*****

Some judge the best tournament poker players in the world solely on their performances in No Limit Hold'em. But in today's world of multiple poker variations, the 8-Game mix has become the new standard for judging all-around poker skills. The abilities required to best a tournament filled with Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit Hold'em, Limit Omaha H/L, Limit Razz, Limit Stud, Limit Stud H/L, No Limit Hold'em, and Pot Limit Omaha are many, and it takes years to become skilled in all of those games.

Event 33 was set up to find those players. The medium level buy-in of $215 gave players the chance to prove themselves in all eight games. With 120 minutes of late registration and a $50K guarantee for extra motivation, a sizeable crowd gathered for the 8-Game festivities.

Players: 594
Guarantee: $50,000.00
Prize pool: $118,800.00
Paid players: 78

The money bubble burst more than a few hours into the action, leaving 78 players remaining, including several members of Team PokerStars. Team Online's George "Jorj95" Lind was the first to exit in the money in 73rd place, and Team Pro David Williams wasn't far behind with a 67th place elimination. But continuing on to the last few tables was Team Pro Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero, riding high on the top half of the leaderboard.

About 20 minutes past the eight-hour mark, only two tables remained. Players like Bryn Kenney and Fabrice Soulier exited as the final table neared, CMoosepower exited in eighth place to start hand-for-hand play. FatmanScoops then got involved with meneerbeer on a [9s][Ks][8h][Jc] board. Betting was capped, and FatmanScoops was all-in with [Qs][Qd]. But meneerbeer showed [Kd][9c], which held up to the [5h] on the river and eliminated FatmanScoops in seventh place with $2,482.92.

A final table lead for Amke

The final table began in a Limit Hold'em round, with blinds of 12K/24K and these players' starting stacks:

Seat 1: Amke (871,491 in chips)
Seat 2: meneerbeer (377,834 in chips)
Seat 3: milanissimo8 (769,633 in chips)
Seat 4: nachobarbero (326,374 in chips)
Seat 5: aDrENalin710 (373,793 in chips)
Seat 6: kaivari (250,875 in chips)

After the first 30 minutes of play, aDrENalin710 was the new chip leader, followed by meneerbeer and Make, while milanissimo8 fell to the lower half of the leaderboard.

Kaivari, on the other hand, only seemed to lose ground. In a 7-Card Stud round, aDrENalin710 raised, kaivari reraised, and aDrENalin710 called on third street. All of kaivari's chips went in on fifth street, and the final hand showed [Kc][Kd][Jd][8h][4d][3s][4s]. But aDrENalin710 had a flush with [7h][4h][7d][Jc][Kh][5h][6h], and that eliminated kaivari in sixth place with $3,694.68.

Milanissimo8 was low in chips but did double through aDrENalin710 to stay in action, and nachobarbero did the same through amke.

A big hand then developed in Stud H/L. It started with a raise from meneerbeer with [8c], all-in reraised from milanissimo8 with [Ks], and call from nachoberbero with [7d] and meneerbeer. Fourth street brought a bet from meneerbeer with [7c] and check-call from nachoberbero with [9s], and they both checked on fifth street with [7s] for meneerbeer and [9d] for nachobarbero. Ultimately, meneerbeer showed [6s][4d][8c][7c][7s][8h][7h], and nachobarbero turned over [3h][5c][7d][9s][9d][6h][Ac]. They split the side and main pots, while milanissimo8 simply mucked and departed in fifth place with $5,940.00.

Nachobarbero was short and doubled through amke again, but a few rounds later, nachobarbero was involved again. The NLHE hand started with a small blind raise from meneerbeer and big blind all-in reraise from nachobarbero with [Ad][Qd]. Meneerbeer called with [8h][8c], and that pair only developed into two on the [9s][2d][4h][Ks][2h] board. Team PokerStars Pro Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero was eliminated in fourth place with $8,316.00.

Close counts for final three

The final three players remaining in the tournament went into play with these counts:

Seat 1: Amke (924,061 in chips)
Seat 2: meneerbeer (1,147,054 in chips)
Seat 5: aDrENalin710 (898,885 in chips)

ADrENalin710 made big strides, eventually taking a 900K pot from meneerbeer to soar into the lead and over 1.5 million chips. But it was Amke who lost a string of hands that put him below the 150K mark. In Triple Draw, Amke made the all-in move against aDrENalin710 on the first draw when both players took two cards. Amke took one card on the second craw, but aDrENalin710 took two, but the latter ended up with [7d][3s][Td][5s][2c]. Amke, a two-time SCOOP winner, had [4h][7h][Ad][8s][2d] and departed in third place with $12,177.00.

Who has the adrenalin?

The initial heads-up chip counts were:

Seat 2: meneerbeer (973,381 in chips)
Seat 5: aDrENalin710 (1,996,619 in chips)

They almost immediately agreed to a chop of the prize money with the obligatory extra $1,000 set aside for the winner. And then meneerbeer went on a rampage throughout the remainder of the Triple Draw round, taking the lead and extending it during Limit Hold'em. Hand after hand, meneerbeer took sizeable pots and never lost momentum.

The final hand started with aDrENalin710 down to less than 20K chips, and those went in with the big blind holding [5c][2c]. Meneerbeer was along for the ride with [Js][7d], and made two pair on the [4c][Qh][Th][7h][4h] board. After winning a SCOOP title just two days prior in Triple Draw 2-7, aDrENalin710 had to settle for second place in this one for $19,977.93.

Meneerbeer picked up the SCOOP title and $19,226.07. Congrats!

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #33-M ($215 8-Game) results:
Players: 594
Prizepool: $118,800
Places paid: 78
(Payouts reflect two-way deal)

1. meneerbeer (Netherlands) $19,226.07*
2. aDrENalin710 (Russia) $19,977.93*
3. Amke (Russia) $12,177.00
4. Team PokerStars Pro Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero (Argentina) $8,316.00
5. milanissimo8 (German) $5,940.00
6. kaivari (Finland) $3,694.68

Check out the SCOOP homepage for all of the upcoming tournaments and satellites, past performances, as well as the leaderboard and SCOOP statistics.

Jennifer Newell is a PokerStars freelance contributor.

Event 31-M was another of the two-day events that are sprinkled liberally across the SCOOP 2013 calendar. It was also a knockout event; $41.25 of each of the 3,823 $215 buy-ins went into a knockout bounty pool. Knock out a player and collect their bounty.

None of the Team PokerStars Pros made Day 2 of this event, although Henrique Pinho did manage an ITM finish on Day 1. He drove about halfway through the 495 ITM places, finishing in 260th place for $401.94 with two knockouts.

The Team Pros were all on to other events by the time that the last nine players took their seats at the Event 31-M final table, just after the 5pm break.

Seat 1: CHIQUIDEALER (919049 in chips)
Seat 2: LukeFromB13 (2118427 in chips)
Seat 3: M1ghtyDucks (2849770 in chips)
Seat 4: Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Goto (1953755 in chips)
Seat 5: Respect_Lt (2017109 in chips)
Seat 6: bugiaso (2696750 in chips)
Seat 7: -PABLIN-ARG- (831342 in chips)
Seat 8: jknack10 (3722654 in chips)
Seat 9: Steve "Illini213" Barshak (2006144 in chips)

Level 39: blinds 25k-50k, ante 6250
Average: 2.12 million (42.5 BBs)

All Barshak all the time

jknack10 had the pole position at the start of the final table, but the table was loaded with players who had already made COOP final tables across their PokerStars careers. The most notable example was Barshak, who won a WCOOP event last autumn and who came into the final table with direct position on jknack10. Barshak proved just how dangerous he can be by dominating the final table during the first 25 minutes of play to more than double up to 4.5 million chips - and take over the chip lead - without going to showdown once.

Barshak's good turn came at the expense of most of the rest of the table. It was as if the other eight players were all playing reactive poker to what Barshak was doing, and paying the price for it.

The short stacks, however, managed to double up when they needed to do so. CHIQUIDEALER made ace-king work all in pre-flop against jknack10's ace-queen; -PABLIN-ARG- trended dangerously downward until winning a flip with pocket 8s against Respect_Lt's [kd][td] to climb back up to 900k.

It thus fell to Respect_Lt to be the first player eliminated. In the 40k-80k level, Respect_Lt opened for the minimum, 160k. Action passed to LukeFromB13 in the big blind, who three-bet shoved for 1.5 million. Respect_Lt had only 1.13 million behind the original raise and snap-called with two 10s. LukeFromB13 showed down two queens and earned the first final table knockout when neither player improved.

Just before the 6pm break, Barshak finally went to his first showdown. Pre-flop he raised the minimum to 160k from second position and was called by LukeFromB13. Barshak checked an ace-high flop, [7h][as][2c], then called LukeFromB13's bet of 235,650. Both players checked when a second ace hit the turn. On the river [3d] the action was checked again. Barshak tabled [ac][8s] for trip aces to drag the pot and cross the 6-million chip mark.

After the break, -PABLIN-ARG- doubled up for a second time when [kd][2h] got there against jknack10's [ac][6h] in a battle of the blinds. Once again, however, all the double-up did was restore -PABLIN-ARG-'s count to 920k.

LukeFromB13 announces a presence

Barshak, on the other hand, kept going up. Two more big pots without showdown pushed his stack north of 7 million as the players began the 50k-100k level. It was three times the average stack. Barshak's next closest opponent, LukeFromB13, had 2.8 million but got a big boost when CHIQUIDEALER shoved the button for 1.06 million with [ac][qc]. LukeFromB13 was waiting in the small blind with pocket kings. There wasn't much to sweat as a board of [7d][5d][9h][9c][3h] dispatched CHIQUIDEALER to the rail in 8th place.

Four hands later it was "second verse, same as the first" for LukeFromB13. Barshak open-raised to 210k and LukeFromB13 got crafty by smooth-calling with pocket kings (again!). Action passed to -PABLIN-ARG- in the small blind, who shoved all in for 1.15 million with [ac][qs]. Barshak gave his decision some thought before folding; LukeFromB13 obviously snap-called. A queen flopped, but a king on the turn swept -PABLIN-ARG- out of the tournament in 7th place.

The medium stacks, LukeFromB13 and M1ghtyDucks, began playing back at Barshak. It was enough to slow him down and allow them to catch up, but it didn't do much for the short stacks. bugiaso tried four-bet shoving for 1.37 million after a raise to 200k by LukeFromB13 and a re-raise to 415,500 by M1ghtyDucks. LukeFromB13 folded but M1ghtyDucks called with two kings that were way ahead of bugiaso's two jacks. The board rolled out [6c][th][3h][ts][as], allowing M1ghtyDucks to claim bugiaso's bounty.

jknack10's disastrous final table came to an end at the hand of LukeFromB13. Sitting with the button, jknack10 shoved [ad][8d] for 919k. LukeFromB13 woke up with pocket aces in the big blind. jknack10 did not accomplish a miraculous suckout, instead bowing out in 5th place.

M1ghtyDucks makes a move

Four-handed, Barshak retained the lead with 8.5 million in chips. M1ghtyDucks stood in 2nd place (4.6 million) followed by LukeFromB13 (4.2 million) and Goto (1.8 million). Goto hadn't been able to get anything going at the final table at all, and even four-handed he continued to sink in the counts. He eventually got the Barshak treatment. Goto shoved the small blind for 1.85 million in the 70k-140k level with [ad][6d]; Barshak called with pocket 8s. Pocket 8s were best on a [jh][4s][9c][2d][js] board.

Barshak was playing well and running hot. It was perhaps not surprising that when the other two players offered to consider some kidn of deal, Barshak turned them down.

It was M1ghtyDucks who really stood up to Barshak first, in this hand:

M1ghtyDucks wasted no time putting the chip lead to work, especially by picking on short stack LukeFromB13. That worked out well for M1ghtyDucks but not so well for LukeFromB13, especially when, as a short stack, LukeFromB13 limped the button and then called all in for about 2.1 million versus Barshak's big-blind shove. Barshak didn't have much - [qh][7s] - but it was enough against LukeFromB13's two 10s when a queen hit the turn of the board.

