Poker

You'd think playing against 200 fans might not be the most sensible warm up for Rafa Nadal as he plans his record-extending assault on the French Open. And you'd be right. Why risk picking up a freak injury before the serious business of bagging an eighth title begins? Well, Rafa did no such thing. As regular readers will know, he now has two games in his locker. He took his fans on at poker. Last night, 200 lucky French PokerStars players got to meet Rafa and play in a special poker tournament with him. This was no ordinary live poker game. Instead, they all met on a tennis court and played across the virtual felt in a special online tournament. Rafa has said he loves the competition that poker provides, and recent study and practice appeared to have paid off as he progressed nicely, even denting Team PokerStars Pro Julien Brécard's hopes with a well-timed bluff. But the tennis star's night came to an abrupt halt when his K-Q was out-flopped by a player's J-6. He may have finished half-way down the field, but Rafa made sure all his fans had a great time. The winner of the tournament was Kinkin.a.60 on PokerStars.fr, while the top 20 finishers received a PokerStars chip set signed by Rafa. Now Rafa's attention turns to the tennis. He begins his title defense at Roland Garros next week, looking to win a record-extending eighth title. It's looking to be chilly and damp - but will that slow down PokerStars' clay-court machine? We'll keep you informed. Meanwhile, find our more about Rafa, the poker player here.

Omaha Hi-Lo isn't everyone's cup of tea, but when you make the format No Limit, then it certainly adds a rather exciting element to the game. Brazil's ninototoroko was able to adjust best to the format to continue a superb SCOOP series with a dominant victory. It was Event #38-M of the SCOOP schedule with the $215 No Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event bringing 661 players together to build a prize pool of $132,200. The top 90 players would reach a profit with the champion set to pocket $24,787.50 in prize money. Team PokerStars Pros George Lind, Adrienne Rowsome, George Danzer, Chad Brown, Naoya Kihara, Fredy Torres, David Williams, Marcin Horecki, Bertrand Grospellier were all part of the action but were eliminated short of the money, along with Israel's Zevik who was the unlucky bubble in 91st place. As the players trickled to the cashier, there were a couple of notable red spades still in contention. Mickey Petersen bowed out in 70th place for $396.60 while "The Flying Dutchman" Marcel Luske made it all the way to 19th place to collect $661.40. When jeff710's two pair with jacks and tens fell to Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick's kings and eights with no low hand possible, our final table line up was set: Final Table Line up Seat 1: miamia23 (158,354 in chips) Seat 2: Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick (760,362 in chips) Seat 3: flexmasterNL (846,874 in chips) Seat 4: Fred_Brink (124,203 in chips) Seat 5: kintamani (217,709 in chips) Seat 6: ezeelife (247,703 in chips) Seat 7: bogdaniel111 (123,931 in chips) Seat 8: ninototoroko (632,732 in chips) Seat 9: midastruck (193,132 in chips) flexmasterNL and stevie444 were the chip leaders but with the blinds at 4,000/8,000/1,000 there was plenty of play ahead of us. After finishing in 4th place in SCOOP Event #37-M $215 HORSE barely an hour or two earlier, Fred_Brink found himself seated on another SCOOP final table. Unfortunately the SCOOP title again eluded Fred_Brink after moving all in preflop with [Js][As][9h][4c] against midastruck's [2h][Ac][Qh][Tc]. midastruck flopped two pair and improved to a rivered straight on the [Qc][Ah][5d][Jd][Kc] board to remove Fred_Brink in 9th place for $1,864.02 in prize money. After doubling up bogdaniel111, miamia23 was on the short stack and all in preflop with [As][9s][Ts][Qd] as kintamani made the call with [Ad][Td][9c][Ac]. With no low possible, both players were gunning high but it was the aces that held on the [Kh][Tc][6d][8h][5c] board. miamia23 collected $2,974.50 for 8th place. ezeelife doubled through stevie444 with a full house over full house, before a massive