Russian nets $1 million main event first prize as SCOOP 2014 awards more than $80 million to set new record for richest online poker championship
Russian high stakes pro Ivan ‘vandir4rek’ Soshnikov became only the third player ever to pocket a million-dollar score in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker, after triumphing in the SCOOP 2014 $10,300 Main Event on May 19.
Soshnikov, who won €382,050 by taking down the European Poker Tour’s Prague High Roller event last December, had to overcome another stellar field – this time online – with a final table that included the likes of Ben ‘NeverScaredB’ Wilinofsky, British player Phil ‘Grindation’ Mcallister, and Martin ‘M.nosbocaJ’ Jacobson, to net the $1,048,000 first prize after a deal was done three-handed. The chop also meant that UK players Peter ‘Se7enTr3y’ Akery (second) and ‘Better C4ll’ (third) managed to lock up huge pay-outs of $860,000 and $890,820 respectively.
Meanwhile, the medium stakes $1,050 Main Event was won by ‘LexaLucky666’ from Belarus, who beat UK player and former EPT champion Zimnan ‘Zimmy86’ Ziyard heads-up to secure a $635,379 payday.
The low stakes Main Event ($109 buy-in) title went to old-school online grinder Ari ‘BodogAri’ Enger, who logged off $187,669 richer following a four-way deal.
Year of the pro
While many online championships can be a procession of anonymous winners, SCOOP, like its older sibling the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), is so prestigious and has such quality tournament structures that it attracts a huge number of the world’s biggest players from both live and online arenas. This year was no exception.
There were debut SCOOP titles for Scott ‘BigRiskky’ Clements, Dan ‘w00ki3z’ Cates, Niki ‘RealAndyBeal’ Jedlicka, Martin ‘0PIGGYBANK’ Finger, UK player Ben ‘jenbizzle’ Jones, and Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, who in a portent perhaps of WSOP success in the Poker Players Championship, won the $215 8-Game event for just over $21k.
In the repeat winners category, Brit brat Luke ‘lb6121’ Schwartz, online legend James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst, Bryn ‘BrynKenney’ Kenney, and Ami ‘UhhMee’ Barer all picked up a second SCOOP watch, while David ‘gunslinger3’ Bach and Shawn ‘buck21’ Buchanan – who earlier this year became the first player to win the PokerStars ‘Triple COOP’ of TCOOP, SCOOP and WCOOP titles – got their third SCOOP titles.
The biggest plaudits, though, must go to Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer and Calvin ‘cal42688’ Anderson, who secured their fourth and fifth titles respectively. Danzer won the $2,100 PL Omaha Zoom Turbo event for $129,645, having already been denied a fourth title earlier in the series when finishing second in a $2,100 Omaha Hi/Lo event for $44,540. He also had the most cashes of anyone this year, with 32 – five more than the next highest-cashing player.
Anderson, meanwhile, made seven final tables in SCOOP 2014 – one more than three players tied on six, with finishes of fifth, second, fifth, fifth, eighth, eighth, and eventually first, when he won the $2,100 HORSE tournament for $47,065. That win also puts him level with Shaun Deeb on the all-time SCOOP victories leaderboard. It’s no surprise, too, that with the consistency he showed, ‘cal42688’ won the overall SCOOP Leaderboard by a country mile, beating Danzer into second place to win the trophy and 2015 EPT Grand Final package.
British bonanza
The series was also a roaring success for UK-based players, with four at the final table of the Main Event High (although two were foreign players residing in the UK), and several event winners. A total of 15 titles went to the UK, and there were also a host of near-misses. Toby Lewis had second and third place finishes for more than $200k combined, Matt ‘MUSTAFABET’ Ashton and Chris ‘NigDawg’ Brammer enjoyed third-place finishes, and Phil ‘Grindation’ Mcallister came second in the SCOOP 1-H event for $232,960 and fifth in the Main Event High for another $350k. Nearly $600k in cashes over two weeks? Not bad work for a 20-year-old online player.
Record breaker
There doesn’t seem to be too many concerns about the health of online poker if SCOOP 2014 is anything to go by. The championship was the biggest to date, with one more event than last year at 45 events (135 tournaments), and the total prize pool reached a staggering $81,222,158.66 – more than $6 million more than last year’s series – to set a new record for an online poker championship.
A total of 567,701 entries (not including re-entries) were logged, which across the championship meant each tournament had an average of 4,160 players.
SCOOP 2014 – $10,300 main event results
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