2016 Spring Championship of Online Poker Kicks Off On Sunday On PokerStars
Players are gearing up for what promises to be the most exciting online poker festival thus far this year, the 2016 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on PokerStars.
The poker festival will be the biggest in SCOOP history, featuring 55 events divided into low, medium, and high buy-in levels, creating a monster schedule of 165 total tournaments with over $40 million in guaranteed prize pools from May 8-22.
Professional players love the SCOOP, as it not only offers one of the biggest online festivals of the year, but also provides a great next step after the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Recreational and serious players both love the fact that there are tournaments with buy-in levels suitable for anyone, with a plethora of online satellites to get into any of the events on the schedule for a fraction of the cost.
SCOOP Kicks Off with Four Events On Sunday
The SCOOP kicks off on Sunday, May 8, with four exciting two-day events, or 12 in total after broken out into the three categories.
The first set of tournaments take place at 8 a.m. ET with the SCOOP-01-L: $11 NL Hold'em, $100K Guaranteed, SCOOP-01-M: $109 NL Hold'em [Sunday Kickoff SE], $300K Guaranteed, and SCOOP-01-H: $1,050 NL Hold'em, $750K Guaranteed. Each of these events allow for up to three reentries during the late registration period, which varies between three to four hours depending on the tournament.
A few hours later, the next set of tournaments will begin action at 11 a.m. ET, featuring even bigger buy-ins and guaranteed prize pools with the SCOOP-02-L: $27 NL Hold'em [Progressive Super-Knockout], $200K Guaranteed , the SCOOP-02-M: $215 NL Hold'em [Progressive Super-Knockout, Sunday Warm-Up SE], $600K Guaranteed, and SCOOP-02-H: $2,100 NL Hold'em [Progressive Super-Knockout], $1M Guaranteed. Unlike the opening event, no reentries will be allowed during the late registration period, which lasts between three to five hours depending on the tournament.
Five-card draw fans also have a reason to be excited on Sunday, as at 1 p.m. ET the SCOOP-03-L: $27 NL Draw, $25K Guaranteed, SCOOP-03-M: $215 NL Draw, $25K Guaranteed, and SCOOP-03-H: $2,100 NL Draw, $50K Guaranteed will take place. While the guaranteed prize pools are a bit smaller, these tournaments provide lofty prize pools for a niche game compared to any other time of the year with maybe the exception of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) in September. Like the first event, players can reenter up to three times per tournament during the late registration period of three to four hours.
The biggest set of tournaments of the day take place 90 minutes later at 2:30 p.m. ET with the SCOOP-04-L: $27 NL Hold'em, $200K Guaranteed, SCOOP-04-M: $215 NL Hold'em [Sunday Million SE], $1M Guaranteed, and SCOOP-04-H: $2,100 NL Hold'em, $1M Guaranteed. Late registration is the same as the second set of SCOOP events lasting between three to five hours with no reentries allowed.
If this was not enough SCOOP action, there are also a handful of Day 1 flights to SCOOP Event #51, which features $100,000 (low), $200,000 (medium), and $500,000 (high) guaranteed prize pools.
SCOOP Main Events Guaranteeing $7 Million
The biggest highlights of the SCOOP are the three main events taking place on May 22 at 14:30 p.m. ET.
The $100 Low SCOOP Main Event features a generous $1 million guaranteed prize pool, the $1,000 Medium SCOOP Main Event features an even more generous $2 million guarantee, while the $10,000 High SCOOP Main Event guarantees at least a mouth-watering $4 million prize pool. In other words, these three tournaments together will guarantee those that cash a share of at least $7 million in prizes.
Last year, Apostolis "apostolis20" Bechrakis (low - $203,177), Tom "tollgate" Grigg (medium- $609,206), and Mustapha "lasagnaaammm" Kanit (high - $1,304,720) were the big winners of these huge events.
SCOOP Leaderboards
PokerStars is hosting four SCOOP Leaderboards — Low, Medium, High, and Overall — to award the best performing players in the series. The SCOOP Low Leaderboard awards 300 players a variety of tickets for the WCOOP with the winner receiving a trophy, a ticket to the 2016 WCOOP Main Event and $5,000 in cold hard cash.
The same top prize will be on tap for the SCOOP Medium and High Leaderboards with 125 spots being awarded WCOOP tickets for the Medium Leaderboard and 25 for the High Leaderboard. In addition, there is an overall leaderboard awarding the best player of the series $20,000.
Check out the full schedule for this year's SCOOP here.
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