With LukeFromB13's 3rd-place exit, Barshak was finally ready to talk deal. With blinds still at 70k-140k, his 8 million in chips made him the short stack against M1ghtyDucks, who had 11 million. He said he would only do an even chop. As it turned out, the chip-chop numbers were close anyway - just $2,000 separated the two payouts - so M1ghtyDucks agreed to an even chop and to play it out for the last $10,000.

M1ghtyDucks: well played btw
Illini213: ty sir u2. U really stepped it up 3 handed.

M1ghtyDucks got the best of in the earlygoing of heads-up play and took a small chunk out of Barshak by rivering a backdoor flush. Another chunk came with flopped middle pair that was good at showdown. As a result of those losses (and others), Barshak sunk to about 2.2 million in chips.

The end came suddenly. M1ghtyDucks opened the button for the minimum 320k, then called Barshak's three-bet shove to 2.0 million. Barshak had the best of with two 10s against M1ghtyDucks' [ad][3d], but an ace flopped straight away. Barshak never overtook it.

For long stretches of this final table, it looked as if nobody would be able to stop Barshak's rampage to the title. But M1ghtyDucks dug deep starting with four players left and from there played inspired poker to win a SCOOP title. By securing the final elimination, M1ghtyDucks also earned bragging rights for notching the greatest number of knockouts in the tournament (17).

SCOOP 2013 Event 31-M $215 NLHE (Knockout) results

Players: 3,823
Prizepool: $618,370.25 (regular); $157,698.75 (knockout)
Places paid: 495
* denotes 2-way deal

1. M1ghtyDucks (Croatia) - $89,717.91 regular*, $701.25 in KOs
2. Steve "Illini213" Barshak (Costa Rica) - $79,717.91 regular*, $453.75 in KOs
3. LukeFromB13 (Canada) - $51,015.54 regular, $371.25 in KOs
4. Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Goto (Brazil) - $35,556.28 regular, $618.75 in KOs
5. jknack10 (Canada) - $26,280.73 regular, $371.25 in KOs
6. bugiaso (Romania) - $20,097.03 regular, $577.50 in KOs
7. -PABLIN-ARG- (Argentina) - $13,913.33 regular, $165 in KOs
8. CHIQUIDEALER (Argentina) - $7,729.62 regular, $495 in KOs
9. Respect_Lt (Lithuania) - $4,946.96 regular, $412.50 in KOs

There are still a few days remaining in SCOOP 2013. Check out the results to this point of the series at the SCOOP home page.

Dave Behr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

In Event #31-L, a no-limit hold'em knockout tournament, $20 of every $27 buy-in went to the regular prize pool and $5 to the bounty pool. A field of 16,764 players turned up yesterday afternoon to kick off the first day of play, building a total prize pool of $419,100 - $83,820 of which was set aside for bounties. After 40 levels of play they concluded Day 1 with only 35 players remaining.

The leader in KOs at the end of Day 1 was gosuopossum1 of the Ukraine, with 31 total. These 10 players led the chip counts:

anco197 (Germany) 7.43M, 18 KOs
AMG_hit (Russia) 7.02M, 12 KOs
Coll Bratr (Czech Republic) 6.70M, 15 KOs
Haifishmudda (Germany), 5.73M, 6 KOs
bahiaaj (Qatar) 4.96M, 20 KOs
KKremate (Brazil) 4.75M, 10 KOs
Silverearth (Austria) 4.23M, 11 KOs
Jeff "jeff710" Hakim (Canada) 3.76M, 5 KOs
ar_gio13 (Greece) 3.48M, 9 KOs
Gagarin007 (Russia) 3.08M, 11 KOs

gosuopossum managed to maneuver to 14th place ($1,005.84) and remained the KO leader through the end of the tournament despite not earning another one on Day 2. Meanwhile four of the top 10 leaders from Day 1 kept pace and made the final table, which started an hour and 49 minutes later after play resumed. They and these other five players came together with blinds and antes at 125K/250K/31.25K:

Seat 1: Gagarin007 (7,876,331 in chips)
Seat 2: Jeff "jeff710" Hakim (11,093,772 in chips)
Seat 3: leggo-boys (5,960,360 in chips)
Seat 4: R4lti (15,290,144 in chips)
Seat 5: blank seat (3,118,220 in chips)
Seat 6: NoNeed23Bet (10,887,734 in chips)
Seat 7: skarpet2 (6,914,596 in chips)
Seat 8: Silverearth (15,140,006 in chips)
Seat 9: Coll Bratr (7,538,837 in chips)

Austria's blank_seat came to the table with the shortest stack, worth just shy of 13 big blinds, and managed to tread water for the first dozen hands thanks to a couple of blind steals. On Hand #13, with the blinds and antes up to 150K/300K/37.5K, everything fell apart. Fellow Austrian Silverearth opened for 750K in early position and blank_seat jammed for 3.42M with [Ad] [Ks]. It was a trivial call for Silverearth with [As] [Ah]. The [2c] [4s] [4c] flop presented no danger, and though the [Kd] gave blank_seat a few outs on the turn none of them came home on the [9c] river. That sent blank_seat packing in 9th place ($2,011.68).

Most of the pots after that first knockout continued to be taken down before the flop. Those that didn't tended to toward the United Kingdom's NoNeedTo3Bet or Canada's Jeff "jeff710" Hakim, who had come to the final table in third and second in chips, respectively. The next major confrontation didn't come until Hand #35 on the 250K/500K/62.5K level, when NoNeedTo3Bet opened for 1M under the gun with [5h] [5c]. The Czech Republic's Coll Bratr responded with a third bet to 8.32M, holding [Ac] [Jh], and NoNeed23Bet made the call with 9.47M left behind. The [3d] [Js] [Jc] flop was all Coll Bratr needed, and the [9d] turn and [Th] river officially shipped the Czech player the 17.89M-chip pot.

Just four hands later Russia's Gagarin007, who had slipped to 3.24M over the first several orbits, moved all-in before the flop with [Qc] [Qs]. A flat-call from jeff710 didn't entice anybody else into the pot, so Hakim's [Kc] [Kh] were only up against the one opponent. The [Kd] [7c] [2s] flop left Gagarin007 in need of running queens for four of a kind, but the [2h] came on the turn and left the Russian player drawing dead. Like a dagger the [Qd] fell on the river, ending Gagarin007's tournament in 8th place ($3,017.52).

The very next hand saw the short-stacked leggo-boys of the Netherlands move in for 2.32M under the gun with [Kh] [Td]. Coll Bratr called from the small blind with [Ah] [7d] and won the 5.72M-chip pot after the board came [3d] [3h] [8s] [Ac] [2c], sending leggo-boys to the rail in 7th place ($5,699.76).

Fifteen of the next 16 pots were all taken down before the flop as the blinds and antes went up to 300K/600K/75K. Then Sweden's R4lti and Silverearth collided in a pre-flop raising war that ended with R4lti all-in for 7.97M, holding [Ah] [Kc] against Silverearth's [Ac] [Qd]. The [6s] [4s] [Tc] flop changed nothing, but the [Kd] on the turn that paired R4lti also gave Silverearth a straight draw. The river was the [Qc], sending R4lti the 16.99M-chip pot and giving the Swede a way back into the mix after having lost half the chips from the start of the final table.

That pot was the second-biggest of the tournament up to that point, and it kickstarted some action - but none of it was friendly for R4lti. Two hands later NoNeed23Bet ate into R4lti's recently acquired riches after moving in for 7.12M with [Ah] [Qd] and outrunning the Swede's [Th] [Tc] for the 15M-chip pot thanks to an ace on the flop. The very next hand saw R4lti hammered by some pretty unfortunate timing:

With that R4lti was eliminated from action in 6th place ($8,382).

Four down, four to go

The remaining five players were now stacked like so:

Seat 2: jeff710 (32,022,604 in chips)
Seat 6: NoNeed23Bet (14,326,154 in chips)
Seat 7: skarpet2 (8,419,396 in chips)
Seat 8: Silverearth (9,824,287 in chips)
Seat 9: Coll Bratr (19,227,559 in chips)

Nobody was in a big hurry to pick a big fight with anyone else. Only two of the next 21 pots got the flop, and none of them went past it. Finally, on Hand #82, the action folded to Silverearth in the small blind and the Austrian player shoved for 7.79M holding [As] [7d]. Coll Bratr called from the big blind with [Ad] [Ks], which made a Broadway straight by the river of the [8s] [Td] [Js] [4s] [Qd] board to send Silverearth to the rail in 5th place ($11,734.80).

After just five hands of four-handed play the players agreed to look at the numbers for a potential deal. It took 13 minutes of haggling but they finally came to a solution that made everyone happy, leaving an additional $5,000 and the SCOOP champion's watch on the table for the winner. Even with the deal in place the tendency for the players to stay away from one another continued for eight more hands. Then came this pot, where jeff710 had a tough decision to make on the river:

The right call gave jeff710 the 21.4M-chip pot, the biggest of the tournament, and boosted his stack to 38.07M just before the blinds and antes went up to 400K/800K/100K. About 14M of that bled away over the next 30 hands as Coll Bratr took over the chip lead with just over 28M. Then the Czech player caught a stroke of good luck on Hand #126, picking up [As] [Ah] in the small blind while Poland's skarpet2 held [6c] [6h] on the button; skarpet opened for 1.6M and then shoved for 17.96M after Coll Bratr three-bet to 3.6M. The board ran out [Kh] [7c] [3s] [Qh] [8h], Coll Bratr won the 37.13M-chip pot, and skarpet2 left in 4th place with $20,532.38 from the deal.

Just three hands later Coll Bratr picked up another massive pot thanks to a dominating pre-flop hand. NoNeedTo3Bet opened the betting on the button by moving all-in for 16.04M with [Ah] [3d], and Coll Bratr raised to isolate in the small blind with [As] [Qc]. The [9c] [Qh] [4s] flop put Coll Bratr in the lead, the [Tc] turn left NoNeedTo3Bet drawing dead, and the [Ks] eliminated the U.K. Player in 3rd place with $24,425.59 from the deal.

Pedal to the metal

As the final duel began, Coll Bratr held a solid chip lead:

Seat 2: Jeff "jeff710" Hakim (21,481,495 in chips)
Seat 9: Coll Bratr (62,338,505 in chips)

Undeterred by the disadvantage, Hakim won eight of the first nine pots. The earliest ones were insubstantial, but the seventh, worth 18.85M and won with a raise on the flop of a pot that had been three-bet before the flop, brought him back to within just two big blinds of the lead. The last was this monster that flipped the tournament on its head:

That left Coll Bratr with just 1.97M chips, worth less than two big blinds at 500K/1M/125K. The Czech player managed to double up twice and steal another pot preflop, but the end would come just five hands after losing straight-under-straight. Coll Bratr called all-in from the big blind with [Js] [Tc] after Hakim opened all-in on the button with [Ks] [2h]. The board ran out [9d] [5c] [Ah] [2d] [Qh] and the tournament came to a close.

Coll Bratr took home $25,401.31 from the deal, an all-time high for the Czech player by nearly $10K. As for Jeff "jeff710" Hakim, the extra $5K on the table made for a total take of $34,245.09 - the third highest score of his career on PokerStars behind a 2008 win in the Sunday 500 and a third-place finish in a $109 rebuy tourney back in 2011. Then there's the champion's watch, which will no doubt be a nice reminder of his first SCOOP title.

