"Alexgirs" Wins the 2020 SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 Main Event ($920,596)
The flagship tournament of the 2020 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has crowned a champion and one of the most-coveted titles in the world of online poker is heading to Belarus as "Alexgirs" topped a star-studded final table in SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event]. In heads-up, "Alexgirs" defeated Pablo "pabritz" Brito and claimed the top prize of $920,596 in a field of 609 entries.
They cut a deal with Brito ($764,942) and third-place finisher Alex "dynoalot" Difelice ($722,075) who both took home a big slice of the $6,090,000 prize pool. Once the deal was agreed upon, the hunt for the title and $50,000 in cash for the eventual winner turned into a roller coaster ride as all three held the lead several times.
Final Result 2020 SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 Main Event
| Place | Winner | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Alexgirs" | Belarus | $920,596* |
| 2 | Pablo "pabritz" Brito | Brazil | $764,942* |
| 3 | Alex "dynoalot" Difelice | Canada | $722,075* |
| 4 | Pieter "XMorphineX" Aerts | Belgium | $414,960 |
| 5 | Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress | Canada | $303,273 |
| 6 | Michael "imluckbox" Addamo | United Kingdom | $221,648 |
| 7 | Max "goodeh99" Silver | Ireland | $161,992 |
| 8 | Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle | Austria | $118,392 |
| 9 | "EEE27" | Finland | $95,745 |
*denotes deal of the last three players who continued to play for the title and $50,000 to the winner
It wasn't the first victory for the player from Belarus on PokerStars in 2020 as they already High Rollers 37: $10,300 NLHE [8-Max] in April for a payday of $215,927.76. However, a SCOOP Main Event title and the merits that come along with it are yet another dimension.
For runner-up Brito, it would have been another major highlight in 2020 as the Brazilian won the $10,300 MILLIONS South America Main Event for $1,000,000 earlier this year and also took down the inaugural online edition of the Irish Open for €462,100.
Third-placed Difelice is certainly no slouch at the online poker tables either as the Canadian has two WCOOP titles to his name and now cashed for more than $5.2 million in MTT's under his moniker "dynoalot" on PokerStars.
The trio atop had to overcome a slate of big names on the final table. 2019 WCOOP Main Event finalist Pieter "XMorphineX" Aerts finished 4th, Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress had to settle for 5th, the WSOP bracelet winners Michael "imluckbox" Addamo and Max "goodeh99" Silver bowed out in 6th and 7th place respectively while Raise Your Edge founder Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle came in 8th and Finnish high stakes player "EEE27" was the first casualty of the day.
Final Table Action at a Glance
"EEE27" entered the final table as the shortest stack and became the first casualty after they lost a flip with eights against the ace-queen of Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress. For poker coach Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle, the final table kicked off in rough fashion as he lost a portion of his stack and then flopped a flush only for Max "goodeh99" Silver to river a full house when all the chops went in. Rolle bowed out shortly after when his dominated ace found no help.
As Dvoress built up momentum and a sizable lead, he jammed into Pablo "pabritz" Brito and lost a big portion of his stack with queen-ten suited versus ace-king. That triggered a sudden burst of action as Silver lost a flip with tens against the ace-king of Pieter "XMorphineX" Aerts and Michael "imluckbox" Addamo ran with ace-king into the aces of Alex "dynoalot" Difelice.
Dvoress emerged as the chip leader once more with five players remaining but crashed out next as "Alexgirs" sent the High Roller regular from Canada out in 5th and subsequently knocked out Aerts in 4th. Some back and forth ensued and the final three players then agreed on a deal.
In remarkable fashion, "Alexgirs" went from chip leader to short stack with just five blinds only to double three times through Difelice. They would also score the knockout of Difelice to enter heads-up even in chips with Brito. Fireworks from both players saw the lead change several times and "Alexgirs" then scored a massive double when they called down a triple barrel bluff with king-jack high for nearly all the chips. It was over soon after that as the title went to Belarus.
Veldhuis and Spragg Set New Twitch Record
Another major story of the late stages in the event was the deep run of the PokerStars ambassadors Ben "Spraggy" Spragg and Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis, who both made it to Day 3 and streamed their action live on the Twitch platform. They ended up on the same table and Veldhuis even knocked out his fellow PokerStars ambassador. By then, Spragg had attracted 17,000 viewers and they all joined Veldhuis for the remainder of his stream.
The number of viewers peaked at 58,799, which was not only a new record for the Dutchman but the most viewers for any poker stream on Twitch so far and became the no.1 ranked stream on the entire Twitch platform worldwide. Velhuis fell short of the final table and finished in 15th place.
That wraps up the PokerNews Main Event coverage, however, there are more exclusive SCOOP tournament updates to follow until the end of the extended schedule on May 31st, 2020.