May 14 2012, Martin Harris, Mickey Doft
There weren’t any champions crowned on Day 8 of the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) at PokerStars, but Sunday’s action did set the stage for a big Day 9 that will see 15 winners determined. Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb and Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom already have two SCOOP wins apiece this series and they’re in good position for a third title. They’ll begin Day 2 of Event 20 – H in fifth and sixth place, respectively, out of the 53 returning players. Meanwhile, Stefan “I’am_Sound” Huber commands the biggest stack in Event 21 – H with 60 players left.
PokerStars SCOOP 20 – H – $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em ($750K Guaranteed)
| $2,000+$100 | 782 | $1,564,000 |
Sunday saw another two-day $2,000 no-limit hold’em tourney arrive on the SCOOP schedule, and many of poker’s elite were among the massive field of 782 players. The prize pool more than doubled the guarantee, and practically every table was filled with recognizable usernames and avatars.
After six hours the field had been trimmed to 250 players, with David “Betudontbet” Emmons, Brian “brianm15″ England, and “Milana Jones” having pushed to the top of the leaderboard as the only players over 100,000. Ivan Demidov and 2012 SCOOPerstar Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom were right there on the front page of the counts as well, both sitting inside the top 20.
As play continued and the field fell below 200 players, Demidov and Blom joined the growing group of players in the 100,000-chip club despite being seated side-by-side. A little while later another familiar name appeared to occupy the seat on the other side of Blom – current SCOOP Player of the Series leader Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb. Deeb arrived sporting a hefty stack of better than 170,000, good enough for second position at the time.
Shortly after Deeb sat down, Demidov was explaining to a railbird how he is currently in Kiev, Ukraine for the Russian Poker Series, although his short-term plan was to be otherwise occupied. “Day two is tomorrow,” typed Demidov, referring to this event’s two-day structure.
Ivan Demidov: soooooo i ll be busy trying to take one from shaun
shaundeeb: Ive had enough
shaundeeb: you can have one
Ivan Demidov: 
Blom would see his stack start to slide while the other two maintained their chips, but the Swede was eventually moved to another table, this one featuring fellow Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel.
Indeed, every table in this one was a tough one. As they approached the nine-and-a-half-hour mark, 100 players remained, led by “scout326,” “micide,” and “SUNDAYKING.” Deeb was right there in fourth, with “ekziter,” Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, “THEDUTCH414,” and Duhamel all in the top ten.
The money bubble was soon approaching, with Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (98th), Andrew “foucault82″ Brokos (95th) and Taylor “tRaMp$d0PrAy” Paur (93rd) among those just missing the cash. Finally, “TheMatadorCC” was the unfortunate 91st-place finisher and the bubble had burst.
Among those hitting the rail over the next couple of hours and realizing a profit in this one were “kirbynator” (82nd – $4,066.40), McLean “PureProfitFo” Karr (81st – $4,379.20), David “Betudontbet” Emmons (80th – $4,379.20), George Danzer (76th – $4,379.20), “THEDUTCH4141″ (75th – $4,379.20), “bar-bar9999″ (67th – $4,992), and David “CrabMaki” Shallow (65th – 4,692).
That’s when a big hand developed in which “K_0_S_T_Y_A” six-bet shoved a stack of 142,163 (more than 70 big blinds) with 
and Demidov called with 
. The Russian’s hand held, and soon thereafter Deeb knocked “K_0_S_T_Y_A” out in 64th ($4,692).
As the final levels played out, Ken “kenny05″ Smaron moved up into the top spot with more than 400,000, with Demidov his nearest challenger hovering just below 300,000. Duhamel, Deeb, O’Dwyer, and Blom jockeyed for position in the next four spots. Meanwhile, the final eliminations of the night took place, including Giuseppe “Ansgar2000″ Pantaleo (63rd – $5,004.80), Andre “aakkari” Akkari (60th – $5,004.80), “KaptianKush” (57th – $5,004.80), and “jonwayne69″ (54th – $5,474).
Just 53 remained when play was stopped for the night. Here’s a look at the stacked top 10:
| $200+$15 | 5,516 | $1,103,200 |
Just 63 players survived to return on Monday in this one, with $172,575.88 awaiting the player who manages to survive Day 2.
“Pvd170590″ was the first player to a million chips, getting there after a little over nine hours of play when less than 200 players remained, though would ultimately fall in 82nd place ($1,412.09). Others lasting until almost night’s end on Sunday included “Unicum next” (70th, $1,720.99) and “rabbit195417″ (64th, $1,720.99).
Here’s what the top 10 looked like when play was stopped on Sunday night:
| 1 | The Giggy | 2,146,557 |
| 2 | bostanu24 | 2,057,153 |
| 3 | holyguacmole | 2,010,653 |
| 4 | MD IACONI | 1,878,346 |
| 5 | Fairy verde | 1,674,918 |
| 6 | Ryan “Daut44″ Daut | 1,546,463 |
| 7 | IraiseYouUp | 1,432,104 |
| 8 | yugurt1961 | 1,428,648 |
| 9 | ShippityShip | 1,428,356 |
| 10 | JC “PrtyPsux” Alvarado | 1,424,064 |
PokerStars SCOOP 20 – L – $25 No-Limit Hold’em ($250K Guaranteed)
| $25+$2 | 22,013 | $550,325 |
Another big field in the “Low” version of Event #20 meant all three of the event’s guarantees were more than doubled by the prize pool. As in the “High” version, 53 players made it through to Monday’s Day 2 in this one. A cool $55,048.04 awaits the eventual winner.
Here’s what the top of the counts look like heading into Monday:
