Veldhuis Among Big Stacks; "BOOGANDEHAH" Leads Last 20 in SCOOP-57-H
It was a long day at the online tables for all those what wanted to ensure a slice of the $1,000,000 prize pool in the latest PokerStars 2020 Spring Championship of Online Poker Event High Roller event. Ultimately it took nearly eight and a half hours to whittle down a field of 184 entries to the final 20 in SCOOP-57-H: $5,200 NLHE [High Roller] and conclude Day 1 once the money bubble had burst.
Among those returning for Day 2 will also be PokerStars ambassador Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis and he has the fourth-biggest stack out of all those that advanced with 4,421,903 to his name. The Dutchman streamed the action and unlike previous High Roller tournaments of the 2020 SCOOP, he entered late and all three major setup hands in the later stages ended in his favor this time.
Veldhuis scored a massive pot when he turned quads sevens to beat the top full house kings over sevens of Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden. His straight and flush draw then got there to crack the aces of Naoya "nkeyno" Kihara and he turned a king-high straight with a flushdraw to send Juan "Malaka$tyle" Pardo with a set of nines to the rail.
Three players in particular dominated the bubble action as Canada's "BOOGANDEHAH" (6,312,129), Dutchman Job "DeadNylan" Greben (5,860,740), and Hungary's "xnrobix" (4,999,639) hold the top three spots. Plenty of other notables are in contention, however, and it won' be an easy ride for any of the remaining 20 contenders to earn the next SCOOP title.
Joel "Odonkor1" Nordkvist comes fresh off a second place in Event #44-H: $5,200 NLHE [Sunday HR SE] and made it through with the fifth-biggest stack of 3,837,087, followed by high stakes regular "EEE27" with 2,908,401. Charlie "Epiphany77" Carrel (1,703,559) and Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle (1,689,136) sneaked into the top 10, Jorryt "TheCleaner11" van Hoof is right behind them with a stack of 1,465,226.
Among the shorter stacks for the final day are Joni "bustoville" Jouhkimainen (1,249,899), Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger (857,276), Rafael "GM_VALTER" Moraes (729,886), Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza (724,696), Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet (703,064) and Pavel "silentm0de" Plesuv (625,179). Nearly the entire level 22 remains with blinds of 30,000/60,000 and a running ante of 7,500, putting most of them under near-immediate pressure.
Slow Start; Frantic Late Stage
Two dozen players were in their seats when the action kicked off and that number grew steadily to more than 100 entries. As the end of the registration period came closer, the number of re-entries exploded and ultimately a field of 120 unique players and 64 re-entries emerged. Several big names of the online poker scene fired all three possible bullets without anything to show for.
And as has been usual for the High Roller tournaments during the 2020 SCOOP so far, the race towards the money proved to be a frantic one. Involved in the action was also football star striker Neymar Jr., who had just taken part in the Stars CALL For Action powered by PokerStars - Charity Tournament a few days ago. The Brazilian came up short of the last five tables when he first doubled with kings versus nines, then got short and lost ace-trey suited against king-ten.
From the last five to the final three tables seemed like a rush as there was an all-in showdown every other minute. Big names such as Matthias "iambest2" Eibinger, Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker, Calvin "cal42688" Anderson, Patrick "pads1161" Leonard, Jerry "Perrymejsen" Odeen, "hello_totti" and Conor "1_conor_b_1" Beresford all vanished in the blink of an eye.
As the bubble drew closer, the action slowed down and Chun Lei "SamRostan" Zhou, Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi, Juan "Malaka$tyle" Pardo as well as Jason "JASON.MAC100" McConnon came up short of another cash during the festival. Joni "bustoville" Jouhkimainen, Viktor "papan9_p$" Ustimov and Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza all doubled on the bubble and it was then Ustimov that jammed at the wrong time with king-queen suited into kings to let the bubble burst and Day 1 conclude.
All remaining 20 survivors have $15,865.40 locked up for their efforts and the winner can look forward to a payday of $201,606. Be sure to tune back in tomorrow right here on PokerNews to find out who will earn add the SCOOP title to his online poker resume.