$109 Main Event Day 1 | 2023 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker

05-28-2023 23:36 UTC

Day 1 of 2023 SCOOP Main Event L Comes to a Close

Matt O'Halloran

Level 17 : Blinds 800/1,600, 200 ante

It was a busy day in the online poker world as all three Main Events of the Spring Championship of Online Poker began at 12:30 pm ET.

The smallest buy-in of these, the Main Event Low, attracted a massive field, totaling 20,373 entries. Of those, just 5,203 had chips left to bag at the conclusion of Level 17. Both of these numbers will continue to grow, however, as late entry will remain open nearly until Day 2 begins, with late registration closing at 12:30 pm ET tomorrow, May 29th, while cards will get in the air five minutes later, at 12:35 pm ET. As those numbers grow, so too does the prize pool. The guarantee of $2,000,000 was reached and exceeded during the last hour of play, currently sitting at $2,037,000.

Day 2 will begin at 12:35 pm ET on May 29th. Play will resume at Level 18, with blinds at 900/1800 and an ante of 225. Levels will last just fifteen minutes each for the remainder of the tournament. Play will continue until just 160 players remain.

Plenty of familiar faces, namely PokerStars ambassadors, were in today's field. Fintan "EasyWithAces" Hand, Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas, and Lasse "Wistern" Jagd Lauritsen were among those to have played today without bagging for tomorrow. Hand still has one bullet he could fire, whereas Colillas and Lauritsen used all three of their rebuys today.

Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis bagged 78,748 on his second bullet. Ben "Spraggy" Spragg bagged a similar stack of 70,252 heading into Day 2. Sebastian ''peace&loove'' Huber also had quite a nice day, securing himself 142,476 chips for play tomorrow.

The clear standout from the PokerStars team was Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo. After busting his first bullet, Lococo appeared unstoppable for much of the day. Between cracking aces and filling up his own aces, Lococo was in the top 10 in chips for most of the day. At the conclusion of play, he had 345,425 in his stack, good for 36th in the field.

Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1	"ShP89"	Belarus	480,358
2	"ZERGA_77"	Montenegro	461,848
3	"Blackpro920"	Bolivia	451,924
4	"cozabradford"	United Kingdom	447,777
5	"HeizenbergPS"	Kazakhstan	446,994
6	"4THEGLORY4"	Romania	436,122
7	"pokerman_721"	Canada	434,224
8	"gelus26"	Romania	426,082
9	"jonny_pne_89"	United Kingdom	425,978
10	"poulsencrazy"	Belgium	417,868

Player	Chips	Progress
ShP89	480,358 480,358	480,358
ZERGA_77	461,848 461,848	461,848
Blackpro920	451,924 451,924	451,924
cozabradford	447,777 447,777	447,777
HeizenbergPS	446,994 446,994	446,994
4THEGLORY4	436,122 436,122	436,122
pokerman_721	434,224 434,224	434,224
gelus26	426,082 426,082	426,082
jonny_pne_89	425,978 425,978	425,978
poulsencrazy	417,868 166,789	166,789
Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo	345,425 -7,443	-7,443

Sebastian ''peace&loove'' Huber	142,476 108,856	108,856

Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis	78,748 49,566	49,566

Ben "Spraggy" Spragg	70,252 2,944	2,944

Fintan "EasyWithAces" Hand	Busted

Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas	Busted

Lasse "Wistern" Jagd Lauritsen	Busted

05-28-2023 22:47 UTC

Flush Over Set for Nearly 300,000

Matt O'Halloran

Level 16 : Blinds 700/1,400, 175 ante

Luigi "Gofaziin26" Soncin opened to 3,500 from late position. The button, "krzysiek121" and the small blind, "rodrigo2595", both made the call.

On the 5♣3♠6♦ flop, action checked to the button, who bet 6,650. "rodrigo2595" raised to 19,600. Once Soncin got out of the way, "krzysiek121" made the call.

When "krzysiek121" fired 22,400 on the 4♦ turn, "rodrigo2595" made the call. With 97,300 in the middle and just 94,352 left in the smaller stack of "rodrigo2595", the K♦ completed the board. "krzysiek121" moved all in and got called.

"rodrigo2595": 5♦5♠
"krzysiek121": 7♦9♦

The flush was enough to beat "rodrigo2595"'s set of fives. "krzysiek121" sent their opponent to the rail while nearly doubling their own stack.

Player	Chips	Progress
krzysiek121	317,776
Luigi "Gofaziin26" Soncin	291,086 -525	-525
rodrigo2595	Busted

05-28-2023 22:16 UTC

Aces Full for Lococo

Matt O'Halloran

Level 15 : Blinds 600/1,200, 150 ante

"korreboet" opened to 2,580 from the cutoff. Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo called in the small blind, as did the big blind, "casper1011".

