Welcome to Day 1 of the 2020 SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 NLHE Main Event
For the 12th time, the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) will crown a champion in one of the most-prestigious online poker tournaments of the year.
The SCOOP-74-H: $10,300 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event] comes with a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000,000 and the defending champion is Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza, who has done the unthinkable and won the event in the previous two years.
The Vienna-based Italian defeated a field of 654 entries in 2018 and came out on top of a heads-up battle with Julian "nailuj90" Stuer, the final table then also featured such big names as Chris "Big Huni" Hunichen, Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker, Niklas "Lena900" ?stedt, Kilian "caaaaamel" Kramer, and James "JayP-AA" Park.
One year later, Speranza made the final table once more in a field of 662 entries. Again he had to battle through big names such as Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt, Francisco “Tomatee” Benitez, Nick “caecilius” Petrangelo, and Preben “prebz” Stokkan. Stuer was there once more and had to settle for 5th place. In heads-up, Speranza cut a deal with Ihar "OMGitshunt" Soika and scored the next seven-figure payday on the virtual felt.
Former SCOOP Main Event winners
| Year | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Country | Top Prize | Recap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 502 | $5,020,000 | Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth | Ireland | $963,338 | Recap |
| 2010 | 615 | $6,150,000 | Ryan "toetagU" Fair | United States | $1,162,350 | Recap |
| 2011 | 380 | $3,800,000 | Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro | Finland | $504,691.09 | Recap |
| 2012 | 517 | $5,170,000 | Nicholas "GripDsNutz" Grippo | Costa Rica | $798,675 | Recap |
| 2013 | 580 | $5,800,000 | Viktor "Isildur1" Blom | United Kingdom | $1,096,200 | Recap |
| 2014 | 657 | $6,570,000 | Ivan "vandir4rek" Soshnikov | Russia | $1,048,000 | Recap |
| 2015 | 694 | $6,940,000 | Mustapha "lasagnaaammm" Kanit | United Kingdom | $1,304,720 | Recap |
| 2016 | 824 | $8,000,002 | Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi | United Kingdom | $1,468,000.88 | Recap |
| 2017 | 693 | $6,930,000 | Charlie "Epiphany77" Carrel | United Kingdom | $1,200,899.97 | Recap |
| 2018 | 654 | $6,540,000 | Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza | Austria | $1,133,160.03 | Recap |
| 2019 | 662 | $6,620,000 | Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza | Austria | $1,028,203.24* | Recap |
All players receive 250,000 in chips and the first level features blinds of 500-1,000 and a running ante of 125. The late registration remains open for the first 24 hours until the restart of Day 2 on Monday, May 18th, 2020 as of 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. During the registration period, players can re-enter a maximum of two times for three bullets in total.
The tournament will play down to a champion throughout the next four days and all levels last 30 minutes each until the conclusion of the event. All participants have a time bank of 60 seconds available right away and will receive an additional 10 seconds each two levels.
Day 1 will kick off at 1 p.m. EST and features a total of 15 levels whereas Day 2 will play down to the final five tables, the penultimate tournament then concludes when the final table of the last nine has been determined. For the first time, the PokerNews live reporting team will provide conclusive updates from start-to-finish, and you can follow all the action to find out who becomes the new SCOOP-H Main Event champion!
NLHE SCOOP Main Event Schedule
| Main Event | Day 1 Start | Day 1 End | Day 2 Start | Day 2 End | Day 3 Start | Day 3 End | Day 4 Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $109 Low | May 17, 7:00 p.m. CET | End of 17th Level | May 18, 7:05 p.m. CET | 160 players remain | May 19, 7:05 p.m. CET | 9 players remain | May 20, 7:05 p.m. CET |
| $1,050 Medium | May 17, 7:00 p.m. CET | End of 16th Level | May 18, 7:05 p.m. CET | 80 players remain | May 19, 7:05 p.m. CET | 9 players remain | May 20, 7:05 p.m. CET |
| $10,300 High | May 17, 7:00 p.m. CET | End of 15th Level | May 18, 7:05 p.m. CET | 40 players remain | May 19, 7:05 p.m. CET | 9 players remain | May 20, 7:05 p.m. CET |