SCOOP 2013 Event #31-L: $27 NL Hold'em (Knockout)
16,764 entrants
$335,280 regular prize pool, $83,820 bounty prize pool
2,250 places paid

1st place: Jeff "jeff710" Hakim (Canada) $34,245.09 + 12 KOs @ $5 = $34,305.09*
2nd place: Coll Bratr (Czech Republic) $25,401.31 + 20 KOs = $25,501.31*
3rd place: NoNeed23Bet (United Kingdom) $24,425.59 + 19 KOs = $24,520.59*
4th place: Skarpet2 (Poland) $20,532.58 + 9 KOs = $20,577.58*
5th place: Silverearth (Austria) $11,734.80 + 16 KOs = $11,814.80
6th place: R4lti (Sweden) $8,382.00 + 19 KOs = $8,477.00
7th place: leggo-boys (Netherlands) $5,699.76 + 17 KOs = $5,784.75
8th place: Gagarin007 (Russia) $3,017.52 + 14 KOs = $3,087.52
9th place: blank_seat (Austria) $2,011.68 + 4 KOs = $2,031.68
* - Denotes results of a four-way deal

Jason Kirk is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.

I'm joking, but the truth is it can be very important to have support from others when you play.

Recently I've been traveling not just with my brother, Matti, but also with our friends Wim Neys, Pieter Aerts, and Bart Lybaert, and all of those guys have been putting up some nice results this year. Having a group like that not only makes traveling and playing more fun, but can really help with maintaining focus, too.

Poker's an individual sport, obviously, but having some friends and/or family there rooting for you -- especially when it gets down to a final table -- can be incredibly helpful, not just in terms of emotional support but also to discuss strategy and bounce ideas off one another as a tournament goes on. Having friends there to share those experiences can be nice, too, when you later look back on them as memories.

I actually think there's a kind of "social control" (or whatever you want to call it) that happens when your friends are there watching you play. What I mean is, you are much less likely to blow up or make bad decisions at the table when you know you'll have to explain it later not just to yourself but to your friends, too. So it kind of keeps you in line a little, which is just another of the real, tangible benefits of having people supporting you when you play.

A lot of times in the poker world you'll see players only railing other players when they have a piece of them, but I'm actually one who likes to see my friends do well and will be there at their final tables without having to have a piece of them.

My friends are also always there for me in those situations, too, although as I was suggesting that hasn't been happening too much lately because I have been on a bit of a downswing since January. I had been playing a full schedule in terms of online tournaments as well as a lot of the live tourneys, and unfortunately haven't been cashing like I'd like. So I've kind of taken my foot off of the gas pedal and have reduced my volume a bit of late, and once I get some results again I can turn things back up.

Not long ago I listened to a podcast featuring Tommy Angelo in which he talked about how the winter months can be difficult for people. The longer nights and the cold can make things hard for people sometimes, and they need that sunshine to keep them upbeat. I think I kind of suffer from that a little, and so with the spring arriving and the summer on its way, I'm hopeful that will help turn things around for me.

Meanwhile, though, I'll keep on supporting my friends. I'll keep being their sunshine, you could say.

Christophe de Meulder is a member of Team PokerStars Pro

Why? Well, it was a big deal. Kelly had won not one but two WCOOP bracelets.

Say it aloud: it was a BIG DEAL!

Now, it's sort of quaint.

See, last night, as Dave Behr wrote, Kelly won his second SCOOP title. Add that to his four WCOOP wins, and you have a 6-COOP man, which qualifies him as...I dunno...a demigod of some sort.

Want to see who else is on their way to Dan Kelly status? Click any of the headlines below to see our wrap-ups. (Hint: Check out Randall Flowers who one event and final tabled another in the same night)

zeus-tseuji wins first for Japan in Event #29-L, $11 NL Hold'em

Entries: 18,102
Prize pool: $181,020
Places paid: 2,475

1st place: zeus-tseuji (Japan) $19,534.41
2nd place: SHUR43 (Russia) $15,386.70
3rd place: RONNALDO 9 (Mexico) $11,776.30
4th place: Celfhtd (Russia) $8,145.90
5th place: sakiss99 (Cyprus) $6,335.70
6th place: darkarchon-8 (Bulgaria) $4,525.50
7th place: MYspearGUN (Cyprus) $2,715.30
8th place: kuuuuuk (Norway) $1,629.18
9th place: DDrunkson (Portugal) $1,086.12

Passagero-LM flies high in Event 29-M ($109 NLHE)

Players: 5213
Prize pool: $521,300
Places paid: 675

1. Passagero-LM (Brazil) - $56,043.54*
2. PutItAllYin (Canada) - $40,838.72*
3. beed2 (Slovakia) - $48,418.71*
4. dariepoker (Romania) - $54,966.22*
5. rounder3989 (Germany) - $36,874.22*
6. What0ver9000 (Germany) - $16,942.25
7. gardze_wami (Poland) - $11,729.25
8. holla@yoboy (Canada) - $6,516,25
9. dyng247 (Sweden) - $4,170.40
* denotes 5-way deal

OverTheTop43 on top after chop in Event #29-H ($1,050 NLHE)

Players: 1,534
Total prize pool: $1,534,000.00
Places paid: 171

1. OverTheTop43 (Germany) $199,446.39*
2. kikobicu (Brazil) $200,696.28*
3. MonkeyBudg (Ireland) $197,963.93*
4. Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth (Ireland) $104,312.00
5. Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich (Germany) $75,933.00
6. FONBET_RULIT (Russia) $60,593.00
7. Giuseppe "Ansgar2000" Pantaleo (Germany) $45,253.00
8. korjae (Canada) -- $29,913.00
9. Elia001 (Russia) -- $16,567.20
*reflects three-way deal

Jomppeli_32 jumps to a win in Event #30-L, $27 Razz

Entries: 2,192
Prize pool: $53,183.60
Places paid: 288

1st place: Jomppeli_32 (Finland) $9,243.37
2nd place: Jesseb888 (Canada) $6,538.35
3rd place: TomaszRa (United Kingdom) $5,112.29
4th place: erot1 (Norway) $3,766.95
5th place: scroosko (United Kingdom) $2,690.68
6th place: margenov (Bulgaria) $1,614.40
7th place: ViTaMin_F22 (China) $1,076.27
8th place: Kazerog (Russia) $538.13

lowballeric earns a lowball title in Event #30-M ($215 Razz)

Players: 461
Total prize pool: $92,200.00
Places paid: 64

1. lowballeric (United Kingdom) $17,518.00
2. krec23 (Russia) $12,908.00
3. Gigaloff (Russia) $9,459.72
4. shrek7771 (Russia) $6,915.00
5. capeta333 (Brazil) $4,610.00
6. Paul "padjes" Berende (Netherlands) $3,227.00
7. Desslock (Canada) $2,305.00
8. Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen (Mexico) $1,844.00

Kelly captures sixth COOP title in Event 30-H ($2100 Razz)

Players: 97
Prizepool: $194,000
Places paid: 12

1. Daniel "djk123" Kelly (Australia) - $45,377.50*
2. SebbyGl (Germany) - $43,377.50*
3. ShellyCalls (Australia) - $27,160.00
4. redeste (Russia) - $18,430.00
5. AceQuad (Mexico) - $13,580.00
6. Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo (Canada) - $10,185.00
7. villepn (Finland) - $8,245.00
8. blanconegro (Mexico) - $6,305.00
* denotes 2-way deal

FoRiu89 pots victory in Event #32-L ($27 Pot Limit Omaha Turbo ZOOM)

Entrants: 5,419
Prize pool: $133,036.45
Places paid: 720

1st FoRiu89 (Bulgaria) - $16,295.07*
2nd JeffBaas (Netherlands) - $15,497.07*
3rd N0b0dy (Canada) - $15,496.07*
4th badalhas (Portugal) - $7,516.55
5th mitsakos21 (Greece) - $5,654.04
6th ace201220 (Belgium) - $4,323.68
7th VernonH (Germany) - $2,993.32
8th Alexx_N (Russia) - $1,662.95
9th Funeraler (Ukraine) - $1,064.29
* denotes three-way even money chop

SWFAZ dominates final table to win Event #32-M ($215 PL Omaha Zoom Turbo)

Players: 1,486
Prizepool: $297,200
Place paid: 198

1. SWFAZ (United Kingdom) $40,590.43*
2. sonajero (Uruguay) $29,035.64*
3. Contado (Norway) $38,785.63*
4. julianherold (Germany) $25,476.90*
5. SP3WMONKEY (Netherlands) $14,562.80
6. Dan "APowers1968" Colpoys (Canada) $11,590.80
7. SFisch4 (Canada) $8,618.80
8. JokerTilt (Bulgaria) $5,646.80
9. Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (Mexico) $3,061.16
* - reflects four-way deal

RandALLin runs over the final table in Event #32-H ($2,100 PLO [Turbo, Zoom])

Players: 312
Prizepool: $624,000
Places paid: 36

1. Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (Mexico) $127,608.00
2. zwacke (Germany) $93,600.00
3. mahripeluri (Finland) $70,512.00
4. Bandano (Netherlands) $53,040.00
5. jama-dharma (Russia) $36,192.00
6. vindog03 (United Kingdom) $28,080.00
7. vegaspolotsk (Belarus) $21,840.00
8. kartt (Brazil) $15,600.00
9. greeno99 (United Kingdom) $11,856.00

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

How much would everything change? I'd end up writing poker stories that were crazier than Rounders. I'd play in games in casinos all over the world. I'd sit around with Jim McManus and talk about Positively Fifth Street.

That's how much things changed because of May 23, 2003. That's how much changed because of this guy.

In the days before Twitter, the fastest way reporters got their outside news was via the Associated Press wire. My newsroom's fancy new software had an AP feed that came directly to our computers. That was where I first saw that a man named Moneymaker had won the biggest Main Event in history. That was ten years ago today, an historic Friday in Vegas that changed the lives of an uncountable number of people.

Moneymaker's win struck me and my poker friends like it struck every other wannabe in the world. The restaurant accountant from Tennessee was just some guy. He wasn't a Brunson. He wasn't a Chan. He wasn't a star, but he was about to change our lives.

There will be many retrospectives and re-told stories today. They're all worthy tales, and they all deserve their due.

But today, I'm struck by a personal feeling of gratitude that I can't shake, and that's what this is about.

***

So, why would I thank Chris?

I stayed in TV news for another 18 months. My friends and I talked about Moneymaker. He was around our age, and he was the most unlikely of heroes in a game that we played. Our softball team was never going to walk into Fenway. Our disc golf games weren't going to land us in some disc golf version of The Masters. But our poker game...well, Chris Moneymaker gave us hope.

I played poker as much as I could. I managed to win my first $10,000 tournament seat just a few weeks before I got the opportunity to start doing work for PokerStars (a seat I gave up for the privilege of doing what do today).

PokerStars was exploding by that point in January 2005. It had put the last two World Champions into the WSOP. It was on its way to becoming the world's biggest online poker site. I gave up a career I'd been in for a decade to write about the people who were chasing...well, they were chasing my dream.

I wasn't on the job long before then card room manager Lee Jones pulled me aside and laid it out for me. I don't remember his exact words, but in my head it sounded like this: "We're all here because of what Chris Moneymaker did."

That may sound like dramatic hyperbole, and it probably discounts the role television and the hole card cameras played in the game's growth. Nevertheless, I feel comfortable that neither I nor most of the poker people I know would be where they are today if it weren't for Moneymaker making the choice to play that $39 satellite on PokerStars that put him in the WSOP Main Event.

As always, Lee Jones was right. Our lives and the lives of many other people changed in an immeasurable way when Moneymaker finally took off his sunglasses and smiled ten years ago.

***

I'll be honest. The first time I saw Chris was the morning of Day 1 of the 2005 PCA, and he didn't look especially good. He looked tired and a little worn out by the duties and obligations of being a world champion. I didn't ask him if I could write that--or even if it is true--but I don't think he would deny it.

I only mention it to highlight the fact that playing the role of a hero when you don't have experience in the field can be tough on anybody. Chris endured some struggles after his big win. Those are his business, but they are worth noting for this reason: he overcame them and turned himself into a man and poker ambassador worthy of every bit of praise he's received. And more, really.

