Vezhenkov Tops Day 2 of 2020 SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 Main Event; Veldhuis and Spragg Among 40 Survivors
Only 40 hopefuls remain in the flagship tournament of the 2020 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and battle for the title in the SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event]. The registration had remained open until five minutes prior to the restart and four dozen players entered to boost the field to 609 entries, consisting of 415 unique players and 194 re-entries.
The top 79 spots earned a portion of the $6,090,000 prize pool and a top prize of $1,062,966.47 awaits to the eventual champion in two days time on Wednesday, May 20th, 2020. All survivors so far have $26,786.25 locked up for their efforts but six-figure prizes await all but one contenders that also make it through the following day.
After 11 levels of 30 minutes each and a fraction of level 27, Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov claimed 8,785,576 to his name and narrowly beat Michael "merla888" Gathy for the top spot, as the Belgian ended Day 2 with 8,781,892. Michael "imluckbox" Addamo sits in third with 8,085,377 and "Alexgirs" is hot on his heels with 7,970,277. The overnight top 10 also features streamer and poker coach Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle (6,666,824), online MTT legend "girafganger7" (6,025,576), Thomas "MarToMchat" Boivin (5,803,834) and Pieter "XMorphineX" Aerts (5,439,874).
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 2
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov | Russia | 8,785,576 | 110 |
| 2 | Michael "merla888" Gathy | Belgium | 8,781,892 | 110 |
| 3 | Michael "imluckbox" Addamo | UK | 8,085,377 | 101 |
| 4 | Alexgirs | Belarus | 7,970,277 | 100 |
| 5 | Francisco "chicalltreta" Correia | Brazil | 7,058,459 | 88 |
| 6 | Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle | Austria | 6,666,824 | 83 |
| 7 | AverageGreg | Canada | 6,164,727 | 77 |
| 8 | girafganger7 | UK | 6,025,576 | 75 |
| 9 | Thomas "MarToMchat" Boivin | UK | 5,803,834 | 73 |
| 10 | Pieter "XMorphineX" Aerts | Belgium | 5,439,874 | 68 |
Both PokerStars ambassadors in contention for Day 2 survived the money bubble as shorter stacks and scored late doubles to live another day. Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis made it through to the penultimate day with a stack of 1,715,528 and Ben "Spraggy" Spragg is the third-shortest stack with 1,104,950. Right behind Spragg sits Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi with 700,902 and will need an early double up tomorrow if he wants to repeat his victory from 2016.
Further notables to watch out for include Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress (5,298,837), Francisco "Tomatee" Benitez (4,419,885), Ignat "0human0" Liviu (3,965,152), Ben "Ben86" Tollerene (3,177,602), the former SCOOP Main Event finalist Dinesh "NastyMinder" Alt (2,378,444) and Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker (1,378,915), Max "goodeh99" Silver (2,358,856) and WSOPE Main Event champion Jack "Swaggersorus" Sinclair (1,749,601).
Steady Stream of Eliminations Throughout the Day
Barely any minute passed by in the early stages without any elimination as the field was rapidly cut down by more than 40 participants in the first two levels of the day. Some of those that entered late and busted early on were Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov, Mike "goleafsgoeh" Leah and 2017 winner Charlie "Epiphany77" Carrel. Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro, who had topped the 2011 edition, was also among those to bow out much sooner than he had hoped for.
The 2020 SCOOP two-time champion Artur "mararthur1" Martirosyan and this year's four-time winner Connor "blanconegro" Drinan didn't get anything going and joined the rail, too. Scott "Aggro Santos" Margereson lost his entire stack within two hands and Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn saw his jacks cracked by the flopped two pair of Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis.
As the money bubble kept coming closer, football striker Neymar was still in contention under his moniker "neymar-jr". However, the Brazilian came up short a couple spots when he jammed his short stack with sixes and ran into the kings of Dominik "Bounatirou" Nitsche and the ace-queen of Anatoly "NL_Profit" Filatov. An ace on the river kept Filatov in contention.
The money bubble then burst in rather surprising fashion as it was not one of the several short stacks that ended up without anything to show for. Russia's "serggorelyi7" called the open-shove of Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov for more than 50 big blinds with ace-king suited and lost a flip to fives.
Big Names Bust in Frantic Post-Bubble Period
What followed was a spectacle of eliminations for the next hour and 25 minutes as the field of 79 was cut down all the way to the final 40 hopefuls to wrap up the action for the night. Included in the batch of big names in the money were Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz, Dominik "Bounatirou" Nitsche, 10-time SCOOP champion Calvin "cal42688" Anderson, defending champion Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza, Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden, Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky and Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O'Dwyer.
Holz got short and stood no chance with queen-jack versus ace-jack while Nitsche ran his kings into a flopped six-high straight. Speranza's bid for an unprecedented third title in a row ended in 49th place as his king-nine suited trailed the king-queen of Anatoly "NL_Profit" Filatov.
Vousden flopped top pair and top kicker but "Alexgirs" turned an unbeatable ten-high straight and instantly called the shove of the Finnish MTT grinder. Sulsky lost a flip with sevens to ace-king and O'Dwyer was gone moments later as his king-queen suited could not connect with the board when facing pocket sevens.
Only a few minutes later play concluded as the field was already down to the final 40. They will return after a good night's sleep to make the next step as of 1.05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time when the action recommences for nearly the entire level 27 which features blinds of 40,000/80,000 and a running ante of 10,000.
Stay tuned to find out who will reach the final table and follow along right here on PokerNews.