one million chip pot was split between ezeelife and flexmasterNL where both would have felt they had claims to scoop: RSS readers click through to see replay After being close to scooping the massive pot, ezeelife was in fact the next to go. ezeelife three-bet shoved preflop with [9h][Ts][2s][As] with stevie444 calling it with [4c][Jh][Jd][Ah]. The board was spread [Qs][5d][Qc][Tc][Qd] to see stevie444 with a full house to scoop and leave ezeelife to depart in 7th place for $4,296.50. The six remaining players battled for almost 45 minutes before the next player was to fall. bogdaniel111 secured a SCOOP title just a couple of days ago but couldn't add SCOOP title number two after moving all in preflop with [Qc][2c][9c][Ad] with kintamani making the call with [6d][As][3d][Kh]. The board was spread [4s][4h][2d][Ah][3h] to give kintamani the high with aces and fours with a king kicker to go with the only low, leaving bogdaniel111 to hit the rail in 6th place for $5,618.50. kintamani was unable to capitalize on that momentum, and despite out-chipping a couple of short stacks, kintamani was next to go as ninototoroko turned up the heat: RSS readers click through to see replay kintamani's aces were cracked as ninototoroko wheeled in a straight for the high and low to scoop and eliminate kintamani in 5th place for a $6,940.50 pay day. ninototoroko was way out in front with mid

SCOOP 36-H was a pure tournament for those looking to put some money into a prizepool and then spend a day proving they had what it takes to be a champion. PokerStars put together a structure for the High version of Event #36-H as a No Limit Hold'em where the structure put very little pressure on the play, almost deep enough where you'd expect Allen Kessler to pop in and declare it his own. The tournament drew 224 entrants who were only permitted one rebuy, which 135 took advantage of, and one add-on for anyone survived past the opening two hours. Those remaining put it another 149 add-ons to push the pot to just over $1,000,000 into the prizepool. The field never went over 25 tables but just about everyone involved was one of the top players in the game. The tournament provided some of the deepest play seen online and the field responded in kind with world class play. The final table finally burst after hours of play on two tables when ferocious666 put everything in middle when ahead with [Ah][Jh] only to get flushed out by [Ks][Qs] just short of the final nine. Seat 1: robinho (279,397) Seat 2: Rens02 (119,725) Seat 3: smokrokflock (410,204) Seat 4: Mafews (48,407) Seat 5: wwwBTHEREcom (211,250) Seat 6: Sasuke234 (63,484) Seat 7: snake8484 (44,612) Seat 8: bob43155 (17,3167) Seat 9: TheMuIIetman (173,754) Blinds: 2,000/4,000 with 500 ante Average: 169,333 (42.3 BBs) Sasuke234 takes a stand with JackAce, eliminated in 9th place Sasuke234 came into the final table with a chip and ready to go, opening for the last 39,484 UTG with [Ah][Js] but ran into Don "robinho" holding [Ad][Kc]. Sasuke234 flopped decent with [Jc][7c][Qd] but was up still had to fade some draws. The [8c] wasn't friendly and the [Qc] was a bad runner-runner for Sasuke234 to be knocked out in 9th place for $20,320. snake8484 slithers deep eliminated in 8th snake8484 did well to make it to the final table and move up in the payouts before opening for the last 26,737 UTG with [Ah][7d] only to be called by Rens02 with [Ad][Qc]. Both hit a piece on the [Kd][Qs][7h] flop and Rens02 stayed ahead after the [5h] turn and [9c] river. snake8484 stuck around long enough for an 8th place finish for $30,480. Mafews finds out Jacks, eliminated in 7th place Mafews did well to make this big final table but ran into too much bad luck late. With a big hand late in a big eventm, Mafews shoved from UTG+1 with [Js][Jh] only to find wwwBTHEREcom re-shove for 126,332 behind with [As][Ac] to get heads up. Drawing very slim, Mafews watched the board run out [5c][Td][7c][Kd] and [Tc] for no sweat. Mafews played well but was knocked out in 7th place for $40,640. TheMuIIetman takes a stand, eliminated in 5th place TheMuIIetman did well to make the final table but got into a pre-flop battle with wwwBTHEREcom and called a 3-bet all-in. heMuIIetman: [Ad][4s] wwwBTHEREcom: [Ac][Qc] Both hit the [Ah][Td][Jh] flop but the night was over for TheMuIIetman after the [8s] turn and [2d] river. TheMuIIetman ran well and played well to finish in 5th place for $60,960. bob43155 takes a shot, eliminated in 4th place With play going back and forth with most players in relatively comfortable stacks, bob43155 3-bet all-in for 121,300 after smokrokflock min-raised UTG, with smokrokflock instantly calling holding [Ac][Ks] versus [Ad][9c] and in danger of busting out. The board provided little drama with [4s][7d][Qd]]...