Austria Dominates SCOOP High Main Event, "Tankanza" Wins $1.1 Million

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May 23, 2018 5 min read

The 2018 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) at PokerStars is now in the books after the three SCOOP Main Events concluded on Tuesday, May 22.

The festival was a success by many measures. The 2018 SCOOP guarantee $65 million across 183 tournaments. This set a new record for the number of tournaments offered and the total guarantees in the ten-year history of the online poker festival.

According to data provided by Poker Industry Pro, the 2018 SCOOP generated more than $90 million in total prize pools. While this is slightly down from the $93 million generated in 2017 when the festival featured 171 tournaments and $55 million in guaranteed prize pools, it does represent a huge 38.5 percent bump from the amount guaranteed.

Another factor for the SCOOP's success was that the festival offered for the first time at least one tournament on each of the 15 days of the festival with a guarantee of at least $1 million. This resulted in 28 tournaments boasting seven-figure guaranteed prize pools.

"Tankanza" Wins SCOOP High Main Event

High Edition

After three days of play, Austria's "Tankanza" outlasted a tough field of 654 entrants (486 entrants + 168 reentries) to win the SCOOP High $10,300 Main Event for $1,133,160. In addition to the seven-figure cash, the Austrian also walked away with a coveted Platinum Pass valued at $30,000 to the 2019 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship.

SCOOP-58-H: $10,300 NLHE [Main Event], $5,000,000 Gtd Final Table Results

The tournament generated a massive $6,540,000 prize pool; 30.8 percent more than the $5 million posted guarantee. A total of 80 players cashed in the event for at least $22,967.

The first day of the event ended after Team PokerStars Pro member Leo "LeoFernandez" Fernandez bubbled the tournament in 81st place. Jussi "calvin7v" Nevanlinna became the first player to cash in the tournament after bowing out in 80th place.

According to the PokerStars Blog, Christopher "Apotheosis92" Kruk entered the second day as the chip leader but couldn't make it to the final day after bowing out in 28th place for $37,260. The second day was completed after Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet and "vovanmillion" were eliminated in 20th and 19th places respectively for $48,137.

Chris "Big Huni" Hunichen kicked off the third and final day with the chip lead. Eventually, Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker, one of five Austrians to make the final table, snagged the lead and extended it further heading into the final table after eliminating Yngve "Sykoen" Steen in 10th place for $48,137.

James "JayP-AA" Park was the first player eliminated at the final table in ninth place for $100,862 after he three-bet jammed ace-ten and couldn't get there against the ace-king held by Julian "nailuj90" Stuer.

It was a déjà vu on the very next hand. Austria's "caaaaamel" three-bet jammed ace-jack all-in and didn't improve against Steur's big slick to walk away with the eighth place prize of $136,474.

Niklas "Lena900" Åstedt already snagged two SCOOP titles this festival and was looking to add a third in a big way. His hopes were dashed after Hunichen eliminated the current PocketFives' top-ranked player in the worldin in seventh place for $184,659.

Muehloecker hit the rails in sixth place for $249,856 on a cooler when his kings ran into the aces held by "Tankanza."

"ULOSEMFKR!!" exited the tournament in fifth place for $338,073 on a bad beat after his jacks couldn't hold against Hunichen's sevens. Next to go was "mikki696" in fourth place for $457,436 when his ace-eight didn't improve against Steur's pocket kings.

All three remaining players were tightly bunched until "Tankanza" was able to broaden the gap and have more than twice the chips of both of his opponents combined.

Hunichen eventually got low on chips and jammed 12 big blinds with ace-deuce and didn't improve against Steur's ace-ten to hit the showers in third place for $618,944.

"Tankanza" entered heads-up play with a 4:1 chip advantage, but Steur battled back to 70 million in chips compared to his opponents 94.5 million. At this point, the action was paused so the two players could discuss a deal.

ICM figures were produced, but Steur wanted a little bit more. "Tanzanka" declined and play continued.

Tankanza: i think it's ok...
nailuj90: 910k and we have a deal? still a lot left anyway
Tankanza: i think that is correct
HostRicardoC [Commentator]: Should I calculate the new figures with 910k for nailuj90?
Tankanza: why shuld i give up $?
Tankanza: no tanks
nailuj90: ok lets play, glgl
Tankanza: ok np gl
HostRicardoC [Commentator]: No deal then

"Tankanza" regained a 4:1 chip advantage. In the final hand of the tournament, Steur jammed for 15 big blinds with ace-six and took home the runner-up prize of $837,474 after he didn't improve against his opponent's ace-queen.

"Wildace_hun" Wins SCOOP Medium Main Event

Hungary's "Wildace_hun" outlasted a field of 5,508 entrants (3,847 entrants + 1,661 reentries) to win the SCOOP Medium $1,050 Main Event for $783,166 and a Platinum Pass, With the win, the Hungarian passed $2,1 million in total online tournament cashes,

Cashcid Linc Wins SCOOP Low Main Event

Also winning big was Germany's "Cashcid Linc" who walked away with $267,584 after besting a massive field of 26,361 (18,511 entries + 7,850 reentries) in the SCOOP Low $109 Main Event.

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