Online poker news from the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker, the partypoker KO Series, and the GG Series.
Baklava is a Middle Eastern sweet made from filo pastry, nuts and honey. Sweet-toothed people who don’t eat cane sugar love it. It’s not to be confused with a balaclava, which is a hood you slip over your face when robbing a bank.
Poker is a game played with a deck of cards, and No-Limit Hold’em is the most popular format. It’s not to be confused with the poker sadists use during sexual intercourse, or the one non-sadists use to stoke a fire.
Currently, in parts of the world not run by lunatics, people are playing online poker for vast sums of money. Some of them are eating baklava, a few wear balaclavas, and you might even find one or two eating baklava while wearing a balaclava. I don’t want to deviate towards the sadists, because, after all, this is an article about poker.
Guilherme “guilherme12” Decourt has does something few ever have – he’s won two PokerStars Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) titles in a single sitting. The Brazilian conquered a field of 1,359-entrants in SCOOP 33 (M) $109 buy-in, $125k GTD PLO-8 for $21,102, and then marched through a field of 317-entrants in SCOOP 37 (H) $530 buy-in, $125k GTD NLO8 for $24,170.41. Boys from Brazil also won the L and M versions of SCOOP 37.
Joao “Naza114” Vieira didn’t win two SCOOPS in a single sitting, but he did win two in a week. The Portuguese star’s latest victory came in SCOOP 24 (H) $2,100 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. beating 89-entrants to win the $48,505 first prize.
The former PocketFives World #1, Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver, beat 1,325 players to win SCOOP 27 (H) $1,050 NLHE PKO for $190,049.96. It’s the fourth highest online score for Oliver, and his second COOP title after winning the $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller during the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) last year for $250,935. All told, Oliver has won $11.9m playing online poker.
Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert also won a SCOOP title after beating 247-entrants in SCOOP 29 (H) $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo for $94,989.94 after coming through a final table that included Andras “probirs” Nemeth (2nd) and Martin “M.nosbocaJ” Jacobson (6th). It’s Hallaert’s second SCOOP title after winning a $1k in 2017 for a career-high $147,938.
There were also SCOOP titles for Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs who won SCOOP 32 (M) $530 buy-in, $1.25m GTD No-Limit Hold’em for $217,139.56. The Dutchman waltzed through 3,008-entrants to take that one down. Christopher “lissi stinkt” Frank won the 3,305-entrant SCOOP 28 (L) $55 buy-in, 3,305 entrants Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Max for $23,757.50, and Andreas “Skjervoy” Tobergsen topped a field of 201-entrants to win the $5,200 buy-in PLO High Roller for $197,209.
Outside of SCOOP, and Patrick “pads1161” Leonard continued his ascent to the top of the PocketFives World Rankings after chopping the $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up on PokerStars with the Estonian Markku “markovitsus” Koplimaa. The pair waded through a 304-entrant field including Vladimir Troyanovskiy (4th) and Adrian Mateos (8th). Leonard collected $50,974 with the Estonian earning $49,068.
Leonard is going to have to take up hypnotism, and then put Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt under his spell if he’s going to take that number one spot. The Swede is simply unstoppable, and this weekend, he took down the 249-entrant $1,050 Sunday Supersonic for $48,876.
Åstedt wasn’t the only Swede sweeping up this weekend – Simon “HellmuthTheGr8” Mattsson won the 198-entrant $5,200 buy-in, $1m GTD Championship Event at the partypoker KO Series for $215,410 beating fellow Swede ‘haddoken’ in heads-up action.
Last but not least, Natural8 Ambassador, Michael Soyza, won the 45-entrant, $5,000 buy-in, $150k GTD GG Series Super High Roller for $91,182.
