Once upon a time, the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was an upstart online poker series, trying to give poker players their big tournament series fix while they waited for the giant World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) to kickoff later in the year. SCOOP is an upstart no more; it is now officially the largest online poker series on the face of the Earth.
SCOOP began on May 8th and will finish up tonight as the $100 “Low” and $1,000 “Mid” Main Events run to their conclusion. Registration has closed on each, though, so we now know that a total of $90,984,283.44 was accumulated in prize pools across all 56 events (with three tournaments in each event, that is 168 tournaments in all). This number is the largest combined prize pool for an online poker tournament series in history, smashing the previous record of $81,222,158.66, set by the 2014 SCOOP.
“This record-breaking prize pool is testament to the enduring popularity of online poker,” said PokerStars’ Director of Corporate Communications, Eric Hollreiser, in a press release. “It’s also a result of the talented people and hard work exhibited by everyone at PokerStars, from the poker room tournaments team who put the schedule together, to the customer support teams helping our players get the most out of their experience.”
All three Main Events also set records:
• 2016 SCOOP $10,000 High Main Event: 824 players, $8,000,001.76 prize pool (previous record 694 players, $6,940,000 prize pool in 2015 SCOOP)
• 2016 SCOOP $1,000 Mid Main Event: 5,026 players, $4,786,661.88 prize pool (previous record 4,238 players, $4,238,000 prize pool in 2015 SCOOP)
• 2016 SCOOP $100 Low Main Event: 24,591 players, $2,255,978.34 prize pool (previous record 23,045 players, $2,304,500 prize pool in 2013 SCOOP)
The High Main Event, the highlight tournament of the series, had a $4 million guaranteed prize pool and guaranteed $1 million for first place, two marks that were easily eclipsed. That tournament was completed earlier today as the final nine players fought to the finish. Player “raidalot” from the United Kingdom won the crown and $1,468,000.88, beating Romania’s “Nolez7” ($1,048,000.23) heads-up. A total of 99 places were paid with a min-cash of $18,400.
As this article is being written, the Mid Main Event is down to just two players: “Jymaster11” from Mexico and “Educa-p0ker” from the UK. The Low Main Event is also heads-up in a battle of Brazilians: “mmleandro” and “nillolok.” As I type this, that tourney is almost in a dead heat.
Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb is in first place on the overall SCOOP leader board and is in position to win the leader board trophy and $20,000 cash. 2015 SCOOP Player of the Year Jason Mercier is in second place.
