May 11 2012, Martin Harris, Mickey Doft

Two more events kicked off on Day 5 of the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) at PokerStars. Both were two-day affairs, so the six eventual winners will be crowned on Friday. As has been the case so far this SCOOP season, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom made a deep run. However, he came up just short of making it to Day 2 in Event 12-H.

PokerStars SCOOP 12-H: $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Heads-Up ($200K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$2,000+$100	236	$472,000

The “High” version of the heads-up PLO event attracted 236 players, meaning that in order to win the title most would have to win eight matches, with a few who got first-round byes having to win seven. Players making the round of 32 would cash, and play was stopped on Thursday once the final four was reached.

Those making it to the round of 32 but no further earned $5,192 paydays. They included “Mihay28,” Ami “UhhMee” Barer, Dan “djk123” Kelly,” “Stavros,” “petermurphy8,” “JRADF79,” “Miltos14,” “Daheh,” GVOZDIKA55,” “Chilax Chuck,” “theArkeyo,” “ISILDRooN,” “roi kin23,” “Sc0ttyy,” “xXprivXx,” and Mike “SirWatts” Watson.

Just 16 players were left, and the eight players who lost in the next round each earned $9,912 for their finishes. Here’s a look at those eight, as well as who they defeated to get that far:

Next, Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe defeated “L0ve2playU” in their quarterfinal match. With a better than 2-to-1 chip lead, Volpe check-called on all three post-flop streets as the board ran out , then turned over the nut flush with to “L0ve2playU’s” .

It took “kmpk90” close to 45 minutes to earn the next spot in the semis, chipping “fcaler185” down to a super short stack which got all in on a flop, with “fcaler185” holding to “kmpk90′s” . The turn was the and river the , giving “kmpk90” a full house and the win.

2012 SCOOP superstar Viktor “Isildur1” Blom had been the very first player through to the round of 32 – winning in a single hand – and had relatively quick matches throughout the day. But his quarterfinal match with “BriDge2PaiN” would be the last to complete, taking over an hour.

The advantage swung back and forth until finally “BriDge2Pain” had grabbed a better than 4-to-1 chip advantage, then Blom committed the last of his stack on a board holding (queens and a gutshot) while “BriDge2PaiN” had (queens and deuces, plus a flush draw). The river was the to fill up “BriDge2Pain,” and Blom’s quest for a third SCOOP watch in four days fell short.

Here’s a look at the paths taken by those who lost in the quarterfinals, thereby earning $18,408:

Each of those making the final four is guaranteed at least $33,040, with a runner-up finish worth $66,080, and first-prize $103,840. Here’s how the semifinalists found their way to Friday’s Day 2:

.

Among players falling in the round of 64 were Alex “skalexjung” Jung, Brian “$tinger 88″ Hastings, Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver, and Anders “Donald” Berg, each of whom earned $860.12.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Ashley “DYBYDX” Mason stood out among the group eliminated in the round of 32 (earning $1,417.89) along with “L0ve2playU” who made the quarters of #12-H.

Play concluded with the Round of 16, with the losers taking away $2,708.07 and the winners alive to battle on Friday for the event’s $28,401.19 first prize. In that last round of play “J0KERrrr28″ def. “playser37,” Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman def. “lirarerik,” “Krumpir” def. “wadzon,” Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen def. “tilt9,” “rSMig” def. “halva1,” Julian “hartwith” Adamson def. “DOCTORB911,” “devinr12″ def. “g.karolis,” and Chris “NigDawG” Brammer def. “daJAMMIN.”

PokerStars SCOOP 12-L: $25 Pot-Limit Omaha Heads-Up ($50K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$25+$2	3,313	$82,825

Yet another guarantee-crushing prize pool in this one. Entrants played through nine rounds’ worth of heads-up PLO matches to whittle the field down to 16 for Friday’s Day 2. Those going out on their first matches on Friday will all earn $831.56, while $8,727.85 awaits the winner.

The round of 16 is as follows: “Ryan Vachon” vs. “superslide,” “Ahhh Is It?” vs. “KntFoldem,” “jonna102″ vs. “kmoh20,” “demusss” vs. “relayerr,” “dan3|666″ vs. Kurt “kurt23x” Fitzgerald, “Cr@cker717″ vs. “idkPsPro,” “langejan111″ vs. “tammaister,” and “bigtower11″ vs. “im_oddy.”

