If you are still hungry for more, they've also bagged up, chopped and prepared a great highlights dish from Event 21 and from Event 19. You'll find those about two centimetres down the page.

Event 21:

Event 19:

In fact, if watching videos is your thing, then it might be an idea to click here to see the latest 100 videos we have put up on this fine blog. That lot should keep you quiet for a while - probably just what you need to settle the blood pressure after SCOOP.

The first 21 events made for 63 tournaments and tens of millions of dollars in prize money. Players came out in droves, crushed guarantees, and walked away with sometimes life-changing money.

And that brought us to the Main Event. Event 22 offered three different buy-ins, this one being the high-stakes tournament with a $10,300 buy-in for the NLHE excitement. There were 502 players who entered the $5 million guarantee event, which pushed the prize pool just past that to a cool $5,020,000. That would be split according to the finishes of the final 54 players, though a sizeable portion - $963,338.00 - was reserved for the winner.

The first day of action consisted of 22 levels of play and resulted in the vast majority of the players taking leave of the tournament. And when it was over after 12 hours, xxjondxx led the 14-player field, though he was trailed by PearlJammer, j.thaddeus, Chowdahhead4, and actionDJ.

Day 2 began with Level 23, blinds of 2,500/5,000, and a 625 ante.

Action was to be had right away. j.thaddeus immediately took the chip lead from xxjondxx, and $teveyMoney doubled through Tecknowledgy, who then doubled through Moorman1. The double-ups were fast and furious for the first 30 minutes, but eventually, someone would lose one of those decisions. Magisterium was the first to lose the all-in, going down to j.thaddeus. MazeOrBowie then took out pokerjamers. Both players received $55,220 for their 14th and 13th finishes.

Tecknowledgy left soon after in 12th place, at the hands of actionDJ, and the day's original chipleader, xxjondxx, was eliminated in 11th place by the uber-aggressive j.thaddeus. And in only a few minutes of hand-for-hand play, BriDge2PaiN was eliminated by Chowdahhead4 in 10th place. All three of them received $65,260.

With that, the final table began with chip counts as follows:

Seat 1: teacuppoker (104,776 in chips)
Seat 2: j.thaddeus (1,150,492 in chips)
Seat 3: MazeOrBowie (243,940 in chips)
Seat 4: actionDJ (842,557 in chips)
Seat 5: ragen70 (808,362 in chips)
Seat 6: PearlJammer (676,174 in chips)
Seat 7: Moorman1 (93,688 in chips)
Seat 8: Chowdahhead4 (617,123 in chips)
Seat 9: $teveyMoney (482,888 in chips)

The first to go from the final table was teacuppoker, who pushed all-in with [Ah] [9d] and was called by $teveyMoney and his [8d] [7d]. But the board came [Jh] [5c] [8h] [3c] [7c], and the two pair eliminated teacuppoker in ninth place with $83,332 in prize money.

And only moments later, Moorman1 seemed to be looking for an opportunity to double as he had done a few hands earlier. It was after the [3s] [Jd] [Ks] flop and [Jc] turn that $teveyMoney made the all-in raise, and Moorman1 called all-in for his tournament life holding [As] [7s]. $teveyMoney showed [Ad] [Td], and the river came the [4d] to take away Moorman1's flush hopes. He finished the tournament in eighth place with $112,950.

It took a little time to see the demise of the next player, but after a big chip loss to PearlJammer, actionDJ was under 100K chips and had to move. He pushed all-in preflop with [Qc] [Jc] versus the [Kh] [Qh] of ragen70, and the cards fell [6s] [4d] [8s] [8h] [5s] to allow ragen70's hand to stand up. actionDJ was ousted in seventh place with $163,150.

The six players remaining went back and forth for more than an hour and a half. Play turned extremely cautious, and no talks of a potential deal distracted anyone. There was money to be won, and all of them were aiming to take the top prize.

Finally, Chowdahhead4 got involved with j.thaddeus to see a [Kh] [Qc] [Ts] flop, at which point j.thaddeus made a bet that prompted Chowdahhead4 to come over the top all-in with pocket sixes. j.thaddeus couldn't call quickly enough with pocket kings. The [As] on the turn and [Qh] on the river sent Chowdahhead4 out in sixth place with $213,350.

Play sped up somewhat when Chowdahhead4 broke the ice. Next up was the previously chipped up $teveyMoney who lost momentum through the last few levels of his tournament life. It was the [Tc] [Qh] that prompted him to move all-in preflop against the dominating [Ah] [Qs] hand of MazeOrBowie. The board ran out [6d] [7d] [8s] [Qc] [Kc], and $teveyMoney was gone in fifth place with $281,120.

A short time later, MazeOrBowie pushed for 625,347 for his tournament life with pocket sevens, but j.thaddeus found pocket queens with which to make the call. The board completely blanked with [4d] [3c] [As] [Th] [5c] to end MazeOrBowie's main event run in fourth place, which was worth a respectable $401,600.

Three-handed, PearlJammer and ragen70 were in serious trouble as j.thaddeus sat with over 4 million chips. The two shorter stacks were pushing all-in regularly but not finding j.thaddeus ready to play. Finally, PearlJammer risked just over 300K with pocket deuces, but j.thaddeus had pocket jacks...but PearlJammer flopped quads, which beat the full house of his opponent for a stunning double-up. Check it out here:

But PearlJammer lost most of those chips when ragen70 was able to double through him shortly thereafter, and the rest of PearlJammer's stack went in with [Kd] [Qh]. ragen70 was there for the call with [Ah] [Th], and the board produced nothing with [2d] [5h] [Jc] [7s] [3d]. And PearlJammer was gone in third place with $527,100.

Heads-up action began with the following chip counts:

j.thaddeus (3,879,797)
ragen70 (1,140,203)

It didn't take long before the short stack succumbed to the monster stack of j.thaddeus. ragen70 was aggressive during heads-up play and finally went to see a flop of [3d] [Qc] [9h]. Both players check to see the [Ac] on the turn. A bet from ragen70 and call from j.thaddeus brought the [6c] on the river, which prompted a check-raise all-in from ragen70 with [Jh] [6d] and the rivered pair. But j.thaddeus called with [Tc] [8c] and the rivered flush to leave ragen70 out in second place with $715,350.

And j.thaddeus claimed a hard-fought victory in the Event 22-High Main Event of the 2009 SCOOP! The cash reward was $963,338, the bonus prize was a SCOOP champion's watch, and the ultimate glory was in the title of SCOOP main event champion. Congratulations!

SCOOP Event 22-High Final Table Results:

1st place: j.thaddeus ($963,338)
2nd place: ragen70 ($715,350)
3rd place: PearlJammer ($527,100)
4th place: MazeOrBowie ($401,600)
5th place: $teveyMoney ($281,120)
6th place: Chowdahhead4 ($213,350)
7th place: actionDJ ($163,500)
8th place: Moorman1 ($112,950)
9th place: teacuppoker ($83,332)

As the 2009 SCOOP series becomes a memory, take a look at the leaderboard page for results your favorite players (or yourself) and the PokerStars.tv site for all of the event highlights.

The torrid pace of play leading up to the final table was set in the first 30 minutes. pino1234 was first to go when he shoved all-in from the small blind for his last 370K holding [Jc][9d] and tcblade called in the big blind with [Qd][Tc]. pino1234 flopped a jack, but tcblade went runner-runner for two pair to send pino1234 out in 19th place ($8,154.90). jomamusfat would quickly follow him to the rail in 18th ($9,594) when he flopped a straight with [Qs][Jc] but fell to jcamby33's runner-runner flush with [Qh][Th], with P0KERDUUDE dropping in 17th ($9,594) when he ran his pocket nines into JC Alvarado's pocket queens. Then the first of many big coin-flip pots on the day would go to ErikXP when he called tcblade's 1.2M all-in bet with a pair of deuces; tcblade's [Ah][Kd] never caught and he would finish in 16th place.

Incoming chip leader hasuace had enjoyed some early success on Day 2, especially in the early going. But he would give up the lead for good in this pot:

hasuace did manage to come back a bit when he took down Rae_Kwon_JHK's [5h][5d] with [9h][8h], sending his opponent out in 15th place ($14,391). One minute later smeggi took his leave in 14th place ($14,391) when his [Tc] [Ts] was cracked by ErikXP's [Kc][8h] catching trip eights on the turn, and Ggod followed him in 13th place ($14,391) when he got all-in preflop with [Kc] [Kd] against Teejmeister1's [Ad][Kh], only to see an ace hit the flop. TheL0bster fared much better than some of the incoming short stacks, holding on until he found [Ac][Td] and then shoving for 754K, but he would leave in 12th place ($19,188) when fan4mizzou's [9s] [9c] for fan4mizzou spiked a set on the flop.

The beginning of the end for hasuace turned out to also be the beginning of JC Alvarado's rise to the top:

As the first hour and the 25K/50K blind level came to a close we would lose former Sunday Million champ jcamby33. After ErikXP opened the betting with a raise to 127,999 in late position, jcamby33 raised to 430K; he then called with [Ah][Qh] when ErikXP set him all-in. ErikXP's [9c][9d] was already in the lead, but when the flop came down [9h][7c][6d] jcamby was drawing thin to a chop. No straight came and jcamby33 was out in 11th place ($19,188).

That led to the first five-minute break of the day, with one more player needing to bust before the final table would be set. The first hand back from the break would see tournament short stack Rayons X get his stack in as a respectable favorite with [Kd][Qs] against Teejmesiter1's [4h][3h], but the board ran out [Ad][5h][3c][As][Tc] to send him home in 10th place ($19,188) and set this final table lineup:

Seat 1: Crisper (1832869 in chips)
Seat 2: weeminer (4833816 in chips)
Seat 3: Ericb09 (3514591 in chips)
Seat 4: Teejmeister1 (3462739 in chips)
Seat 5: fan4mizzou (2813970 in chips)
Seat 6: phinomenon (919017 in chips)
Seat 7: hasuace (2180342 in chips)
Seat 8: JC Alvarado (4666116 in chips)
Seat 9: ErikXP (7756540 in chips)

With blinds and antes now at 30K/60K/7.5K, everyone at the table except for phinomenon had at least 30 big blinds to work with. But phinomenon had plans of his own that didn't involve being the first player out. First his [Jh] [Js] would win a race against weeminer's [Ah] [Kd] to grab a pot worth 2.7M. Then he would pick up [Qd] [Qc] against big slick again - this time [Ah][Ks] for ErikXP - and win the race with a [Qh] [7h] [9s] [2s] [8h] board, boosting him to 5.7M. He would hold on to the top spot for the next hour, taking his lead to the second break.

On the first hand back from that break phinomenon would benefit from another big pair, with this one coming in an even better spot than his previous ones. Sitting in the 120K big blind with [Jh][Jc], he had an easy call when Teejmeister1 shoved for 1.5M from the button. Teejmeister1 showed [Qd][5h], and his ill-timed steal attempt would send him home in ninth place ($25,584) when the board ran out [Jd][9d][2c][7c][3d].

But phinomenon's time at the top was coming to a close, and ErikXP would be the next to take a spin at the top. First he shoved for 1.5M preflop with [7s][6s] and beat weeminer's [Ah][Qc] on a board of [4h] [8h] [2h] [8s] [5d]. Then he took on phinomenon in a reversal of their previous confrontation; his [As][Qd] hit a queen on the turn to top phinomenon's [Js][Jh] in a 7M chip pot. He would wrap up his rocket-like ascent to the top with this hand against former chip leader hasuace, sending him home in eighth place ($39,975):

The next player to go would be fan4mizzou, thanks to two crucial losses nearly back-to-back. First he came out on the wrong end of a 5.2M coin flip, losing with [Ac][Jh] to Crisper's [Th][Td] to leave himself just 110K with the blinds at 70K/140K. After that hand, fan4mizzou got all-in for his remaining stack with [Qd][Th] but fell to ErikXP's [Kh][Js] when the board came [8s][Jh][Tc][6h][6d]. That sent him home in seventh place, earning him $71,955.

A few minutes later, despite holding a stack of 3.1 million, phinomenon would commit himself preflop with the fourth bet holding [Ad][Qh] only to run into Crisper's [Ac][Kh]. With the community cards reading [9h] [2c] [5d] [7d] [As], phinomenon was gone in sixth place ($103,935) and Crisper seized the chip lead with 9.4 million.

With play now five-handed, JC Alvarado found the first pot that would lead him to the championship. The action folded to him in the small blind and he raised to 389,999. ErikXP called and the flop came down [3h] [9h] [8h]. Alvarado led out for 567K and wasted no time shoving all-in for 4.5M after ErikXP raised. ErikXP made the call with [Kh][6s] for the second nut flush draw and Alvarado showed [Jd] [Js]; the jacks held up through the [4c] and [Qd] river to send the PS pro up to second place, just a few hundred thousand behind Crisper. When the 80K/160K/20K level arrived a few minutes later, Alvarado would be in the lead.

Just into the new level, weeminer would see a steal attempt go horribly wrong when he shoved preflop with [Jc][4c] and Ericb09 called with [As][2d]. weeminer was left short-stacked and would bust six hands later in fifth place ($135,915) when his [As][3c] couldn't outrun Ericb09's [6d][6c].

JC Alvarado still held the lead at this point with 9.2M, but ErikXP, sitting on his left, began playing back at the pro as often as he could. The two began exchanging the chip lead while Crisper and Ericb09 both looked for a spot to seize some chips from the two more aggressive players. Ericb09 would be the first to try a squeeze play against the two bigger stacks, but he went home in fourth place ($183,885) when his move turned out to be badly timed:

Crisper's chances took a big blow when he dropped a 7.8M pot to JC Alvarado on the 100K/200K/25K level. Crisper called Alvarado's 1M bet before the flop and tried to pull of a check-raise on the [3d] [Th] [Qd] flop, but he mucked immediately when Alvarado immediately min-raised. That left Crisper with just 4.6 million, all of which would go in the middle five minutes later with [Kh][9h] agaisnt Alvarado's [Qd][Qs]. Crisper would pick up a flush draw on the [3h][Th][3c] flop, but he blanked when the turn and river came [4s][Ac], sending him home in third place ($263,835).

That pot gave Alvarado the lead, 19M-12.5M, as heads-up play began. For eleven hands he and ErikXP would go back and forth before finally playing out this pot for the championship:

That harsh hand for ErikXP led to a runner-up finish worth $374,166. Meanwhile Team PokerStars Pro's JC Alvarado booked the win for $502,086, topping his previous best prize of $366,798 at the 2008 World Poker Challenge and making him the Medium Stakes Main Event Champion for the 2009 PokerStars SCOOP.

