The finale of the 2012 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) took place on Monday with the second day of three Main Events. The high-stakes version, which had a $10,300 buy-in, attracted a field of 517 players and boasted a purse of over $5 million. Sixty-three players returned to the felts on Monday to determine a winner and, when all was said and done, Costa Rica's Nick Grip Grippo (pictured) came away with the win following a three-way chop and took home $798,000.Grippo was the chip leader eight-handed and added to his arsenal after 4betting all-in to isolate with pocket aces. The action folded back around to PokerStars player römpsä, who flipped over K-Q and was well behind. römpsä picked up an open-ended straight draw on the turn, but the river blanked to trim the field to seven players and pad Grippo's lead.
Grippo was highly active at the final table and doubled up an opponent who held A-4 of diamonds. Grippo had aces in that hand as well, but two diamonds on the flop and one more on the turn resulted in a double up for his opponent.
When play was seven-handed, r4st4f4ri 3bet all-in pre-flop with Q-J and Grippo made the call with J-10 of diamonds. The flop came Q-4-4, preserving r4st4f4ri's advantage with queens-up, but a king on the turn and nine on the river gave Grippo a runner-runner straight for the win.
Grippo ousted hotmark777 in sixth place after besting tens with kings. Once play was three-handed, a deal was struck. The PokerStars Blog relayed the discussions: "By that point, sp00led had edged out in front with 3,193,856, sosick was second with 2,401,795, and GripDsNutz third with 2,159,349. 'Before we look at numbers,' typed Grippo, 'I'll take an even chop and nothing else.' That statement initially led to some tentative agreements being voiced, then some backing away as details were hashed out among the trio."
Ultimately, each of the three survivors took home $718,675 and another $80,000 was reserved for the winner. Grippo entered heads-up play as a 4:1 chip leader over sp00led, but the latter clawed back to even within 20 minutes. In the last hand of the tournament, sp00led shoved all-in pre-flop after a 4bet and Grippo called. When the cards were shown, Grippo held pocket sixes against sp00led's A-3 offsuit. sp00led whiffed on a wheel draw on the turn and river and Grippo claimed victory.Grippo has been a member of PocketFives since our second year in operation and contributed nearly 2,000 posts to the community. He's up to over $2 million in tracked winnings on PokerStars alone and final tabled the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance last weekend for $21,000.
Third place in the high-stakes SCOOP Main Event went to Poland's sosick, who can be found at #83 worldwide in the PocketFives Rankings. He's one month removed from a win in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up, where he officially banked over $100,000, and took down a WCOOP $320 No Limit Hold'em event last September for $83,000.
Here were the final table results from the high-stakes PokerStars SCOOP Main Event. German players took five of the top nine spots, which is quite an impressive feat:
1. GripDsNutz (Costa Rica) - $798,675 (Grip)
2. sp00led (Canada) - $718,675
3. sosickPL (Poland) - $718,675 (sosick)
4. UrMySponsor (Germany) - $403,260
5. wizowizo (Germany) - $284,350
6. hotmark777 (Lebanon) - $219,725
7. r4st4f4ri (Germany) - $168,025
8. römpsä (Germany) - $116,325
9. B4d3m3!st3r (Germany) - $85,822
Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Varnatrader, who plays on PokerStars under the user name suarez_BG, won the mid-stakes SCOOP Main Event for $560,000. The un-chopped tournament had a $1,050 buy-in and over 3,500 players turned out. Amazingly, nine different countries were represented at the nine-handed final table, which shook out as follows:
1. suarez_BG (Bulgaria) - $560,019 (Varnatrader)
2. ministerborg (Denmark) - $417,339
3. hunwei (Australia) - $296,061
4. PSÄ! (Malta) - $205,102.50 (PSA!)
5. carrycakes (Mexico) - $152,703
6. scrooch025 (Belgium) - $115,927
7. dknight10 (Costa Rica) - $80,257 (DKnight10)
8. Korn2005 (Canada)- $44,587.50
9. IRLMedic (Ireland) - $28,536
Visit PokerStars for full details. Congratulations to all members of PocketFives who cashed in the 2012 SCOOP.
