Gunslinger3: (X)(X)[as][qh][6d][ah](X) Gunslinger3 check-called on fourth street and then bet on fifth. RZA4444 called Gunslinger3's bet on fifth and sixth, but folded to the eventual champ's bet on the river. RZA444's stack was nearly halved to 21,692. RZA4444 lost a bit, doubled-up and lost some more before being eliminated. BUMM73 brought it in with a [4d