PokerStars SCOOP series comes to a close
19 May 2010
The SCOOP series began on May 2 and featured three tiers of buy-ins that allowed players of all bankrolls to play highly competitive tournament poker. Each of the 38 events had low, medium and high buy-in levels, combining to create 114 SCOOP Champions, each securing a big payday and a SCOOP winner's watch.
The headline $10,300 SCOOP Main Event attracted a combined field of 23,478 players (Low: 19,188, Med: 3,675, High: 615) – surpassing last year's main event field of 22,247 (Low: 18,747, Med: 3,198, High: 502) and creating a total prize pool of more than $11 million (Low: $1.918 million, Med: $3.675 million, High: $6.15 million). After more than 17 hours of play - spread over two days - the high stakes event was eventually won by 'toetagU', who earned a massive $1,162,350 first prize.
At the medium stakes level, with a $1,050 buy-in, 'Mr.M.M0ney' came out on top of a 3,675-player field to win $443,137.50. In the $109 low stakes main event, 'midjat' defeated a massive field of 19,188 players for a $191,892.59 prize.
SCOOP 2010 was a successful year for Team PokerStars Pro. Argentine player Jose 'nachobarbero' Barbero was one of two Team PokerStars Pros to win events at the high stakes level, winning Event 18-H, the Turbo Fixed Limit Hold'em event, for $62,780. His Team PokerStars Online colleague Alexey 'LuckyGump' Makarov from Russia, scored even higher with victory in Event 17-H, the 6-Max Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys – a result worth $150,930. German Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer took down the medium stakes Badugi event 04-M for a prize of $10,345.
"I love SCOOP, it offers everything you want from a poker series. It has been an amazing year for me so far - winning the LAPT Punta del Este event in February and then the first PokerStars France Poker Series event last month. Winning the SCOOP event and my first SCOOP watch is the pinnacle and feels like a dream," said Team PokerStars Pro Argentina Jose 'nachobarbero' Barbero after his win.
The top all-round performance in this series came from another member of the Team PokerStars Online stable – George 'Jorj95' Lind III from the USA. Lind had a fantastic SCOOP, recording 27 cashes worth $105,127.12, which included five final table finishes – results that earned him top place on the SCOOP Tournament Leader Board. For being crowned SCOOP 'Player of the Series', George will receive the Player of the Series trophy, a 2010 WCOOP Main Event ticket, a 2011 PCA prize package, a 2011 EPT Monte Carlo prize package, and a Special Edition PokerStars chip set.
Last year's SCOOP main event was won by Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth - now a UK & Ireland PokerStars Team Pro. Ainsworth had another good series, coming fifth in Event 19-H No-Limit Hold'em with Big Antes, worth $106,178,68.
Over the course of the series, 461,936 buy-ins from 130,746 unique players were registered, with players coming from 174 different countries. Together, they generated a total prize pool of $63,802,405, shattering the guaranteed $45,000,000.