Final table results
1. JC Alvarado $502,086
2. ErikXP $374,166
3. Crisper $263,835
4. Ericb09 $183,885
5. weeminer $135,915
6. phinomenon $103,935
7. fan4mizzou $71,955
8. hasuace $39,975
9. Teejmeister1 $25,584

Day 1 play on Easter Sunday ended after 44 levels and 18,721 eliminations, leaving 26 players to duke it out for the crown on Monday. Play moved very fast in the beginning, so fast, in fact, that the final table was set just as the first-hour break began.

Players came back from that break to find the following seat arrangements for the final nine:

Seat 1 -- moohaha123 9,946,435
Seat 2 -- dhutt24 -- 10,303,075
Seat 3 -- xxRogexx 9,707,703
Seat 4 -- dreamer_ss 8,164,803
Seat 5 -- Naxer 31,830,692
Seat 6 -- Sador1983 40,931,246
Seat 7 -- Tiktok23 43,892,219
Seat 8 -- JannotLapin 29,110,203
Seat 9 -- 75champ75 3,583,624

xxRogexx was the first to go, and on the first hand of the final table. This player shoved for 9.6 million and was called in the big blind by JannotLapin. xxRogexx's [9s] [td] was no match for pocket rockets. Although xxRogexx was alive on the flop when he hit a ten, an ace on the turn ended his day with $11,248.21 for ninth place.

dreamer_ss next had the unenviable position of calling for his tournament life for 4.9 million with [2s] [2d] after JannotLapin bet enough to put dreamer_ss all in from the big blind. Unfortunately for dreamer_ss, JannotLapin showed [6c] [6s] and the board ran out [9d] [ts] [ad] [as] [jd]. dreamer_ss won $16,872.31 for the eight-place position.

Action continued to be brisk. dhutt24 was next to be sent to the rail. dhutt24 pushed all-in for 12.2 million with [7s] [Ah], but ran into the pocket jacks held by Naxer. The flop gave dhutt24 four more outs when it came [5d] [6s] [9d], but the turn [7d] and river [6c] brought no help. dhutt24 earned $26,339.54 for seventh.

With 500K/1 million blinds and a 125K ante, the stakes were reaching high levels. moohaha123 found himself with less than three big blinds remaining when he shoved in from the small blind for 2.92 million and Naxer called in the big blind. The hands:

moohaha123 [ac] [9c]
Naxer [kh] [6c]

The flop came [kc] [5h] [8c] to give Naxer the lead, but moohaha the flush and ace draw. The turn [jd] and river [8d] brought no help and moohaha123 received $37,494.01 for the sixth-place finish.

The other severe short stack was next out the door. Tiktok23 raised to 3 million and 75champ75 moved all-in with [9s] [9d] for his last 3.5 million chips. Naxer also called and he and Tiktok23 checked the hand down. The board came [ts] [5c] [qd] [ah] [td] and Tiktok23 bet 4 million on the river and showed the winning [as] [7d] after Naxer folded. The nines did not hold for 75champ75, so he got 56 instead -- $56,241.01 that is.

At this point the remaining four players decided to discuss a deal, which was quickly agreed upon. The chop by chip count produced this result:

JannotLapin - $131,203.71
Tiktok23 - $120,397.63
Sador1983 - $113,338.23
Naxer - $110,562.42

The players were still playing for $20,000 set aside for the winner, as well as a SCOOP Champion's watch.

Only a few hands later Naxer was shown the door:

Naxer took home $110,562.42 for fourth after the deal, or about $35,000 more than he would have earned prior to negotiations.

Getting aces cracked happens all the time, but when it happens at the final table of such a big tournament it can be devastating to a player. Tiktok23 raised to 3 million with his aces and JannotLapin called to see a flop of [9d] [qh] [6d]. Tiktok23 checked and called a 4.5 million bet by JannotLapin. After the [7d] came on the turn, Tiktok23 check-raised all-in for 34.6 million after a 9 million bet by JannotLapin. That player wasted not time calling with [qc] [6s], having flopped two pair. The river paired the board with the [6h], giving JannotLapin sixes full of queens and ending Tiktok23's two days in third, which was worth $120,397.63.

This set up a heads-up battle between JannotLapin and Sador1983 that would last about 20 minutes. It was fairly even initially, but things soon turned JannotLapin's way.

In a key hand the players each put about 7.5 million chips in the pot preflop and the first three community cards came [jd] [9s] [4s] and Sador1983 checked. JannotLapin bet 9.5 million and Sador1983 check-raised to 29.5 million. JannotLapin called. After the turn brought the [2c] Sador1983 checked again and JannotLapin moved all in for 71.2 million. Sador1983 couldn't stand the heat and folded.

It was over a few hands later. See here how it went down:

The flush prevailed for JannotLapin and this player took home $151,203.71 for the tough win in this huge field. Sador1983 had to settle for the nice consolation prize of $113,338.23. Perhaps any of the second through fourth place finishers can alleviate their sorrows with a Corvette...or a house.

Final table finishes and payouts were:

First - JannotLapin ($151,203.71)
Second - Sador1983 - ($113,338.23)
Third - Tiktok23 - ($120,327.63)
Fourth - Naxer ($110,562.42)
Fifth - 75champ75 ($56,241.01)
Sixth - moohaha123 ($37,494.01)
Seventh - dhutt24 ($26,339.54)
Eighth - dreamer_ss ($16,872.31)
Ninth - xxRogexx ($11,248.21)

Click refresh to see the latest information as the 19 finalists play for their shares of the $3,198,000 prize pool. For a look at previous coverage, see the Day 1 recap.

8:23pm--JC Alvarado conquers ErikXP heads-up to claim first prize

The Team PokerStars Pro took twelve hands of heads-up play to take down ErikXP and the $502,086.00 first place prize in the following cooler of a hand for ErikXP. For his X-tra effort tonight in this two-day event ErikXP walks away with $374,166.00 as the runner-up. Watch the final hand play out below:

Congratulations are in order for all the final table players, as they outlasted a monster-sized field in pursuit of the top prize. And special kudos go to the Team PokerStars Pro, JC Alvarado, for playing an incredible tournament to earn the single biggest payday of his poker career. Something tells us this is just the beginning for JC.

Thanks for staying with us throughout the second day of this SCOOP Medium Stakes Main Event!

8:15pm--Crisper takes third, heads-up play begins

Crisper had been looking down the barrel of a gun for some time, though his situation was made worse after folding to JC Alvarado's snap-raise a few minutes before. He looked to have a good spot to pick up some chips with a squeeze play when Alvarado raised 509,999 and got a call in the small blind from ErikXP. Crisper came in for a raise to 2.25M, but he was committed and had to call off his last 2.1M when Alvarado shoved all-in.

Alvarado's [Qd][Qs] was ahead, but Crisper's [Kh][9h] did catch a flush draw on the [3h][Th][3c] flop. But the Argentinian's fate was sealed when the turn and river came [4s][Ac], sending him home in third place with $263,835. Alvarado, meanwhile, is guaranteed the biggest prize of his career. He previously took home $366,798 for finishing second at the WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno, and is guaranteed at least $374K today.

8:10pm--Blinds up, players down to three

We are down to three players; the next elimination will receive $263,835.00 for third place and set up our heads-up match for the champiionship. The blinds have increased to 125K/250K with a 31,250 ante. Crisper holds the short stack at 4.6 million. Alvarado and ErikXP are both holding sizable stacks at 14 and 12 million respectively.

8:06pm - Snap-snap, Alvarado takes down 7.8 million with three-bet

With blinds still at 100K/200K, ante 25,000 Crisper limp-called the 1,000,0009 chip raise of JC Alvarado on the button the players saw a [3d] [Th] [Qd] flop. Alvarado led out from the small blind for a 1,275,018 chip bet which was raised to the more well-rounded 2.8 million by Crisper. Alvarado wasn't letting go of his chips, though; he snap-raised the minimum and scared Crisper off, raking in the 7.8 million chip pot.

8:00pm - Ericb09's broken heart means fourth place

Good spot for a semi-bluff, but Crisper had the goods to call as he turned up top pair-top kicker to Ericb09's nut-flush draw on the [Qh] [3c] [9h] flop. Watch the 8.8 million chip pot play out below as Ericb09 took home fourth place money ($183,885.00):

7:57pm--JC takes the lead

It seemed like it was only a matter of time before JC Alvarado picked off an ErikXP bluff.

Alvarado opened for 699,999 when the action folded to his small blind, and ErikXP made the call to see the [Jc][2h][Qh] flop. Alvarado led out for 899,998 and ErikXP didn't take long to make the call. Both players would check on the [6d] turn, and when the river came the [3d] our PS pro would check once more.

This time, after thinking it over, ErikXP decided to bet an even 1 million. Alvarado went into the tank, eating about a quarter of his time bank before finally making the call with [As][Ks] for ace-high. Turns out it was the right move, as ErikXP held nothing more than [9h][8h] for a busted flush draw. The 5.3M pot shipped to Alvarado, giving him the chip lead.

7:53pm--ErikXP comes out swinging

After the break, ErikXP has picked up four out of five pots since the break getting to 12 million chips.

7:43pm--Six figure blinds and wins

The blinds are moving up to 100K/200K, ante 25K for level 43, and chip leader JC Alvarado is a step closer to eclipsing his biggest score. All eyes are still on the $502,086.00 for first, and the next player out will receive $183,885.00:

1. JC Alvarado 10,574,271
2. ErikXP 8,042,941
3. Crisper 6,871,490
4. Ericb09 6,491,298

7:39pm--Dueling rounders

JC Alvarado has taken the chip lead on a few occasions since we became four-handed. Most of the time it's been short-lived, though, because the player on his left, ErikXP, is the most aggressive player at the table. For now Alvarado is choosing to back down, but it's very easy to imagine a scenario where he lays a very big trap for his aggressive opponent.

7:36pm--Back to (nearly) even

With Ericb09 eating up the stack of weeminer, the chip stacks have flattened out for the 80K/160K/20K level with JC Alvarado still holding a lead with 9.2 million but ErikXP, Crisper, and Ericb09 are holding strong with around seven to eight million.

7:30pm--Caught red handed

Ericb09 woke up at the wrong time for weeminer as weeminer tried to squeeze a blind versus blind shove-bluff past Ericb09. Unfortunately for him Ericb09's [As][2d] was enough to take a gamble with, as weeminer's wee [Jc][4c] couldn't' connect on the [Tc] [2s] [Td] [8h] [Ks] board.

The rest of weeminer's wee stack would go in six hands later again against Ericb09. This time it was weeminer who held the ace [3c] [As] but Ericb09 had a pocket pair of sixes [6d] [6c]. Those sixes were enough on the [4d] [8c] [Jh] [Tc] [5s] board to send weeminer back down the shaft in fifth place ($135,915.00).

7:27pm--New blinds, new leader

Blinds moving up to 80K/160K, ante 20,000 and your current chip leader is none other than Team PokerStars Pro JC Alvarado who is nearly at ten million chips. Close behind are ErikXP (7.6 million) and Crisper (8.7 million).

7:23pm--JC Alvarado takes a bite out of ErikXP

The only remaining Team PokerStars Pro has been extremely patient throughout this tournament, and he's now in second place thanks to a big hand against the now former chip leader.

The action folded to Alvarado in the small blind, where he raised to 389,999. ErikXP called from the big blind and the flop came down [3h] [9h] [8h]. Alvarado led out for 567,498, and when ErikXP raised to 1.82M he quickly shoved all-in. ErikXP called with [Kh][6s] for the second nut flush draw, while Alvarado held the lead with [Jd] [Js]. The PS pro employed his top-notch dodging skills, avoiding ErikXP's outs through the [4c] turn and [Qd] river to grab a pot worth 9,236,776. That put him into second position just behind Crisper, while ErikXP fell to just under 7 million.

7:20pm--Crisper takes care of phinomenon in sixth place

We don't know what the players ate during the last break but the action has gone off the charts. phinomenon started the hand with 3.1 million and raised to 300K from UTG + 2 as Crisper answered with a three-bet to 800K in the small blind. phinomenon wasn't going to wait for aces any longer and shoved over the top holding [Qh][Ad]. Crisper rolled over one pip better [Ac][Kh] and held on through the [9h] [2c] [5d] [7d] [As] board to eliminate phinomenon in sixth place ($103,935.00).

7:14pm--And then there were six

The action we've been getting lately has certainly been worth the wait. With blinds at 70K/140K and antes of 17.5K, Crisper and fan4mizzou would tangle with all but 110K of fan4mizzou's chips going into the middle preflop for a 5.2 million chip pot:

After that hand, fan4mizzou got all-in for his remaining stack with [Qd][Th] but fell to ErikXP's [Kh][Js] when the board came [8s] [Jh] [Tc] [6h] [6d]. That sent him home in seventh place, earning him $71,955.

7:03pm - weeminer digs up chips

After losing the majority of his chips doubling up ErikXP and Crisper, it was weeminer's turn to win a coin flip. He took his remaining 1.4 million and shoved from third position, getting a call from fan4mizzou in the cutoff holding [Qc] [Kh]. The pocket fours [4d] [4h] were good enough for a straight on the [3c] [7h] [6d] [7s] [5c] board to take down the 3.1 million chip pot.

6:59pm--ErikXP continues to bulldoze final table, hasuace out in 8th

After picking up two huge pots, ErikXP just grabbed another to catapult himself to twice what his nearest rival has. In the process he eliminated former chip leader hasuace in eighth place ($39,975):

6:56pm--Gamble pays off for ErikXP times two

In back-to-back hands ErikXP shoved his stack into the middle and both times came out smelling like roses. First, he would open shove from the button with 1.5 million chips holding just [7s][6s]. weeminer would make the call and find himself ahead with [Qc][Ah]. But the [4h] [8h] [2h] [8s] [5d] river gave ErikXP his first double up. Then he would outrace phinomenon holding pocket jacks [Js][Jh] with [Qd] [As] on the [4d] [9c] [4s] Qh] [7d] board to get to nearly seven million chips.

6:48pm--Well nourished and ready to play

After Teejmeister1's elimination in ninth, there have been two hands of note. Ericb09 took down an 1.8 million chip pot after showing a pair of aces [Ac][4c] on the [Qh] [Ad] [8d] [8h] [2c] board to phinomenon. Then it was JC Alvarado's turn to trim some more chips off phinomenon in the below hand:

6:42pm--Teejmeister1 exits in 9th place ($25,584)

After waiting for quite a while, we finally have a final table bustout - and in this case, the rich are getting richer because of it.

