Andrey "Anjeyyy" Novak Takes Down PokerStars 2020 SCOOP-44-H: $5,200 NLHE [Sunday HR SE] for $253,819
It would take just over seven hours before Andrey "Anjeyyy" Novak would become the newest SCOOP champion by taking down the PokerStars 2020 Spring Championship of Online Poker Event #44-H: $5,200 NLHE [Sunday HR SE] for $253,819 by defeating Joel "Odonkor1" Nordkvist heads-up. The tournaments offered a $1,000,000 guarantee but with the 264 entries which were collected on Day 1, this was surpassed to total a whopping $1,320,000 with 31 players cashing.
Novak has come close to winning a SCOOP before when he finished in second place in a medium buy-in tournament back in 2017. He also came second in a WCOOP Super Tuesday SE in 2015 but no real bragging rights yet until now as he defeated a final table filled with familiar names like the high stakes cash game player "makeboifin", the Day 1 chip leader "Sintoras", Jans "Graftekkel" Arends, Sergei "Futti18" Koliakov, Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver, Pedro "pm_marke" Marques, and Alexandros "mexican222" Kolonias who has been having a great year already.
PokerStars 2020 SCOOP-44-H: $5,200 NLHE Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrey "Anjeyyy" Novak | Ukraine | $253,819 |
| 2 | Joel "Odonkor1" Nordkvist | Sweden | $192,487 |
| 3 | Jans "Graftekkel" Arends | The Netherlands | $145,975 |
| 4 | makeboifin | Finland | $110,702 |
| 5 | Sergei "Futti18" Koliakov | Russia | $83,952 |
| 6 | Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver | Costa Rica | $63,666 |
| 7 | Pedro "pm_marke" Marques | Portugal | $48,282 |
| 8 | Alexandros "mexican222" Kolonias | Greece | $36,615 |
| 9 | Sintoras | Germany | $27,767 |
All in the Money
When the players returned, all 31 were in the money already and the eliminations came in quickly. "Einyman" was the first to fall when they ran their king-nine into the ace-ten of Marques. They flopped a pair of nines but Marques hit the runner-runner straight to reduce the field by one player. Alexandru "steakaddict." Papazian was eliminated by Mike "SirWatts" Watson, Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress fell to Arends, and "boerni21" was busted by Scott "Aggro Santos" Margereson to get down the final three tables.
But there was no rest for the wicked, Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle, "hotmark777", Conor "1_conor_b_1" Beresford, Kahle "ROFLshove" Burns, Sam "Str8$$$Homey" Greenwood, Daniel "Razer2311" Rezaei, Arsenii "josef_shvejk" Karmatckii, Watson, and Michel "FreeLancerZZ" Dattani all busted before the final two tables were reached.
From 18 to the Final Table Bubble
Tomi "elmerixx" Brouk four-bet shoved and was looked up by Margereson with held ace-four. Brouk's pocket jacks couldn't beat the straight Margereson rivered and that all happened before the first break. Soon after things started up again "3DTemujiN" ran his kings into the aces of Novak. A few minutes later, Pieter "XMorphineX" Aerts got it all in with king-queen and was called by Nordkvist who held pocket tens. Aerts flopped top pair but got rivered to bust.
"iamivar" found pocket treys good enough to shove with and Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza thought the same but with tens and held. Margereson then busted with a lower flush than Arends which propelled the latter into a huge chip lead. "ross_654" was eliminated by Nordkvist who held ace-queen. "ross_654" had pocket eights but Nordkvist turned the Broadway to seal the deal.
Two-time SCOOP Main Event champion Speranza saw his deep run come to an end when he ran queens into the aces of Nordkvist while Christian "WATnlos" Rudolph thought his kings would be good on the jack-eight-deuce-nine board but Arends had flopped a set of eights. No help on the river for the German as he busted in 11th place. The final table bubble went on for a while but in the end, it was Luke "Bit2Easy" Reeves who would be the one to go when his ace-ten didn't get any help on the board against Nordkvist who would take the chip lead.
Four-Hour Final Table
The final table started with three players with more than 100 big blinds and the others varying from 13 as the shortest stack to 73 for the player in fourth place and this was pretty noticeable as it lasted almost four hours. Two players first doubled up before the day 1 chip leader, "Sintoras" ran ace-jack into the ace-eight of "makeboifin". Kolonias then picked up pocket jacks and called the four-bet shove of Novak who held queens.
Almost another hour later, Marques would leave the final table in seventh place when he held ace-queen while Arends had ace-eight and found an eight on the flop to connect with. Oliver was getting shorter and shorter and three-bet shoved with ace-six. Unfortunately for him, Novak had kings and flopped a set. Soon after, Koliakov was kicked out by Novak. Koliakov's ace-king couldn't beat the nine-eight of Novak.
Novak took over the chip lead from Arends and only increased it when he took out "makeboifin" when pocket queens. Arends was just bleeding chips and ended getting them all in with ace-eight. Nordkvist's king-queens found two other queens on the board to eliminate Arends in third place.
Heads-up play took almost an hour and half with the chip lead switching back and forth. Novak doubled up once to stay alive and then the up and downs kept going on. They both got their bluffs caught once but then Novak scored a big double when he held aces and Nordkvist had flopped top pair. The overpair held to leave the Swede behind with 16 big blinds. In the final hand of the night, Nordkvist's flopped pair of deuces and flush draw couldn't get there against the top pair Novak had hit.
Another new SCOOP champion has been found in Novak but the SCOOP is only half-way. Make sure to keep following the updates as the biggest buy-in of the series starts on May 12 at 1 p.m. EST with SCOOP-52-H: $25,000 NLHE [8-Max, Super High Roller] kicking off then and the PokerNews live reporting team will be there for all of it.
, Novak check-raised the 500,000 bet of Nordkvist to 1,668,750 who responded with a shove for 10,759,344 in total which Novak called.
which didn't change things for him and neither did the 
on the river as this signaled the end of the tournament as Novak improved his pair to the higher two pair to eliminate Nordkvist in second place for $192,487.
, Novak continued with a bet of 2,677,500 for Nordkvist to raise it up to 8,000,000. Novak decided to shove and put his tournament life at risk for the 25,752,828 he had behind and Nordkvist called.
on the river for Novak to hold and double up to leave Nordkvist behind with around 16 big blinds.
which didn't change things and left Nordkvist drawing dead for the tournament win as Novak doubled up with a full house as the 
for Nordkvist to flop top pair, turn two pair, and river a full house to eliminate Arends in third place for $145.975.
flop. 
, Novak checked again and Arends continued with a bet of 3,850,560 which was called.
but Arends held 
for the higher pocket pair to scoop the pot.