[5s]...[2d] and bob43155 was knocked out in 4th place for a nice payday of $88,900. robinho loses big coin flip, eliminated in 3rd place With blinds levels still very deep for even 3-handed play, robinho and wwwBTHEREcom got themselves into a pre-flop raising battle only to find themselves coinfliping for the the heads-up chip lead. wwwBTHEREcom: [As][Qd] robinho: shows [Js][Jc] The poker gods always make things interesting and the [Jd Ts Kh] provided just that. robinho's flopped set could not hit a boat on the [2s] turn or [5h] river and we eliminated in 3rd p

SCOOP 38-L had everything the spectator might wish for in a final table - a dominating chip leader, known as JulianChrist no less; good humour, a Team PokerStars Pro and a winner adding SCOOP to MircoMillions silverware in the shape of JKMatthews, who took the title and a first prize of $10,100.16. As during his MM56 victory, JKMatthews demonstrated the same style and panache that served him so well earlier in the year. His final table strategy seemed to be to let the others bash heads, while he waited for his moment. It worked, outlasting a field of 2,906 who had created a prize pool of $71,342.30, smashing the $40,000 guarantee. Alas, it would not be a first SCOOP title for Team PokerStars Pro Marcin "Goral" Horecki, who would bust in fifth place, but not before securing top spot on the SCOOP "Low" leader board. The Final table of SCOOP 38-L Here's how they lined up. Seat 1 - JulianChrist - 3,982,285 Seat 2 - JKMatthews, 1,821,804 Seat 3 - Gags30, 221,595 Seat 4 - bolovic, 1,912,562 Seat 5 - LebenIsSchön, 1,675,984 Seat 6 - yurasov, 1,600,169 Seat 7 - nickosz, 379,396 Seat 8 - Goral, 2,248,852 Seat 9 - Raininkiwi, 595,478 Of the final nine Horecki stood out most, his avatar was draped in the full battle dress of a Team PokerStars Pro and Supernova. Horecki is something of a specialist when it comes to low buy-in events - twice named Player of the Year in Micro Millions, and even winning one of the smallest side events on offer at the recent EPT Grand Final. This was his turf. Team PokerStars Pro Marcin "Goral" Horecki in action on the EPT Then there was chip leader JulianChrist, modestly named given that he was running like God. He was the chip leader with 4 million, who in the past two months had won four Omaha events online, form fit for a SCOOP final table. The path to redemption, or at least a SCOOP watch, could be made only through the acceptance of JulianChrist, whose role was to cast judgement on the others as they moved all-in. He would call, usually ahead, sending them to a better place. At times JulianChrist was a superstar. Other times full of doubt. But with nine players left it was hard to see him not ascending to the esteemed height of SCOOP winner. But then, SCOOP finals don't always go according to plan. Gags30would happily watch as others busted before him. First Raininkiwi in ninth place, and then nickosz in eighth, one of five players from the last ten to be busted by JulianChrist. Playing with a joker By this stage LebenIsSchön was establishing herself as the table comedienne, joking about TV time, and using emoticons as convenient emblems for certain situations. Horecki laughed politely but Gags30 didn't understand the TV time joke, which may or may not have explained his decision to escape - or shove - on the next hand, a three way pot with Horecki and LebenIsSchön, who took the high and lo to send Gags30 out in seventh. Yurasov stayed quiet during all of this, a silent threat given his record of big scores in big online events. The Belarusian seemed to have eternal life given