I've seen Chris just about everywhere. All over Vegas. All over America. On several different continents. Everywhere he goes, he's a spectacle. Everywhere, he's a top-notch ambassador.

The last of those is the most important for our purposes here. Chris is an amazing ambassador. He speaks the language of poker without sounding like he's typing in an online poker chat box. He talks like a normal human being, because that's what he is.

I remember a time--and I hope you do, too--when Chris heard about a young man, Donald Hobbs, who was struggling in the hospital. His therapists were using poker to keep him driven in his recovery. Chris heard about it, went for a visit, and promised Hobbs--if he could get healthy enough to fly--a plane ticket to the WSOP. By the time it was all said and done, Hobbs was not only hanging out with Moneymaker in Vegas, but playing the Main Event.

In an age where we're all looking for the best of our people to represent us to the straight world, Chris is still the perfect everyman. He is still the guy who can explain this game to normal people. Why? Because he is normal people. He's good people. And he's still good for the game.

***

Indulge me for a second.

There was a night back in 2008 when Chris was the biggest thing happening in the Palms' poker room. It was after the PokerStars party where Dita Von Teese splashed around in a giant champagne glass. Chris was ending the night playing a $2/$5 game in the back of the room.

The waiting list was long, but I greased the floor to put in me in the first open seat because, as much as I already knew Chris by then, there was still a part of me that enjoyed the idea of playing with one of the game's heroes. What's more, that game was The Story happening right then, and my entire life and career was about telling the story of whatever The Story was at the time.

Moneymaker was sitting there with Jim Worth (another early hero of the online game). Tourists were snapping pictures. That's when Chris looked up and asked me how I'd fared in another game a few nights earlier. It was idle chitchat, but the tourists suddenly wanted to know who I was. Why was he talking to me? People started to look at me and talk about me as if I wasn't there.

"Who is that?" someone asked.

"His name is Brad," someone else said. That was true.

"He's a pro player," someone else said. That was not true.

This conversation was repeated around me like a game of Telephone until it reached the two guys who stood immediately on my right.

The big one was a burly guy with a graying beard, a man everyone knew.

His name was Paul.

Paul Eskimo Clark.

Eskimo looked at me and then his friend and asked, "Who is that?"

"His name is Brad," the guy parroted. "He's a pro."

Six inches to my right, Eskimo grunted and muttered, "Never heard of him."

I still laugh about that moment today, but it speaks to the awe Moneymaker commanded five years after his win. It wasn't just Eskimo railing a $2/$5 game. It was tourists standing and snapping pictures. It was people so caught up in the idea of Moneymaker that they were even curious about the random blogger Moneymaker acknowledged.

***

I've been fortunate to know some of the game's greats. I've been fortunate to know some of the game's champions. Greg Raymer was once kind enough to grill me a steak. Joe Hachem once handed me a $100 bill he won in some crazy betting game I didn't even understand. These great men all became my friends, which was amazing in ways I'll never really be able to explain.

But looking back, it was what Chris Moneymaker did ten years ago today that's shaped how I've spent the last decade of my life. I've made dozens of lifelong friends. I've worked for and alongside PokerStars people, who--although I know I am biased--I believe are the best in the business.

Ten years ago today, I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life working in local TV news. It wouldn't have been a bad career, and I think I could've done it with pride. But because of that day in 2003, I've seen a big part of the world, been able to report some amazing stories, and met friends I will cherish forever. And, for what it's worth, I've been able to hang out with a poker hero named Moneymaker from time to time.

So, thank you, Chris, for being just some guy. Thanks for being a great ambassador for our game. Thank you for turning yourself into something even better than the hero you were. And thanks for being the guy you are today.

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging (Eskimo has still never heard of him)

Players among the the early confirmations include Jonathan Duhamel, Isaac Haxton, Gus Hansen, Erik Seidel, Greg Merson, and Celina Lin. Organizers report they also have commitments from John Juanda, Joseph Cheong, Tony Gregg, Mike Watson, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Igor Kurganov, Tobias Reinkemeier, Aaron Lim, JC Alvarado, Devan Tang, and Nick Wong.

They are part of a list of more than 50 people already signed up, an unprecedented number of pre-registrations for an event of this magnitude. At least one more will qualify for the main event this Sunday in a special satellite on PokerStars.

The GDAM main event will be webcast live on PokerStars.TV June 5-7 beginning at 3pm HKT each day.

GDAM SCHEDULE

Tue, June 4 @ 3:00 PM - HK $250,000 GDAM Warm-Up Event
Wed, June 5 @ 3:00 PM - HK $1M + 2R GDAM Main Event - Day 1
Thu, June 6 @ 3:00 PM - GDAM Main Event - Day 2
Fri, June 7 @ 3:00 PM - GDAM Main Event - Final Table

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

At the beginning of the month Lind challenged himself with a three-pronged goal: to make a million VPP in May while maintaining a pre-rakeback profit and lose ten pounds in weight at the same time. You can read his insane goal declaration at his personal blog.

The challenge
Moving into the final quarter of the challenge Lind has nailed two of the three goals, breaking 1 million VPP and losing 10 pounds, but the third is proving to be a little problematic right now.

"Unfortunately i got crushed today, losing like $50k, now I'm only up $2k pre-rakeback on the month. Gonna be a sweat for this last goal!"
- Jorj95's blog, 23 May

Well, even two out of three ain't bad, but don't go betting against Jorj95.

Free vacation! (with every 10,000,000 VPPs)
You can have a free holiday. Yeah, PokerStars will give you travel, accommodation and spending money, just so long as you earn 10,000,000 VPPs. You can read about the incredible family holiday of a lifetime at Jorj95's personal blog (although it's Mrs George writing as the challenge is on!) It started in Japan here but you can read about the whole trip through the links below.

Anchorage glacier bay
Dutch Hrabour and Kodiak
Kobe and Petropavlovsk

While Japan can be a fairly alien environment it is made a lot easier thanks to Naoya 'nkeyno' Kihara stepping in as a makeshift guide and paper sumo opponent.

SCOOPing it up
Lind really should have made it a four-handed challenge by throwing in a top ten SCOOP leaderboard finish into the mix. He'd be on for a sweat with that one, too. Lind is currently sat in 11th position with 305 points. SCOOP hero Shaun Deeb is, of course, at the top of the leader board with 410 points. Read about that here.

Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

Day 1

The first day of Event #29-H kicked off much as another Super Tuesday, PokerStars' weekly $1,050 no-limit hold'em tournament, with cards going in the air at 17:00 ET. However in this case the field would be nearly three times as large as the Super Tuesday has been of late, with a whopping 1,534 players ultimately taking to the felt by the time late registration closed.

That big group meant a prize pool of $1,534,000, well over the $1 million guarantee assigned to this one, with the top 171 finishers destined to divide those riches.

The schedule called for 16 half-hour levels to be played on Day 1, and as it happened by the end of the night exactly 172 players remained -- that's right, they stopped squarely on the stone cold bubble.

Three Team PokerStars Pros were among that group surviving the first day, with Ike Haxton in 16th position with double the average stack, Chris "Money800" Moneymaker in 35th, and Lex Veldhuis in 44th. Meanwhile, Ondrej "Vinkyy" Vinklarek of the Czech Republic ended the night out in front of everyone with more than 162,000.

Here's how the top of the counts appeared overnight:

1. Ondrej "Vinkyy" Vinklarek (Czech Republic) -- 162,061
2. Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy (Australia) -- 140,603
3. kikobicu (Brazil) -- 136,421
4. Elia001 (Russia) -- 129,733
5. OverTheTop43 (Germany) -- 129,770
6. petermurphy8 (United Kingdom) -- 127,844
7. FONBET_RULIT (Russia) -- 118,515
8. Denys "SantaZzz" Chufarin (Ukraine) -- 109,512
9. SlovakPsycho (Slovakia) -- 108,976
10. Steve "BetrThanPhil" Tripp (Canada) -- 104,671

Day 2

The surviving players reassembled at 17:00 ET on Wednesday to begin Level 17 and the process of finding a winner.

They started with all 20 remaining tables playing hand-for-hand, and made it to the fourth hand before NhFy reraised-shoved for about 16 big blinds with [Ah][Kc] and got a single caller in PokerPetty00 who held [Qd][Qh]. The community cards came eight-high, and having failed to improve NhFy was the unlucky 172nd-place finisher, the last to go out prior to the cash.

About 50 players followed NhFy to the rail during that first hour, then during the second Lex Veldhuis unfortunately met his end in 108th place ($2,914.60) after running [Qc][Qh] into kjunia's [As][Ah] in a blind-versus-blind confrontation.

By the three-hour mark they'd whittled down to the final 64 players, with kikobicu and Ondrej "Vinkyy" Vinklarek still at the top of the counts with Grayson "gray31" Ramage in third position. Meanwhile, Team PokerStars Pro Ike Haxton had just hit the rail in 66th ($3,528.20) after becoming short-stacked before being finished off in a hand versus Varosky.

That left just Chris "Money800" Moneymaker who sat with an average stack. Moneymaker, of course, was celebrating the eve of an important anniversary of not just in his poker career, but for poker, generally speaking. As most are remembering this week, it was May 23, 2003 when Moneymaker completed his magical Main Event run to win the title and $2.5 million prize.

After getting off to a good start in the night's fourth hour, Moneymaker would climb into the top 10 in the counts as players continued to fall, with Németh "probirs" András (63rd, $3,835), Denys "SantaZzz" Chufarin (62nd, $3,845), and Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy (50th, $4,141.80) among the eliminated.

They pushed on past the five-hour mark for Day 2 as the field shrunk further to less than 40. Then with the blinds at 1,600/3,200, Victor "VibizSbrissa" Sbrissa raised to 6,785 from early position and got three callers in Elia001 (hijack), Moneymaker (button), and ABC POKERS (big blind). The flop came [2h][7d][9h], and when checked to Sbrissa continued for 16,477. Elia001 called, then Moneymaker raised to 44,800 and only Sbrissa stuck around.

The turn brought the [Qs] and a check from Sbrissa. Moneymaker bet 60,800, leaving but 88,536 behind, and when VibizSbrissa check-raised over the top, Moneymaker called all in.

Moneymaker had [7h][6h] for sevens and a flush draw, but was in bad shape versus Sbrissa's [Qh][8h] for queens and a higher flush draw. The river was the [Kd], and Moneymaker's run ended in 36th ($5,369), a few tables shy of his fantastic finish a decade ago.

Over the next three hours the field would shrink to 18, with start-of-Day-2 leader Ondrej "Vinkyy" Vinklarek (27th), Grayson "gray31" Ramage (26th), and Antoine "A.Saout" Saout (19th) each earning $6,136 for their finishes.

By then it was Elia001 on top with more than 880,000, with OverTheTop43 the closest competitor with just under 720,000. They'd make it nearly to the 10-hour mark of Day 2 before playing down to nine, with Popiedejopie (18th), VbV1990 (17th), and BWFCLEE (16th) each earning $7,363.20, ABC POKERS (15th), EvnomiYa (14th), and Victor "VibizSbrissa" Sbrissa (13th) taking away $10,277.80 apiece, and Fukuruku (12th), Steve "BetrThanPhil" Tripp (11th), and dyng247 (10th) each seeing $13,192.40 added to their accounts.

OverTheTop43 took the chip lead to the final table, largely thanks to having won a huge preflop all-in on the final table bubble with [Kh][Kd] versus Elia001's [Qc][Qh].

