Pascal "Pass_72" Lefrancois Wins SCOOP-96-H: $5,200 Main Event 2nd Chance ($416,742)
A champion has been crowned in the 2020 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker SCOOP-96-H: $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event 2nd Chance] and it was French-Canadian poker pro Pascal "Pass_72" Lefrancois that earned his first SCOOP title, which came with a payday of $416,741.68.
Out of a field of 465 entries, the lion's share of the $2,325,000 prize pool was still up for grabs on the final day and Lefrancois defeated Alfred "Kzzon" Karlsson in heads-up to claim another major title for his poker resume.
Karlsson had to settle for a payday of $309,752.07 and Will "hellzito" Arruda continued the strong results of players from Brazil with a third-place finish worth $230,229.63.
Lefrancois took over the lead after 15 minutes of play and from there on assumed control, he sent five of his compatriots to the rail and clinched the title in under five hours.
Andrey "Anjeyyy" Novak (6th place) and Pavel "silentm0de" Plesuv (4th place) were denied repeat victories during the current festival while Lefrancois earned a SCOOP title of his own in dominating fashion.
Final Result SCOOP-96-H: $5,200 Main Event 2nd Chance
| Place | Winner | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pascal "Pass_72" Lefrancois | Canada | $416,742 |
| 2 | Alfred "Kzzon" Karlsson | Sweden | $309,752 |
| 3 | Will "hellzito" Arruda | Brazil | $230,230 |
| 4 | Pavel "silentm0de" Plesuv | Moldova | $171,123 |
| 5 | Timothy "Tim0thee" Adams | Canada | $127,191 |
| 6 | Andrey "Anjeyyy" Novak | Ukraine | $94,537 |
| 7 | temka99 | Moldova | $70,267 |
| 8 | Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov | Russia | $52,227 |
| 9 | Silvio "silskyer" Costa | Netherlands | $42,196 |
Lefrancois Assumes Control Early On
The final table started with a bang when Pavel silentm0de" Plesuv doubled through Andrey "Anjeyyy" Novak with aces versus tens and it would be the start of the misery for Novak. Pascal "Pass_72" Lefrancois took over the lead after 15 minutes and pulled further ahead when his ace-high flush draw got there to crack the turned set of tens of Silvio "silskyer" Costa. In the blink of an eye, they were down to seven as Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov failed to get there with ace-deuce suited against the pocket sevens of Will "hellzito" Arruda.
"temka99" bowed out in 7th when they got it in with aces against the eights of Novak who flopped a set. However, Novak was the next player to go. After bet-folding a huge chunk of his stack to a jam of Lefrancois, Novak sent the remainder of his short stack to the French-Canadian shortly after.
Timothy "Tim0thee" Adams was the next victim of Lefrancois when he three-bet tens and called the shove of Lefrancois to get shown ace-nine. Lefrancois flopped a gutshot, turned a straight and rivered a flush to take a commanding lead with more chips at his disposal than all remaining contenders had combined.
Almost an hour passed and Plesuv eventually got short. He picked up kings and three-bet for most of his stack, Lefrancois jammed with ace-ten and Plesuv called. If any all-in showdown summarized the run of Lefrancois, it was this one as he rivered a flush and the same card gave Plesuv only a set.
Roller Coaster Final Stage
Down to the final three players, Arruda and Karlsson put up a fight and doubled through each other and through Lefrancois multiple times. After Arruda had gotten short once more, Lefrancois called his jam and bowed out to the reshove of Karlsson. Ace-jack for Arruda was not enough as Karlsson prevailed with ace-king to enter heads-up just two big blinds shy of Lefrancois.
The three-bet pots kept on coming and Karlsson even took over the lead for a mere two hands, but Lefrancois was back in the driver's seat soon enough. It took around 45 minutes of heads-up action to crown a champion when Lefrancois three-bet preflop, then bet all streets on a paired king-high board. Karlsson could not find a fold on the river after depleting his time bank and his aces were no good as Lefrancois had flopped trips kings.
That wrap's up the PokerNews reporting for this event and the extended SCOOP schedule is on the home stretch. Several other tournaments are still running, however, and the live updates will be provided until the end of the festival on June 1st, 2020.