his propensity to double-up. Although his longevity could have been down to the hi-low element, bringing with it a kind of one-step forward, two steps back format, with called all-ins usually split. Silence is golden As yurasov rose from the dead, Horecki fought well with the short-stack with two unanswered shoves, then a big hand against bolovic, who would depart minutes later in sixth place, mustering only ace-high against JulianChrist's two pairs. Then Horecki departed in fifth. Having worked hard to get back into the game the Pole ran into big stack JulianChrist. Up to now JKMatthews had played a patient game, laughing politely at LebenIsSchön little jokes, while refusing to call people a "donk", and in this game, that's as close to godliness as you can get. JulianChrist - 7214982 JKMatthews - 3616982 LebenIsSchön - 1516834 yurasov - 2181202 LebenIsSchön had a crack first, handed a lifeline by J

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Twelve and a half hours is typically enough time to plow through a field of thousands, but in this case, it took over half a day to get from 118 to 1. When the final table did finally materialize, it was loaded with familiar faces. AceQuad made his sixth SCOOP final table of the week, Event #26-H runner-up vandir4rek got a second chance to close out a win and Calvin "cal42688" Anderson was eight eliminations away from a record-tying fifth SCOOP bracelet. However, gumasta hit a rush with five players remaining and rode it all the way to the finish, capturing his first SCOOP title and $59,000. 118 players turned out for Event #38-H, the $236,000 prize pool more than doubling the $100k guarantee. 15 places were paid with first place set to earn $59,000. Joining the action were Team Online's Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome, Naoya "nkeyno" Kihara, and George "Jorj95" Lind III along with Team Pros George Danzer, ElkY, and Humberto Brenes. None of the Red Spades finished in the money, Brenes running the deepest with a 25th place finish. The final ten players spent nearly an hour on the final table bubble before calvin7v three-bet shoved for 20,588 preflop and initial raiser cal42688 called. Calvin7v's [Kh][Kd][Td][2h] did not improve on the [9s][8h][3c][Ac][4h] board while cal42688's [Ad][Jd][8s][6d] turned a pair of aces and rivered an 8-6-4-3-A low to set the final table. Final table chip counts Seat 1: jpro89 (39,160 in chips) Seat 2: cal42688 (76,725 in chips) Seat 3: vandir4rek (50,056 in chips) Seat 4: AceQuad (33,710 in chips) Seat 5: gumasta (98,168 in chips) Seat 6: karolinaD (51,634 in chips) Seat 7: N0b0dy (145,792 in chips) Seat 8: TY4Stacks2 (72,615 in chips) Seat 9: nilsef (22,140 in chips) AceQuad makes sixth FT, finishes ninth Surviving that bubble guaranteed Eric "AceQuad" Brix his sixth final table appearance in the 2013 SCOOP and his second one of the day. While grinding his way toward the final nine here, AceQuad also took fifth in Event #37-H ($2,100 H.O.R.S.E.), to add another 55 points to his leaderboard total. Unfortunately, AceQuad wasn't long for this table, open-shoving for his last 22,000 with [Ah][4d][Tc][Ks]. KarolinaD called with [Ad][As][6d][7d] in the big blind and made aces up on the [Jc][8c][7s][8h][Kd] board to end AceQuad's run in ninth place. Ace Quad nabbed $6,490 for his finish and is right on George Danzer and Shaun Deeb's heels for the top spot in the Player of the Series race with 490 points. TY4Stacks2 bows out in eighth Short stack nilsef chipped up to 41,000 before doubling through TY4Stacks2. The action folded to TY4Stacks2 in the small blind and he opened for 3,150. Nilsef shoved from the big blind with [Ah][2s][4s][Kh] and TY4Stacks2 called, revealing [Ac][3s][9d][Ts]. Although TY4Stacks2 picked up straight and flush draws on the [Ks][Qs][6d] flop, nilsef paired his king and improved to kings up when the [4h] came on the turn. The river was the [Td] and nilsef's two pair held up to scoop, leaving TY4Stacks2 on only 1,373 in chips. TY4Stacks2 managed to triple to 5,500 but wouldn't survive another all-in. The last of his chips went in a few hands later and four players called, checking down the [Jh][6c][4s][8h][2s] board. KarolinaD