Grippo, a veteran online grinder from Chicago now living in Costa Rica, took home $798,675 along with the traditional SCOOP watch for the title after a three-way chop with runner-up sp00led from Canada and third-place finisher sosickPL from Poland.
Coming into the final table third in chips, Grippo had taken over the chip lead within the first hour of play and after knocking out German player römpsä to boost his stack up over 2 million never looked back.
By the time they reached three-handed play a deal began to look appealing and after a dozen or so hands play was paused to discuss splitting up the $2.2 million still on the table.
Despite being third in chips at that point it was Grippo who insisted on an even chop, saying "Before we look at numbers ill take an even chop and nothing else."
After some discussion the three players agreed to leave $80k to play for and each took a guaranteed $718,675.
GripDsNutz went on to knock out both sosickPL and SpOOled and that was that for the 2012 SCOOP.
Among the big names cashing in on the SCOOP Main Event were:
Dan "w00ki3z" Cates (58th - $22,748) Sorel "zangbezan24" Mizzi (46th - $24,299) Jon "FatalError" Aguiar (42nd - $24,299) Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen (39th - $25,850) Rory "Mafews' Mathews (35th - $28,435) Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilonofsky (31st - $28,435) Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (27th - $31,020) Griffin "Flush_Entity" Benger (26th - $31,020) William "Altrum Altus" Reynolds (19th - $31,020) Andre Akkari (16th - $41,360) Stefan Huber (14th - $51,700) Matt Frankland (10th - $62,040)Final Results Event 40-High, $10,300 No-Limit Hold'em, Main Event (*reflects three-way deal):
1. GripDsNutz (Costa Rica) -- $798,675* 2. sp00led (Canada) -- $718,675* 3. sosickPL (Poland) -- $718,675* 4. UrMySponsor (Germany) -- $403,260 5. wizowizo (Germany) -- $284,350 6. hotmark777 (Lebanon) -- $219,725 7. r4st4f4ri (Germany) -- $168,025 8. römpsä (Germany) -- $116,325 9. B4d3m3!st3r (Germany) -- $85,822.00
Ministerborg Narrowly Misses Second Title, ElkY Outlasts 22,000
While the $10k high buy-in Main Event was the ultimate capper on the series, the medium and low buy-in events were also playing out with equally interesting story lines.
In Event $40-M, $1,050 N0-Limit Hold'em, PokerStars pro Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth carried the torch for the returning pros on Day 2 but could muster no better than a 23rd-place finish.
Denmark's ministerborg, however, who had already won the high buy-in Event 21 NL, began Day 2 in the Top 10 in chips and narrowly missed joining the rakns of the two-title winners as he eventually fell heads-up to Bulgarian suarez_BG.
In the low buy-in $109 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, a massive field of 22,128 played down over two days to reach a final table and PokerStars pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was amazingly almost one of the last men standing.
ElkY outlasted over 22,000 players before busting out just before the final table in 14th.
Greek player john_tri80 ultimately took home the title and $198,725.75 while FrandsenDK from Denmark finished second. Fiskin1 finished third while also making the final table in Event 39.
Final results for both events below; for a full recap of all the SCOOP action and the record-breaking numbers, check the PokerStars blog.
Final Results Event #40-M $1,050 NL Main Event:
1. suarez_BG (Bulgaria) - $560,019 2. ministerborg (Denmark) - $417,339 3. hunwei (Australia) - $296,061 4. PSÄ! (Malta) - $205,102.50 5. carrycakes (Mexico) - $152,703.27 6. scrooch025 (Belgium) - $115,927.50 7. Donny "dknight10" Knight (Costa Rica) - $80,257.50 8. Korn2005 (Canada)- $44,587.50 9. IRLMedic (Ireland) - $28,536
Final Results Event #40-L $109 NLHE Main Event:
1. john_tri80 (Greece) - $198,725.75* 2. FrandsenDK (Denmark) - $187,000.00* 3. Fiskin1 (UK) - $110,640.00 4. T_Dot_D (Canada) - $88,512.00 5. flowstone80 (Germany) - $66,384.00 6. Lyznypapa (Poland) - $44,256.00 7. Jonath3501 (UK) - $31,089.84 8. slavOuchka (New Zealand) - $19,915.20 9. MrWeesy (Germany) - $13,276.80
*Based on two-way deal with $20K added to winner's money
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