With the blinds now up to 60K/120K and antes at 15K, Teejmeister1 decided to move all-in for 1,557,739 on the button when the action folded around to him. The call was an easy one in the big blind for phinomenon, holding [Jh][Jc]. That was bad news for Teejmeister1's [Qd][5h], and the [Jd][9d][2c] flop was even worse. When the board ran out [7c][3d], Teejmeister1 became the first final tablist to find his way to the door, finishing in ninth place for $25,584.

6:36pm--Dinner's ready

All nine still looking at that $502,086.00 for first place, here are the chip counts:

1. phinomenon 6,466,152
2. Ericb09 4,719,353
3. JC Alvarado 4,034,639
4. fan4mizzou 3,907,303
5. hasuace 3,755,043
6. weeminer 3,603,649
7. Crisper 1,970,973
8. ErikXP 1,875,149
9. Teejmeister1 1,647,739

6:33pm - Squeeze for chips, JC takes in 882,500

Crisper opened the betting UTG +2 with a raise to 240K and was called by the chip leader phinomenon on the button. But, JC Alvarado in the big blind had no patience to see a cheap flop as he shoved over the top for enough to put Crisper all-in. Both players took a couple of seconds but mucked giving the Team PokerStars Pro a decent 882,500 chip pot.

6:32pm--First SCOOP Main Event champ crowned - but not here

While our nine players continue to jockey for position, the $109 Main Event has crowned a champion. Be sure to check the live blog for the full story on how JannotLapin grabbed the title.

6:27pm--Gambling time?

There's no doubt that the pace of play has been much slower since we arrived at our final nine players. A few minutes ago fan4mizzou let the table know that he wanted to get the game out of the mud. "i am fixing to start gambling," he said in the chat box. And since then he's appeared to hold true to his word: he has grabbed two uncontested pots worth a combined 2.3 million in the last orbit to boost his stack to 4.9 million.

6:16pm - Blinds go up, phinomenon still leads

Blinds increase to 50K/100K ante 12,500 and phinomenon with 5.9 million still leading the pack with a slew of players holding three million chips, including Team PokerStars Pro JC Alvarado, weeminer, Ericb09, and fan4mizzou.

6:10pm--Slow start for the Team PokerStars Pro

Not one to splash his chips so far in this event, Team PokerStars Pro JC Alvarado has only claimed two pots at the final table thus far. But with a four million chip stack and blinds and antes still at 40K/80K/10K and 20 minute levels he'll have plenty of time to wait for the right cards. And he has plenty of incentive to do so: a top-two finish today would be the biggest score of Alvarado's career.

6:08pm--New chip leader

The biggest pot of the final table so far wasn't anything huge, but it did boost former short stack phinomenon into the chip leader's postiion. He opened for 200K in the cutoff and ErikXP was his only caller in the big blind. ErikXP led out for 320K on the [Ac][7h][2h] flop, but after being called he check-folded to a 720K bet on the [Js] turn. That shipped the pot to phinomenon and boosted him to a stack of 6.1 million.

5:55pm--High stakes, higher stakes

There's certainly been no lack of action today, with the field being reduced to just nine players in one hour of play. Since then we've seen the leaderboard shuffle a bit, but the same nine players are still in action as the blinds and antes go up to 40K/80K/10K. After the splash in action to start off the final table, the chips have spread out along the table with no one under two million in chips there's enough room for the players to raise and fold if they don't feel like their [7s][2h] is good enough for calling all-in.

5:52pm--Crisper no stranger to center stage

As shown by leading the Argentinean team in the 2008 World Cup Latin America finals to a fourth place finish, he's back in the limelight today at the final table. More so after catching a little luck on the river against phinomenon with trip sevens and a 1.6 million chip pot.

5:51pm--Something like a phinomenon

After entering the final table on the short stack and doubling up, phinomenon has made himself a contender thanks to another well-timed big hand. With blinds and antes at 30K/60K/7,5K, he opened the betting in second position for 152K. The action folded to the chip leader ErikXP, who after a bit of thought re-raised to 397,777. The rest of the table declined to get involved and phinomenon had another decision to make; he raised to 1M and then insta-called when ErikXP shipped his stack. It was [Qd] [Qc] for phinomenon and [Ah][Ks] for ErikXP, with the ladies flopping a set and holding up through the [Qh 7h 9s 2s 8h] board for a 5.68 million chip pot.

5:42pm--phinomenon-ly great

The first big pot of the final table would be shipped to (former) short stack phinomenon as he would push his 881,517 chips into the middle holding pocket jacks [Jh] [Js] and raced against the big slick [Ah] [Kd] of weeminer. The board [5s] [6c] [8c] [4c] [6s] showed no broadway cards and phinomenon would double up with the 2.7 million chip pot.

5:40pm--Welcome to the final table!

Here are your final nine tonight after just a shade over an hour of play with ErikXP holding the chip lead:

Seat 1: Crisper (1832869 in chips)
Seat 2: weeminer (4833816 in chips)
Seat 3: Ericb09 (3514591 in chips)
Seat 4: Teejmeister1 (3462739 in chips)
Seat 5: fan4mizzou (2813970 in chips)
Seat 6: phinomenon (919017 in chips)
Seat 7: hasuace (2180342 in chips)
Seat 8: JC Alvarado (4666116 in chips)
Seat 9: ErikXP (7756540 in chips)

5:38pm--Rayons X goes the way of polyester

We're finally down to our final table after the elimination of Rayons X in 10th place. The action had folded around to Teejmesiter1 in the small blind and he raised enough to put Rayons X all-in. Rayons X quickly called with [Kd][Qs], making him a favorite against Teejmesiter1's [4h]3h]. But as so often happens, the flop failed to cooperate with the short stack, coming down [Ad][5h][3c]. When the board ran out [As][Tc], Rayons X left with $19,188 and we had our final table:

5:31pm--Break time!

We're down to just ten players as the first break of the day begins. Here's a look at the chip counts:

1. ErikXP - 7,771,540
2. weeminer - 4,721316
3. JC Alvarado - 4,681,116
4. Ericb09 - 3,402,091
5. fan4mizzou - 2,731,470
6. Teejmesiter1 - 2,652,637
7. hasuace - 2,255,342
8. Crisper - 1,877,869
9. phinomenon - 1,024,017
10. Rayons X - 862,602

5:30pm - James "jcamby33" Campbell finishes 11th

In the hand before the break, jcamby33 decided to take his [Ah][Qh] to war against jcamby33's pocket nines [9c] [9d]. Watch the twisty hand for the past Sunday Million winner play out below as he took home $19,188.00 in 11th place:

5:19pm - Big pot, no show

ErikXP continues to add to his stack after he three-bet jcamby33 in the big blind bet out 400,000 chips on the [3h] [Ks] [Jd] flop and got a call. ErikXP would check the turned [2s], getting jcamby33 to bet out 777,233, but ErikXP snapped shut a trap with a check-raise for his 3.5 million chips. jcamby33 folded as ErikXP took home the three million chip pot.

5:16pm--JC Alvarado doubles through hasuace

After coming in with the chip lead and looking strong in the early going, it's been tough times for hasuace. First he lost with J-J to weeminer's aces. Now he's dropped another monster pot to JC Alvarado:

5:13pm -- TheL0bster boiled and served in 12th place

Facing a 100,000 chip button raise from fan4mizzou and blinds at 25,000/50,000 ante 6,250, TheL0bster held [Td] [Ac] and just 704,785 chips behind after paying his big blind he decided to push.

Pocket nines [9s] [9c] for fan4mizzou would nail a set on the [9h] [Kd] [Qs] cutting TheL0bster's outs to four. No jacks on the turn [Ah] or [2s] river and TheL0bster left the holding tank in 12th place ($19,188.00).

5:09--Ggod goes down in 13th place

It wasn't Ggod's day at the SCOOP tables. After coming near the bottom of the leaderboard he finally a hand to go with on the 20K/40K/5K level. But after getting his last 756K in the middle preflop with [Kc] [Kd] against Teejmeister1's [Ad][Kh], he would bow out in 13th place ($14,391) thanks to a board of [7d] [Ah] [6h] [Th] [5c].

5:08pm - Tens good against one eight, against two not so much

After limping in on the button ErikXP would call the 93,500 chip raise by smeggi in the small blind to see a [8c] [7s] [5s] flop. smeggi would lead out for 204,500 chips and be met with a raise from ErikXP to 640,000. smeggi three-bet all-in to 1.4 million total as ErikXP would call and turn over a pair of eights [Kc] [8h].

Top pair was no good as smeggi's pocket tens [Tc] [Ts] were in the lead until the turn [8d] gave ErikXP trips and the [2d] finished off smeggi in 14th place ($14,391.00).

5:07pm--hasuace recovers, Rae_Kwon_JHK can't protect his neck

After dropping that huge pot to weeminer, hasuace has recovered - and taken Rae_Kwon_JHK out of the tournament. With blinds still at 20K/40K with 5K antes, hasuace opened under the gun for 101,225. When the action reached Rae_Kwon_JHK, he shoved all-in for 610,925 holding [5h][5d]. That was ahead of hasuace's [9h][8h] until the flop came down [Ad][9s][3d]. The [8d] turn gave Rae_Kwon_JHK a flush draw, but his tournament ended in 15th place ($14,391) when the river came the [Qs].

5:06pm--weeminer has hasuace's number

We have ourselves a new chip leader after two big hands collided. weeminer is over 5.2 million now thanks to this monster pot, while hasuace drops to 2.86 million:

4:58pm-Consider TheL0bster

Currently with blinds at 20K/40K and antes of 5K, TheL0bster took offense to smeggi's 102,500 chip raise into his big blind holding just 562,285 behind and pushed over the top. That caused smeggi to tank a bit before folding.

Meanwhile, hasuace has been quiet for a bit but decided to let his tablemates know he's still the biggest stack in the tournament. After opening in early position for 102,250, hasuace found himself repopped to 280K by Teejmesiter1 in the big blind. After calling for time, hasuace would take down the pot with a third raise to 685K.

4:52pm--tcblade is cut in 16th, Crisper jumps ahead

tcblade took his big slick [Kd] [Ah] up against ErikXP's pocket deuces [2h] [2c] preflop for his remaining 1.2 million chips. The ducks would hold up on the [7c] [Jc] [5h] [5s] [6s] board sending tcblade home with $9,594.00 as the pay scale takes another bump.

Meanwhile Crisper picked up a healthy pot off Rae_Kwon_JHK thanks to a picture perfect flop:

4:49pm--Sunday Million Winner looking for more

We met with James "jcamby33" Campbell back in April 2007 after he took down the Sunday Million for more than $180,000. Today he'll need to finish 4th or better to eclipse that score. Read about James here in his winner's interview.

4:46pm--P0KERDUUDE takes a knee for JC (17th place)

Team PokerStars Pro had only one representative left when the day began. JC Alvarado played a solid game all through Day 1 just to make it here, and luckily for him he's going strong again after picking up a big hand at the right time. After opening under the gun for 79,999, Alvarado would get his entire stack in the middle against P0KERDUUDE in the big blind. The PS pro's [Qd][Qh] would hold up against his opponent's [9c][9h] through the [7d] [8d] [Kh] [3s] [5s] board to bust P0KERDUUDE in 17th place ($9,594).

4:44pm--Split it up

We're not playing Hi-Lo today but phenomenon and ErikXP just got their chips in the middle both holding big slick. Neither one held a flush draw by the turn of the [Qd] [7d] [5h] [Ts] [Th] board and both split up the 2.1 million chip pot.

4:37pm--Beware of the flopped straight

James "jcamby33" Campbell takes down the first big pot of the tournament. Watch below as the rivered heart takes out:

4:35pm--Big bang, baby!

It took only one hand once play resumed to get us down to the final 18. pino1234 was looking to add some more numbers to his chip stack early as the short stack with 370,399. Unforunately he tried to open push those chips from the small blind into tcblade. [9d][Jc] for pino1234, [Qd] [Tc] for tcblade and while pino1234 would pair his jack, tcblade would catch his queen on the turn and river two pair on the [6d] [Ah] [Js] [Qc] [Td] board for 19th place ($8,154.90)

Meanwhile hasuace has come out with barrels blazing, raising both of the first two hands. He got no callers on the first, while Rae_Kwon_JHK called preflop but folded on the [Kh][Js][2h] board. That puts hasuace over 5 million, making him the first player to cross each of the last three million-chip milestones for the tournament.

4:30pm--It's business time!

Here's a look at the final three tables of our tournament as play begins:

Table 42:

Table 241:

Table 417:

Day 2 coverage to begin at 4:30pm ET

Join us here at 4:30pm ET for Day 2 coverage of the 2009 SCOOP $1,050 Main Event. The 14 remaining players and their chip counts are as follows:

1. hasuace - 4,737,047
2. Ericb09 - 2,833,241
3. jcamby33 - 2,531,250
4. smeggi - 2,392,776
5. Teejmesiter1 - 2,323,945
6. weeminer - 2,212,749
7. Rae_Kwon_JHK - 2,111,188
8. JC Alvarado - 1,501,169
9. phinomenon - 1,466,291
10. fan4mizzou - 1,303,843
11. jomamusfat - 1,209,530
12. Crisper - 1,188,269
13. Rayons X - 1,186,339
14. ErikXP - 1,106,603
15. Ggod - 974,584
16. TheL0bster - 876,412
17. P0KERDUUDE - 828,717
18. tcblade - 825,648
19. pino1234 - 370,399

Click refresh to see the latest information as the 26 survivors play for the lion's share of a $1,874,700 prize pool. For a look at previous coverage, see the Event 22-Low Day 1 recap.

6:30pm - It's over! JannotLapin eliminates Sador1983 in 2nd place and wins 2009 SCOOP Event #22-L, $109 NLHE Main Event!

Just like that, the 2009 SCOOP low-stakes Main Event has come to a swift, stunning conclusion. Once again, almost 15 million chips were in the pot preflop after Sador1983 put in the second raise. The rest of the chips quickly went into the middle on a flop of [jh] [2h] [4h]. Sador1983 showed a heads-up monster, top pair and top kicker with [Jd] [Ac], but he was up against the thing most poker players dread more than anything else -- a flush draw. JannotLapin turned over [7s] [Th] for two chances at hitting a nine-outer to win the tournament. The [7h] came on the turn, taking all the suspense out of the hand. The meaningless [9d] river card completed the board and gave the pot, and the SCOOP low-stakes Main Event championship, to JannotLapin.

For 2nd place, Sador1983 takes home $113,338.23. That's a great showing for a $109 tournament. Even better is what JannotLapin gets for first -- $151,203.71. Congratulations to both players for their success!