Seat 1: Giuseppe "Ansgar2000" Pantaleo (Germany) -- 602,015
Seat 2: Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth (Ireland) -- 1,018,605
Seat 3: MonkeyBudg (Ireland) -- 1,168,537
Seat 4: korjae (Canada) -- 545,285
Seat 5: OverTheTop43 (Germany) -- 1,554,752
Seat 6: Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich (Germany) -- 573,093
Seat 7: Elia001 (Russia) -- 278,057
Seat 8: kikobicu (Brazil) -- 847,895
Seat 9: FONBET_RULIT (Russia) -- 1,081,761

Elia001 eliminated in ninth

It would take over half an hour for the first final table knockout, by which point the blinds had increased to 5,000/10,000 as MonkeyBudg had pushed into the chip lead with more than 1.69 million.

The hand began with Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth raising to 20,000 from middle position and getting a caller in MonkeyBudg sitting to his left. It folded to Elia001 in the big blind who reraised to 66,660, and after Ainsworth folded MonkeyBudg reraised back to 133,455. Elia001 made it 200,250 to go, MonkeyBudg shoved, and Elia001 called all in with the 512,163 left behind.

Elia001 had [9s][9c] but needed help versus MonkeyBudg's [Qc][Qs]. The board rolled out [2c][2h][3d][Tc][7s], and Elia001 was out in ninth.

korjae knocked out in eighth

About 10 minutes later the blinds were 6,000/12,000 when Ainsworth raised 2x again from middle position and MonkeyBudg called again as before. Then it was korjae reraising from the cutoff to 269,255, and when it folded back Ainsworth called while MonkeyBudg stepped aside.

j.thaddeus had [Ac][Qc] and korjae [Ah][Td]. The flop came [9c][Qs][8c] to pair Ainsworth as well as provide him a flush draw. The [Ts] then fell on the turn to give korjae a pair and a little bit of hope for survival. But the river was the [2h], and korjae was eliminated in eighth.

Ansgar2000 ousted in seventh

They pushed through the 11-hour mark of Day 2 -- a little past the point when play had stopped on Day 1 -- and soon kikobicu was min-raising to 24,000 from UTG. Giuseppe "Ansgar2000" Pantaleo then reraise-pushed all in for 262,353 from a couple of seats over, and Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth called from next position. All folded around, including kikobicu, and the players' cards were revealed.

Ansgar2000: [Kc][Jc]
j.thaddeus: [9h][9c]

Pantaleo needed help, but the [4c][2h][4h][4s][Tc] provided none, and they were down to six.

FONBET_RULIT felted in sixth

Just a minute later kikobicu raised 2x from the cutoff seat, then FONBET_RULIT pushed for 214,798 from the button. The blinds folded, then kikobicu called the push, showing [Tc][Th] to FONBET_RULIT's [Ad][9d].

The community cards came [3d][Jc][Ks], then [6h], then [Qd], and FONBET_RULIT's run was done in sixth.

blumenkind53 busts in fifth

Not long after that hand the blinds bumped up to 7,000/14,000, then MonkeyBudg raised to 28,000 from the cutoff seat. It folded to Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich who pushed all in for 188,552 from the small blind, and after kikobicu folded the big blind MonkeyBudg called.

Both players had been dealt aces, but MonkeyBudg's [Ah][8h] was ahead of Ulrich's [Ac][4d]. The [Jd][7c][Qh] flop was no help for blumenkind53, then the [8c] on the turn made the [2d] river inconsequntial, and Ulrich was sent railward in fifth.

j.thaddeus thumped in fourth

Another break arrived, marking 12 hours played for Day 2, with OverTheTop43 leading with almost 2.26 million, Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth next with just under 2.2 million, MonkeyBudg third with a little more than 1.75 million, and kikobicu fourth with about 1.46 million.

They'd battle on for nearly another hour, near the end of which Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth had slipped to just under 700,000 when he opened with a min-raise to 40,000 from the cutoff/under the gun. It folded to kikobicu who reraised to 99,898, Ainsworth shoved for 692,914 total, and kikobicu called.

j.thaddeus had [Td][8d] while kikobicu had [Ts][Tc]. The flop came [9s][8s][Qs] to give Ainsworth one pair, but the [5s] turn made an unbeatable flush for kikobicu, making the [Ac] river no matter and ending Ainsworth's run in fourth for a six-figure cash.

A three-way deal, then MonkeyBudg moves on, finishing third

Soon the 13-hour break arrived, with OverTheTop43 on top with 3.58 million, MonkeyBudg next with 2.50 million, and kikobicu third with 1.58 million.

Twenty minutes passed, highlighted by a big double-up by MonkeyBudg through OverTheTop43 that saw all of the chips go in on a ten-high flop with OverTheTop43 holding [Ah][Td], MonkeyBudg [Qd][Qh], and the queens holding. kikobicu chipped up as well to edge into the lead with nearly 3 million, with MonkeyBudg close behind with 2.84 million and OverTheTop43 in third with 1.83 million.

That's when the trio called for the tourney to be paused in order to discuss a possible deal, and all were quick to agree to "chip chop" figures, leaving $20,000 on the table for which to play.

It wasn't long after the deal-making that MonkeyBudg slipped further to 410,539, then with the blinds at 12,500/25,000 open-pushed all in from the small blind and got a caller in OverTheTop43 from the big blind.

MonkeyBudg had [Ac][6s], but OverTheTop43 had [Ad][8h], and five cards later -- [3c][7h][9h][Tc][4c] -- they were down to two.

kikobicu KO'd, OverTheTop43 ends on top

Heads-up began with the two remaining players' stacks nearly even, with kikobicu sitting with 3,925,153 and OverTheTop43 just behind with 3,744,847.

They battled for about 30 hands without much change to their stacks. Then came a decisive hand in which kikobicu called a preflop five-bet by OverTheTop43, thus building a pot of about 1.26 million.

The flop came [Kc][8d][3d], and OverTheTop43 led with a small bet of 39,000. kikobicu raised to nearly 600,000, OverTheTop43 reraised back to 1,158,596, kikiobicu shoved, and OverTheTop43 called all in.

OverTheTop43 had "top-top" plus the nut flush draw with [Ad][Kd] while kikobicu was in dire straits with [Qd][Td] and a lesser diamond draw. The [Ks] turn and [Ah] river then improved OverTheTop43 to a full house to earn the 7.44 million pot.

Down to just 229,346 after that hand, kikobicu watched as OverTheTop43 open-shoved from the button on the next hand and then called, turning over [7d][6h] to OverTheTop43's [Th][7h]. The board ran out [3h][8h][Qc][7s][2d], giving both sevens but OverTheTop43's kicker was best, and finally -- after just about 24 hours' worth of poker spread over two day -- the tourney had been won.

Congratulations to OverTheTop43 for winning one of the more difficult SCOOP events on the schedule, and kudos as well to both kikobicu and MonkeyBudg for making it to the three-way chop to guarantee themselves handsome scores as well.

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #29-H ($1,050 No-Limit Hold'em) results (*reflects three-way deal)

Players: 1,534
Total prize pool: $1,534,000.00
Places paid: 171

1. OverTheTop43 (Germany) $199,446.39*
2. kikobicu (Brazil) $200,696.28*
3. MonkeyBudg (Ireland) $197,963.93*
4. Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth (Ireland) $104,312.00
5. Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich (Germany) $75,933.00
6. FONBET_RULIT (Russia) $60,593.00
7. Giuseppe "Ansgar2000" Pantaleo (Germany) $45,253.00
8. korjae (Canada) -- $29,913.00
9. Elia001 (Russia) -- $16,567.20

SCOOP keeps SCOOPin'! Check the series' site for all of the details.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

Team PokerStars Pro Jose "Nacho" Barbero has played his fair share of SCOOP 2013 events. He was at it again in Event 29-M and made a respectably deep run, cashing for $573.43 by finishing in 100th place. He led Team Pros Jonathan Duhamel (400th, $213.73) and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospelier (645th, $177.24) to ITM finishes.

It was after 1am server time when the final table began with these nine players:

Seat 1: rounder3989 (4584432 in chips)
Seat 2: dyng247 (591453 in chips)
Seat 3: PutItAllYin (3512444 in chips)
Seat 4: gardze_wami (3119272 in chips)
Seat 5: dariepoker (3703514 in chips)
Seat 6: What0ver9000 (1563200 in chips)
Seat 7: holla@yoboy (1920518 in chips)
Seat 8: beed2 (4870103 in chips)
Seat 9: Passagero-LM (2200064 in chips)

Level 46: blinds 30k-60k, ante 7500
Average: 2.9 million (48 BBs)

The short stack, dyng247, was dying as the final table began, but tripled up, all in preflop, through rounder3989 and PutItAllYin by flopping a Broadway straight. Once that happened, everyone at the final table had at least 20 big blinds. They were going to play some poker.

It would be almost an hour before dyng247, despite that early triple-up, would go out as the 9th-place finisher. dyng247, sitting on the button with a pair of 10s, three-bet shoved for 1.3 million after Passagero-LM opened for the minimum 160k with a pair of 8s. dyng247 was in great shape when Passagero-LM called, but not even a set of 10s would have been enough after two more 8s hit the board, [qh][8c][7s][8s][ad].

From there it was the dariepoker show, as dariepoker would seemingly be the only player to accumulate chips for the next half hour. By the time holla@yoboy open-shoved for 868k from under the gun with [qc][td], dariepoker had about 7.4 million chips. dariepoker was also dealt two 7s that hand and re-shoved. 7s held up to send holla@yoboy crashing out in 8th place.

Two more players would hit the rail before the 3am break. gardze_wami lost a flip holding [as][ks] on what many would call an "action flop":

That hand didn't eliminate gardze_wami, but it did set up gardze_wami to be eliminated a few hands later. PutItAllYin finished the chop by making [kc][9s] stand up against gardze_wami's [5c][7h].

The other player to be eliminated was What0ver9000, who had a very quiet final table. What0ver9000's fateful final hand saw the chips go in on a classic flip, as What0ver9000 3-bet shoved for 1.86 million with [ad][kd] and was called by Passagero-LM, who had open-raised with [qd][qc]. What0ver9000 flopped two pair, [kc][9c][ac], but Passagero-LM caught a fourth club on the river to make a flush and knock What0ver9000 out.

The remaining five players played for five minutes after the 3am break before calling a halt to consider working out a deal. rounder3989, as the short stack, refused to consider a chip-chop deal, so the players requested ICM numbers and started working from there. The deal hit a sticking point when PutItAllYin, whose ICM number was $38,738, asked for $42,500.

That wasn't going to fly but the players started bartering to see what might. beed2 and dariepoker, as big stacks, each agreed to kick $800 towards PutItAllYin, with Passagero-LM contributing another $500. Everyone agreed to that deal.

All told it took 20 minutes to hammer out the deal, but when it was done only $6,000 remained to play for. The five players left didn't abandon all sanity and rationality and just fling the chips in, however. They continued to play patient poker, taking an hour to finish the rest of the tournament.

Things gave way first for rounder3989, who tried making a huge bluff in a pot that rounder3989 had three-bet pre-flop. Passagero-LM called that pre-flop three-bet, then called a 3-bet all-in shove on the [8s][7h][tc] flop as well. rounder3989's [ad][5s] was drawing nearly dead against Passagero-LM's flopped two pair, [td][8d]. A [9c] on the turn prolonged the sweat for everybody, but the river bricked out to end roudner3989's tournament.

That massive pot propelled Passagero-LM to a big chip lead, but beed2 made up some of the ground by eliminating dariepoker in 4th place. In the 80k-160k level, dariepoker tried three-bet shoving for 4.33 million with [qs][8s] after beed2 opened from first position for the minimum 320k. It didn't work out so well, as beed2 had two kings in the hole, which stood tall on a jack-high board.

Passagero-LM had a large chip lead with three players left. It seemed as though the other two players, beed2 and PutItAllYin, were battling between themselves for the honor of going up against Passagero-LM in heads-up play. PutItAllYin won that battle when beed2 opend shoved the small blind for 3.1 million and Passagero-LM called with pocket jacks. beed2's [7h][9h] mustered a heart flush draw by the turn, [tc][ah][4c][qh], but a [kc] closed the door on any comeback by beed2.