On the K♠A♠J♥ flop, action checked to the preflop aggressor who bet 2,160. They were again called by the same two players. The 3♠ turn was checked through before the K♦ arrived on the river. First to act, "casper1011" led out for 5,400. "korreboet" got out of the way before Lococo moved all in. Lococo easily covered his opponent, who had 43,004 left behind after making the initial bet.

"casper1011": 7♠10♠
Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo: A♣A♥

Lococo had nearly had his aces cracked, but managed to fill up on the river to send his opponent to the rail.

Player	Chips	Progress
Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo	352,868 54,638	54,638

casper1011	Busted

Tags: Alejandro Lococo

05-28-2023 21:59 UTC

Straight Flush for Chip Lead

Matt O'Halloran

Level 14 : Blinds 500/1,000, 125 ante

"stampr_gg" opened to 2,000 from late position. The cutoff, "Johnny Pokr" three bet to 6,250. "stampr_gg" was the only caller.

Action checked to the three better on the 3♦2♠9♣ flop. He fired out 6,000. "stampr_gg" proceeded to move all in for 61,134 effective, covering his opponent, who made the call.

"Johnny Pokr": J♥J♦
"stampr_gg": 10♣J♣

The small stack was in great shape, better than a 9:1 favorite to survive and double up. The 8♣ provided a bit of a sweat, as he was down to just a 2:1 favorite. Then, the Q♣ on the river gave "stampr_gg" the straight flush, sending his opponent to the rail, and sending themselves to the top of the chip leaderboard.

Player	Chips	Progress
stampr_gg	403,082 89,726	89,726
Johnny Pokr	Busted

05-28-2023 21:32 UTC

Lococo Cracks Aces, Top 10 in Chips

Matt O'Halloran

Level 13 : Blinds 450/900, 110 ante

Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo opened to 1,890 from the button. "Giorgos9293" three bet to 6,300 from the small blind. Once the big blind got out of the way, Lococo put in the call.

On the J♣3♦9♥ flop, the three better continued for 4,314 and was again called by Lococo.

On the 7♣ turn, "Giorgos9293" again led, but this time with a min-bet of just 900. Lococo put in a raise to 11,250 and got called. With 45,508 in the middle, the 4♣ completed the board on the river. "Giorgos9293", the small stack of the two with 68,906 behind, checked to Lococo who moved all in. He got a call and the card faces went skyward.

"Giorgos9293": A♦A♥
Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo: 8♣10♣

Lococo had been dominated preflop, roughly a 4:1 dog in the hand. The flop gave him an open-ended straight draw, but still left him worse than a 2:1 dog. The 7♣ turn had given Lococo the straight, more than enough to crack his opponent's aces, the 4♣ river for the flush was nothing more than gravy. This 183,320 chip pot launched Lococo into chip lead contention, currently sitting in 10th place among the nearly 7,600 players remaining in the field.

Player	Chips	Progress
Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo	258,821 84,599	84,599

Giorgos9293	Busted

Tags: Alejandro Lococo

05-28-2023 20:46 UTC

Cooler puts "Royalspecial" in Chip Lead Contention

Matt O'Halloran

Level 11 : Blinds 350/700, 90 ante

"Royalspecial" wins a big pot with tens full

After an open to 1,435 by "schwester" in early position, "zarepokerboy" put in a three bet to 4,550 from the cutoff. "Royalspecial" made the call from the small blind. Once the big blind folded, "schwester" put in the call as well.

With 15,070 already in the middle, three players saw the K♥10♠K♠ flop. Action checked to the cutoff who fired out for 6,023. "Royalspecial" made the call before "schwester" folded.

After the 4♠ turn, "zarepokerboy" put in a hefty bet of 19,252. "Royalspecial" had his opponent covered easily and decided to apply maximum pressure, check-raising all-in for 44,769 effective. "zarepokerboy" made the call.

"zarepokerboy": 9♠K♦
"Royalspecial":10♦10♥

In quite the cooler, "zarepokerboy" managed to flop trip kings yet was still outflopped by the full house of "Royalspecial". There were still outs to make a higher full house, but the 7♥ on the river was not one of those outs, sending the pot to "Royalspecial" and "zarepokerboy" to the rail.