made a 6-4 low with [As][3d][6d][Qh] and N0body took the high with a set of eights, as TY4Stacks2 exited in eighth place. gumasta, n0b0dy surge Vandir4rek's stack steadily dwindled, bottoming out at 26,450 before he three-bet shoved over cal42688's button raise. Gumasta reshoved for 87,000 from the big blind and cal42688 got out of the way. vandir4rek [Ac][Kc][Kh][Js] gumasta [Ad][2d][5h][Tc] Gumasta hit top pair and the nut low draw on the [Th][5d][3c] flop and snapped off vandir4rek's kings when the [Ah] came on the turn to make him aces and tens. The river [7s] made gumasta a 7-5-3-2-A low and he scooped the pot, ending vandir4rek's run in seventh place. Four hands later, gumasta and nilsef saw a [Th][9h][3d] flop for 2,800

When you enter a $27 poker tournament and are facing a decision for a $60,000+ prize, it's understandable if the palms get a little sweaty. It's life-changing money for many, so it often makes sense to lock in a deal and avoid any heartache. A three-way deal in today's SCOOP event could have locked in a nice prize and avoided some nervous moments for our final three players, but a little greed got in the way, allowing pierrec_m to come through to take the lot in an impressive victory. SCOOP Event #36-L was a $27 No Limit Holdem event that allowed each player one rebuy and one add-on. A huge field of 8,415 players contributed 5,362 rebuys and another 3,708 add-ons to create a massive prize pool of $429,256.75 to smash the guarantee. Finishing in the top 1,080 players was enough to make the money while first prize was a massive $64,394.18. Team PokerStars Pros Fatima de Melo, Nacho Barbero, Naoya Kihara, Marcin Horecki, Christian de León, Chad Brown, Bertrand Grospellier, Martin Hrubý, Randy Lew, George Danzer, David Williams, Grzegorz Mikielewicz and George Lind were all spotted in the lobby, but sadly all fell short of the money. As did Adamyid from the United Kingdom who bubbled in 1,081st place to leave everyone else with at least $90.14 for their efforts. Dutchman Lex Veldhuis was the only red spade to cash in this one with his 352nd place worth $163.11. Simultaneous eliminations across the final two tables saw our final table start with just eight players. Interestingly both players met their demise with ace-queen. umbroSS shoved [ad][qs] but lost the preflop race against OrangemanXD's pocket sevens while at the same time, zebest_666 went with [ad][qd] but ran into pierrec_m's [Kd][Kc]. The double elimination saw our final table look as follows: Final Table Line up Seat 1: pierrec_m (12,475,636 in chips) Seat 2: GodsTeacher (8,501,150 in chips) Seat 3: meteze (8,590,707 in chips) Seat 5: kambera560 (4,376,990 in chips) Seat 6: OrangemanXD (5,429,875 in chips) Seat 7: BBCboom (4,863,579 in chips) Seat 8: t8ofDiamonds (1,878,091 in chips) Seat 9: ZebMcCracken (6,338,972 in chips) pierrec_m was out in front as t8ofDiamonds was the short stack, but it would be kambera560 first to go. Three players saw a flop of [5s][2h][4h] with a bet from BBCboom called by both ZebMcCracken and kambera560. The turn brought the [2c] and BBCboom fired again. ZebMcCracken folded but kambera560 made the call. When the river landed the [9s], BBCboom checked it over to kambera560 who moved all in. BBCboom made the call with [8h][8c] which proved to be a great call as kambera560 flashed [kh][qh] for a busted flush draw. kambera560 picked up $5,151.08 for 8th place. ZebMcCracken pulled some chips back with a big double up through pierrec_m when outkicking the chip leader as both players hit top pair, while t8ofDiamonds joined in the fun with a fortunate double up holding a dominated ace against meteze. It was a cooler that would cause the next elimination as GodsTeacher ran into a monster: RSS readers click through to see replay Big Slick was no match for the Cowboys as GodsTeacher was bundled out in 7th place for $9,229.02. BBCboom was booming with the chip lead, although meteze closed the gap, winning two healthy pots at showdown against the chip leader. pierrec_m looked like being next to go when all in preflop with pocket jacks against the pocket queens of meteze, but the poker Gods had other ideas: RSS readers click through to see replay pierrec_m was lucky to be alive but t8ofDiamonds wasn't so fortunate. t8ofDiamonds was all in preflop from the small blind with [Ad][Jh] and looked set to double up through ZebMcCracken who called in the big blind with [ks][jd] but again it was a cruel board as it landed [Kh][Qs][Qh][3d][6c] to pair ZebMcCracken's king and eliminate t8ofDiamonds in 6th place for $13,306.95. Just moments later and OrangemanXD was all in preflop for just under fourteen big blinds from the small blind w