Passagero-LM started heads-up play with a chip lead that was almost 4-to-1. That lead remained largely intact (with minor fluctuations) for 24 hands. On the 25th hand, with blinds at 100k-200k, Passagero-LM opened the button to 400k. PutItAllYin three-bet to 875k, prompting Passagero-LM to make a massive four-bet all-in shove. PutItAllYin called off another 4.74 million with [ad][jh] and wound up in a coin flip situation against Passagero-LM's pocket deuces. Passagero-LM sealed the victory by flopping a third deuce.

All told, Passagero-LM's victory took three-and-a-half hours - and that was just the portion that took place at the final table. When you consider the 12 hours that took place yesterday, and the additional eight hours that Passagero-LM had to put in today before the final table began, you can see that Passagero-LM earned every bit of today's SCOOP title.

SCOOP 2013 Event 29-M $109 NLHE results

Players: 5213
Prizepool: $521,300
Places paid: 675
* denotes 5-way deal

1. Passagero-LM (Brazil) - $56,043.54*
2. PutItAllYin (Canada) - $40,838.72*
3. beed2 (Slovakia) - $48,418.71*
4. dariepoker (Romania) - $54,966.22*
5. rounder3989 (Germany) - $36,874.22*
6. What0ver9000 (Germany) - $16,942.25
7. gardze_wami (Poland) - $11,729.25
8. holla@yoboy (Canada) - $6,516,25
9. dyng247 (Sweden) - $4,170.40

Time's running out to join in on the fun of SCOOP 2013. Find out how you can get involved at the SCOOP home page.

Dave Behr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

The guarantee was left far behind when 18,102 players showed up, building a $181,020 prize pool and setting up a top prize of $19,534.41. By the time Day 1 came to a close there were only 217 players remaining, with the blinds and antes at 4K/8K/1K and these 10 players ahead of the rest:

Ansgar2000 2.43M
KING BAIT 1.87M
sakiss99 1.63M
guillemei 1.45M
caio_pimenta 1.41M
djalminha 1.38M
Igor Stipan 1.37M
z4muz 1.26M
superf1sh 1.12M
VinceVegaMFR 1.04M

Team PokerStars Pro's own ElkY sat in 23rd place as play resumed, with a stack of 833K. But as it turned out, neither the decorated pro nor most of the players in the top 10 to start Day 2 would still be playing by the time the final table arrived. ElkY bowed out in 66th place ($190.07). Cyprus' sakiss99 was the only one to make it through. The closest any of the others came was Germany's Ansgar2000, the incoming chip leader who busted in 27th ($325.83).

These eight players came from behind to join sakiss99 at the final table, which kicked off at 11:45 p.m. ET:

Seat 1: RONNALDO 9 (7,441,610 in chips)
Seat 2: kuuuukk (10,221,671 in chips)
Seat 3: Celfhtd (21,114,140 in chips)
Seat 4: MYspearGUN (8,187,550 in chips)
Seat 5: sakiss99 (7,148,485 in chips)
Seat 6: SHUR43 (7,014,445 in chips)
Seat 7: zeus-tseuji (17,273,468 in chips)
Seat 8: DDrunkson (2,025,913 in chips)
Seat 9: darkarchon-8 (10,082,718 in chips)

The action started right away and never really let up. Russia's SHUR43 came in with the second-shortest stack at 6.31M, worth just under 16 big blinds at the 200K/400K/50K level, and wasn't ready to wait around. The third hand saw SHUR43 move all-in from the button with [Kh] [Td], and Japan's zeus-tseuji re-raised to isolate with [8c] [8d]. The Russian looked likely to be the first player eliminated as the flop and turn came [7s] [Qh] [3s] [6d], but the [Ks] on the river kept SHUR43 alive with 13.37M chips.

Two hands later the Russian player picked up a few more chips after opening for 800K and having Portugal's DDrunkson move all-in for 1.17M total on the button. SHUR43 made the call with [Ah] [Kc], which had DDrunkson's [Ad] [9h] dominated. The [Jh] [9s] [Qh] [Td] [Qd] board gave SHUR43 a Broadway straight and the 3.4M-chip pot, and DDrunkson was eliminated in 9th place ($1,086.12).

Five hands after that Mexico's RONNALDO 9 flopped extremely well and played the hand for maximum value:

Two orbits later, on the 250K/500K/62.5K level, Bulgaria's darkarchon-8 caught a bit of good fortune. After moving all-in for 3.85M under the gun with [6c] [6h] and having Cyprus' MYspearGUN move in over the top from the cutoff with [Qc] [Qd], the [6d] on the flop kept the Bulgarian player alive. Despite being left with just 846K - less than two big blinds - MYspearGUN wasn't the next player out, thanks to a huge confrontation on the very next hand.

zeus-tseuji ascends

The betting opened with Norway's kuuuuuk moving all-in for 6.72M from early position and Russia's Celfhtd making the call from middle position. Once the action reached zeus-tseuji in the small blind, the Japanese player moved all-in for 14.2M. Celfhtd made the call with 8.5M left behind and the players showed these hands:

zeus-tseuji [9s] [9c]
kuuuuk [Kd] [Jd]
Celfhtd [Ac] [Ks]

The [3s] [Js] [9d] flop was a great one for zeus-tseuji, whose set of nines became a big favorite to win the pot. The [7c] turn and [Jc] river made that happen, shipping zeus-tseuji the 36.13M-chip pot and knocking out kuuuuk in 8th place ($1,629.18).

MYspearGUN was now the clear short stack. The Cypriot player actually managed to triple up a few hands later with [Ts] [5d] against [Kh] [Jc] thanks to the [5c] on the river, but at 1.88M that pot was worth less than four big blinds. Two hands later MYspearGUN moved all-in from the button for 1.5M with [9s] [7s] and ran into SHUR43's [Ts] [Tc] in the big blind. The [Jc] [9h] [Jd] flop brought a few outs, and the [7h] a few more, but the [2s] sent MYspearGUN to the rail in 7th place ($2,715.30).

Only two hands later darkarchon-8 ended up all-in before the flop, having three-bet to 7.29M in the big blind after SHUR43 opened for 1M on the button. The Russian player made the call with [4h] [4s], which held up on the [5c] [5h] [8d] [Tc] [Ah] board to knock darkarchon-8 out in 6th place ($4,525.50).

Stratification

There was now a clear separation in the chip counts, with zeus-tseuji (34.95M) 15 big blinds ahead ahead of SHUR43 (27.82M) and with more than triple the chips of RONNALDO 9 (10.69M), Cyprus' sakiss99 (9.59M), and Celfhtd (7.44M). The blinds and antes soon rose to 300K/600K/75K and the pace of play slowed. Only one of the next 15 hands went to a flop. Finally the action folded to Celfhtd in the small blind and the Russian player raised the minimum to 1.2M. Sakiss99 moved all-in for 6.91M from the big blind with [[Qh] [Tc] and Celfhtd made the call with [8d] [8s]. The board fell [Jh] [7s] [Jc] [As] [7h] and sakiss99 was gone in 5th place ($6,335.70).

The good times were short-lived for Celfhtd, though. Only four hands later a very similar hand came up: the action folded to the Russian player, who put in a small raise with a medium pocket pair (this time [7s] [7d]) and called an all-in from the player in the big blind with overcards (this time SHUR43 with [Ah] [Kc]). This time the flop wasn't so kind, falling [Kd] [9h] [2c]. The [6h] turn and [9c] sent the 29.08M-chip pot to SHUR43 for the chip lead and Celfhtd was out in 4th place ($8,145.90).

One more coin flip was needed to take the field down to the final matchup. It came 10 hands later when zeus-tseuji opened for 1.5M on the button with [Ks] [Th] and called the 7.09M-chip all-in from RONNALDO 9, who held [7c] [7d]. The [Qc] [Jc] [4h] flop brought a lot of outs to go with those overcards. The [5d] wasn't any help but the [Ac] on the river made a Broadway straight for zeus-tseuji, sending RONNALDO 9 out in 3rd place ($11,776.30).

A close contest

The chip counts were very close as heads-up play began:

Seat 6: SHUR43 (47,319,008 in chips)
Seat 7: zeus-tseuji (43,190,992 in chips)

The two traded small leads back and forth with each other until this pot gave zeus-tseuji a slightly bigger advantage:

Zeus-tseuji won most of the pots immediately after that one, but a run of seven out of eight pots after another 28 hands passed saw SHUR43 actually move back into the lead by a nose. Soon enough zeus-tseuji pulled back ahead by about 14M with the blinds and antes at 500K/1M/125K. The Japanese player managed to balance there for the next 25 hands. Then SHUR43 opened for 2M on the button, zeus-tseuji three-bet to 3.5M, SHUR43 four-bet to 7.05M, and zeus-tseuji called to see a flop of [3d] [5s] [Kh]. zeus-tseuji bet 6M into 14.36M and SHUR43 made the call, but the Russian declined to come along after zeus-tseuji led out for 20M on the [2h] turn.

That 26.36M-chip pot gave zeus-tseuji a 64.97M-to-25.53M lead. And though the match went on another 29 hands, SHUR43 never got any closer than that again. Finally SHUR43 opened all-in for 20.2M on the button, holding [Kh] [8h], and zeus-tseuji made the call with [Ah] [4c]. The [Qs] [5c] [Th] [Tc] [Qd] board did nothing for either player, giving zeus-tseuji the pot and the win.

SHUR43 collected $15,386.70 for two days of work, a fine reward especially considering how short-stacked the Russian player was to begin the final table. As for zeus-tseuji, who appears to be the first player from Japan ever to win a SCOOP event, the win was worth $19,534.41 and comes with a champion's watch to boot.

SCOOP 2013 Event #29-L: $11 NL Hold'em
18,102 entrants
$181,020 prize pool
2,475 places paid

1st place: zeus-tseuji (Japan) $19,534.41
2nd place: SHUR43 (Russia) $15,386.70
3rd place: RONNALDO 9 (Mexico) $11,776.30
4th place: Celfhtd (Russia) $8,145.90
5th place: sakiss99 (Cyprus) $6,335.70
6th place: darkarchon-8 (Bulgaria) $4,525.50
7th place: MYspearGUN (Cyprus) $2,715.30
8th place: kuuuuuk (Norway) $1,629.18
9th place: DDrunkson (Portugal) $1,086.12

Jason Kirk is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.

But if Brad ever gets tired of waxing eloquent about Shaun F. Deeb, he might turn his attention to Daniel "djk123" Kelly. Kelly, who leads the all-time WCOOP winners with 4 titles, captured his 2nd SCOOP title tonight in SCOOP 2013 Event 30-H, $2100 Razz.

One man. Six COOP titles. Not a Deebian level yet, but impressive all the same.

Razz isn't the most popular game out there. Only 97 players showed up to play this one. Deeb was one of them. He was also the first out the door (so maybe Kelly does have a little something on Mr. Deeb).

There was no shame in busting early though. Plenty of well-known players joined Deeb in the Losers Lounge. It was not a good day for Team Pokerstars. Between the Team Pros and the Team Online players, the Red Spade represented nearly 10% of the field, but none of them could break through to paydirt. Players like Eugene Katchalov, Alex Kravchenko, Bertrand Grospellier and Jose Barbero all came up well short of the top 12 "in the money" places that received prize money in Event 30-H.

Team Online player Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome made the deepest run for Team PokerStars but found herself short as the money bubble approached with two tables left. On the other table, $kill Game was also short and began stalling. At the 8pm break, talonchick told $kill Game to knock it off.

taIonchick [Team Online]: I have way more time bank than you $kill game
taIonchick [Team Online]: play the hand or I can stall also
$kill Game: lol
$kill Game: you can do what you want my friend
$kill Game: idc

The rest of the table weighed in.

