After much anticipation and preparation from online pokers players everywhere, the PokerStars Spring Championship Of Online Poker (SCOOP) has finally begun, with the first two events of a 22 event calendar.

Each SCOOP event is actually three separate tournaments, with different buy-in levels to cater to online players of different bankroll sizes.  The first event, a No Limit Hold 'em 6-max tournament with rebuys, had a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 for it highest level tournament ($500 + $30 buy-in), a $200,000 guarantee for the $50 + $5 buy-in, and a $50,000 guarantee for the lowest level tournament ($5 + $.50 buy-in)- all of which surpassed their posted guarantees. 

Actually, to say these events just surpassed their guarantees doesn't truly convey the level of attention this first event has garnered, a more accurate statement would be to say they destroyed there posted guarantees.  The early numbers show all prize pools at least double what was posted, with the $5 + $.50 prize pool currently more than 8 times the posted guarantee, thanks in part to 27,134 entrants.  That's a $400,000+ prize pool for essentially a $5 buy-in tournament.

The second SCOOP event, a Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event, was still currently registering as of this writing, but already all three tournaments, the $10 + $1, the $100 + $9, and the $1,000 + $50, seem to be headed toward a similiar level of success, each already eclipsing their guarantees with more than an hour left to register- a very promising start to what PokerStars is hoping to be a revolutionary series of tournaments.


Story by Mark Anderson