Viktor "Isildur1" Blom Wins PokerStars SCOOP $10K Main Event For $1 Million
The 2013 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) came to a close Monday as champions were crowned in the three Main Events. The two-day tournaments began Sunday and offered three different buy-in levels ? low ($109), medium ($1,050), and high ($10,300) ? and each had a guaranteed prize pool of at least $1 million.
The highly anticipated SCOOP High Main Event saw several top pros run deep for a shot at more than $1 million for first place. The final table was headlined by Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, who was seeking his third SCOOP title in addition to the prize money. He was joined by notables Noah "Exclusive" Boeken, Mike "munchenHB" Telker, Ravi "govshark2" Raghavan, and Sergio "zcedrick" Aido. Blom went on to win the tournament in come-from-behind fashion against Boeken in heads-up play.
PokerStars SCOOP Event #43-High: Main Event ($3M Guaranteed)
Reaction came from both sides on PocketFives in a thread in Poker Discussion. The original poster jested, "Cool $1,096,200. Not like he needed it." Then, a post from a player pointing out that Blom is a sponsored pro of Full Tilt, PokerStars' sister site, rained in. "Who cares? An employee of the casino wins again," wrote one person from Canada, who later added, "With all the history of employee theft running poker sites to the ground, it just doesn't look good. I don't know any land casinos where employees can play in, so why should it be any different online?"
Boeken, who was camped out in Monaco, was searching for his second victory of the 2013 SCOOP, while Blom won two SCOOP tournaments right off the bat last year. Boeken was up 3:1 in chips when heads-up play began and was stacked with nearly 200 big blinds.
In the words of one PocketFiver, Blom "beasted" heads-up. The PokerStars Blog explained, "Blom proceeded with caution, and over the first half-hour of heads-up play managed to add more than a million to his stack without putting himself all-in and at risk once. Over the next few hands, Blom chipped up over 4 million to narrow Boeken's lead even further, then edged out in front to grab the lead as the next break approached."
1. Isildur1 - $1,096,200
2. Exclusive - $803,300
3. cmontopdeck - $591,600
4. munchenHB - $446,600
5. zcedrick - $313,200 (zcedrick)
6. govshark2 - $246,500
7. w4ldo - $188,500
8. leshkaGmBlZ - $130,500
9. Amadi_017 - $88,740
