Tankanza, an Italian player based in Austria wins the $1.1m first prize in the $10,300 buy-in Spring Championships of Online Poker Main Event {H} after refusing a deal when heads-up with Julien Stuer.
As the man in front of me sips coffee through a perfectly sheared beard while reading King Lear, I think about the size of a grand or two getting lost in the enormous potential of six and seven figure sums while playing poker.
It’s Julien Stuer’s fault.
The man who won the €1m first prize in last year’s €25,750 High Roller at the PokerStars Championship in Monte Carlo was trying to emulate his seven-figure ways in the online realm when he reached the heads-up phase of the $10,300 buy-in Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Event {H}.
According to HighStakesDB, Stuer (who plays online as nailuj90) and his Austrian-based Italian opponent Tankanza entered into ‘deal’ discussions two-hours into their four-hour marathon. After looking at the ICM numbers, it seemed likely the pair would bank $900,000+ each with close to $131,000 left in the middle when Stuer asked for $2k more.
It seems ridiculous, right?
Here you are, splitting $2m bucks, and someone asks for an additional $2k. Madness. But I like this man’s way of thinking, $2k is enough to cover his return flight from Austria to Vegas. You have to praise the man for thinking on his feet at such a pressure cooker moment.
And then again, given that his opponent replied with “why shud I give up $? No tanks,” before playing on with Stuer losing $60,000+, maybe we should be paying more attention to the man’s ego than his financial skills.
The event attracted 654 entrants, creating a $6,540,000 prize pool. Remarkably, five of the final table hailed from Austria – the land of Fedor Holz and his team of German crack shots.
Tankanza, who also won a World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title last year, also earned a Platinum Pass for the win.
Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen continued his crazy 12-month meteoric rise in money earned with another colossal score finishing third.
Final Table Results
1. Tankanza – $1,133,160
2. Julian ‘nailuj90’ Stuer – $837,473
3. Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen – $618,943
4. Max ‘Mikki696’ Lehmanski – $457,436
5. ULOSEMFKR!! – $338,072
6. Thomas ‘WushuTM’ Muehloecker – $249,856
7. Niklas’Lena900’ Astedt – $184,658
8. Caaaaamel – $136,474
9. JayP-AA – $100,862
And it wasn’t only the High version of the SCOOP Main Event where the big bucks floated to the top of the leaderboard. Both the Medium and Low tournaments dished out mega millions in prize money.
Here are the results:
$1,050 {M} Final Table Results
1. Wildace_hun – $783,165
2. VICTOR TXR1 – $545,685
3. Cottonbud07 – $380,219
4. OverTheTop43 – $264,926
5. Ilir3 – $184,594
6. Easy live – $128,620
7. Johannes ‘Greenstone25’ Korsar – $89,619
8. Flavio ‘Flavioreis88’ Rei – $62,444
9. Chry1982 – $43,509
The event attracted 5,508 entrants, creating $5,508, 000 in prize money.
$109 {L} Final Table Results
1. Cashcid Linc – $267,583
2. Marjanko89 – $192,380
3. Kabotajoe – $138,323
4. Aetos2drama – $99,456
5. Allin0709 – $71,510
6. AccklySotona – $51,416
7. B1GF1SH89 – $36,969
8. 50km – $26,581
9. Merla888 – $19,112
The event attracted 26,361 entrants, creating $2,636,100 in prize money.
