Calvin Anderson Wins 4th SCOOP Watch; Ben Wilinofsky and David Baker Earn Huge Scores

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May 21, 2013 6 min read

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) at PokerStars is past the midway point with 26 of the 44 events completed as of Tuesday afternoon. A long list of SCOOP championships have been crowned, including Steve “gboro780” Gross and Shawn “buck21” Buchanan, while other top pros like Shaun Deeb have fallen just shy of a title. Deeb boasts a record five SCOOP victories in his career and nearly won his sixth twice in this series. He may have some company atop the leader board soon as Calvin “cal42688” Anderson earned his fourth SCOOP watch on Monday.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #25-M: Fixed-Limit Hold’em 6-Max ($50K Guaranteed)

Calvin "cal42688" Anderson won his first SCOOP watch in 2010 in the $16.50 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha Turbo event. He added two more the following year, one in a stud hi/lo event and the other in razz — on the same day. On Monday, Anderson won his fourth title after topping 639 players in Event #25-M $215 Fixed-Limit Hold’em 6-Max.

Heading into the final table, “Truelove13” held the lead but quickly lost most of his chips to “jonstarz.” With a stack dwindled to just 80,158, Truelove13 saw all his chips in the middle post flop on a A♦4♠3♠ board against Nick “nabourisk” Abou Risk. Both players flopped a pair of aces but Truelove13’s nine kicker wasn’t enough against Abou Risk's king kicker. The turn and river kept Abou Risk in front, and Truelove13 was sent home in sixth place.

After a series of unfortunate events, “nimzon” found himself as the short stack and in dire need of a double-up. After getting caught in three-way action against “b8chatz” and Anderson, nimzon was out in fifth place when his pair of jacks fell short to Anderson's pair of kings.

Jonstarz was the next to bust in fourth place after shoving his remaining chips in preflop and getting called by Anderson and b8chatz. Both players checked the Q♥9♥6♥ flop, and Anderson led on the J♦ turn. B8chatza folded and Anderson tabled K♣10♥ for a king-high straight. JonStarz’s A♥3♣ missed the four-card flush with the 10♠ river and he collected $8,946 for fourth place.

Two hands later, b8chatz raised to 60,000 from the small blind and Abou Risk called from the big blind. B8chatz led on the K♣9♣9♥ flop and shoved on the 10♥ turn. Abou Risk called him down with 5♦9♠ for trips, and b8chatz’s A♦8♥ was drawing dead. B8chatz exited in third place with a $13,099 payday

Abou Risk (1,845,501 in chips) had the lead going into heads up with Anderson (1,349,499). He extended his lead early on, but Anderson evened the counts after hitting an open-ended straight draw. Three hands later, Anderson took the lead and never looked back. On the final hand of the tournament, the action was capped on the flop and the last of Abou Risk's chips were in on the turn, but he missed his open-ended straight and Anderson’s pair of nines to hold up for the win. Anderson scooped $23,543 for his fourth SCOOP title, while Abou Risk earned $17,636.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #21-H: No-Limit Hold’em ($1M Guaranteed)

_{*Denotes heads-up deal}

More than 900 players entered Event #21-H, creating a prize pool of $1.8 million to easily surpass the $1 million guarantee. After two days of action it was “4rebmun” who topped the field to win the SCOOP watch. 4rebmun made a heads-up deal with Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky that resulted in both bagging more than $275,000.

Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver was the one to watch heading into the final table. Having already made three other final tables during the SCOOP 2013 series, Oliver entered this final second in chips, trailing only “bebaimis777."

It took 40 minutes for the first elimination to occur at the final table. “Aku1206” was at risk against Dimitar “KuuL” Danchev after three-bet shoving preflop. Danchev’s A♥6♥ was enough to win the pot after hitting 6♣ on the river against K♦9♥, sending Aku1206 to the rail in ninth place.

Bebaimis777 was the next to fall out in eighth place. After a three-bet shove on the turn from bebaimis777, he tabled A♣8♦ against Wilinofsky’s A♥10♣. Both players had a pair of aces but Wilinofsky had the better kicker. With the river card out, bebaimis777 was sent to the rail in eighth place.

