SCOOP 2019: All the news from Day 10

Just like that, the end is now in sight in the 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). This time next week, it’ll all be done. But let’s focus on the now, huh? Here’s today’s latest round-up:

TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Prize-pools total passes $50 million
• More than 600,000 entries through 129 tournaments
• Online poker’s enigmatic superstar “bencb789” wins title
• Leader board leader “krakukra” speaks!
• Three EPT champions head 8-Game
• Sick end to a great day for Spraggy

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Tournament legend “bencb789” won SCOOP 69-H, denying “merla888” a second SCOOP title of the year and also keeping young upstart Ben “Spraggy” Spragg at arm’s length in 10th. No one in online poker retains the respect of “bencb789” — he was the leader of the crews that produced players such as Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, among others. Though his identity and full extent of his results remains concealed, he is one of the best players in the world. And now he has another SCOOP title.

“NorBaggio” of Hungary won the 12,136-runner SCOOP 69-L, taking $118,933. At the same time, he was down to the last five tables in the 1,542-runner SCOOP 38-M 4-Max. He finished 15th in that one, representing two deep runs in massive-field events. It was Hungary’s first title in this year’s SCOOP.

Former Sunday Million champion “hello_totti” won six figures in the 4-Max High event, holding off the challenges of a heap of well-known stars. “SinKarma” was second, Timofey “Truteller” Kuznetsov was fourth, former Team Online Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara was fifth and recent world No 1 “RomeOpro” was seventh.

MORE ABOUT SCOOP 2019
OFFICIAL SITE & SCHEDULE | RESULTS | LEADER BOARD

†inc. bounties
*after deal

STAT TRACKER

Tournaments completed: 117
Tournaments ongoing: 12
Entries so far: 604,506
Prize pool so far: $50,950,758
First-place prizes awarded: $7,116,635.53

READ! READ! READ!

Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak: Leader board leader

This is a big SCOOP scoop: we’ve been chatting to Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, who is currently leading the overall Player of the Series leader board by quite some distance. Maslak has one title in this year’s series, but has amassed 755 leader board points thanks to cashes at all levels. That’s a 125-point lead over Joao “Naza114” Vieira. Maslak peels back the mask in this excellent interview, with help from Andrey Maksin and Olga Sitak at the Russian PokerStars Blog.

LEADER BOARD UPDATE

Speaking of the leader board, let’s take a look at the current standings. “krakukra” really has a sizeable lead at the moment, but “Naza114” has already won two SCOOP titles, “shaundeeb” is never far from the top five in any event, and there’s heaps of quality rounding out the top 10.

There’s a $25,000 prize for the winner of the leader board so none of these guys will be giving up.

TWITCH WATCH

It was a great day for Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg yesterday as he went all the way to the final table bubble in the $1,050 buy-in SCOOP #69-H. Watched by a peak of 8,770 rail-birds, his four-hour stream, and his dreams, ended in dramatic and hugely disappointing fashion. The silence speaks volumes.

ONGOING TOURNAMENTS

SCOOP 39 — Limit Hold’em
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
If it’s limit, it means Terrence “Unassigned” Chan. And sure enough, the best online limit tournament player in the world currently sits in second place in the $2,100 buy-in event, behind another online superstar “Cobus83”. Max “goodeh99” Silver is alive, as well as Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi and Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb.

SCOOP 40 — NLHE Super Tuesday
Buy-ins: $22, $215, $2,100
There’s a seven-figure prize pool in the $2,100 buy-in version of this one, and 36 players still hunting the $210,770 first prize. Three of the top four places are occupied by Brits, with “Bonglim” leading the charge.

An extraordinary top 10

SCOOP 41 — 8-Game
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Truly one for the experienced purists, this test of all-round poker skills have brought the cream rising to the top. It’s incredibly rare you see a top 10 in a PokerStars tournament with so few punctuation marks and/or combinations of numbers. These guys set up their accounts ages ago and are still prospering. The top three are Robin “robinho” Ylitalo, Noah “Exclusive” Boeken and Dzmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich, all of whom have won an EPT Main Event.

SCOOP 42 — Six-Max Shootout
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
The first rounds of matches are over in the first shootout event of this series, taking all three buy-in levels into the money. In the low and high events, there are still two rounds to go, whereas the medium event is at its final. Among those still involved in the high buy-in event are: Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion, Steffen “Go0se.core!” Sontheimer, Phill “Grindation” McAllister, Jordan “JWPRODIGY” Westmorland, Andrey “ThePateychuk” Pateychuk, Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, Andras “probirs” Nemeth, Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi and Joseph “subiime” Cheong.

STARTING TODAY

SCOOP 44 — HORSE
Buy-ins: $11, $109, 1,050
Time to get back on the HORSE. Fortunately, even for new riders, we have a primer of the rules and PokerStars School can help you out with some strategy tips.

SCOOP 45 — NLHE
Buy-ins: $55, $530, $5,200

SCOOP 46 — PL Omaha Rebuys
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
If you’re worried that poker is getting too technical, just watch the rebuy period of this one.

SCOOP 47 — NLHE Progressive KO
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Progressive, but not in a “rock” sense.

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