PokerStars SCOOP 13-H: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em Knockout ($400K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize PoolBounty Pool

$2,000+$500+$100	501	$1,002,000	$250,500

A top-notch field of 501 put up $2,600 for the No-Limit Hold’em Knockout affair, creating a first-place prize of $190,380. Among those who cashed but failed to make it to Day 2 were Max Lykov (26th – $6,012), Chris “Genius28″ Lee (29th – $5,511), Luke “Bdbeatslayer” Vrabel (32nd – $5,511), Bryan “theczar19″ Piccioli (39th – $5,010), Stefan “I’am_Sound” Huber (40th – $5,010), Andre “aakkari” Akkari (41st – $5,010), and Yann “yadio” Dion (46th – $4,709.40).

With play on the money bubble, “WushuTM” took over the chip lead when “Vinkyy” put in a five-bet shove with . “WushuTM” was happy to call with and held up to cross the century mark in chips. The unfortunate 64th-place finisher was Luke “lb6121″ Schwartz. After calling a raise on the button with , Schwartz got his nearly 50-big-blind stack into the middle following a flop. “K_0_S_T_Y_A,” second in chips with about 170 big blinds, had outs with . The turn changed nothing, but the river sent Schwartz to the rail.

“WushuTM” rode the momentum from that pot and ended the day second in chips. Here are the chip counts for the remaining 21 players:

(81st – $1,065.28).

Only 26 players survived the day and still in the hunt are Christian “C.K.” Kruel (8th – 770,474) and Christophe “chrisdm” De Meulder (15th – 405,135). Here are the top five counts entering Day 2:

PlacePlayerChips

1	javiklet	2,651,078
2	allucan3at	1,292,919
3	spielverderb	1,146,572
4	Ifold2ndnuts	1,040,299
5	IceStream	1,006,667

PokerStars SCOOP 13-L: $25 No-Limit Hold’em Knockout ($200K Guaranteed)

Buy-inEntrantsPrize PoolBounty Pool

$20+$5+$2	17,806	$356,120	$89,030

A massive field of 17,806 registered for the “Low” portion of Event #13 and only 36 players made it through to Day 2. Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (2nd), Seth “SFisch4″ Fischer (7th), and Griffin “Flush_Entity” Benger (12th) all still remain and are looking to capture the $41,661.49 first-place prize.

We will be providing daily recaps of all SCOOP Day 1s and final tables, so be sure to keep it here at PokerNews to stay up to date on all of the exciting action as it occurs.

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April 25 2012, Brett Collson

Season 8 of the European Poker Tour is still going strong at the PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final this month, but the world’s leading online poker site has wasted no time in gearing up for Season 9.

On Wednesday, PokerStars announced big changes to next season’s EPT schedule as the number of tour stops was reduced from 13 to eight. However, each destination will offer more tournaments with nearly two weeks of poker at each stop. The first event will be held in Barcelona on Aug. 15, and the tour will then travel to San Remo, Prague, the Bahamas, Deauville, London, Berlin, and Monaco.

The EPT will also join forces with the Estrellas Poker Tour and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) to give more players an opportunity to compete in Europe’s biggest and most prestigious poker tour.

“We looked at every EPT season up until now and asked ourselves how we could make the tour even better for the players,” said EPT President Edgar Stuchly. “In the end, every change comes down to making this a better tour for the people who make this tour what it is: our players.”

In addition to the abundance of lower buy-in events, the EPT will host more High Roller tournaments in the upcoming season. The first high roller will be a televised “50,000 event in Barcelona, followed by “25,000 High Roller and “100,000 Super High Roller tournaments at the PCA in the Bahamas and Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

There will also be a “10,000 Championship Series event at every stop, giving players a chance to show off their skills in a variety of different formats, including heads-up, pot-limit Omaha and 8-game.

“We have had a lot of fun working with our players and our tournament staff to create some of the most exciting poker tournaments in the world,” said EPT Live Poker Specialist Neil Johnson. “With all the incredible improvements coming to the tour, many of them created from player suggestions, EPT 9 will solidify us as the can’t-miss destination for European poker.”

Here’s a look at the schedule for Season 9 of the EPT:

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure	Jan. 6-15, 2013	$10,300
EPT Deauville	Jan. 30-Feb. 9, 2013	“5,300
EPT London	March 6-16, 2013	£5,250
EPT Berlin	April 24-May 4, 2013	“5,300
EPT Monte Carlo	May 6-15, 2013	“10,600

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