Millions of dollars were available in online competitions in the Pokerstars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) series this week, with the $10,300 buy-in Main Event taken down by young Russian ace Ivan “vandir4rek” Soshnikov, who took home $1,048,000.
657 online players, including many top international professionals, registered for the event which over two days played down to a final table that saw Soshnikov facing Britain’s Peter “Se7enTr3y” Akery; Better C4ll; Martin “M.nosbocaJ” Jacobson; Phil “Grindation” McAllister; Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky; “VVVILELAAA”; Santiago “sanpri” Nadal; and sat1337en.
To claim a seat, these players had to survive a field that included respected names like Mike “Timex” McDonald, Phil “RaiseOnce” Ivey, Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen, Shannon “baseba1b” Shorr, Taylor “tRaMp$d0PrAy” Paur and Eugene Katchalov.
A chop was negotiated when the field reached the three-handed stage, with Better C4ll, Soshnikov and Akery agreeing to leave $60,000 on the table for the winner, whilst Soshnikov would take home a minimum of $988,000; Akery $860,000 and Better C4ll $890,820.
The deal worked for C4ll, who was eliminated shortly thereafter by the Russian player, setting up an intense and long-running heads-up between Akery and chip leader Soshnikov that saw the lead change hands a number of times.
After around 80 hands, the Russian managed to hold on to the lead and bust the Brit player out to claim the extra $60,000, making the win his career best so far despite the Euro 382,050 first prize he claimed last December for winning the Euro 10,000 European Poker Tour Prague High Roller.
Other pay-outs on the final table were:
Martin “M.nosbocaJ” Jacobson $499,320
Phil “Grindation” McAllister $350,838
Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky $279,225
“VVVILELAAA” $213,525
Santiago “sanpri” Nadal $147,825
sat1337en $98,550
Pokerstars awarded another $6 million in prizes across the Medium and Low buy-in SCOOP main event competitions.
In the $1,050 buy-in Medium, 4,047 hopefuls registered, creating a prize pool of $4,047,000, which paid out a first prize to LexaLucky666 of $635,379.
The $109 buy-in Low main event attracted 21,545, generating a prize pool of $2,154,500 and paying out prizes of $187,669 to Ari “BodogAri” Engel and $136,418 to jeppinho after a two-way chop at the heads up stage.