6:27pm - JannotLapin's pressure bet pays dividends

JannotLapin has taken a three-to-one chip lead on Sador1983. Two preflop raises, the second by Sador1983, but almost 15 million chips in the pot preflop. Sador1983 checked a flop of [jd] [9s] [4s] to JannotLapin, who fired out for 9.5 million. Sador1983 went for a check-raise to 29.5 million but JannotLapin was undeterred and made the call. When the turn fell [2c], Sador1983 checked again. JannotLapin's response was to move all in for 71.2 million, far more than Sador1983 had left. That bet produced a fold.

6:22pm - JannotLapin and Sador1983 even

With the tournament quickly having reached heads-up play, the two remaining combatants are quite deep. They're also almost even in chips. Jannot Lapin has 96.3 million chips, while Sador1983 has 91.1 million. Blinds are 600,000 and 1.2 million. With $20,000 still up for grabs, we could be in for an epic heads-up match.

6:13pm - Tiktok23's clock stopped by JannotLapin

Picking up aces three-handed is a dream -- until they get out-flopped by an opponent. Then there's almost no chance to get away. Tiktok23 opened preflop for 3 million and was called by JannotLapin. On a flop of [9d] [qh] [6d], Tiktok23 check-called 4.5 million. The turn was the [7d]. Again Tiktok23 checked, but this time, after JannotLapin bet 9 million, Tiktok23 check-raised all in for 34.6 million. JannotLapin snap-called with [Qc] [6s], having flopped two pair. Tiktok23's [ad] [ac] was in big trouble. The river paired the board [6h], giving JannotLapin sixes full of queens and giving Tiktok23 a 3rd place finish worth $120,397.63.

6:10pm - Naxer next to exit

Naxer was shown the door on this hand:

Naxer took home $110,562.42 for fourth after the deal, or about $35,000 more than he would have earned prior to negotiations.

6:05pm - Let's make a deal!

Down to four-handed, the remaining players asked the tournament host to pause the deal so that they could discuss a chip-count chop of the remaining prize money. After being reminded that $20,000 must be set aside for the champion, the host informed the players that a chip-count chop would result in the following prizes:

JannotLapin - $131,203.71
Tiktok23 - $120,397.63
Sador1983 - $113,338.23
Naxer - $110,562.42

After confirming that the $20,000 was not included in those numbers, each player quickly agreed to the deal. Congratulations to each of them on a six-figure score!

6:02pm - Tiktok23 cleans 75champ75's clock

It seemed inevitable that 75champ75 would be eliminated in 5th place, barring some kind of miracle. Down to 3.5 million chips with blinds at 500,000 and 1 million, 75champ75 made a stand with [9s] [9d] after Tiktok23 opened for 3 million. Naxer also called out of the blinds. Naxer and Tiktok23 checked all the way to the river, [ts] [5c] [qs] [ah] [td], where Tiktok23 fired a bet of 4 million. He didn't induce a call from Naxer, but was probably happy all the same to pick up the pot with a pair of aces, [As] [7d]. That meant that 75champ75 was the fifth place finisher, a distinction that came with $56,241.01.

5:58pm - Updated chip counts

A look at the final five:

1. JannotLapin (61.3 million)
2. Naxer (44.2 million)
3. Sador1983 (38.7 million)
4. Tiktok23 (37.5 million)
5. 75champ75 (5.5 million)

5:55pm - The blinds they are arising

With 500K/1 million blinds and a 125K ante, the stakes are getting up there. moohaha123 found himself with less than three big blinds remaining when he shoved in from the small blind for 2.92 million and Naxer called in the big blind. The hands:

moohaha123 [ac] [9c]
Naxer [kh] [6c]

The flop came [kc] [5h] [8c] to give Naxer the lead, but moohaha the flush and ace draw. The turn [jd] and river [8d] brought no help and moohaha123 received $37,494.01 for the sixth-place finish.

5:52pm - dhutt24 eliminated in 7th place

The pace of eliminations hasn't slackened at all at this final table. dhutt24 had fewer than fifteen big blinds left when he pushed all in preflop for 12.2 million chips with [7s] [Ah]. Action passed to Naxer, who all-in re-raise to 26.9 million chips surely gave dhutt24 a bad feeling. Rightfully so -- Naxer showed down [jc] [js] and took down the pot with two pair, jacks and sixes, when the board came [5d] [6h] [9d] [7d] [6c].

For finishing in seventh place, dhutt24 earned $26,339.54.

5:46pm - Dream ends in eighth place for dreamer_ss

He who has the chips usually winds up with more chips. JannotLapin, one of the chip leaders of the final table, opened a pot preflop to 10 million. Action folded to dreamer_ss in the big blind, who called all in for 4.9 million with the smallest of pocket pairs, [2h] [2d]. JannotLapin also had a pair, [6c] [6s], which turned into aces and sixes on a board of [9d] [tc] [ad] [as] [jd]. The hand left dreamer_ss without a chip or a chair, but with eighth-place money of $16,872.31.

5:40pm - xxRogexx eliminated in 9th place

The first hand of the final table brought the first elimination. xxRogexx open-raised to 9.6 million and was called by big blind JannotLapin. It was a case of horrible timing for xxRogexx, whose [9s] [Td] was up against the pocket aces of JannotLapin. xxRogexx flopped a ten, but JannotLapin turned an ace to secure the pot with a set of aces. xxRogexx's stay at the final table may have been a short one, but $11,248.21 in prize money should ease the pain.

5:36pm - Final table set

We are down to the final nine as we go on break after one hour of play.

Seat 1 -- moohaha123 9,946,435
Seat 2 -- dhutt24 -- 10,303,075
Seat 3 -- xxRogexx 9,707,703
Seat 4 -- dreamer_ss 8,164,803
Seat 5 -- Naxer 31,830,692
Seat 6 -- Sador1983 40,931,246
Seat 7 -- Tiktok23 43,892,219
Seat 8 -- JannotLapin 29,110,203
Seat 9 -- 75champ75 3,583,624

5:33pm - AlGohr eliminated on final table bubble

It was a gutsy play by AlGohr. With the tournament about to go on a break, Naxer opened the pot preflop to 2.0 million. AlGohr was in the big blind and re-raised all in for 11.2 million. Naxer dipped into his time bank while he pondered what to do. He finally opted to make the call with [Th] [Ad], a hand that was ahead of AlGohr's [ks] [6s] -- but not by much. An ace on a flop of [2d] [8c] [ac] was an inconvenient truth for AlGohr, leaving him looking for running cards. The turn [7c] slammed the door on the final table. When the river came [5c], AlGohr was eliminated in 10th place with prize money of $7,030.13. The final table was also set.

5:30pm - Meanwhile on the other table...

Tiktok23 is crushing it on the other side of the tourney. Playing 300K/600K blinds with a 75K ante, mosche shoved all-in for 8.19 million from the small blind after it was folded around. Tiktok23 made the call with [ah] [td] and was happy to see the [kd] [ts] held by mosche. The board was no help and mosche collected $7,030.13 for 11th.

5:29pm - Sador1983 keeps crushing opponents

Sador1983 picked the right time to hit a rush. Down to the last two tables and getting close to the final table bubble, Sador1983 has been winning all of his major pots. This time it was a preflop raise to 1.65 million that was re-raised all in by Benny Binion to 7.58 million. Sador1983 made the call with pocket sevens and out-raced Benny Binion's [Ac] [Kh] on a board of [6d] [jh] [8h] [5h] [9c]. For 12th place, Benny Binion received $7,030.13.

5:23pm - Oh, you dirty river

Sometimes the river card is so cruel. To wit:

gbel13 earned $5,436.64 for 13th place.

5:16pm - Slaasch exits on dirty beat

When you have two small aces squaring off against each other, the worst outcome is usually a chop. Every once in a while, however, something even more disgusting happens. Slaaasch open-shoved preflop for 6.8 million chips from the small blind with [Ad] [6s] and was called by the big blind, Sador1983, who tabled [5c] [as]. So far, so good for Slaasch. The flop paired his six -- also good. But it also came three clubs, [Qc] [6c] [9c], and Sador1983 was the only player with a club. The flush filled with the turn [Jc], leaving Slaasch looking for any club other than the deuce, trey or four for a chop. He didn't get it. The river fell [9d]. That scream you heard was Slaaasch blowing off some disgust at his 14th-place exit. He will have to console himself with the $5,436.64 he just won.

5:10pm - Game over for massey8

massey8 caught a few short stacks in the early-going today to add chips to his stack, but wasn't able to build up enough to avoid elimination. massey8 open-raised from the button to 1.2 million only to see the small blind, Sador1983, re-raise to 3.5 million. It was a decision point for massey8, with only 7.5 million chips total. He decided to put them in the middle and was quickly called by Sador1983. It was a battle of aces, with massey8's [jd] [ad] coming up short against Sador1983's [ah] [qd] on a board of [2h] [Ks] [6s] [9d] [Qh]. massey8 is the 15th place finisher, with $5,436.64 in winnings..

5:07pm - Live with aces, die with aces

After having doubled only minutes ago with aces, le pistash was just eliminated by them. Playing 250K/500K blinds with a 62,500 ante, this player shoved for 2.17 million under the gun plus one with [Td] [Th], but moohaha123 re-shoved over the top one to le pistash's left with [Ac] [As]. The board ran out [7s] [ks] [kc] [3c] [kd] to eliminate le pistash in 16th place, and with a prize of $3,843.14.

5:05pm - rebuking can't win flip for life

Tiktok23 raised it to 1.2 million from under the gun plus one and cebuking re-raised all-in for 4.59 million from the small blind with [ah] [td]. Tiktok23 requested time before making the call wiht [6c] [6h]. The flop of [6d] [5h] [7h] pretty much ended it. cebuking could not catch a runner-runner straight and was out in 17th, collecting $3,843.14.

5:02pm - Sevens are not lucky for KarinMR

Now down to two tables and playing 200K/400K blinds with a 50K ante, KarinMR shoved all-in for 1.55 million in middle position and gbel13 called from the cutoff. The hands:

KarinMR [7d] [7c]
gbel13 [ah] [ac]

The board ran out [Jh] [kc] [6c] [3s] [qd] to send KarinMR out in 18th with $3,843.14

4:59pm - dreamer_ss wins battle of short-stacks versus ByggmesterBe

Stack consolidation is the name of the game right now. ByggmesterBe open-raised all in to 4.9 million and was called by dreamer_ss, who had 5.5 million total. Each player had an ace, but the [kd] [as] of dreamer_ss was better than ByggmesterBe's [jh] [ac]. dreamer_ss wound up with a full house, queens full of kings, on a board of [qc] [6c] [qd] [kh] [qh] to take down the pot and send ByggmesterBe off to do other things in 19th place.

4:56pm - le pistash gains a foothold

The short stack with 1.4 million, le pistash just doubled through cebuking with [Ah] [Ac] versus [Jh] [Qh] to gather a 3.2 million stack.

4:52pm--Naxer's "super-good" board is super-bad for supergood1

Naxer has jumped to more than 21 million in chips. Those chips had to come at the expense of someone else, of course. Naxer's latest victim was supergood1, who was so close to doubling up by a rivered set sent him packing.

4:50pm - Razwar flips out

Naxer started the action on Razwar's last hand of the 2009 SCOOP low-stakes Main Event, but AlGohr was the one who delivered the fateful blow. Naxer opened the preflop action for 1 million chips before AlGohr raised to 7.7 million. Razwar called all in for less, putting the action back to Naxer. Naxer dipped deep into his time bank before folding, leaving AlGohr's pocket nines up against Razwar's Big Slick. The nines held on a board of [5d] [2s] [5s] [Jh] [Td] to send Razwar crashing out of the tournament in 21st place.

4:49pm - KidNyam119 cools his heels on the rail

At one point late in the day yesterday, KidNyam119 was chip leader. Today he is the 22nd place finisher. His last 1.9 million chips were in the middle preflop with [Ks] [6d]. massey8 was in there with another small ace, [As] [5s], and it held up again. The board came [9c] [4d] [4c] [Ts] [Jd], leaving KidNyam119 to ponder what might have been, given his chip position late on Day 1.

4:45pm - Naxer feeling fine with nines

Once upon a time, someone somewhere said that in order to go deep in, and win, a major tournament, you have to get lucky a few times. Naxer just used one of his times. Naxer open-shoved preflop for a staggering 8.6 million (about 28 big blinds) and was snap-called by big stack 75champ75, who showed down pocket jacks. Naxer had a live ace with [Ah] [9s], but he didn't need it. The board ran out [Ts] [8c] [9d] [9h] [8d] to make a full house, nines full of eights, for Naxer and to keep his SCOOP Main Event title run alive.

4:40pm - Bad luck sends chris8142 to the rail

When you have fewer than 15 big blinds and are dealt a hand like [Qc] [Ad], you're often happy to pick up the blinds and antes. chris8142 moved all in preflop with that hand for 3.5 million chips. mosche called with a worse ace, [Ah] [5d], but paired up in excruciating fashion -- on the river. A board of [Td] [Tc] [6h] [3h] [5s] was clean for chris8142 until that fateful river. He's out of the tournament in 23rd place.

4:37pm - GonzNZ Gone-zo

With the average stack having fewer than 25 big blinds to start Day 2 play, we expected to see quite a bit of moving and shaking early. GonzNZ decided to make his play for chips by calling all in for 2.58 million with [Kc] [8s] after KarinMR open-shoved preflop for about 5.1 million. KarinNR showed down [Ac] [4s], which was the best hand on a board of [5d] [Tc] [Qd] [3d] [7s]. Add GonzNZ's name to the list of the fallen, in 24th place.

4:34pm - Queens can't hold for spielraum.at

dhutt24 raised to 649K from early position and spielraum.at re-raised to 1.2 million. dhutt24 made the call and led out for 1.2 million on a flop of [5h] [8h] [As] to put spielraum.at all in. The latter made the call with [Qd] [Qc] and dhutt24 showed [Ac] [7s]. The turn and river were blanks to send spielraum.at to the rail in 25th place.

4:31pm - dushbagg eliminated in 26th place

dushbagg probably wondered why he was even coming back to the table this afternoon. He was crippled late in the day yesterday and started Day 2 with 54,864 chips. One ante was 37,500. On the first hand of play, sitting in the cutoff, he moved all in with [Kc] [8h]. The button player, massey8, called with [Ac] [2c]. When neither player improved, dushbagg was out.

4:30pm - And we're off

Playing 150K/300K blinds with a 37,500 ante we are off as players vie for that $187,470.01 first-place prize.

