PokerStars released the dates for the 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) with the first day of events kicking off on Sunday, May 12 and concluding on May 27. As per usual, there will be low, medium, and high versions of events. Cards go in the air for the Main Event set for Sunday, May 26. Stay tuned for more details.
Better late than never, eh? SCOOP is coming. SCOOP is coming, y'all. time to get excited, pumped up, and a little crazy about the annual spring-time rite of passage: Spring Championship of Online Poker aka SCOOP. PokerStars announced the dates for 2019 SCOOP, including the Main Event, but that's it for now. The rest of the details are hush-hush. Rest assured, there will be three levels of buy-ins for players of all categories. It doesn't matter if you're a pro, or noob, or someone who recently went busto, or one of the 1%... there's an even with the right level of buy-in for you.
Last year, the 2018 SCOOP had 61 events with over $110 million in guaranteed prize pools. This year, SCOOP should be somewhere around that number, but probably higher. PokerStars set the bar with SCOOP many moons ago and they have been trying to top themselves since then.
The 2019 SCOOP kicks off (or cards go in the air) on May 12, which is a Sunday and it will be running for 15 days concluding on May 27. The Main Event, which is always the marquee event, starts on May 26.
Tankanza from Austria is the defending champion and won the 2018 SCOOP Main Event last year for a $1.1 million score.
Winning the SCOOP Main Event can put you onto a path of glory and riches. Just ask Charlie Carrel. Back in the spring of 2017, he took down the Main Event for a $1.2 million score while playing under his online moniker Epiphany77. And it was no slouch of a final table either that included Connor 'blanconegro' Drinan, Emil 'maroonlime' Patel, Simon 'C. Darwin2' Mattson, and Harrison 'gibler321' Gimbel.
In 2016, raidalot binked the 2016 SCOOP Main Event. Talal 'raidalot' Shakerchi won over $1.46 million for taking down the anchor event three years ago. He was just a mere London banker then before he took the high-stakes world by storm. Scott 'gunning4you' Seiver and Sean 'Nolez7' Winter were also at Shakerchi's final table.
In 2015, a young Italian named Mustapha 'lasagnaaammm' Kanit shipped the SCOOP Main Event for a $1.3 million score. Kanit picked off maroomlime heads-up for the title. Yeah, Patel went deep in the SCOOP Main in 2015 and 2017. Kanit's final table also included Shaun Deeb. Kanit would go on to win the Sunday Million in 2016.
During the peak of the glorious online poker boom, Jude 'j.thaddeus' Ainsworth took down the 2009 SCOOP Main Event for $963K after fading a field of 502 runners. The next year, American pro Ryan Fair aka toetagU binked $1.1 million for shipping the 2010 SCOOP Main.
Finland's Sami 'Lrslzk' Kelopuro took down the 2011 SCOOP Main Event for only $504K, in the wake of the Black Friday scandal when Stars lost most of their player base overnight in April. Nick 'GripDsNutz' Grippo shipped the 2012 SCOOP Main Event for almost $800K.
The one and only Isildur1 took down the 2013 SCOOP Main Event. Viktor Blom won a cool million for his score. And that was a couple of years after his rise to fame during the peak of the poker boom when everyone tried to figure out who was this unknown Scandi killing the high-stakes PLO games online. The return of Isilur1 to prominence also coincided with the prize pool topping seven figures once again. Russia's andir4rek won the 2014 SCOOP Main Event for a cool million.
Anyway, stay tuned for more details and info for the full 2019 SCOOP schedule.