There have been a number of already-decorated players who have proven themselves again by doing well during this year's SCOOP, and Event #36-M, the $215 no-limit hold'em "1R1A" event, gave us yet another example. "What's the chance?" some might ask, that another WSOP bracelet holder would be winning a SCOOP watch -- like David "Whooookidd" Baker did just yesterday -- but knowing that poker is a skill game, we know such occurrences shouldn't be surprising. Speaking of chance, it was ChancesCU -- a.k.a. the accomplished pro player Chance Kornbuth -- who again helped further the cause for poker being a skill game by winning Event #36-M and a nifty $112,558.29 first prize. From 1,430 to 18 The tourney offered players the option to take a single re-buy if needed then an add-on after two hours of play. Most did both, as 1,030 re-buys were snapped up and 909 add-ons taken, thus building a total prize pool of $673,800 -- close to twice the event's $350K guarantee, with the top 180 finishers scheduled to split the loot. By the six-hour mark they were down to just over 300 players remaining, with Chance "ChanceCU" Kornuth having already opened up some space between himself and the rest of the field by building a stack of more than 142,000, nearly 40,000 ahead of the chasing pack. Team Online member Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen was also on the front page of the counts at that point, claiming a spot just inside the top 20, with Team PokerStars Pros Chad "ChadBrownPRO" Brown, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Lex Veldhuis, and Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero also still with chips. About an hour-and-a-half later they'd played down to 180 players and the cash, with talonaquiles having moved out in front with more than 227,000. All five of the red-spade sporting PokerStars team players were still there, too, with Veldhuis having moved up and into the top 10. Play continued into the evening, with Chad Brown hanging on with a short stack for a while before busting in 109th ($1,212.84). The field shrunk below a hundred, then just before the nine-hour break Jose Barbero met an untimely end in 74th place ($1,482.36) after running [Ac][Kh] into IfoolU's [Ah][As]. Shortly thereafter Mickey Petersen hit the rail as well in 71st ($1,549.74) after getting his short stack in with [Ac][9d] against ElyaGer727's [Jh][9h], then watching three hearts flop to give his opponent a winning flush. The field was whittled further down to 50 players, with both ElkY and Veldhuis having moved into the top 10 of the counts while Rhys "floppinhel" Jones had pushed into the lead with more than 540,000. Soon enough the two Team PokerStars Pros and one-time kickboxing opponents found themselves at the same table chatting about StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Dota 2 as the tourney continued and field continued to shrink. By the 12-hour mark just 25 were left, with Chance "ChanceCU" Kornuth back in first (with nearly 790,000), Grospellier in seventh (with just under 500,000), and Veldhuis in 20th (with almost 245,000). An hour after that they were down to 18, with Kornuth still on top as the only player over 1 million chips with ElkY in fourth position and Veldhuis in 12th. Kornuth continued to build on his lead over the next hour as the next six players fell, with Mike "munchenHB" Telker (18th), TUM19 (17th), and alexandrapau (16th) each earning $3,234.24, and Nick "FU_15" Mamoine (15th), *krasav4ik* (14th), and triantafill (13th) taking away $4,480.77 apiece. From 12 to 9 It was just after the 13-hour break that Veldhuis ended up committing the last of his chips -- just under five big blinds -- with [Kh][9c] against ChanceCU's [Kc][Jh], and when the board rolled out [4c][2h][4s][5c][Th], Veldhuis was out in 12th. Veldhuis tweeted the news afterwards: @RaSZi: "Busted in 12th. Painfully carddead for the last 2-3 hours. Pretty crazy. Still good day though I guess. Big day tomorrow. #scoop" Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis Soon after ChanceCU also kn