Betudontbet: u like value, rite?
Betudontbet: don't cost yourself value
gunning4you: he doesn't care about value.
gunning4you: have you seen his sports bets?
ZeeJustin: stalling in a two table tournament is just mutually assured destruction

$kill Game tripled up 10 minutes after the break with (improbably enough) a jack-six. Rowsome busted in 16th place.

Three eliminations later the money bubble burst when $kill Game busted, and four eliminations after that the final table began with these eight players:

Seat 1: SebbyGl (97030 in chips)
Seat 2: ShellyCalls (73438 in chips)
Seat 3: Daniel "djk123" Kelly (55801 in chips)
Seat 4: redeste (46614 in chips)
Seat 5: AceQuad (40452 in chips)
Seat 6: villepn (68016 in chips)
Seat 7: Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo (62802 in chips)
Seat 8: blanconegro (40847 in chips)

Level 19: stakes 2k-4k, ante 400
Average: 60,625 (15 big bets)

For a fixed-limit tournament, the final table was deep in chips. This was not one that was going to be decided by a few quick hands. The chips moved around the table in the first 30 minutes, with ShellyCalls and villepn getting the best of things while djk123 and blanconegro took the worst of things.

The end came for blanconegro first. Two big pots back-to-back went the wrong way. First, blanconegro was forced to fold x-x / 6-K-Q-T on 6th street after calling a bet on every street from SebbyGl, who showed x-x / T-2-9-8. Then blanconegro tangled with Bonomo, raising a 2 on 3rd street after Bonomo completed a 4. Bonomo called and caught a 7 on 4th street; blanconegro paired deuces.

From there Bonomo led the betting on every street, all the way to showdown, where his 9-5 / 4-7-6-J / A made a 7-6 to drag the pot. blanconegro mucked a board of x-x / 2-2-5-J / X and was left with only 197 chips. Those chips went into the pot for the ante of the next hand and did not come back out. blanconegro blanked out in 8th place.

Kelly reversed his fortunes over the next 40 minutes, climbing as high as 120k to take the chip lead. Bonomo remained strong as well, while villpen and AceQuad took the brunt of the damage. With the stakes up to 3k-6k, villepn completed a 4 and then called SebbyGl, who raised with an ace. It took only two more streets of calls for the short-stacked villepn to get all in with A-2 / 4-J-6. SebbyGl had the same draw and a better made hand, 6-4 / A-9-2. villepn caught a running two pair to be unceremoniously bounced from the tournament in 7th place.

That hand marked the rise of SebbyGl during the second hour of final table play. SebbyGl won showdown pots from Kelly and from Bonomo, first with a 9-6 against Kelly's 10-7 and then with a 6-5 in a hand that Bonomo mucked. The big pots, the five-figure pots, all seemed to be rolling SebbyGl's way.

For his part, Bonomo quickly found himself in deep trouble. His stack tumbled, and tumbled, and tumble some more. By the time the stakes increased to 4k-8k, he had only 12k left. He completed an 8 on 3rd street and was called by Kelly, who had his own 8. Bonomo bricked a king on 4th street. Kelly, who caught a 6, made a snap-bet. Bonomo paused, perhaps pondering what to do with only 8k left in his stack, before calling. The rest of the chips were in when both players caught 4s on 5th street. At that point Kelly opened a 10 and a 5 in the hole for a made 10-8; Bonomo showed an ace and a 7 for an 8-7 draw. Bonomo hit his draw on 6th by catching a 6, but Kelly caught running cards on 6th and 7th to finish with a 7-6 and finish Bonomo's day in 6th place.

AceQuad went in three hands later in what was, to that point, the biggest pot of the final table. It was once again claimed by SebbyGl, who seemed to make it a mission to drag every big pot. Catching strong hands certainly didn't hurt:

AceQuad's elimination left four contenders: SebbyGl, with more than half the chips in play; Kelly, with about a quarter of the chips; ShellyCalls in 3rd place; and redeste as the short stack.

redeste's short stack did not long survive the punishing antes and bring-ins, which became much more of a factor as the table grew more and more short-handed. Down to 20k, redeste started with 9-8 / 5 on 3rd street and went with it, improving to a 9-8 by the time the last chips went in on 5th street. redeste's opponent, Kelly, started 6-2 / A and improved to a 9-6 by 5th street. One of those 9s improved; one did not. redeste got the short end of that stick and hit the rail in 4th place.

The last three players played to a standstill for a short time, but ever so slowly Kelly began to get the better of ShellyCalls. When limits went up to 5k-10k, Kelly busted ShellyCalls in a hand in which Kelly started with a king door card. Kelly brought it in with that king, then called when ShellyCalls completed a 9. Both players caught a 4 on 4th street. ShellyCalls bet and Kelly called.

Both players caught a 7 on 5th street. This time ShellyCalls checked, then raised when Kelly bet. Kelly called that raise and called a bet on 6th street with a 9 to ShellyCalls' 6. Kelly called the river as well, a bet that put ShellyCalls all in. ShellyCalls had a great hand - 7-6-5-4-3 - but Kelly caught a river 5 to out-pip ShellyCalls, 7-6-5-4-2. It was a tough way for ShellyCalls to go out in 3rd place.

SebbyGl started heads-up play with a slight chip lead. Three times SebbyGl offered djk123 an even chop. Three times Kelly turned the deal down. The fourth time, after the two had been playing for twenty minutes with wild swings in the counts that ultimately put the two right back where they started, Kelly was the one to offer the even chop. SebbyGl quickly accepted, leaving only $2,000 up for grabs.

The end still took 25 minutes. Kelly dropped as long as 100k before climbing back up to level stacks, rivering a 7 against SebbyGl's 8 in one particularly sizable pot.

SebbyGl: it never ends
SebbyGl: nh

It did eventually end - and badly for SebbyGl. Kelly used his momentum to take a 3-to-1 chip lead. It would be a lead he'd never relinquish. The big blow came in a hand where both players caught multiple bricks:

From there it didn't take much. Five hands later SebbyGl was all in on 5th street with 4-4 / 5-Q-9. It could have been worse; Kelly could only muster up 6-4- / Q-T-2. Both players improved by the river, with Kelly's jack-ten being good enough for his 6th COOP title (second only to Shaun Deeb) after SebbyGl finished with a queen-nine.

I'll say it again. One man. Six COOP titles. SebbyGl is not the first player to be bested by Kelly in a heads-up COOP duel. And unless they pull the plug on that whole Internet thing, I'd wager to say he won't be the last, either.

SCOOP 2013 Event 30-H $2100 Razz results

Players: 97
Prizepool: $194,000
Places paid: 12
* denotes 2-way deal

1. Daniel "djk123" Kelly (Australia) - $45,377.50*
2. SebbyGl (Germany) - $43,377.50*
3. ShellyCalls (Australia) - $27,160.00
4. redeste (Russia) - $18,430.00
5. AceQuad (Mexico) - $13,580.00
6. Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo (Canada) - $10,185.00
7. villepn (Finland) - $8,245.00
8. blanconegro (Mexico) - $6,305.00

The race for Player of the Series - at the low, medium and high buy-ins as well as overall - is heating up as we head towards the home stretch of SCOOP 2013. Stay up to date on all the point leaders and make your plans to play in SCOOP 2013 events of your own at the SCOOP home page.

Dave Behr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

As players moved closer to the final table, much of the attention was on Randal "RandALLin" Flowers who was a chipleader for most of this tournament. Flowers was also having a very good day and looking for a unique outcome. Flowers battled down and won his first SCOOP title in the High version of the tournament earlier in the day and was looking to add the Medium tournament as well.

Flowers ran into trouble in the later stages of the tournament when it seemed to be a final table race between him and Jon "Pearljammer" Turner. After a long than expect final table bubble, Turner was forced to take a stand but was knocked out in 10th place. SWFAZ began the final table with a large chiplead and the structure would dictate a lot of gambling throughout.

Final table chip counts:

Seat 1: Contado (685,066 in chips)
Seat 2: SFisch4 (504,000 in chips)
Seat 3: SWFAZ (2,639,836 in chips)
Seat 4: Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (413,640 in chips)
Seat 5: Dan "APowers1968" Colpoys (587,275 in chips)
Seat 6: SP3WMONKEY (744,684 in chips)
Seat 7: JokerTilt (601,168 in chips)
Seat 8: julianherold (295,143 in chips)
Seat 9: sonajero (959,188 in chips)
Blinds: 50k/100k
Average: 825,555 (8.3 BBs)

RandALLin makes 2nd PLO Zoom Turbo final table, eliminated in 9th

Flowers may have outlasted Turner to make this final table but his appearance last exactly one hand. Final table chipleader SWFAZ raised pot in early position before Flowers moved all-in for 413,640 total and was only called by SWFAZ. Flowers was ahead with [Ks][Kd][Ts][Tc] against [Jh][Th][9d][7d]. SWFAX picked up a bunch of outs on the [Ad][Qh][2h] flop and had Flowers drawing dead with the completed flush draw on the [8h] turn. Randal "RandALLin" Flowers was eliminated in 9th place for $3,061.16.

JokerTilt finds Aces, eliminated in 8th place

It took just one more hand to produce the next knockout and play continued at a blistering pace. JokerTilt bet pot for most of the remaining stack and called all-in when Contado pushed all-in to isolate. JokerTilt was ahead with [Ah][Ad][Tc][7s] against [Kd][Qc][9c][8s] but was outflopped by Contado when [Kh][9s][3c] hit the board. Contado's Kings up improved with the [Qh] flop and filled up when [Qs] hit the river. JokerTilt was the next out in 8th place for $5,646.80.

SFisch4 goes fishing, eliminated in 7th place

SFisch4 began the final table near the bottom of the chipi counts but held on to move up a few spots on the pay table. With action folding around to the button, SFisch4 raised the pot and was called by chipleader SWFAZ in the small blind, who immediately bet enough to put SFisch4 all-in after the [Ks][Js][9c]. SFisch4 called the bet and the cards were tabled.

SFisch4: [Kh][Qh][9d][2s]
SWFAZ: [Ad][Qs][9h][8d]

SFisch4 was ahead with Kings up versus a pair of Nines for SWFAZ and stayed ahead with the [8c] on the turn. SWFAZ would add to the chiplead when the [Ac] hit the river for a bigger two pair. SFisch4 was ahead on the turn but had to walk away in 7th place for $8,618.80.

APowers1968 can't match WCOOP title, eliminated in 6th place

Dan "APowers1968" Colpoys began the final table looking for a SCOOP title to match his 2010 WCOOP title but ran into a series of hands which knocked his stack to the felt. Colpoys was playing for his tournament life when all his chips were in the big blind and it was folded around to chipleader SWFAZ in the small blind.

SWFAX: [Ah][Kh][Td][6s]
APowers1968: [Ad][Qd][Th][7c]

Both hit the [Kc][Qs][2c] but SWFAZ was ahead and improved to Kings up on the [6h] turn, leaving Colpoys drawing to just the two remaining Queens. [9c] on the river ended the run of Colpoys in 6th place for $11,590.80.

SP3WMONKEY gets involved in big hand, eliminated in 5th

There was some chat about making a deal once the tournament was 5-handed but overwhelming chipleader SWFAZ was unwilling to talk until one more player was eliminated. No sooner was that declaration made before a huge 3-way pot was built. Contado raised the pot and was called by SWFAZ before SP3WMONKEY move all-in for 744,684 total, an amount which was called by the other two players. Not content to check down the action, Contado moved all-in for 501,264 after the [Ts][8s][5h] flop.

Contado: [Th][Kh][Jd][Td][Th]
SWFAZ: [Ad][Ks][Qc][7s]
SP3MONKEY: [Ah][Ac][9s][4c]

Contado began the hand with at a significant disadvantage but flopped a set of Tens to take a big lead going into the [2h] turn. The [8h] river filled Contado boat, taking over the chiplead, and SP3MONKEY was sent to the rail in 5th place for $14,562.80.