Day 2 coverage to begin at 4:30pm ET

Join us here at 4:30pm ET for Day 2 coverage of the 2009 SCOOP $109 Main Event. The 26 remaining players and their chip counts are as follows:

1. dhutt24 (21,485,086)
2. JannotLapin (14,301,227)
3. xxRogexx (13,676,255)
4. Benny Binion (11,696,241)
5. Naxer (11,080,806)
6. 75champ75 (10,747,618)
7. Tiktok23 (10,346,942)
8. mosche (9,028,382)
9. AlGohr (8,624,415)
10. ByggmesterBe (7,962,404)
11. Sador1983 (7,453,582)
12. Slaaasch (7,382,233)
13. supergood1 (5,551,820)
14. gbel13 (5,096,065)
15. chris8142 (5,069,528)
16. massey8 (4,937,356)
17. cebuking (4,620,632)
18. KarinMR (4,591,535)
19. moohaha123 (4,362,302)
20. dreamer_ss (3,971,149)
21. Razwar (3,697,157)
22. le pistash (3,090,800)
23. GonzNZ (2,919,476)
24. KidNyam119 (2,889,125)
25. spielraum.at (2,833,000)
26. dushbagg (54,864)

Click refresh to see the latest information as the 14 finalists play for their shares of the $5,020,000 prize pool. For a look at previous coverage, see the Event 22-High recap.

9:35pm--That's a wrap!

Thanks for joining us for the action today! Stay tuned to the PokerStars blog for a full recap of this event to be posted shortly and the final overview of the 2009 SCOOP in the coming days.

9:27pm--ragen70 runner-up ($715,350); j.thaddeus Event No. 22-H champion ($963,338)

ragen70 hung on gamely, but on the 23rd hand of heads-up time finally ran out against j.thaddeus.

Play had reached Level 32, with blinds 12,500/25,000 and antes 3,125. ragen70 had 1,308,928 chips, about a fourth of j.thaddeus' 3,711,072.

j.thaddeus minimum-raised from the small blind/button to 50,000, ragen70 reraised from the big blind to 150,000, and j.thaddeus called. The flop came [3d][Qc][9h], and both players checked. The turn was the [Ac]. ragen70 bet 175,000, and j.thaddeus called.

The river brought the [6c]. ragen70 checked, j.thaddeus bet 300,000, ragen70 check-raised all in for 980,803 total, and j.thaddeus called.

ragen70 showed [Jh][6d] for a pair of sixes, and j.thaddeus [8c][Tc] for the rivered flush. ragen70 was out in 2nd, and j.thaddeus was the SCOOP Main Event (high) champion!

And here is the final hand in all its glory:

9:17pm--ragen70 chips up

After 16 hands of heads up, not much had changed. j.thaddeus had just over 4 million, and ragen70 a little less than 1 million. ragen70 won a sizable pot on the next hand, though, with a big river bet to which j.thaddeus folded.

j.thaddeus now has 3,597,548 to ragen70's 1,422,452.

9:08pm--Chip counts as heads up play begins

j.thaddeus -- 3,879,797
ragen70 -- 1,140,203

9:07pm--PearlJammer jettisoned in 3rd ($527,100)

After that crazy hand in which PearlJammer flopped quads, it appeared perhaps something strange might be afoot. But ragen70 stomped that out, and quick.

ragen70 raised to 45,000 from the button, and PearlJammer shoved all in for 408,207. j.thaddeus folded, and ragen70 called, showing [Ah][Th] to PearlJammer's [Qh][Kd].

The board came [2d][5h][Jc][7s][3d], and the ace was good enough. PearlJammer was out in 3rd, and we are heads up.

9:05pm--ragen70 doubles through PearlJammer

The two shorter stacks tangled with ragen70 pushing all-in preflop with [Jd] [Tc], PearlJammer reraising all-in with [Ah] [Qd], and j.thaddeus folding. The two watched the board come down [8s] [7c] [6c] [2c] [Td], and that river card allowed ragen70 to double.

9:02pm--What a flop

PearlJammer doubled through against ragen70 when his [Ad][Qc] held up against ragen70's [Qd][Js]. That brought the two about even with approximately 350,000 chips each (to j.thaddeus' 4.26 million).

Then came this wacky hand. ragen70 raised to 45,000 from the button, PearlJammer jammed all in for 303,898, then j.thaddeus reraised all in. ragen70 got out of the way, and the cards were turned over: PearlJammer's pocket deuces vs. j.thaddeus' pocket jacks.

PearlJammer survived this one. We'll let you see how:

8:56pm--Good fold

Pearljammer and ragen70 have been taking turns shoving all in repeatedly, but j.thaddeus has yet to bite.

Just had a hand in which ragen70 folded his button, then PearlJammer folded the small blind. j.thaddeus decided to show: [Ac][Ah].

8:51pm--Chip counts at fourth hour-break of Day 2

Level 31
Blinds 10,000/20,000, ante 2,500
Avg. chip count: 1,673,333
Players remaining: 3
First prize: $963,338 (yep, still the same)

1. j.thaddeus -- 4,094,604
2. ragen70 -- 621,322
3. PearlJammer -- 304,074

Just before the break, PearlJammer made some all-in moves preflop, but it was up to j.thaddeus to call, and it didn't happen. Looks like there will be more all-in action when play resumes.

8:44pm--MazeOrBowie muzzled in 4th ($401,600)

Chip leader j.thaddeus, with over 3.3 million, raised to 40,000, and a short-stacked MazeOrBowie pushed all-in for 625,347. It folded back around and j.thaddeus called.

MazeOrBowie showed [7d][7s], well behind j.thaddeus' [Qs][Qd]. The board came [4d][3c][As][Th][5c], and we were down to three.

That hand pushed j.thaddeus up over 4 million, way ahead of ragen70 (741,322), and PearlJammer (270,074).

8:42pm--Alert - j.thaddeus folded to a MazeOrBowie bet

After an initial raise from j.thaddeus preflop, MazeOrBowie reraised and got the call. When the flop hit [6d] [7s] [Jd], MazeOrBowie came out with a bet of 144,000, and j.thaddeus fold. We repeat, he folded to give the 248K pot to his opponent.

j.thaddeus sits on a stack of well over 3 million chips.

8:28pm--And they have a winner over there!

The aforementioned $1,050 NLHE main event has been won by JC Alvarado in only a few hands! A sincere congratulations to Team PokerStars member Alvarado on the phenomenal victory.

8:23pm--JC Alvarado vs. ErikXP at medium-stakes main event table

Again, in other news, poker fans should keep an eye on the SCOOP $1,050 main event, as it just reached heads-up action between chip leader and Team PokerStars Pro JC Alvarado and formidable opponent ErikXP. The two are battling it out for a first place prize of more than $500,000, and it is an exciting match thus far.

Check out the live blog for that event here, but don't forget to toggle back to us!

8:20pm--$teveyMoney leaves with 5th place money ($281,120)

MazeOrBowie raised to 48,000 from UTG+1, and it folded around to $teveyMoney who pushed all in for 293,717. MazeOrBowie made the call, showing [Ah][Qs] versus $teveyMoney's [Tc][Qh].

The community cards came [6d][7d][8s][Qc][Kc], and $teveyMoney was out in 5th place. Meanwhile, MazeOrBowie is now up to 605,434.

8:16pm--j.thaddeus taking control

Now five-handed, the table's dynamic has shifted a bit with j.thaddeus' having catapulted to a large lead. j.thaddeus now has over 2.6 million, with the other four players collectively adding up to about 2.25 million.

And j.thaddeus isn't sitting quietly with that big stack. Just now j.thaddeus opened with a raise from UTG, and when ragen70 reraised from the button j.thaddeus wasted no time coming back over the top with a hefty reraise to 270,000 (about a third of ragen70's stack). ragen70 folded, and j.thaddeus continued his aggressive ways.

8:01pm--Chowdahhead4 heads home in 6th ($213,350)

PearlJammer opened for 32,750 from the cutoff seat, and Chowdahhead4 repopped it to 87,560 from the button, leaving 281,506 behind. $teveyMoney folded in the small blind, but chip leader j.thaddeus kicked it up to 224,000 from the big blind. Chowdahhead4 thought about 30 seconds, then made the call.

The flop came an enticing [Kh][Qc][Ts]. j.thaddeus led for 70,000, then Chowdahhead4 shoved all-in for 145,066, and j.thaddeus quickly made the call.

j.thaddeus [Ks][Kd]
Chowdahhead4 [6s][6h]

Bad times for Chowdahhead4. The turn was the [As], making a chop possible. But the river was the [Qh], and Chowdahhead4 was out in 6th place.

j.thaddeus becomes the first to crack the 2 million mark, now having 2,149,608.

7:51pm--MazeOrBowie chooses to risk it and double it

It was a hand that saw betting on all streets between j.thaddeus and MazeOrBowie, which finally resulted in an all-in move on the part of the latter on a [Qc] [Ah] [3h] [Ks] [7s] board. And with the [Tc] [Jd], MazeOrBowie won with the straight and doubled up to nearly 700K in chips.

All of the action was caught here:

7:44pm--Chip counts at third hour-break of Day 2

Level 29
Blinds 7,000/14,000, ante 1,750
Avg. chip count: 836,666
Players remaining: 6
First prize: $963,338

1. j.thaddeus -- 1,633,678
2. $teveyMoney -- 1,127,976
3. ragen70 -- 928,751
4. Chowdahhead4 -- 500,566
5, PearlJammer -- 486,074
6. MazeOrBowie -- 342,955

7:38--Chips Ahoy!

Lot of chips on the table.

We're nearing the end of Level 28, with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and 1,750 antes. With six players left and the average stack 836,666, that means the average number of big blinds in each player's stack is nearly 70. The current short stack, MazeOrBowie, has almost 30 big blinds with a stack of 356,455.

7:28pm--PearlJammer takes another hit

It's been a rough hour for PearlJammer. The last hit to his stack came at the hands of j.thaddeus in the big blind. PearlJammer was the raiser preflop and the bettor after the [2s] [Ac] [Jh] flop. But when the [3h] came on the turn and PearlJammer led out, j.thaddeus raised it to 204,000, and PearlJammer folded, giving the 323,550 pot over to his opponent.

After that hand, PearlJammer sat in fifth chip position out of the six remaining spots with his 475,629 stack.

7:14pm--Sixes sweet for $teveyMoney

With a stack of a little more than one million chips, $teveyMoney raised to 28,200 from middle position, and it folded around to PearlJammer who with 892,789 called from the big blind.

The flop came [6d][9c][8s], and both players checked. The turn was the [As]. PearlJammer checked, $teveyMoney bet 44,220, and PearlJammer called.

The river was the [Kd]. PearlJammer again checked, and this time $teveyMoney placed a very binary-looking bet of 101,110, and PearlJammer thought about 15 seconds before making the call. $teveyMoney showed [6s][6h] for the flopped set, and PearlJammer mucked.

$teveyMoney is up to 1,204,930, while PearlJammer now has 717,739.

7:03pm--$teveyMoney going for the big bucks

When it's time, it's time. $teveyMoney found some hands and some opportunities to gather some much needed chips. First, he took a 308K-chip pot from Chowdahhead4, then got involved with PearlJammer. The two went to see a [2h] [Qh] [5c] flop, a [3s] turn, and a [2d] river, at which point the last bet from $teveyMoney prompted a fold from PearlJammer and gave the 359,180-chip pot to $teveyMoney.

With that, he sits firmly in the top two of the final six players. There seems to be nothing but a victory on $teveyMoney's mind, especially after finishing second in Event 17-High only a few days ago. That was worth over $250K, but there is nearly quadruple that amount of money on the line today, not to mention a SCOOP main event title.

6:54pm--I know that you know that I know that you know I know what you know

With the blinds 5,000/10,000, ragen70 open-raised to 25,000 from the button, PearlJammer reraised to 69,750 from the small blind, Chowdahhead4 folded, ragen70 re-reraised to 164,500, PearlJammer re-re-reraised to 286,750, and ragen70 re-re-re-reconsidered and folded.

PearlJammer is up to 1.15 million, while ragen70 has 810,751.

6:46pm--Chowdahhead4 takes chunk from j.thaddeus

Chowdahhead4 just made a chip grab from j.thaddeus' stack. With about 350,000 in the middle and the board showing [Kc][3h][9d][2s], j.thaddeus bet 150,000, Chowdahhead4 raised to 320,000, and j.thaddeus let it go.

Chowdahhead4 is up to 946,706, while j.thaddeus is still in the lead with 1,110,156.

6:42pm--In other news, congrats to JannotLapin!

As most of you know, there were three main events going on today, each one representing a different buy-in level. This here $10,300 was the high, the medium $1,050 buy-in is still in progress, and the $109 main event has wrapped.

After only a few hours of Day 2 action, JannotLapin defeated Sador1983 to win the SCOOP title. Congrats!

6:38pm--Chip counts at second hour-break of Day 2

Level 27
Blinds 5,000/10,000, ante 1,250
Avg. chip count: 836,666
Players remaining: 6
First prize: $963,338

1. j.thaddeus -- 1,410,156
2. PearlJammer -- 1,037,379
3. ragen70 -- 850,351
4. $teveyMoney -- 687,650
5. Chowdahhead4 -- 621,706
6. MazeOrBowie -- 412,758

And since there has been a slowdown in the action here over the last few rounds, here is a screen shot showing how players look when they're on a break. Intriguing, no?

6:19pm--actionDJ axed in 7th ($163,150)

After that big hand with PearlJammer, actionDJ had slipped down under 100,000, and as a consequence had open-shoved a couple of times already, getting no callers. On the most recent occasion, actionDJ showed pocket queens to the table.

A few hands later, it folded around to actionDJ on the button who once again pushed all-in from the hijack seat, and this time ragen70 decided to make the call. actionDJ showed [Qc][Jc], and ragen70 [Kh][Qh]. The board came [6s][4d][8s][8h][5s], and actionDJ was gone in seventh place.

6:09pm--PearlJammer gets action from actionDJ...and a double-up

PearlJammer is an action player, and actionDJ has the word in his name. Guess there should be no surprise that the two eventually tangled.

The all-in move came from PearlJammer after a preflop raising war, and actionDJ ended it by calling with [As] [Kh]. PearlJammer showed pocket jacks, and the race was on. The flop of [Jc] [Td] [7s] gave the upper hand to PearlJammer but the straight draw to actionDJ, but the [7d] on the turn and [9h] put those hopes to rest and gave PearlJammer the double and right in line with j.thaddeus for the chip lead.

6:04pm--One-bet, two-bet, three-bet, four...

Had a little standoff happen just now between chip leader j.thaddeus (1.15 million) and PearlJammer, one of four players hovering between 700,000-750,000.

