The 2010 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) wrapped up with a bang Monday evening as nearly $12 million in prize money was handed out over the three Main Event tournaments. When it was all said and done, well-known pro Ryan “toetagu” Fair was poker’s newest millionaire and several unknowns made the scores of their lifetime, making for an exciting day of online poker.
SCOOP High ($10,000+300) Main Event
Entrants: 615
Prize Pool: $6,150,000
Team PokerStars Online Pro George “Jorj95” Lind was named the SCOOP Player of the Series, but it was an online pro from Florida that made the biggest headlines Monday. Ryan “toetagu” Fair bested one of the toughest fields in all of poker to claim his first seven-figure payday as a professional poker player. Fair, who resides in Fort Lauderdale, was the last man standing from a field of 615 players and earned $1,162,350 and his first SCOOP watch.
The story going into the day was Australia’s Ben “delaney_kid” Delaney, who reached the final table of the SCOOP High event and, at the same time, was approaching the final table of the SCOOP Medium event. However, Delaney was the first to exit the SCOOP High final table when he ran his pocket tens into Kristoffer “Sumpas” Thorsson‘s pocket queens. Joe “jpmetalman” Patrick was also done in with pocket tens; Brad “BradL” Lipson sent Patrick home in eighth place with pocket aces.
Moments later, it was Sam “siola” Iola who has his tournament life on the line with, again, pocket tens. This time the pair was in a race situation against the Kd-Qd of Germany’s “BongBob” and after the flop brought a Queen, Iola was unable to improve and went to the rail in seventh place.
“BongBob” and Danny “cpfactor” Smith were eliminated in sixth and fifth place, respectively, and they were followed by Greg “DuckU” Hobson in fourth place when his pocket jacks lost to Lipson’s Ac-Kh. Hobson has been a familiar name at major online final tables for years and further entrenched his position among the game’s best tournament players with the $473,550 payday.
Fair, Thorsson, and Lipson briefly discussed a three-way deal, but couldn’t come to an agreement and decided to play it out. The choice paid dividends for Fair, who eliminated Lipson in the most memorable hand from the final table. With the blinds at 8,000/16,000 and a 2,000 ante, Fair raised to 40,980 from the small blind and Lipson defended his big blind. On the 7c-7s-2d flop, Fair led out for 43,000 and Lipson called. The turn was the 8d and Fair bet 112,000. Lipson raised to 270,000 and Fair called. On the Kc river, Fair fired again for 180,000 and Lipson moved all-in for 1,093,927. Fair made the call with 7h-6h for trips and won a massive pot when Lipson revealed As-5c for an ill-timed bluff.
On the final hand of the tournament, Thorsson got all of his chips in pre-flop holding pocket sevens to Fair’s pocket jacks. The higher pair held up and Thorsson collected $851,775 for his runner-up finish. Fair, meanwhile, picked up the biggest payday of the 2010 SCOOP series.
1st: Ryan “toetagU” Fair — $1,162,350
2nd: Kristoffer “Sumpas” Thorsson — $851,775
3rd: Brad “BradL” Lipson — $627,300
4th: Greg “DuckU” Hopson — $473,550
5th: Danny “cpfactor” Smith — $332,100
6th: BongBob — $261,375
7th: Sam “siola” Siola — $199,875
8th: Joe “jpmetalman” Patrick — $138,375
9th: Ben “delaney_kid” Delaney — $94,095
SCOOP Medium ($1,000+50) Main Event
Entrants: 3,675
Prize Pool: $3,675,000
Much to the dismay of railbirds wanting to witness history, “delaney_kid” finished 10th in the SCOOP Medium ($1,000) buy-in Main Event, leaving nine players with a shot at the title and nearly $577,000. The top three finishers decided on a chop to guarantee each of them a minimum of $380,000. Zack “cooperz0311” Cooper took the largest portion of the remaining prize money, but “Mr.M.M0ney” defeated Cooper in a lengthy heads-up battle to collect the SCOOP watch and the $60,000 set aside for the winner.
1st: Mr.M.M0ney — $443,137.50*
2nd: Zack “cooperz0311” Cooper — $448,500.00*
3rd: Athanasios 9 — $418,500.00*
4th: 888_OCTV — $211,312.50
5th: NOREFUNDS42 — $156,187.50
6th: rage4dorder — $119,437.50
7th: Charles “hook2120” Hook — $82,687.50
8th: cashclctor — $45,937.50
9th: Kyle “KJulius10” Julius — $29,400.00
* denotes three-way deal
SCOOP Low ($100+9) Main Event
Entrants: 19,188
Prize Pool: $1,918,000
A massive field of 19,188 was dwindled down to one player in the SCOOP Low Main Event Monday evening. Switzerland’s “midjat” earned $191,892.59 for the win after defeating “Quitti33” heads up. PokerStars Team Pro Andre Akkari took fifth place for $57,564.00.
1st: midjat — $191,892.59
2nd: Quitti33 — $142,586.02
3rd: B18GsrR — $95,940.00
4th: Grodindono — $76,752.00
5th: Andre Akkari — $57,564.00
6th: Patrick “pmahoney22” Mahoney — $38,376.00
7th: MikeTBH — $26,959.14
8th: iFROST — $17,269.20
9th: Elpinto54 — $11,512.80