Horse racing has its origins with the ancient Greeks, but British royalty always held a unique fondness for thoroughbred racing, which is why it was once dubbed the "Sport of Kings." In the technologically advanced 21st Century, the current "sport of kings" is online poker, which has its own version of a high-stakes "horse race" that tests mastery at mixed games. The final table for SCOOP Event #37-H included a trio of players seeking a second 2013 SCOOP title. Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer has two SCOOP victories on his resume, including a victory in #12-H (NL 2-7 Draw). Meanwhile, "highland" had no time to celebrate his SCOOP victory the previous night in Event #31-H (NL Knockout). Earlier this week, Russia's aDrENalin710 won Event #27-M (Triple Draw). One of them was destined to win another SCOOP title. But which one? As fate would have it, Danzer, aDrENalin710, and highland were the last three players left standing, but highland knocked out Danzer and thwarted his quest at a third SCOOP title. With two remaining, highland was heads-up with aDrENalin710. The winner would go home with a second SCOOP title this week (with higland seeking two titles in consecutive days). When the dust settled, highland was denied a multiple SCOOP victory, as aDrENalin710 ran away with a triumphant win in Event #37-H and won a second SCOOP this week. The entire field in "high" version of H.O.R.S.E. was a veritable who's who of the world's elite mixed-game specialists. SCOOP Event #37-H $2,100 H.O.R.S.E. attracted 107 runners who boosted the prize pool to $214,00, which more than doubled the initial $100,000 guarantee. Only the top 12 places won prize money with $58,315 set aside to the eventual champion. Team PokerStars Pros participating in this event included George Danzer, Chad Brown, Eugene Katchalov, Humberto Brenes, Nacho Barbero, and ElkY. PokerStars Team Online taking a shot at a SCOOP title included Jorj95, nkeyno, talonchick, and mement_Mori. None of them would advance to the money. Only Team PokerStars Pros George Danzer and Chad Brown cashed in this event. Danzer went the deepest with another final table and he was on a distinct mission to take down his third SCOOP title and win a third champion's watch. Team Pro George Danzer trying to win a third SCOOP The money bubble burst when blanconegro was knocked out in 13th. Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown busted in 12th place ($5,885) during a round of Hold'em when his [Qc][6c] lost to aDrENalin710's [As][Jh]. Scott "gunning4you" Seiver went out next in 11th place when his [Ah][Kh] was run down by PearlJammer's [9d][7d]. With ten players remaining, Pearljammer took the lead with 100K. ImaLucSac bubbled off the final table in ninth place during Stud, when highland won the pot with [As][Ks][3c][Ts][Ad][9h][8h] and a pair of Aces versus ImaLucSac's [Kh][Th][Ac][3h][Tc][Js][2s] and his pair of tens. With ImaLucSac's exit in ninth, the final table of eight was set. SCOOP Event #37-H - Final Table Chip Counts: Seat 1: AceQuad (59,881) Seat 2: CoooKay (21,284) Seat 3: skalexjung (54,367) Seat 4: aDrENalin710 (66,825) Seat 5: PearlJammer (92,850) Seat 6: GeorgeDanzer (29,829) Seat 7: NoraFlum (90,594) Seat 8: highland (119,370) The final table commenced during Level 34. Blinds were 2K/4K during a round of Stud. Canada's highland sat on the big stack with 119K, while PearlJammer was second overall with 92.8K, and CoooKay brought up the rear as the short stack with 21K. To say the final table was stacked with a plethora of talent is an understatement. A trio of players at this final table were seeking multiple SCOOP titles. Danzer had won an event last week (and has 2 career SCOOP and 2 WCOOP titles and needs a TCOOP to secure an elusive Triple COOP). A couple of days ago, aDrENalin710 took down Event #27-M. Plus, just last evening, highland binked Event #31-H. AceQuad is en feugo. He made six SCOOP final tables over the last week including two this evening. Although AceQ