PearlJammer open-raised to 16,750 from middle position, and it folded around to j.thaddeus who reraised to 45,666 from the small blind. It folded back to PearlJammer who reraised again to 124,750. j.thaddeus took a moment, then made it 224,000 total.

PearlJammer thought a bit, then decided to scamper with the 593,674 he had left. j.thaddeus tripped up near 1.3 million on that one.

5:53pm--Moorman1 no more, gone in 8th place ($112,950)

Just minutes after the last elimination, Moorman1 decided it was time to move it or lose it.

It began when Moorman1 and $teveyMoney went to see a [3s] [Jd] [Ks] flop. Moorman1 bet and $teveyMoney called, which brought them to the [Jc] turn. Moorman1 led out, but $teveyMoney raised all-in. Moorman1 made the decision to call all-in for his tournament life with [As] [7s] and the flush draw, but $teveyMoney showed [Ad] [Td] for the pair on the board with his ace kicker. The river came a blank [4d] to eliminate Moorman1 from the tournament in eighth place, which was worth a solid $112,950 payday.

5:46pm--teacupppoker drained, out in 9th ($83,332)

On the very next hand after MoorMan1's double up, $teveyMoney raised to 18,230 from middle position, and teacupppoker shoved over the top for 68,276. $teveyMoney called, showing [8d][7d], behind teacuppoker's [Ah][9d]. But the flop came [Jh][5c][8h], giving $teveyMoney a pair. The turn was the [3c] and the river the [7c], and teacuppoker's day was done, having been eliminated in 9th place.

$teveyMoney now has 604,789.

5:45pm--MoorMan1 gets some more, man, from MazeOrBowie

Sitting with 134,188 when the hand began, MoorMan raised to 19,000 from middle position and the table folded to MazeOrBowie who shoved all-in from the big blind for nearly a quarter million. MoorMan1 called with what was left with a pair of nines, and MazeOrBowie showed [Kh][Qc]. The board ran out seven-high, and MoorMan1 double up to 278,001. MazeOrBowie now has 111,752.

5:43pm--And the action slowed...

It could be a reflection of the money on the line. There could be a lack of all-in opportunities. Or players could still be digesting what they could get their hands on for a snack during the last break. Whatever the reason, there was a distinct lack of post-flop action over the past ten minutes.

5:34pm--Chip counts at first hour-break of Day 2

Level 25
Blinds 3,500/7,000, ante 875
Avg. chip count: 557,777
Players remaining: 9
First prize: $963,338

1. j.thaddeus -- 1,152,742
2. actionDJ -- 860,557
3. ragen70 -- 750,612
4. PearlJammer -- 678,424
5. Chowdahhead4 -- 612,623
6. $teveyMoney -- 494,138
7. MazeOrBowie -- 230,440
8. MoorMan1 -- 143,188
9. teacuppoker -- 97,276

5:26pm--Final table underway!

Seat 1: teacuppoker (104,776 in chips)
Seat 2: j.thaddeus (1,150,492 in chips)
Seat 3: MazeOrBowie (243,940 in chips)
Seat 4: actionDJ (842,557 in chips)
Seat 5: ragen70 (808,362 in chips)
Seat 6: PearlJammer (676,174 in chips)
Seat 7: Moorman1 (93,688 in chips)
Seat 8: Chowdahhead4 (617,123 in chips)
Seat 9: $teveyMoney (482,888 in chips)

5:24pm--BriDge2PaiN tossed over in 10th ($65,260)

With 149,702 to start the hand, BriDge2PaiN open-raised to 16,000 from the button, then ragen70 reraised to 43,000 from the small blind. Chowdahhead4 got out of the way, then BriDge2PaiN reraised all-in, and ragen70 made the call.

ragen70 showed [Ac][9c] and BriDge2PaiN [Ad][Kh]. The flop was fine for BriDge2PaiN: [Tc][7d][8s]. But the turn was a nine, and so was the river, and BriDge2PaiN was out in 10th.

Watch and feel BriDge2PaiN's pain:

5:19pm--Hand-for-Hand

Now down to ten players, the tournament is being played hand-for-hand until the next elimination. j.thaddeus continues to maintain the chip lead with more than 1.15 million. teacuppoker and MoorMan1 are the current short stacks with less than 100,000.

5:10pm--Downfall of a chipleader; xxjondxx exits in 11th place ($65,260)

In a serious turn of events for xxjondxx, some early confrontations left xxjondxx with a more than 400K and room to move, but he got involved with j.thaddeus on a hand he couldn't release. The two went to see a [9s] [6c] [8d] flop, at which point xxjondxx bet out 26,000, j.thaddeus raised to 68,999, and xxjondxx pushed all-in. j.thaddeus called and showed pocket nines, and xxjondxx turned over [8h] [7d]. The [Kh] hit on the turn to change nothing, and though the [8c] on the river looked good for xxjondxx, a second look noted that it made a full house for j.thaddeus.

With that, j.thaddeus took a trip to the top of the leaderboard, while xxjondxx took a walk away from the tournament in 11th place.

5:08pm--Tecknowledgy TKOed in 12th place ($65,260)

Tecknowledgy had 199,667 chips and decided to raise to 16,475 from middle position. actionDJ promptly repopped it to 43,454 right behind, and when it folded back Tecknowledgy shoved and actionDJ called.

Tecknowledgy showed [5c][5d] and actionDJ [Ac][Th]. The flop was [7c][Qd][Qc]. "7" typed actionDJ, hoping to turn Tecknowledgy's fives into mush. The [Ad] on the turn did the trick, anyway. The river was the [Js], and Tecknowledgy was sent to the rail in 12th place.

actionDJ is now up to 857,362, second behind j.thaddeus.

5:06pm--pokerjamers jams no more - out in 13th place ($55,220)

Another quick one. pokerjamers was down to 58,838 and pushed it all-in preflop with [Ad] [7s]. MazeOrBowie woke up with [As] [Ks] and reraised all-in to isolate, which worked. The two watched the virtual dealer give them [8s] [Kh] [7c] [Td] [4s] to end the hand and leave pokerjamers out of the tournament in 13th place with a $55,220 reward.

5:04pm--Magisterium muted in 14th place ($55,220)

It was inevitable that Magisterium would move all-in eventually, and it finally happened with a solid [As] [Kd], but j.thaddeus was the caller with pocket jacks, and the board ran out [2c] [Qh] [4h] [Js] [7h]. The turned set eliminated Magisterium in 14th place with a solid payday of $55,220.

5:03pm--ragen70 all the rage

A little over a half-hour into play here in Day 2. We're now in Level 24 (blinds 3,000/6,000, antes 750), and ragen70 sits atop the leaderboard with 738,209. Chowdahhead4 is in second with 711,261.

4:59pm--Hold on

Just saw another big all-in confrontation involving $teveyMoney, this time with MoorMan1. A series of raises preflop meant $teveyMoney was all in with [9c][9h] against MoorMan1's [Ad][Qd]. The flop brought a queen, but a nine, too -- [Qs][8d][9d] -- and the [2c] turn and [6c] river meant $teveyMoney had bounced way up to 535,151.

"whatttaa hold baby!!!!!!!" said $teveyMoney afterwards. A decidedly less pleased MoorMan1 is now down to 79,813.

4:57pm--Trouble for teacuppoker

teacuppoker has been quite active in the early going, but it hasn't been working out thus far. After starting the day with nearly a quarter million in chips, a recent hand with actionDJ knocked teacuppoker down to just 102,138 chips -- 14th of 14 at the moment.

4:55pm--ragen70 doubles through j.thaddeus

No one is being kicked to the rail yet.

Moments after the pokerjamers double-up, ragen70 and his relative short stack got involved with j.thaddeus preflop. ragen70 was all-in with [Qh] [Jc] against the [Tc] [2c] of j.thaddeus. The board brought a queen on the [3c] [Qc] [6s] flop, and a [5d] and [2d] sealed the double-up deal for ragen70.

Only a few hands later, ragen70 doubled through pokerjamers to propel himself to the very top of the leaderboard and relegate pokerjamers to the opposite end.

4:53pm--pokerjamers jams a double-up through xxjondxx

Down to less than 200,000 in chips, pokerjamers was ready to move. A preflop raising battle prompted an all-in move from pokerjamers with pocket kings, and xxjondxx called with [Ac] [Ks]. The board brought no ace - [5c] [9h] [5s] [6d] [4s] - and pokerjamers doubled to stay alive and well.

xxjondxx was relegated to fifth place on the leaderboard, only one spot above pokerjamers.

4:44pm--Tens terrific for Tecknowledgy

In the next few hands following that early tussle with $teveyMoney, another quarter or so Tecknowledgy 's stack had dribbled away down to 123,956. Then came a hand in which Moorman1 raised to 13,000 from middle position, Tecknowledgy shoved all-in from the big blind, and MoorMan1 called.

Tecknowledgy showed [Tc][Td] and Moorman [Ah][Th]. Tecknowledgy could've liked the flop much: [8c][2h][9h], but the [Qc] on the turn and [6s] on the river meant Tecknowledgy's tens had held.

Tecknowledgy moves back up to 253,537, while MoorMan1 slips to 354,671.

4:40pm--What they're playing for

Just a little reminder of the cashola at stake here today:

1st place: $963,338
2nd place: $715,350
3rd place: $527,100
4th place: $401,600
5th place: $281,120
6th place: $213,350
7th place: $163,150
8th place: $112,950
9th place: $83,332
10th-12th places: $65,260
13th-14th places: $55,220

Quite significant are the differences between busting in 14th place versus winning the event.

4:35pm--Early action

On just the sixth hand of play over on Table 34, we've already had some action. Tecknowledgy opened to 12,475 from early position, and it folded around to $teveyMoney who shoved all in for 92,219. Tecknowledgy thought a bit, then made the call, showing [Jc][Tc]. $teveyMoney turned over [Qh][Ts].

The board came [9h][Kd][2h][Ac][7d], and $teveyMoney doubled up to 193,813. Meanwhile, Tecknowledgy slipped to 167,056.

4:35pm--j.thaddeus immediately takes lead from xxjondxx

On the third hand of the day at Table 6, xxjondxx and j.thaddeus began a preflop raising war that ended with xxjondxx folding and j.thaddeus taking the lead. It didn't take long for the aggressive players to get into gear.

4:30pm--It's on!

The second and final day of action in the high stakes main event has begun in Level 23 with blinds at 2,500/5,000 and a 625 ante. With an average stack of 358,571, there are several short stacks who will be looking to make moves and others with nearly twice that average who will need to hang on to those chips. We anticipate action early...

Day 2 coverage to begin at 4:30pm ET

Join us here at 4:30pm ET for Day 2 coverage of the 2009 SCOOP $10,300 Main Event. The 14 remaining players and their chip counts are as follows:

1. xxjondxx (663,843)
2. PearlJammer (639,019)
3. j.thaddeus (624,273)
4. Chowdahhead4 (616,156)
5. actionDJ (561,682)
6. Moorman1 (481,702)
7. Tecknowledgy (270,525)
8. teacuppoker (241,291)
9. pokerjamers (211,112)
10. ragen70 (173,464)
11. Magisterium (163,154)
12. BriDge2PaiN (157,339)
13. MazeOrBowie (115,471)
14. $teveyMoney (100,969)

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was a bit different. Instead of one main event, it offered three. As all of the events in this unique series presented three options to players - buy-ins at a high, medium, and low level - so did the main event. There were three opportunities for players with various bankroll situations to compete in their own big one, the lowest being a $109 buy-in, the medium level requiring $1,050, and the high stakes event with a $10,300 price tag. This was the latter.

Tournament organizers wisely made the main event a two-day affair, cutting off the tournament after 22 levels, which roughly translated into 12 hours of play. With the players in mind, those who would be competing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, there would be a break in the action before Day 2.

But our concern here is Day 1. It was certainly an exciting one. The $10K buy-in brought high stakes players and satellite winners alike to the felt, and the final number showed there were 502 of them altogether. That pushed just past the $5 million guarantee to create a prize pool of $5,020,000 and set the first place prize at an astounding $963,338.00. For those of you who aren't into the math portion of this recap, it's nearly a million dollars!

The tough part would be making it into the money. Only 54 spots paid, so the majority of the field would play for hours today without anything but online poker memories and a few hand histories to show for it. But that was what made it so exciting...trying to get into those 54 places, but more importantly, all the way to the final table that would be watched by online poker fans from around the world.

There were numerous Team PokerStars Pros in on the action, including Peter Eastgate, Vanessa Rousso, Hevad Khan, Alex Gomes, Noah Boeken, Leo Fernandez, Dario Minieri, Chad Brown, Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, JC Alvarado, William Thorson, Bertrand Grospellier, Barry Greenstein, John Duthie, Andre Akkari, Humberto Brenes, Ivan Demidov, and Victor Ramdin. Unfortunately, none of them made it to the money, and Dennis Phillips was the last one to be eliminated in 102nd place...still a bit from that cash zone.

When the money bubble burst, courtesy of bubble player D0ntAstic who left the tournament in 55th place, that made way for Daniel "steamraise" Alaei to make it to 54th place, where he exited with $25,100 for the effort. Still remaining in the field at that point were a number of high-profile, well-respected players, including two Team PokerStars members.

Steve Paul-Ambrose finally found his way out in 40th place, which was worth $27,610 in prize money. Ylon Schwartz was not far behind, as he took a tumble in 36th place for a $30,120 payout. Schwartz's departure was documented here:

With that, the field diminished more quickly than some anticipated. As Level 21 came to a close, there were only three tables remaining with 20 players among them. And for quite some time, there were two players fighting card for card to take the chip lead. PearlJammer and j.thaddeus sat atop the leaderboard and kept their lead substantial enough that no other player was able to crack into the top two for the remainder of the evening.

As the night/morning began to wind down, THAY3R accepted a 21st place finish, Taknapotin left in 20th, FA_Morgath in 19th, MezmerizePLZ in 18th, hafizzle in 17th, N00000ooooo in 16th, and Vandiesel in 15th, the last of which happened at the hands of the fastest mover of the last level, xxjondxx. The elimination of Vandiesel happened like this:

As numerous players doubled up in the last level - MazeOrBowie, pokerjamers, teacuppoker, Moorman1, and ragen70, one competitor had his sights set only on the top of the leaderboard. Though PearlJammer and j.thaddeus held tight in the top two spots for quite some time, and Chowdahhead4 came to hold a solid third place position, it was xxjondxx who consistently chipped up and took the lead.

And that's where it stood when the overnight break kicked in. xxjondxx sat in first place, trailed closely by PearlJammer and j.thaddeus, Chowdahhead4, and actionDJ.

