SCOOP Crushes $4.5 Million Guarantee by Almost $2 Million at PokerStars USA; PA Ambassador Scores Two Titles
Two weeks of online poker action recently wrapped up in the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) at PokerStars. The series was held across the Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey platforms simultaneously for the first time.
The festival paid out a total of almost $6.4 million, easily topping the combined guarantee of $4.5 million. The series ran from March 25 – April 11 and attracted more than 100,000 entries across 115 events.
PokerStars officials were pleased to see such a large turnout for the series.
Big turnout for PokerStars SCOOP
The series’ success comes after regulators recently approved the expansion of the country’s interstate gaming compact to include Michigan. That also includes Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware.
Next year’s SCOOP may expand to at least see combined player and prize pools in New Jersey and Michigan. In the meantime, Stars players were treated to a series appealing to players of all skill levels across three stakes tiers. Buy-ins ranged from $10 to $2,000.
There were plenty of success stories throughout the three series that saw 345 SCOOP champions. Of those, Stars awarded 90 championship trophies.
In the $300 Main Events, all three tournaments surpassed their guarantees. In Pennsylvania, “TrypotophanMan” took the top spot for $40,900 after topping a field of 879.
The Michigan Main Event saw “iRunDaMitten” score $33,273 after besting a field of 689. “BillHuckle” became the New Jersey champion, scoring $18,460 after topping a field of 353.
BillHuckle also won NJSCOOP Event 3-H: $100 NLHE for a payday of $2,251.
🚨Back-to-back #PASCOOP titles for @Mark_Foresta 🥳
As with most tourneys, it always has to be a 🎢with a sweat. 😓
Congrats on the win for 💰 $2.4k.Be sure to catch Mark's streams at https://t.co/znzKRp50kt
Do you think he can get three in a row? 👇 pic.twitter.com/BVAd4DUcvE
— PokerStarsUSA (@PokerStarsUSA) April 6, 2022
More SCOOP winners and statistics
SCOOP results may be a positive sign of where the legal US online poker market is headed. On April 10, the three states saw more than $1 million awarded for events starting on Main Event Sunday.
April 4, 2021, was the last time Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan awarded a total of more than $1 million on a single day. That came across Pennsyl-MANIA, and New Jersey and Michigan Classic events.
This year’s largest SCOOP field came in the PASCOOP Event 7-L: $10 NLHE Spring Special Championship. The tournament attracted 1,519 entries.
A PokerStars PA ambassador also came up big during the series. Mark “NaigoPA” Foresta made eight final tables and secured two victories. The largest came in Event 21-M: $200 NLHE, where he took home $20,376 after outlasting 696 entries. Some other winners who distinguished themselves included:
- New Jersey player Daniel “monkeyman067” Sewnig won two tournaments in the same event. He took down the High and Low versions of NJSCOOP 10: NLHE and made an additional five final table appearances.
- “CleggsOnGG” won the $50 Mini Main Event in Pennsylvania and also had deep runs in the High Roller and Main Event. Cleggs won more than $30,000 across the three events.
- New Jersey’s “thekidraf04” found six big finishes starting with winning the $1,000 High Roller Main Event for $16,400. Thekid also finished second in the Mini Main Event and made four additional final table appearances.