David "WhooooKidd" Baker was looking for his second SCOOP title in a matter of days as another mixed game event produced a fascinating SCOOP final table, but in the end Baker would fall short with Russia's Mitorun emerging with the title and almost twenty grand in prize money. It was Event #37-M of the SCOOP schedule with the $215 HORSE event bringing a talented field of 567 players to build a prize pool of $113,400. That was almost double the advertised guarantee with the top 72 players set to cash and the top prize worth $21,432.60. Team PokerStars Pros Marcel Luske, David Williams, Mickey Petersen, Nacho Barbero, Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand Grospellier, George Lind, Marcin Horecki, Adrienne Rowsome, George Danzer, Naoya Kihara and Chad Brown all fell short of the money, along with Taknapotin from Canada who bubbled this one in 73rd place as the remaining players had locked up a minimum $357.21 pay day. James "Andy_McLEOD" Obst was eliminated in 10th place before korjae's pair of sevens in Stud couldn't improve enough to better YordanPetrov's pair of eights. Korjae was out in 9th place as our final table line up was set: Final Table Line up Seat 1: Tarzancev (354,978 in chips) Seat 2: David "WhooooKidd" Baker (653,607 in chips) Seat 3: Fred_Brink (164,036 in chips) Seat 4: Mitorun (425,322 in chips) Seat 5: YordanPetrov (372,245 in chips) Seat 6: holtekila (183,433 in chips) Seat 7: Ulett_23 (87,814 in chips) Seat 8: guns_n_fight (593,565 in chips) The chip leader was none other than David "WhooooKidd" Baker who continued his cracking SCOOP series after winning his second SCOOP title just a few days earlier. Stud would be the first game of the final table with Ulett_23 looking for an early double up as the short stack, but it would be holtekila who would be first to go. holtekila lost a chunk of change against Mitorun's ace high-flush, before a three-way clash in Stud Hi-Lo saw holtekila all in by fifth street against both Fred_Brink and Mitorun. By sixth street, Mitorun gave it up as Fred_Brink already showed a straight to leave holtekila drawing dead. holtekila ended with [Ac][2s][Ks][6d][6s][Qh][5c] as Fred_Brink's [5s][8h][7h][6c][4h][3s][Ad] scooped the lot to leave holtekila to pick up $1,984.50 for 8th place. Two-time COOP champion Ulett_23 had survived a pay jump but could go no further than 7th place. In Stud Hi-Lo, Ulett_23 capped the action on third street and was all in for change on fourth with both Fred_Brink and YordanPetrov coming along. After checking fifth, the two live players put in bets on sixth and the river with YordanPetrov's [4c][Ac][7c][5d][7h][Ad][2c] scooping the pot with aces and sevens for the high and a seven-low. Both opponents mucked to see Ulett_23 out in 7th place for $2,835.00. It would take until the next orbit of Stud for the next casualty. After heavy action on fourth and a bet on fifth, Tarzancev was all in on sixth street against Fred_Brink. After the river was dealt, Tarzancev showed [Ad][Jc][2d][Js][6d][6c][8s] for two pair with jacks and sixes but Fred_Brink had already made a flush on sixth with [Qh][4h][Ah][Th][5s][6h][Jd]. Tarzancev took home $3,969.00 for 6th place. Mitorun and Fred_Brink shared the chip lead with five players remaining, with Mitorun extending that advantage with the elimination of YordanPetrov. It was during Limit Holdem when YordanPetrov three-bet preflop before action was capped on the flop. YordanPetrov only had a few thousand to commit on the turn holding [ad][qh] on the board of [2s][8c][6s][6c] but Mitorun's pair with [5c][5s] was in front and it stayed that way with the [7s] completing the board. YordanPetrov picked up $5,670.00 for 5th place. Fred_Brink was on the short stack when the Omaha Hi-Lo orbit rolled around and committed his last chips on the turn against two opponents: RSS readers click through to see replay Unfortunately for Fred_Brink, Mitorun tabled the old "nut nut" for the ten-high straight to go with a seven-low. It wa