"Pimmss" Tops the Field on Day 1 of SCOOP-62-H: $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, PKO, High Roller]; Pardo and Stokkan Follow
This past Monday, the Netherlands’ ”Pimmss” outlasted a field of 578 entries in SCOOP Event #43-H, a $2,100 Progressive Knockout tournament for a total prize of over $190,000. Three days later, “Pimmss” leads the final 27 of Event #62-H [8-Max, PKO, High Roller] $1M Gtd, taking a stack of 6.57 million into the money for Friday’s Day 2.
The tournament generated 235 entries from 172 players to result in a total prize pool of $1,175,000. It took just over seven hours of play for that number to reach 27, with Day 1 ending upon reaching the money. All remaining players have $6,105 guaranteed as a result, and Friday’s winner will earn $101,026 plus a substantial amount more in bounties.
“Pimmss” has already amassed $18,750 in bounties, but will have a full day's worth of work ahead if they are to win their second SCOOP PKO title in a week's time. The names that follow in the counts provide just a glimpse into the caliber of players that filled the tournament. Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo (5.55 million) and Preben “prebz” Stokkan (5.51 million) are the only other two players above 5 million, and Niklas “Lena900” Astedt (4.72 million) and Pieter “XMorphineX” Aerts round out the top five, with Astedt making it through on his second bullet of the tournament.
Only six more players advanced on their second or third entries, the max allowed for the tournament, while the other 20 players got through the day on their first shot. Michel “FreeLancerZZ” Dattani (3.26 million), Joao”Naza114” Vieira (1.47 million), and Ilya “Leqenden” Anatsky found more luck on their second try than their first, while the third time was a charm for Pauli “Fiilismies” Ayras (2.15 million), Connor “blacnonegro” Drinan (795,000), and Artur “marartur1” Martirosyan, who finished the day at the bottom of the counts with a stack of 425,000.
Many were less fortunate: fresh off their heads-up battle in the SCOOP $25,000 Super High Roller, Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer and Andras “probirs” Nemeth were the first two eliminations of the tournament after losing a three-way all in to Scott “Aggro Santos” Margerseon. Nemeth’s day ultimately came to a close shortly before the registration period closed when he struck out of the tournament, and both Margereson and O’Dwyer also fell short of the money by less than 10 positions.
O’Dwyer’s elimination punctuated a flurry of eliminations that left the tournament two spots away from making it into the money. It came in a three-way all-in preflop scenario where his pocket queens were unable to hold versus two ace-kings when a king came on the flop. The shorter-stacked Dimitar “KuuL” Danchev split the main pot with “Pimms,” who scored the massive side pot to launch up the chip counts.
Fransico “Tomatee” Benitez was then eliminated by Astedt after stacks got in on the river with Benitez holding a full house to Astedt's quads. Hand-for-hand play began, and it did not take long before “Pimms” knocked out Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger on the bubble to result in Day 1 coming to a close with “Pimms” atop the leader board.
Day 2 resumes Friday at 1 p.m. ET in the middle of Level 19 with blinds of 17,500/35,000 and an ante of 4,500. Levels will be 30 minutes in length and the tournament will play down to a winner. PokerNews will have updates coming your way the entire length of the tournament, so make sure to come back and follow along.