Jans "Graftekkel" Arends Tops 42 Survivors After Day 1 of 2020 SCOOP-96-H: $5,200 Main Event 2nd Chance
The 2020 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) is on the home stretch and one week of online poker action remains for the extended schedule to take a shot at earning one of the elusive SCOOP title for the poker resume.
Among the events to kick off was the SCOOP-96-H: $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event 2nd Chance] and the guarantee was easily surpassed thanks to 324 unique players and additional 141 re-entries. A total field size of 465 entries created a prize pool of $2,325,000 and the top 55 spots locked up a payday of at least five figures whereas the top five finishers will earn six-figure scores.
After 24 levels of 20 minutes each, the bubble burst and 13 players already earned $11,735.67 for their efforts, the next pay jump will be locked up with 39 players remaining as 42 contenders advanced to the penultimate day.
One of the players to fire the maximum of three bullets in the event was Jans "Graftekkel" Arends and that proved to be a golden decision as he topped the Day 1 survivors with a massive stack of 9,351,977. Second-placed "temka99" from Moldova is nearly three million in chips behind and has 6,393,999 to his name while Michel "FreelancerZZ" Dattani rounds out the overnight podium with a stack of 5,356,025.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds for Level 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jans "Graftekkel" Arends | Netherlands | 9,351,977 | 134 |
| 2 | temka99 | Moldova | 6,393,999 | 91 |
| 3 | Michel "FreelancerZZ" Dattani | Malta | 5,356,025 | 77 |
| 4 | Aleksejs "APonakov" Ponakovs | Estonoa | 4,841,123 | 69 |
| 5 | Will "hellzito" Arruda | Brazil | 4,432,848 | 63 |
| 6 | Alfred "kzzon" Karlsson | Sweden | 4,392,743 | 63 |
| 7 | Laszlo "omaha4rollz" Bujtas | Hungary | 4,099,676 | 59 |
| 8 | Andrew "ClockWyze" Pantling | Canada | 4,038,499 | 58 |
| 9 | Andrey "Anjeyyy" Novak | Ukraine | 4,030,409 | 58 |
| 10 | Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja | Canada | 3,985,022 | 57 |
Other notables with an above-average stack include Laszlo "omaha4rollz" Bujtas (4,099,676), Andrew "ClockWyze" Pantling (4,038,499), Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja (3,985,022), Sylvain "caIcuIer_" Loosli (3,778,756), Simon "C. Darwin2" Mattsson (3,674,366), Dominik "Bounatirou" Nitsche (3,571,505) and Daniel "DANMERRRRRRR" Merrilees (2,871,503).
There are plenty further well-known poker pros in contention and Alex "dynoalot" Difelice is eying another major result after his third-place finish in the SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 Main Event. Difelice made it through as one of the shorter stacks with 1,823,622, as did former SCOOP-H Main Event champion Charlie "Epiphany77" Carrel (1,500,796), Pavel "silentm0de" Plesuv (1,337,314) and Mike "gorodski" Gorodinsky (1,228,748).
No fortune for the PokerStars ambassadors
Many other big names of the live and online poker world departed without anything to show for. The PokerStars ambassadors had a rough day on the felt as Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis and Fintan "easywithaces" Hand bowed out with kings. Veldhuis bought back in but didn't get anything going to depart with fours versus eights. Ben "Spraggy" Spragg check-called three barrels with aces and was shown a flopped set of sevens and rivered full house. Last but not least, Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas ran with ace-jack suited into aces and caught no miracle.
Others that bowed out before the money were notables such as Calvin "cal42688" Anderson, Kahle "ROFLshove" Burns, Michael "imluckbox" Addamo, Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz, Niklas "Lena900" Astedt, football striker Neymar Jr, Artur "mararthur1" Martirosyan, Connor "blanconegro" Drinan, and Patrick "pads1161" Leonard.
Former SCOOP-H Main Event champion Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi was eliminated close to the money bubble with ace-king suited versus jacks and current title holder "Alexgirs" exited with queens versus kings. The unfortunate bubble boy was Canada's "m.a-0000" when his kings failed to hold up against the pocket eights of Michel "FreelancerZZ" Dattani, who rivered a four-card flush.
Once the bubble had burst, Jans "Graftekkel" Arends skyrocketed into the lead after he won a big three-way all-in with aces versus queens and sixes, then rivered the nut flush when his opponent "psjebemvas" fired three barrels with a jack-high flush draw and hit the river to bust with the inferior flush.
The action will resume on Monday, May 25th, 2020, as of 1.05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and the penultimate tournament day will conclude once the final table of the last nine has been determined. Returning blinds in level 25 will be 35,000-70,000 with a running ante of 8,750 and all levels will last 30 minutes each for the remainder of the event.
Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to find out who makes it through another day and remains in contention for the top prize of $416,741.68 and next high stakes SCOOP title.