Wilinofsky eliminated yet another player moments later. This time it was Danchev sent railward in seventh place. With all the chips in the middle preflop, Danchev’s pocket tens failed to improve against Wilinofsky’s pocket kings.

Matthew “mjw006” Wakeman followed suit and busted in sixth place, collecting $74,866 after getting knocked out by Oliver. Just a few hands later Wilinofsky claimed another victim, eliminating “callmemanu” in fifth place, leaving four players contending for the title.

Wilinofsky had a commanding lead with more than 4.63 milion in chips, with 4rebmun next in line with 1.79 million. Keeping his role as table captain, Wilinofsky was in another hand that put a player at risk of busting. “VbV1990” called off his remaining stack on a 10♦2♥6♣ flop with pocket queens. Wilinofsky turned over 9♠8♥ for a gutshot and got there when the 7♠ hit the turn. The 9♣ on the river sealed the deal for Wilinofsky, and VbV1990 was out in fourth place.

Blinds jumped to 20,000/40,000 before Oliver got caught in a hand with Wilinofsky. Oliver shoved preflop with A♣Q♠ and Wilinofsky called with pocket tens. The flop came 10♥J♠A♠, giving Wilinofsky the better hand with a set of tens. The rest of the board ran out 6♣4♦, forcing Oliver out of the event in third place. Oliver scored his fourth SCOOP final table and 13th cash of the series, while adding another $175,890 to his earnings.

Wilinofsky crossed each player off the list one by one, and was hoping to do so again going into the heads-up battle with a 7-to-2 chip advantage over 4rebmun. After the two agreed to a deal, 4rebmun dominated play and took an 8-to-1 chip edge before putting Wilinofsky away. In the final hand with blinds up to 30,000/60,000, 4rebmun raised to 120,000 from the button and Wilinofsky shoved all in with K♣4♣. 4rebmun called with pocket kings for 4rebmun, and the 4♠6♦3♣8♣9♠ board sent all of the chips over to 4rebmun. Although Wilinofsky scored a runner-up finish, he took the bigger paycheck of $285,169, securing his 10th cash of the series.

PokerStars SCOOP Event #22-H: No-Limit Hold’em ($1.25M Guaranteed)

Over 1,000 players flocked to the virtual felt on Monday, a $2.1 million prize pool was up for grabs in Event #22-H, the $2,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em event.

The final table started featured some stiff competition like 2009 World Championship of Online Poker Event 23 winner “Str8$$$Homey” and two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and former SCOOP winner David “WhooooKidd” Baker.

Play began with three short stacks staying hovering between 14-18 big blinds. “Tonydatiger5” couldn’t run up his stack and was in jeopardy after calling an all-in preflop with A♠Q♥. “Sonderskönig” trailed with K♠J♥ but spiked a king on the turn to end tonydatiger5’s run in ninth place for $26,200.

With just four and a half big blinds, “Sheeter 200” then moved all in for 115,000 before the flop. His A♦8♣ wasn’t enough against Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski's A♣K♠ and he was sent to the rail in eighth place to collect $42,968.

Six hands later, Sonderskönig was eliminated in seventh place for $63,718. Eight hands after that, “pablox55” was knocked out in sixth place for $84,678.

After Sikorski exited in fifth place to collect $105,638 for his efforts, Baker and Str8$$$Homey split the next 15 pots while taking another two players down. Str8$$$Homey busted “Flufferd” in fourth place for $151,960, while Baker knocked out "poker41day” seven hands later. Poker41day was knocked out in third place and snagged a career-best payday of $203,312.

That left Str8$$$Homey and Baker dueling for the title, and it took 95 hands to determine a winner. Baker failed to claim a second career SCOOP title, but he earned $272,480 for a runner-up finish, making it the most lucrative PokerStars score of his career. He previously snagged $215,000 for a win in a $5,200 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event in SCOOP 2009.

Meanwhile, it was the first SCOOP watch for Str8$$$Homey. His $377,280 payday also marked the largest of his career at PokerStars.

For more on the winners, check out the PokerStars Blog.

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