Martin "marlin5555" Raus Leads After Day 1 of SCOOP-53-M: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill], $1M GTD
The 2021 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has now seen Day 1 of SCOOP-53-M: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill], $1M GTD come to an end after just over seven hours of play. A total of 1,178 registration buttons were clicked and when the last chance saloon had closed for business only 142 found a bag for Day 2 on Saturday, April 17 at 2:05 p.m. GMT.
Leading the way into Day 2 is Canada's Martin "marlin5555" Raus who is sitting atop the leaderboard with a monstrous 3,827,396 which is good for 239 big blinds for the start of day play. Raus secured the chip lead during the last hand of the night when his pocket nines held on versus ace-eight of Thorsten "juicetus" Legit who ended up finishing as the first player to cash the event. Popular streamer Brian "TrueGeordie" Davis sits in 13th place after the first day.
The only other player to have over 200 big blinds headed into the final day is "DubbCitySauce" who will begin with 3,372,109. Rounding out the top five are "langace66" (2,533,984), "disquesi!" (2,221,647), and "offQbert45" (2,017,985).
All of the remaining players are now guaranteed at least a piece of the $1,178,000 prize pool with lots of plentiful bounties up for grabs on the way to finding an eventual winner who will be retaining their collection of bounties to go with the $80,877 first-place money.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1 of SCOOP-53-M: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill], $1M GTD
| Position | Player | Country | Bounty | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin "marlin5555" Raus | Canada | $3,750.00 | 3,827,396 | 239 |
| 2 | DubbCitySauce | United Kingdom | $4,187.50 | 3,372,109 | 211 |
| 3 | langace66 | Hungary | $1,875.00 | 2,533,984 | 158 |
| 4 | disquesi! | Andorro | $4,375.00 | 2,221,647 | 139 |
| 5 | Diogo "offQbert45" Ferreira | Brazil | $1,312.50 | 2,017,985 | 126 |
| 6 | Donborno3250 | Denmark | $2,187.50 | 1,969,069 | 123 |
| 7 | neeno1990 | Austria | $2,484.38 | 1,930,116 | 121 |
| 8 | dasslo007 | Netherlands | $2,187.50 | 1,834,074 | 115 |
| 9 | Vitaliy "Witalii" Pankov | Russia | $3,125.00 | 1,754,734 | 110 |
| 10 | jeyduverne | Argentina | $3,000.00 | 1,737,162 | 109 |
"Donborno3250" (1,969,069), "neeno1990" (1,930,116), "dasslo007" (1,834,074), and "jeyduverne" (1,737,162) all found a top ten stack as well. Russia's Vitaliy "Witalii" Pankov is the final player to round out the top ten with his 1,754,734 after a rollercoaster of a day that saw his stack continuously shift on the totem pole, but he managed to end on a high note after dropping multiple players during the latter stages of the day. The Russian saw an upward during the last blind level that ended with a healthy-sized take down of a pot with pocket aces after flopping a set.
Many notable players managed to find a final day birth and some of those to do so include Chris "Moorman1" Moorman, Matheus "zilbee" Zilberknop, Aliaksei "ale6ka" Boika, Bruno "brunilsks" Borges, Espen "Hymn2Ninkasi" Jorstad, Ramon "ZéDoBlefe11" Sorgatto, Matveychuk "MinReraise" Roman, Viktor "papan9_p$" Ustimov, Conor "1_conor_b_1" Beresford, and Mike "SirWatts" Watson.
One player highlighting the field is Team PokerStars ambassador Lasse "Wistern" Jagd Lauritsen who just signed on with the site last week but is already making waves in the poker community. Jagd Lauritsen will be starting with a below-average 465,380 stack but the slow structure is sure to give him some wiggly room as he attempts to make a deep run.
The 142 players will be returning Saturday, April 17 at 5:05 p.m. GMT to battle down to a winner with blinds resuming at 8,000/16,000 with a 2,000 ante. All runners will be guaranteed at least a min-cash of $1,187 so an onslaught of eliminations is most likely going to be starting the day off.
The PokerNews team will be bringing all of the updates on Day 2, so stay tuned as the action unfolds.
and the dimes of "AdoptAMonkey" were still ahead. The 
turn hit a straight for de Farias who then had his opponent drawing to just a split to stay alive. A 
river completed the board and de Farias cemented the pot, dropping "AdoptAMonkey" from the field just shy of the money.
and "marlin5555" was ahead still. A 
turn and 
river cemented it for the chipleader who collected another bounty as the bubble loams.
turn and both players checked to the 
river where "galo_pb" bet 59,182. Pankov raised to 222,919 and "galo_pb" called. Pankov tabled 
, giving him a flopped set of bullets and "galo_pb" mucked, shipping the pot to Pankov.
and the niners were holding strong. A 
turn sealed the deal for Zilberknop who had his opponent drawing dead to the 
river, doubling their stack.
river made no difference, sending most of Borges' stack to "luelue399".
river completed a flush, sending the monster pot to "Killer_ooooo".
landed. He now had the hand wrapped up and the irrelevant 
flop landed on the felt, giving Pankov a pair of johnnies. An