All of the chip counts for Day 2's returning players are below, and they will begin play in Level 23 with blinds at 2,500/5,000 and a 625 ante. The average player's stack is 358,571, but it is no-limit hold'em, and anything can happen. The final 14 competitors will return on Monday, April 13, at 16:30pm ET to play for the win.

SCOOP Event 22-High Survivors (Day 1):

1. xxjondxx (663,843)
2. PearlJammer (639,019)
3. j.thaddeus (624,273)
4. Chowdahhead4 (616,156)
5. actionDJ (561,682)
6. Moorman1 (481,702)
7. Tecknowledgy (270,525)
8. teacuppoker (241,291)
9. pokerjamers (211,112)
10. ragen70 (173,464)
11. Magisterium (163,154)
12. BriDge2PaiN (157,339)
13. MazeOrBowie (115,471)
14. $teveyMoney (100,969)

Tune in to the PokerStars blog for the live updates portion of this event as the SCOOP champion is determined. In the meantime, visit the SCOOP page for general information, the leaderboard page to track your favorite players (or yourself), or the PokerStars.tv site for all of the event highlights.

The $1,000,000 guarantee for the $109 "low" version of the Main Event was never in danger of not being met. By the time late registration concluded, 18,747 players signed up. That meant a prize pool of $1,874,700 and a first prize of $187,470.01. For just $109 and two days of perfect poker, someone was going to earn more than most people earn in a year. To be in the Top 10 counts at the end of Day 1 required a player to amass almost 8 million chips. "Every turn card is a sweat," remarked one railbird.

It was definitely going to take perfect poker to get to the final table. 18,747 players meant that there were 2,083 tables to start play. The odds against any single, random player making the final table were 2,082-to-1. Too much can go wrong somewhere between 18,747 and 9, even when you play perfectly. If you don't play perfectly, you can forget any final table dreams.

The Team PokerStars Pros turned out in force for this event, and they could write a book about what went wrong between 18,747 and 9. 23 of them -- more than two-thirds of the Team -- tried their hand at the low-stakes version of the Main Event. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier won the Team last-shorter bet as the first Pro eliminated when he went out in 17,180th place. In truth, it was a rough day for the whole Team. Only Victor Ramdin, Marcin Horecki and JC Alvarado saw any return on their investment. Alvarado made the deepest run, finishing in 676th place for prize money of $487.43.

KidNyam119 was the chip leader in the latter stages of the day and got there by making some pretty sick calls and ducking some pretty big draws. Sometimes in the same hand. For example, there was this hand in which KidNyam119 eliminated Jannik007111:

Sdouble also made a late push up the leaderboard. We can't tell you how many times we saw Sdouble raise or re-raise a pot. It was as if Sdouble was the self-appointed terror of the table. His image was so crazy that we watched one player call all in against Sdouble, on a flop of [6c] [8c] [Ad]. Sdouble opened the pot for about 250,000, was raised by vvap to 640,000, three-bet all-in and was called for another 1 million. vvap showed down [8s] [jd], a hand absolutely crushed by Sdouble's [Ac] [Qc]. A third club on the turn, the [9c], gave Sdouble the lock and pushed his chip count to more than 5 million.

Sometimes, with all the action, it was easy to miss certain things. We'd like to tell you how TitanTilts zoomed to 9.6 million in chips when the next closest player was at 6.5 million. Honestly, we don't know. That's the way it goes in no-limit hold'em. Hit a small rush, make the most of it, and go from middle of the pack to top dog.

dhutt24 soon joined TitanTilts at the 9.0 million mark, thanks in no small part to the reversed fortunes of KidNyam119. dhutt24 check-raised from 890,000 to 1,780,000 on a board of [5] [jh] [2s] [ac] after floating a flop bet from KidNyam119 of 375,000. KidNyam119 surrendered to the turn check-raise. Later on, dhutt24 took down a pot worth more than 7 million chips against JimJiminy. The action was raised preflop by dhutt24, then re-raised by JimJiminy to 411,950. JimJiminy bet 1.0 million on a flop of [Ac] [4h] [kd], then check-called 2.0 million when the turn fell [7h]. Both players checked the [Qd] river, with dhutt24's [kc] [7d] two pair, kings and sevens, besting JimJiminy's single pair of kings, [kh] [3h]. That pot allowed dhutt24 to become the first player to eclipse the 12 million chip mark.

Other players were accumulating chips as well. Sdouble continued a relentless assault on his table to chip up to 8.3 million while Allanon85 quietly amassed a stack that was almost as impressive. Of course, they all suffered their share of setbacks along the way to the end of the day. Allanon85 suffered the biggest setback after opening a pot to 380,000 and being re-raised by Benny Binion to 1.4 million. Allanon85's response to shove all in for just more than 7 million, probably hoping to take down the pot. Instead Benny Binion snapp-called all in for 5.5 million total and showed down [kh] [ks]. Those kings held up against Allanon85's [ad] [qs] and gave Benny Binion the chip lead with 11.7 million chips. Allanon85 would eventually be eliminated in 41st place. Sdouble found himself in a tailspin as well and followed Allanon85 out of the tournament in 38th place.

dhutt24 righted his own ship with a hand that wasn't exactly the prettiest:

dhutt24 used the chips from that pot to re-establish dominion over the table. The big hand of the night came against TitanTilts, a player who had shown a repeated propensity to raise all in. The two players took a raised flop of [2d] [8h] [5d]. dhutt24 led out for about 875,000 before TitanTilts moved all in for 6.3 million. dhutt24 made the call with chips to spare, turning over [6d] [3d] for an inside straight flush draw. TitanTilts showed down [Ah] [jh], barely the best hand. The turn [3s] gave dhutt24 a pair of threes and the lead; the river [4c] made a straight for both players, but dhutt24's was best.

That hand created a massive pot worth over 14 million chips and gave dhutt24 a commanding chip lead. At the end of the day he was the overnight chip lead with 21.4 million chips. That's triple the average stack of 7.2 million chips. and 7 million chips more than JannotLapin, the second-place player. Although a lot can still happen between now and the crowning of a champion later today, we'd say dhutt24 has a leg up on the field of 26 remaining players.

End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts:

1. dhutt24 (21,485,086 in chips)
2. JannotLapin (14,301,227 in chips)
3. xxRogexx (13,676,255 in chips)
4. Benny Binion (11,696,241 in chips)
5. Naxer (11,080,806 in chips)
6. 75champ75 (10,747,618 in chips)
7. Tiktok23 (10,346,942 in chips)
8. mosche (9,028,382 in chips)
9. AlGohr (8,624,415 in chips)
10.ByggmesterBe (7,962,404 in chips)

Play will resume at 16:30 ET on Monday with blinds at 150,000 and 300,000 and an ante of 37,500. Until then, follow along with all the SCOOP action on the
SCOOP page. You can track the results of the top performers on the leaderboard page. PokerStars.tv has also been hard at work putting together their usual fantastic video coverage of the SCOOP series.

The medium tier tournament, sporting a $1,050 buy-in and a fat $3 million guaranteed prize pool, drew a whopping 3,198 players for the first of two days of action at the virtual felt. The math on that one is easy enough - the guarantee was broken by $198,000. When the tournament began all the players had their eyes on the $502,086 first prize. But as Christopher Lambert once said on the silver screen, there can be only one.

The task at hand for the day was to play 33 levels and whittle the field down to the final group that would return for a second day of poker. With the levels lasting 20 minutes each, any aspiring champ would have to settle in for 11 hours just to have a shot at the top prize. Befitting a Main Event, the 10,000-chip starting stack was deep enough to allow players room to maneuver as they sought a path to the final table.

With so many players in the field and such a large first prize it's no surprise that Team PokerStars Pro came out in force. But as is the case with any group of players, most of them would fall short of making the money. Among the PS players who played in this event but didn't cash were Peter Eastgate, Ivan Demidov, Isabelle Mercier, Johnny Lodden, Vanessa Rousso, Victor Ramdin, Bertrand Grospellier, Noah Boeken, Dennis Phillips, Hevad Khan, Chad Brown, Gavin Griffin, William Thorson, Alexandre Gomes, and Maridu Mayrinck.

If that list seems like it's light a few names, that's because there were plenty of their teammates who finished in the money. Former PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champ Steve Paul-Ambrose came in at 463rd. He was followed closely by Marcin Horecki in 442nd, and Leo Fernandez got even closer to the top in 195th. Impressive as those cashes were in such a large field, there were still a small handful of PS pros who outdid them - including two former world champions.

By 1:30 a.m. ET the blinds had reached 3K/6K with a 750 ante and only 105 players remained from the original starting field. At that point BruceWizayne became the first player to surpass the 1,000,000 chip mark when his [8s][8c] held up against [Kc][Qc] to send the all-in jahwise home in 104th place.

Not too far behind BruceWizayne in the chip counts was Team PokerStars Pro's own J.C. Alvarado. The PS pro had been hovering around the top of the leaderboard for some time, but within two orbits at the 4K/8K/1K level the two-time WPT final tablist grabbed pots worth 318K and 289K - the latter courtesy of picking up [Ac][Ad] against NoraFlum's [Ks][Qs] - to jump back into second place. A few small pots later he would cross the 1 million mark himself and take the chip lead, staying in the top 10 for most of the rest of the night and keeping himself within striking distance whenever he did slip further back.

Now the chip lead began to change hands more frequently. At the end of the 4K/8K/1K level Rapid_Slap took control with this pot:

But as anyone who's been around the game for a while knows, tournament poker can cruelly take away what is has only recently given. Only a few hands later Rapid_Slap would be denied the opportunity to pull away from the field significantly by hasuace:

And then hasuace would claim the chip lead for the first - but not last - time of the night. Again, his advance came at the expense of Rapid_Slap, who would eventually bow out in 50th place for $6,076.20:

With the field shrinking further by the minute, Chris Moneymaker and Andre Akkari were both appeared to be card dead and were holding on to their stacks thanks to small pots and timely steals. While aggression can pay off on the short stack, timing is the key; it's all about dodging real hands and managing to catch big when you do run into a legitimate hand. Akkari would manage to stay afloat for a long while, but on the 6K/12K/1.5K level Mr. Moneymaker would finally reach the end of his run, finishing in 68th place ($5,436.60) after this pot:

While the man whose win built online poker was on his way out of the tournament, his fellow former WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer was still going strong. Always aggressive at the table, Raymer's game had nearly everyone at his table taking shots at playing back at him. True to form, FossilMan never feared getting his chips in the middle in an effort to build the kind of stack that can win a tournament. More often than not he held the best hand in his confrontations against all-in opponents, such as when his [Jc][Js] topped Cain Foster's [Tc][Th] or his [9s][9c] beat Unst0pab13's [3c][3d].

But all good things must come to an end. As it turns out, Raymer's good thing would end at the hands of a PS teammate. When the blinds and antes went up to 7K/14K/1.75K, J.C. Alvarado would be moved to FossilMan's table. Raymer's stack was on a downswing and he was looking for a chance to double himself right back up the leaderboard. Unfortunately he picked the wrong spot to make a move against Alvarado, sending him to the rail in 48th place ($6,076.20):

Alvarado used that pot to float back up toward the top of the leaderboard where a number of players, including Crisper, BruceWizayne, and weeminer, took turns exchanging the chip lead. It would be weeminer who first crossed the 2,000,000 chip mark just before 4 a.m. ET when his pair of jacks held up against hasuace's [Qh][9h]. At just about that time, Andre Akkari's run would end in 39th place ($6,555.90) when his [Ks][Qs] couldn't beat fan4mizzou's [Ad][Kc].

After one final five-minute break the remaining players came back for three more levels of play. J.C. Alvarado was starting to slip and the 10K/20K blinds with 2.5K antes were providing plenty of incentive to find a spot to double up. A coin flip with [9h][9d] against HedgeMe's [Ad][Kd] proved to be crucial. If he'd lost it, Alvarado would have been left with under 200K and probably found himself on the outs soon afterward; instead, the board ran out [3d] [6s] [Jd] [Js] [2s] and the PS pro was back in the hunt.

Despite his earlier slip against weeminer, hasuace would become the pacesetter with two huge pots in a 10-minute span. First, with blinds at 12.5K/25K and antes of 3,125, heffalump75 opened for 62.5K in early position before the flop and called for 670K total when hasuace shoved behind him; hasuace's [5h] [5d] held against heffalump75's [As] [Kd] for a 1.5M pot that made him the first player to break 3 million. Then he took this pot to cruise past the 4 million mark, extending his chip lead even further:

It looked as if the leaderboard might hold steady for the rest of the level, but just as play was coming to a close for the night Ericb09 would take down three pots worth over 1,000,000 each in the span of four hands - [Ac][Kh] vs. JOPKE JOPKE's [Jc][Jh], [Ad][Kc] vs. TheCronic420's [9d][9s], [Kd][Ks] vs. Hauen's [Tc][Th] - to finish the night in second position.

So after 11.5 hours of poker, just 19 players remained on three tables. They'll be back in action today at 4:30 p.m. ET, and we'll be here providing live updates for you. So be sure to join us to find out who will become the first ever medium-stakes Main Event SCOOP champion.

Table 52
Ericb09 - 2833241 in chips
phinomenon - 1466291 in chips
pino1234 - 370399 in chips
Rayons X - 1186339 in chips
Teejmesiter1 - 2323945 in chips
weeminer - 2212749 in chips

Table 241
ErikXP - 1106603 in chips
fan4mizzou - 1303843 in chips
Ggod - 974584 in chips
hasuace - 4737047 in chips
Rae_Kwon_JHK - 2111188 in chips
smeggi - 2392776 in chips

Table 417
Crisper - 1188269 in chips
JC Alvarado - 1501169 in chips
jcamby33 - 2531250 in chips
jomamusfat - 1209530 in chips
P0KERDUUDE - 828717 in chips
tcblade - 825648 in chips
TheL0bster - 876412 in chips

Team PokerStars Pro was out en masse for this event with appearances from Chris Moneymaker, Victor Ramdin, William Thorson, J.C. Alvarado, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Peter Eastgate, Johnny Lodden, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Alex Kravchenko, Gavin Griffin, Hevad Khan, Marcin Horecki, and Noah Boeken. J.C. Alvarado won the Team Pro last-longer, cashing in 209th place.

