So far, a total of 61,812 unique players (426,132 entries) have pulled up a virtual chair to generate over $28M in combined prize money – well clear of the guaranteed $23.2M spread across the opening 129 tournaments. That leaves almost $52M in guaranteed prize money plus heaps more silverware to be decided before the curtain closes in 16 days’ time.
Featuring buy-ins as high as $10,000, no one will be surprised to see a host of household names dominate the festival early on. It took no time at all for former EPT Grand Final champion Adrian ‘Amadi_17’ Mateos to net his first SCOOP title of 2024, overcoming a 106-strong field in Event 4: $5,200 PKO Titans for a $76,367 + $68,255 winner’s cheque.
The Spaniard narrowly missed out on a second trophy just days later after finishing runner-up to ‘Graftekkel’ in the $400K Wednesday Mystery to add a further $136,979 to his coffers, while sandwiched in between was a 10th placed score in Event 6-H: $300K guaranteed worth a further $6,429 as Mateos got his campaign off to a flyer.
Among the other early movers and shakers is Simon ‘C. Darwin2’
Mattsson – not the offspring of a famous scientist, but a Swedish online cardshark who became an eight-time SCOOP champion thanks to a
$186,000 win in the suitably shark-infested Event 16: $10K Super Tuesday High Roller, while another SCOOP League highflyer, Niklas ‘Lena900’
Astedt moved second on the SCOOP all-time list with victory in Event
38-H: $1,050 NLHE [Turbo PKO] to pocket $43,110. Elsewhere, right now it’s a Brazil one-two in the Medium Player of the Series leaderboard as ‘tgrigoletti’ and ‘CrushWhales’ set the pace on 285 and 245 points, respectively.
Though luck plays an undeniable role in poker, the cream of the crop continues to the rise to the very top time after time, year after year.
You only need to look at stalwarts of the game – the Daniel Negreanu’s, Phil Ivey’s, and Erik Seidel’s of this world, who continue to make their mark, mixing it with elite poker prodigies of today decades after playing their first hand.
The same holds true in the digital realm, where the game’s fiercest online beasts regularly slug it out for top honours across the various player of the series leaderboards. Take Team Spraggy’s ‘FAL1st’, who saw off all-comers last year to land the coveted top spot in the Player of the Series leaderboard. One year on, FAL1st has given themselves every chance of defending their crown, currently lying second in the 2024 overall standings. There are thousands worth of SCOOP entries riding on the outcome of this year’s PoS instalment, and few would bet against the Thailand-based player repeating history come May 29th.
A member of Lex’s team in the inaugural SCOOP League, English sensation Patrick ‘pads1161’ will be looking to improve upon a 2023 fourth place Player of the Series showing and has done his hopes no harm as the Geordie (that’s English parlance for someone originating from
Newcastle) again finds himself in familiar territory nestled among the leading pack. If either are to triumph, they will have to navigate a formidable line-up of online phenoms that includes Denis ‘aDrENalin710’ Strebkov of Team Lex who duly landed his fourth career SCOOP victory in Event 34-H: $1,050 8-Game for $19,259 – putting him tied in fourth in the all-time ‘COOP’ honours list. Then there’s the immovable object of C. Darwin2, responsible for a large chunk of Team Spraggy’s 3,565 points score virtue of an equally virtuoso performance.
Two of our own – Lex and Spraggy currently jostle for 6th place in the individual SCOOP League positions, while, somewhat surprisingly, the player currently occupying the SCOOP Player of the Series summit was overlooked by all four captains. ‘Internett93o’’s 825 points haul sees them comfortably ahead of those below after taking a seat 111 times already! There’s clearly no buy-in too high or too low for the hungry Brazilian.
SCOOP League
Debuting for 2024, the SCOOP League pits PokerStars ambassadors Lex Veldhuis, Benjamin ‘Spraggy’ Spragg, Fintan ‘easywithaces’ Hand, and Parker ‘tonkaaaa’ Talbot against one another with performances from each of their 30-strong teams corresponding to points earned, and there’s an amazing UKIPT / Estrellas Malaga package in store for one PokerStars player that sides with the winning team. For all their efforts, none of the quartet have tasted SCOOP success this year with Lex and Spraggy both going closest having notched third place finishes to propel themselves up the individual leaderboards, but neither will be happy until adding a SCOOP 2024 title to their name. Fortunately, plenty of opportunities remain to make those dream a reality.