Blaz Zerjav On Course For His Seventh SCOOP Victory
Slovenia's Blaz "Scarmak3r" Zerjav is only eight eliminations away from becoming a seven-time PokerStars SCOOP champion. Zerjav won two events in 2023, 2024, and 2025, but has so far drawn a blank in 2026.
That could all change on March 12 because Zerjav leads the final nine players in the $1,050 No-Limit Hold'em PKO event. Seventy players started the event with high hopes, but only the final table remains. That final table shuffles up and deals at 8:05 p.m. GMT today.
Zerjav holds a commanding lead going into Day 2, his 1,615,346 stack placing him above everyone else. Only two other players, "thegreatpanda" (1,074,987) and "Eimantasa" (1,074,003), have seven-figure stacks.
While Zerjav is the man to catch, the likes of Daniel "SmilleThHero" Smiljkovic (987,438), Niklas "Lena900" Astedt (878,274), and "HardiZ1" (224,623) are still in the hunt for the title.
$1,050 NLHE PKO Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Bounties | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blaz "Scarmak3r" Zerjav | Slovenia | $3,937 | 1,615,346 |
| 2 | thegreatpanda | Slovenia | $1,187 | 1,074,987 |
| 3 | Eimantasa | Lithuania | $750 | 1,074,003 |
| 4 | Daniel "SmilleThHero" Smiljkovic | Austria | $1,250 | 987,438 |
| 5 | Niklas "Lena900" Astedt | Sweden | $500 | 878,274 |
| 6 | B00mslang | Germany | $1,250 | 526,816 |
| 7 | Jefferson1776 | Switzerland | $812 | 330,007 |
| 8 | yyrvyyn | Mexico | $0 | 288,506 |
| 9 | HardiZ1 | Germany | $1,500 | 224,623 |