By the time we were down to four players, each of them was guaranteed to walk away with $21,312--quite a nice return on their $270 investment. These were the matchups:

Jakivi vs. BobbyFi
THAY3R vs. blakeb0921

Midway through the second level, Jakivi turned a king-high straight draw and had his river check-raise paid off by BobbyFi to jump out to a 3-1 chip lead. Meanwhile, one table over, THAY3R had been hard at work chopping out small pots to give him a slight lead over blakeb0921, but was crippled after calling blakeb0921's three-bet shove on the [6d][5c][3h] flop holding pocket fours. Blakeb0921 had [7d][6c] for top pair, THAY3R's outs missing on the [Qc] turn and the [5d] river. Left with only 500 in chips, THAY3R got them in the middle before the flop with [9s][4s] against blakeb0921's [Js][7c], but the board ran out [8c][4d][3s][5c][6s], blakeb0921 making a jack high straight to eliminate THAY3R in fourth place. He earned $21,312 for his finish while blakeb0921 had his ticket punched to the finals.

Back on Table 2, BobbyFi had ground his way back up to his 5,000 chip starting stack before going to war with Jakivi on a [Qd][5d][5c] flop. Jakivi check-raised BobbyFi's 240 chip flop bet to 640 only to have BobbyFi come back over the top for all his chips. Jakivi called , turning up [Jd][Td] for a flush draw while BobbyFi had two pair with [Qs][Jh]. The [Ah] on the turn was a good card for BobbyFi but the [6d] on the river was a disaster. Jakivi made his flush and raked in the pot, leaving BobbyFi with only 400 in chips. They all went into the pot on the next hand, BobbyFi's [As][7h] unluckily dominated by Jakivi's [Ad][9c]. He couldn't improve on the [6s][Qd][4c][2d][Tc] board and hit the rail in third place, earning $21,312 for his valiant effort.

The final match between Jakivi and blakeb took a swift 25 minutes to complete. A few hands after cards went on the screen, the tournament was paused to they could discuss a potential deal. Jakivi proposed a $45,000 save for each of them, leaving $10,750 at stake for the winner. Blakeb0921, however had an interesting methodology when it came to making a decision.

"Let me flip a coin" he wrote in the chat box.

A few minutes later, blakeb0921 returned with the results.

"...it was tails, aka no deal" he said, and play resumed.

After a few minutes of trading chips back and forth, blakeb0921 pushed out to a nearly 3-1 chip lead after taking down several mid-sized pots when Jakavi folded to pressure on the flop. However, Jakivi stormed back, nearly evening the score on this hand:

Unfortunately for Jakivi, he wasn't able to hang onto those chips for long. Only three hands later, he was all in again, his tournament life coming down to this hand.

With that, blakeb0921 put away Jakivi, becoming PokerStars' newest SCOOP champion, and earning $65,875 along with a SCOOP Champion's Watch. We're also guessing that after it landed on tails, telling him not to make that deal, he probably has a new lucky coin too. For his runner-up finish, Jakivi collected $34,875.

Results for SCOOP Event #21-Low, $270 Heads-Up NLHE

1. blakeb0921 ($65,875)
2. Jakivi ($34,875)
3. BobbyFi ($21,312)
4. THAY3R ($21,312)

All of the matches followed the same structure, with players starting with 5,000 chips and blinds beginning at 25/50 (with 10-minute levels). In other words, unlike in some heads-up tourneys, players would not be carrying their chips from match to match, but returned to a starting stack of 5,000 each time.

Match #1 (round of 256)

Some notable first round matches included AJKHoosier1 defeating foucault82, PickyTooth taking care of BeL0WaB0Ve, Sowerss beating Nordberg, and nitbuster ousting monika13. Three Team PokerStars pros were eliminated within the first 12 minutes or so: Dr. Fells took care of Peter Eastgate in about five minutes, bliiz knocked out Dario Minieri a couple of minutes after that, and ElMastermind just a few minutes more to eliminate Steve "stevejpa" Paul-Ambrose. Daniel "steamraise" Alaei beat another PS pro, William Thorson, in a match that took about 40 minutes. And PS pro Noah "Exclusive" Boeken was also bumped in the first round, with DaPokerGun needing about 50 minutes to do the job.

Other Team PokerStars pros fared much better in Round 1, with Gavin Griffin defeating Pot Odds 3, new PS pro Johnny Lodden knocking out SNo0oWMAN, Isabelle "NoMercy" Mercier beating floes, and Ivan Demidov taking about a hour and 15 minutes to eliminate FluffDog87. Also, Vanessa "LadyMaverick" Rousso, whose heads-up prowess was firmly established by her runner-up finish in last month's NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship, was able to stage a comeback to defeat Roothlus.

Others making it through to the next round included Andy McLEOD, get crunk, lilholdem954, MrSmokey1, RaSZi, shaniac, and tsarrast. Terrence "Unassigned" Chan, fresh from his victories in not one but two SCOOP events yesterday, also made it through to Round 2. Finally, after nearly an hour-and-a-half goleafsgo41 finished off mossified84, and it was on to the second round.

Match #2 (round of 128)

The second round saw two Team PokerStars pros advance, and three fall. Winners were Gavin Griffin (who defeated rubentv) and Isabelle Mercier (who beat mr. steal). Meanwhile, Ibiza knocked out Ivan Demidov (in about 10 minutes), RunThisTable ended Vanessa Rousso's run (in 40 minutes), and RikkiTikki took about an hour to defeat Johnny Lodden.

By about five o'clock p.m. Eastern time, we were onto the third round. Others advancing included Andy McLEOD, djk123, Genius28, lilholdem954, nitbuster, steamraise, and tsarrast.

Match #3 (round of 64)

The third round represented the money bubble in this tournament, as all of the winners stood to make the cash. Both the remaining Team PokerStars pros came up short, with AndrewBoccia taking care of Isabelle Mercier, and toomuchneon beating Gavin Griffin.

In addition to those two, other advancing included 4pils&1pizza, Abnoe, allinstevie, AndrewBoccia, anenstef, any2cantu, bigdogpckt5s, chrisbond, DDBeast, deamon10, DiPollo, djk123, Dokosoko, ElMastermind, Genius28, ih8pp, iownoknp, jasjas11, MagicDeal, marzello, pokerjamers, Poly_Baller, RunThisTable, skilled_sox, snake8484, steamraise, stevieeee, TheDegeneral, tommygunz29, Tonimonntana, toomuchneon, and Vaga_Lion.

Match #4 (round of 32)

It took another hour-and-a-half or so for players to move through the fourth round. Among the matches here, RunThisTable eliminated Daniel "steamraise" Alaei. On the final hand of the match, RunThisTable had a 6,450-3,550 chip lead, and with the blinds 40/80 raised to 195 from the small blind/button, and steamraise called. The flop came [4s][7h][7d]. steamraise checked, RunThisTable bet 240, steamraise reraised to 560, and RunThisTable reraised again to 1,200. steamraise waited several seconds, then pushed all in for 3,345 and RunThisTable snap-called, showing [7s][Ad] for trips, crushing steamraise's [Ah][8h]. No miracles came to save Alaei, and RunThisTable moved on.

Joining RunThisTable in the next round were 4pils&1pizza, Abnoe, allinstevie, bigdogpckt5s, deamon10, ElMastermind, Genius28, ih8pp, MagicDeal, pokerjamers, Poly_Baller, snake8484, tommygunz29, Tonimonntana, and Vaga_Lion.

Match #5 (round of 16)

Poly_Baller was the first one through to the quarterfinals, quickly dispatching of ElMastermind. bigdogpckt5s took care of tommygun, then MagicDeal knocked out allinstevie.

4pils&1pizza next eliminated Genius28. In the final hand of their match, 4pils&1pizza had a slight edge, with 5,795 to Genius28's 4,205. With the blinds 40/80 and antes 10, Genius28 minimum-raised to 160 from the button, 4pils&1pizza repopped it to 560 from the big blind, and Genius28 called. The flop came [5h][9s][4h]. 4pils&1pizza checked, Genius28 bet 700, 4pils&1pizza check-raised all in for 5,225, and Genius28 made the call. Genius28 showed [Ah][Th] for two overs and the nut flush draw, while 4pils&1pizza turned over [Ts][4d] for a pair of fours. The turn was the [6c] and the river the [3c], and 4pils&1pizza was into the quarterfinals.

ih8pp next defeated pokerjamers, then Vaga_Lion eliminated snake8484. Abnoe had an edge on deamon10 when they got it all in the middle, with Abnoe holding [Td][Tc] and deamon10 [Ac][Ks]. The board came [2d][7d][8d][Th][Kd], meaning Abnoe ended with a flush and a spot in the quarterfinals. RunThisTable was the last one through, defeating Tonimonntana. After about six hours of play total, only eight of the original 256 remained.

Match #6 (Quarterfinals)

4pils&1pizza took care of Vaga_Lion in short order, advancing in just 14 hands. Abnoe knocked out Poly_Baller and ih8pp eliminated bigdogpckt5s not too long after that, and with less than ten minutes having elapsed it appeared we may have our quickest round of the tournament.

However, the hard-fought match between RunThisTable and MagicDeal would take a little while, extending about 45 minutes altogether (with a break in between). On the final hand, RunThisTable had 6,715 to MagicDeal's 3,285. MagicDeal minimum-raised to 200, RunThisTable shoved all in, and MagicDeal called. MagicDeal turned over [Ac][Kh] and RunThisTable [2h][2c]. The community cards fell [Td][7d][8s][3c][Ts], and RunThisTable had made the final four.

Match #7 (Semifinals)

The final four pitted Abnoe against 4pils&1pizza in one bracket, and ih8pp and RunThisTable in the other. (Started about 9:22)

Abnoe and 4pils&1pizza traded the lead back and forth for the first 15 minutes of their match. They were nearly even when 4pils&1pizza minimum raised to 160 from the small blind/button, Abnoe reraised to 505, and 4pils&1pizza called. The flop came [7d][6h][5d], and both players checked. The turn was the [Tc]. Abnoe bet 606, 4pils&1pizza raised to 1,520, and Abnoe called. The river brought the [Qd], completing a possible flush. Abnoe bet 2,700, and 4pils&1pizza called with the 2,654 remaining. Abnoe showed [Jc][Ad] -- a bluff -- and 4pils&1pizza showed [Qh][Kc] for the rivered pair of queens.

That hand left Abnoe with just 622 chips, and Abnoe would shove all in three hands later with pocket sevens to Abnoe's [As][2d]. The flop brought an ace -- [Ac][2h][Js] -- and the [9d] and [4h] on the river sealed it. Abnoe was out, and 4pils&1pizza awaited the winner of the other semifinal match.

In that one, RunThisTable jumped out to an early lead over ih8pp, and kept the advantage for most of the half-hour the pair battled. ih8pp had chipped back a bit and had 3,785 to RunThisTable's 6,215 when the following hand took place.

With the blinds 50/100, RunThisTable raised to 240 and ih8pp called. The flop came single-suited: [6s][As][Js]. ih8pp checked, RunThisTable bet 300, and ih8pp called. The turn was the [4d]. ih8pp again checked, RunThisTable this time bet 700, and ih8pp again called. The river was the [9c]. ih8pp suddenly pushed all in for 2,535, and RunThisTable went into the tank for several seconds before making the call. ih8pp showed [9s][6d] for two pair, but RunThisTable had the better two pair with [Jd][Ac]. ih8pp was out, and RunThisTable was in the finals.

Match #8 (Finals)

Before the first hand was deal, the finalists had a quick conversation:

4pils&1pizza: hi there, want to split?
RunThisTable: it depends
4pils&1pizza: 50-50
RunThisTable: i don't want to even split it
RunThisTable: i like to gamble, let's play! gl
4pils&1pizza: u2

The match was on.

On the 25th hand of the match, 4pils&pizza took a 4,650-chip pot without a showdown to pull out to an early advantage. A dozen hands later, 4pils&pizza raised from the small blind/button 3x to 180 and RunThisTable called. The flop came [4h][Qc][Tc] and both checked. The turn was the [5c]. RunThisTable bet 300, and 4pils&pizza called. The river brought the [2d]. RunThisTable bet 690 this time, and 4pils&pizza made the call. RunThisTable showed [Jd][9h] for the busted draw, and 4pils&pizza turned over [Js][Jc] to claim the pot of 2,340.

A few hands later came a five-minute break, at which point 4pils&pizza had 7,535 to RunThisTable's 2,465. Wasn't looking too good for RunThisTable.

After the break, however, came a big hand in which RunThisTable was able to stifle 4pils&pizza's momentum. RunThisTable raised to 180, 4pils&pizza called, and the flop came [Qs][7d][8c]. 4pils&pizza checked, RunThisTable bet 240, 4pils&pizza check-raised to 660, and RunThisTable called. The turn was the [Qd]. This time 4pils&pizza bet 600, RunThisTable pushed all in for 1,565, and 4pils&pizza called. 4pils&pizza showed [9d][Qc] for trip queens, but RunThisTable had [8h][8d] for eights full of queens. The river was the [5s], and RunThisTable had suddenly pulled back to nearly even.

Six hands later, RunThisTable raised to 215 from the small blind/button and 4pils&pizza called. The flop came [Tc][Ts][4c], and a raising war ensued resulting in all of RunThisTable's chips being put in the middle, and all but 1,210 of 4pils&pizza's. 4pils&pizza showed [4h][4d] for the flopped full house, while RunThisTable showed [Th][3d] for trip tens. 4pils&pizza just needed for the hand to hold to win, but the turn -- [3c] -- ruined that plan, giving RunThisTable the better boat. The river was the [9s], and now RunThisTable had a major chip advantage.

It would take about a dozen more hands, and the end came on Hand #66 of the match. RunThisTable raised to 160, and 4pils&pizza called from the big blind. The flop came [7c][7s][8d]. 4pils&pizza checked, RunThisTable bet 160, 4pils&pizza raised to 560, RunThisTable reraised all in, and 4pils&pizza called with what was remaining behind.

4pils&pizza showed [6s][5d] for an open-ender, while RunThisTable had [5s][7h] for trip sevens. The turn was the [2d] and the river the [Tc], and RunThisTable had run the table!

Here's how the payouts went:

SCOOP Event #21 $2,600 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em

1. RunThisTable ($172,800)
2. 4pils&1pizza ($96,000)
3-4. ih8pp, Abnoe ($51,200)
5-8. MagicDeal, Poly_Baller, bigdogpckt5s, Vaga_Lion ($22,400)
9-16. Tonimonntana, deamon10, snake8484. pokerjamers, allinstevie, tommygunz29, Genius28, ElMastermind ($9,600)
17-32. TheDegeneral, Dokosoko, anenstef, jasjas11, steamraise, iownoknp, marzello, any2cantu, toomuchneon, djk123, AndrewBoccia, chrisbond, skilled_sox, DDBeast, DiPollo ($6,400)