PokerStars guarantees $30 million across 40 events for 2012 SCOOP
12 Apr 2012
The 2012 SCOOP will culminate in a No Limit Hold’em Main Event on May 20, featuring buy-ins of $109 (Low), $1,050 (Medium) and $10,300 (High), with guarantees of $1,000,000, $1,500,000 and $2,500,000 respectively. SCOOP is unique among online tournament festivals for offering players three different buy-in levels (Low, Medium and High) for every event, making it affordable for players of all bankrolls.
Team PokerStars Online member Anders “Donald” Berg, who last year topped the SCOOP “Player of the Series” leaderboard after winning an event in HORSE, cashing 23 times and final-tabling four events, can’t wait for the new series to start. Berg said: “SCOOP is always one of the highlights of the online poker calendar and I’ll be aiming to defend my Player of the Series title by playing as many events as possible. The tournament structures are excellent, the range of games unrivaled – it’s going to be an epic tournament series for me and many other players in May.”
Fellow Team Online member Mickey “memento mori” Peterson, who won EPT Copenhagen this year, pointed out the importance of the annual online festival in his post-final table interview back in February. He said: “I'd really like to win a PokerStars SCOOP title. I have been close a lot of times but always stumbled right before the finish line. Hopefully I can win one this year.”
“Steps” satellites
This year, players will be able to buy-into more SCOOP events with “Steps” tickets as many of the buy-ins have been brought in line with the PokerStars Steps buy-in levels. In total 27 different SCOOP events are accessible using Steps 1-6 tickets ($7.50, $27, $82, $215, $700 and $2,100). This extra qualifying route makes it easier and more accessible than ever for players to satellite into events.
Steps satellites, along with normal multi-table and single-table satellites, are now running in the PokerStars client – log in and click Events > SCOOP > FPP Satellites / Cash Satellites / Steps to see what’s coming up. For more details, visit the SCOOP website at www.pokerstars.com/scoop.
SCOOP leaderboard
This year, SCOOP will feature separate “Player of the Series” leaderboards for Low, Medium and High stakes levels, with winners at each level getting a trophy and a PCA 2013 package. A significant number of players will also win tickets to future PokerStars online series like MicroMillions and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).
In addition, there will be an overall leaderboard winner, who will win a trophy plus an EPT Grand Final package. In total more than $100,000 in tournament and ticket prizes will be awarded to Leaderboard players in the 2012 SCOOP tournament series.
SCOOP highlights
Some standout events from 2012 SCOOP include a No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up High Roller with a $21,000 buy-in (High), which is expected to draw some of the world’s best players; a Super Knockout 6-Max Turbo, featuring $27 (L), $215 (M) and $2,100 (H) buy-ins with $100k, $200k and $400k guarantees, where half the buy-in goes to the prize pool and half is used as a bounty on a player’s head; and 8-Game and HORSE events, with buy-ins of $27, $215 and $2,100 respectively.
SCOOP also incorporates a huge variety of poker games – Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, Draw, HORSE, 8-Game, Badugi – with variations like Hi/Lo, Lowball, Razz, Triple Draw and many more. There are also a wide variety of tournament formats from freezeouts, to rebuys, big antes, shootouts, heads-up, 2X Chance tourneys, and many more.