You can review this big hand in the replayer below:

julianherold makes a deal, eliminated in 4th place

Deal discussions began as soon as they were 4-handed and there was a change in the chiplead. After extended negotiations, where julianherold managed to pull an extra $400 from Contado, an ICM deal was met and play was back underway. Contado raised pot from the button with [Ts][9c][7h][6d] and was call all-in by julianherold holding [Td][6s][6h][5d]. Contado's chiplead was extended by hitting an overcard on the [Qh][9h][5c] and dodged any drama with [Kd] on the turn and [3c] on the river. julianherold was eliminated in 4th place for $25,476.90 but did well to pick up extra money in the deal.

Contado loses chiplead, eliminated in 3rd place

Contado was able to wrestle the chiplead away from SWFAZ with the big 3-way pot but it did not last long. Big swings can be expected with this fast structure and Contado lost most of those chips back before potting half of those remaining chips from UTG. Both players put the chips in the middle, with Contado at risk, after the [9d][8s][4c] flop.

SWFAZ: [Ad][Td][9c][7s]
Contado: [Qc][Jd][8c][5c]

SWFAZ was ahead with a pair of Nines versus Contado's pair of Eights and things only got worse with the [7c] and [9h] river for the another full house. Contado was eliminated in 3rd place for near first place money of $38,785.63.

SWFAZ finishes strong at the final table to capture SCOOP Event #32-M title

sonajero began heads up play with at a big chip deficit but battle back to make things interesting. The last hand of play was one of the few at the final table where both players were holding more than 10 big blinds. SWFAZ was holding just a one big blind chip lead before raising from the button to 625,000 which sonajero called. The [Ks][Tc][9h] flop brought a rare less than pot sized bet by SWFAZ which sonajero raised all in for all the chips.

SWFAZ: [Ac][As][Jh][Td]
sonajero: [Kc][8s][6d][4d]

Two big hands were just two cards from deciding the champ but the tension did not last long when SWFAZ completed Broadway on the [Qs] turn. sonajero was unable to river a full house and was eliminated in 2nd place for $29,035.64. SWFAZ played aggressively during this fast and crazy final table to capture a first SCOOP title for $40,590.43.

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #32-M ($215 PL Omaha Zoom Turbo) results:

Players: 1,486
Prizepool: $297,200
Place paid: 198

1. SWFAZ (United Kingdom) $40,590.43*
2. sonajero (Uruguay) $29,035.64*
3. Contado (Norway) $38,785.63*
4. julianherold (Germany) $25,476.90*
5. SP3WMONKEY (Netherlands) $14,562.80
6. Dan "APowers1968" Colpoys (Canada) $11,590.80
7. SFisch4 (Canada) $8,618.80
8. JokerTilt (Bulgaria) $5,646.80
9. Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (Mexico) $3,061.16
* - reflects four-way deal

Check out the SCOOP homepage for all of the upcoming tournaments and satellites, as well as the leaderboard and SCOOP statistics.

lowballeric was one of 461 entrants in this one, with the $92,200 prize pool built by that group coming close to doubling the event's $50K guarantee. In addition to the SCOOP watch, lowballeric earned $17,518 of that prize pool after successfully making enough lowball hands to outlast the field.

It took nearly six hours for that field to shrink down to 100 players, led at that point by Bodhisattva6 (60,973), wadzon (59,967), and Chiesaraise (54,982). Also still alive and with an above average stack then was Team Online member Naoya "nkeyno" Kihara sitting just outside the top 20.

Alas for Kihara, he wouldn't quite make it to the cash after being ousted in 67th, just three spots shy of the money. Soon after the bubble burst, at which point eventual champ lowballeric had pushed past all into first position as the only player with more than 100,000 chips.

Eventually just 16 were left as they crossed the nine-hour mark, with Bryan "Brryann" Ruiter (50th, $345.75), Rens "Rens02" Feenstra (49th, $345.75), Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb (46th, $291.85), Mike "Tîmex" McDonald (45th, $391.85), Steve "Illini23" Barshak (36th, $485.05), Paul "paulgees81" Volpe (26th, $599.30), Mayu "marroca5" Roca Uribe (23rd, $806.75), and Toby "810ofclubs" Lewis (19th, $806.75) among the eliminated.

It would take another half-hour to play down to eight, with Gigaloff building a big stack of more than 700,000 to assume the lead with krec23 the nearest foe with more than 500,000. zzzFFFzzz (16th), nilsef (15th), F3nix35 (14th), and RuudGullit (13th) each earned $1,060.30 for their finishes, while mapocalyps (12th), valera3000 (11th), mendozoQ (10th), and Bodhisattva6 (9th) made $1,383 apiece.

The final table was underway.

Seat 1: krec23 (Russia) -- 565,930
Seat 2: capeta333 (Brazil) -- 165,200
Seat 3: Paul "padjes" Berende (Netherlands) -- 171,182
Seat 4: Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen (Mexico) -- 112,264
Seat 5: Gigaloff (Russia) -- 789,779
Seat 6: Desslock (Canada) -- 78,400
Seat 7: shrek7771 (Russia) -- 143,784
Seat 8: lowballeric (United Kingdom) -- 278,461

THAY3R thwarted in eighth

The stakes were 12,000/24,000 to start the final table, and on just the second hand Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen was eliminated in eighth after losing the last of his short stack.

That hand started with a THAY3R raise over a bring-in from Paul "padjes" Berende. Desslock then three-bet and got two callers in shrek7771 and lowballeric, and when it folded back around to Rasmussen he typed "gg" and "gl all in" before reraising with the last of his chips to 27,864.

All three of his opponents called, then shrek7771 led with bets on the next three streets with Desslock folding on fourth and lowballeric calling all of the way. When checked to on seventh lowballeric then bet and Desslock called. lowballeric showed [3][5] / [6][Q][6][2] / [T] for a ten-low while shrek7771 had [5][6] / [3][9][9][5] / [4] for a 9-6-5-4-3.

shrek7771's hand was better than whatever THAY3R had as he mucked, and they were down to seven.

Desslock done in seventh

About an orbit later Desslock was down to just 8,936 and was open-raising all in with a [3] showing. shrek7771 reraised with an [A] up and everyone else folded, and the pair drew out their hands thusly:

Desslock: [J][A] / [3][A][4][2] / [Q] (J-4-3-2-A)
shrek7771: [6][T] / [A][4][5][9] / [Q] (9-6-5-4-A)

It was a disappointing card on seventh street for Desslock whose tourney run ended in seventh.

padjes put down in sixth

krec23 and Gigaloff continued to add chips while Paul "padjes" Berende's stack started to slide. Then with the stakes up to 16,000/32,000, it was krec23 raising with an [8] showing, then Berende called all in for a total of 14,782 with a [K] up.

padjes ended up drawing a second king yet made a ten-low -- [6][8] / [K][K][T][4] / [9] -- but krec23 started and ended even better, making a 7-6 after drawing out [6][4] / [8][7][A][7] / [5], and Berende was out in sixth.

capeta333 captured in fifth

Soon after that hand it was capeta333 first to act and opening with a raise with a [7] showing, then watching as lowballeric called also with a [7], then krec23 raised with an [8] up. capeta33 called all in for 10,800 more while lowballeric called.

lowballeric led with bets on fourth and fifth, with krec23 calling both times. On sixth krec23 check-called a bet, then on seventh krec23 check-folded. lowballeric turned over [4][2] / [7][5][A][7] / [T] for a 7-5-4-2-A, better than capeta333's [2][5] / [7][7][J][T] / [J] for J-T-7-5-2 and they were down to four.

shrek7771 sunk in fourth

Play continued as the stakes increased to 20,000/40,000, and soon chip leader krec23 was raising on third with a [3] up and getting one caller in shrek7771 who had a [9] showing. krec23 would bet again on fourth and shrek7771 called, then when krec23 bet fifth street, shrek7771 raised, krec23 reraised, and shrek7771 called all in, having committed 125,515 total on the hand. The pair's hole cards were flipped over...

krec23: [T][7] / [3][A][8]
shrek7771: [4][3] / [9][8][7]

shrek7771 had the edge momentarily, and would draw a [7] and a [J] to finish with a 9-8-7-4-3. But krec23 picked up a [2] on sixth street then a meaningless [T] on seventh, thereby making a 8-7-3-2-A and ousting shrek7771 in fourth.

Gigaloff gg'd in third

The remaining trio battled onward as the tourney approached the 11-hour mark and the stakes moved up again to 25,000/50,000. Both krec23 and lowballeric had edged up over 1 million chips while Gigaloff had slipped to less than 100,000. Then a hand arose in which krec23 and Gigaloff traded raises back and forth until the latter was all in with a [Q] showing while krec23 had a [6] up.

It was [A][5] / [6] for krec23 and [A][8] / [Q] for Gigaloff, meaning the latter needed major help on the remaining streets to survive. Ultimately Gigaloff would make a J-low, the board running out a not-very-cooperative [A][8] / [Q][9][5][Q] / [J]. Meanwhile krec23 made a 6-5 -- [A][5] / [6][T][4][2] / [8] -- and Gigaloff was done in third.

Epic heads-up ends with lowballeric outlasting krec23

Heads-up play started with krec23 enjoying a lead of about four big bets' worth with 1,248,406 to lowballeric's 1,056,594. The first half-hour of play saw lowballeric grab the lead away briefly, but then krec23 took it back and edged out to a better than 2-to-1 lead.

Over the next couple of dozen hands krec23 chipped away further to build a stack of 1,763,406 at one point versus lowballeric's 541,594. But lowballeric battled back to even the match, then pushed out in front once again. Then suddenly two big pots in succession saw lowballeric up over 2.2 million and krec23 down below 100,000.

krec23 survived the next hand after getting all in by fifth street, then drawing out a 9-6 as lowballeric could only make a Q-low. krec23 then took a couple more big pots to close the gap back, and by the time the tourney's 12-hour break arrived krec23 was ahead again with 1,284,812 to lowballeric's 1,020,188.

They continued on for another half-hour, the heads-up portion of the tournament extending to more than 90 minutes. The lead changed hands once again in a hand that saw lowballeric perform the difficult trick of drawing a 7-low while also picking up two kings, both appearing among the up cards. From there lowballeric increased the lead, and as the stakes moved up to 60,000/120,000 lowballeric chipped up over 1.8 million to krec23's stack of just under 430,000.

That's when lowballeric raised with a [2] showing, krec23 raised back with an [8] up, and lowballeric called. lowballeric led on both fourth and fifth streets, with krec23 first calling, then raising all in and getting a call from lowballeric.

krec23: [2][7] / [8][Q][6]
lowballeric: [4][9] / [2][3][A]

lowballeric had the best hand and best potential drawing-wise going forward, and after picking up a [5] on sixth street could improve no further upon the made wheel. Meanwhile, krec23 picked up a [9] and [J] -- and after 298 hands of heads-up play (!) -- lowballeric had won.

Congratulations to lowballeric for winning a lowball SCOOP watch in Event #30-M, putting a punctuation mark on the tournament by making the lowest of all low hands. And special acknowledgement as well to krec23 for that gritty almost-300-hand heads-up battle resulting in a runner-up finish but a nice five-figure score as well.

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #30-M ($215 Razz) results

Players: 461
Total prize pool: $92,200.00
Places paid: 64

1. lowballeric (United Kingdom) $17,518.00
2. krec23 (Russia) $12,908.00
3. Gigaloff (Russia) $9,459.72
4. shrek7771 (Russia) $6,915.00
5. capeta333 (Brazil) $4,610.00
6. Paul "padjes" Berende (Netherlands) $3,227.00
7. Desslock (Canada) $2,305.00
8. Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen (Mexico) $1,844.00

The excitement continues in the Spring Championship of Online Poker. Check out the SCOOP site for results of what's happened and information about what's still to come.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.