Player	Chips	Progress
Royalspecial	223,910 32,807	32,807
zarepokerboy	Busted

05-28-2023 20:14 UTC

Back to Back Knockouts for Chip Leader

Matt O'Halloran

Level 9 : Blinds 250/500, 60 ante

"enriqMSTacho" scores second knockout in as many hands

In early position, "enriqMSTacho" raised to 1,100, getting calls from both blinds. He continued for 1,247 on the 3♥4♥Q♦ flop. The small blind folded before the big blind, "DirtyPhoenix", made the call.

"DirtyPhoenix" made another check-call on the J♦ turn, this time for 9,411. On the 7♣ river, "enriqMSTacho" moved all in for 35,348 effective, putting his opponent at risk if they call. They were able to find that call, and soon got the bad news.

"DirtyPhoenix": Q♥A♣
"enriqMSTacho": 3♣3♦

Top pair was no good against the set of threes, and "DirtyPhoenix" was sent to the rail while "enriqMSTacho" added to his chip lead.

On the very next deal, "enriqMSTacho" once again found himself delivering a knockout blow. "CarppiCala" opened to 1,100 from under the gun. Action folded all the way to "enriqMSTacho" in the big blind, who called.

On the 8♣9♦A♦ flop, "CarppiCala" fired out 1,062 before getting check-raised to 3,000 and making the call. On the 3♥ turn, "CarppiCala" moved all in their last 12,896. After a call, the cards went on their backs.

"CarppiCala": A♠J♣
"enriqMSTacho": K♦5♦

"CarppiCala" was in good shape to survive and double up with top pair. However, the 3♦ river completed the flush draw, sending them to the rail, while "enriqMSTacho" picked up a second consecutive pot.

Player	Chips	Progress
enriqMSTacho	257,619 17,606	17,606
CarppiCala	Busted
DirtyPhoenix	Busted

05-28-2023 19:49 UTC

Kings Hold for Veldhuis

Matt O'Halloran

Level 9 : Blinds 250/500, 60 ante

Lex Veldhuis Scores a Knockout with Kings

After a limp from "stendobans" in the cutoff, Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis raised to 1,750 on the button. The blinds got out of the way before the limper made the call to see the flop.

On the J♣4♥2♥ flop, "stendobans" led out for 2,365. Veldhuis raised to 6,250. "stendobans" three-bet shoved, putting themselves at risk for 21,430 effective. Veldhuis made the call and the cards were on their backs.

"stendobans": 6♦6♣
Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis: K♠K♦

Veldhuis was a massive favorite, and after the A♦ turn just needed to fade a six on the river. The 7♠ was clean, and Veldhuis scooped the pot with his kings.

Player	Chips	Progress
Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis	79,572 67,248	67,248

"stendobans"	Busted

Tags: Lex Veldhuis

05-28-2023 18:47 UTC

"clinker_boat" Sails into Chip Lead with Two Pair

Matt O'Halloran

Level 6 : Blinds 150/300, 40 ante

"clinker_boat" Makes Two Pair, Takes Chip Lead

"clinker_boat" opened to 660 from the cutoff. His only call came from "drehds420" in the big blind, and the two went heads-up to the flop.

When the flop fell 3♠9♠A♠, the players checked through. On the 10♥ turn, "clinker_boat" led out for 895, getting a call from the opponent.

On the 6♣ river, "drehds420" checked yet again. With 3,580, "clinker_boat" moved his opponent all-in, for their remaining 11,471 chips. "drehds420" found the call, and the pair tabled their hands.

"drehds420": 7♦A♣
"clinker_boat": 10♦A♦

The two pair of "clinker_boat" was enough to trounce the pair of aces of "drehds420", eliminating them from the tournament while propelling "clinker_boat" into the chip lead.

Player	Chips	Progress
clinker_boat	118,530
drehds420	Busted

05-28-2023 18:38 UTC

Lococo Scores a Big One

Matt O'Halloran

Level 6 : Blinds 150/300, 40 ante

Alejandro Lococo hits two pair for massive pot

Following an open to 900 from "dand63" in late position, action folded to Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo in the big blind, who made the call.

On the 8♣6♥6♦ flop, Lococo check-raised his opponent's bet of 1,135 to 3,300. "dand63" made the call. On the J♣ turn, Lococo chose to lead out, firing 4,500 into the middle. Again, he got called.

On the A♣ river, Lococo bet 13,939, receiving a third call from his opponent, bloating the pot to 45,748, nearly two starting stacks. At showdown, Lococo turned over J♦A♦ for runner-runner two pair. "dand63" mucked his hand, giving the huge pot to PokerStars Ambassador Alejandro Lococo.

Player	Chips	Progress
Alejandro "[Papo]AR" Lococo	74,429 49,504	49,504

"dand63"	41,293

Tags: Alejandro Lococo