Play resumed at 2:00pm ET on Level 21 (1,250/2,500 blinds) with these five players, presumably refreshed, still in the hunt:

Seat 1: bleu329 (101,344 in chips)
Seat 5: PICKLED EGG (33,708 in chips)
Seat 6: Aquasces1 (147,292 in chips)
Seat 8: Mafews (58,172 in chips)
Seat 9: gmcrafter (359,484 in chips)

Chile's gmcrafter had entered the final table in the middle of the pack but seized the chip lead by the time play was paused for the overnight break. The first player to chip on Day 2, though, was bleu329. Playing out of Thailand (and hoping for better internet connectivity than on Day 1), bleu329 was chasing a second SCOOP title after winning event 30-H just a few days prior. The fifth hand of play for Day 2 would prove to be another step toward that title.

The betting opened with the United Kingdom's Mafews raising to 5,800 in the cutoff. bleu329 reraised to 19,900 out of the small blind, Mafews called leaving 34,522 behind, and the flop came [Ad] [Kh] [5c]. With very little hesitation bleu329 bet the pot, more than enough to put Mafews all-in. The UK's lone representative at the final table dipped into the time bank before ultimately making the call with [Ah] [2h] [5d] [Td] for aces and fives with a backdoor low draw. bleu329's [As] [Qs] [2d] [3d] was behind for the high but drawing to the nut low, and it got there when the turn was the [8h]. What looked likely to be a chopped pot turned into a scoop when the [8d] fell on the river; both players had aces and eights, but bleu329's queen kicker played. That made Mafews the 5th place finisher, good for $16,800.

Though the first elimination of Day 2 had come along quite quickly, the others wouldn't be as speedy in arriving. The rest of Level 21 featured a number of confrontations between gmcrafter and the other three players. Most of them resulted in split pots, but all of the scoops went against the Chilean player. Still, the chip lead, while diminished, was intact as Level 22 (1,500/3,000 blinds) began:

Seat 1: bleu329 (202,016 in chips)
Seat 5: PICKLED EGG (109,506 in chips)
Seat 6: Aquasces1 (154,929 in chips)
Seat 9: gmcrafter (233,549 in chips)

PICKLED EGG managed to pick up about 10 big blinds over the course of the next 39 hands and bleu329's stack dropped by about the same amount as the player from Thailand grappled once again with conectivity issues, but otherwise very little changed over the next 30 minutes of play. The four continued to split pots and shuffle chips back and forth. But once Level 23 and its 2,500/5,000 blinds arrived, all that would change.

After limping from the button PICKLED EGG managed to scoop a 187K-chip pot with [Jc] [2c] [3d] [5h] after flopping two pair, jacks and threes, and rivering another jack for a full house, thanks to gmcrafter calling down pot-sized bets on the flop, turn, and river. Now up to 214K, things appeared to be looking up for the Brazilian player - but one hand is all it ever takes to turn things upside down in a big-bet game. That turnabout would come 12 hands later when PICKLED EGG flopped three of a kind, only to discover that bleu329 had flopped a bit better:

That Omaha cooler left PICKLED EGG with less a stack worth less than one big blind and left little doubt that the Brazilian would be the next player out. Two hands later the seemingly inevitable finally occurred, with Aquasces1's [Ah] [4h] [Ts] [6s] overcoming PICKLED EGG's [Kd] [Jh] [Th] [9s] to send the latter to the rail in 4th place ($25,200).

Only 12 hands later Canada's Aquasces1 would also come up short thanks to a nasty Omaha cooler. The hand began with gmcrafter raising to 10K on the button; after Aquasces1 reraised to 32.5K from the big blind, gmcrafter made the call to see a flop of [Ad] [9c] [2s]. Aquasces1 bet pot and then called gmcrafter's reraise all-in, turning up [As] [Kc] [9s] [6c] for top two pair, but gmcrafter held the better hand with [9d] [9h] [8d] [4h] for middle set. The [8c] turn and [7s] river changed nothing and made Aquasces1's 3rd-place finish ($34,020) official.

The chip lead belonged to gmcrafter as heads-up play began, but bleu329 didn't let that stand in the way of a victory. The final matchup between the two lasted for 13 hands, every single one of which was won by bleu329. The majority of those were of the raise-and-take-it variety, but three pots worth at least 22 big blinds did the real damage. In the first, worth 110K, bleu329's [Th] [9h] [3d] [2d] rivered a flush to scoop on a board of [Qh] [5h] [Td] [Qc] [4h]. The second one, worth 290K, was the real key, as bleu329 hit a pretty big flop and only improved from there:

Three hands later the tournament would come to a close after a relatively rare preflop raising war resulted in gmcrafter getting all-in for 92K with [As] [2s] [Ks] [9h]. bleu329 was a bit behind with [Ah] [7d] [Th] [3h], but the [6d] [4s] [5d] flop gave the player from Thailand a seven-high straight and the lead for the high half of the pot. The [Ts] on the turn threatened to give gmcrafter a scoop with the nut low and nut high in the event that another spade should hit the river. But instead the [2c] came, giving bleu329's [Ah] [3h] the nut low instead. And since his flopped straight hadn't been outdrawn, the pot was another scoop.

That left Chile's gmcrafter with no chips and the runner-up prize of $44,800. And for the second time this week, despite internet connectivity issues, bleu329 was the last player standing at the end of a SCOOP event. The top prize of $64,400 in this event helped to boost this week's take for bleu329 north of $157K. It's been a fine run any poker player would be happy to go on, and congratulations are in order for the now-two-time champion.

SCOOP Event 32-H: $2,100 PL Omaha Hi/Lo
$250,000 guaranteed
140 entrants, $280,000 prize pool
18 places paid

1st place: bleu329 (Thailand) $64,400
2nd place: gmcrafter (Chile) $44,800
3rd place: Aquasces1 (Canada) $34,020
4th place: PICKLED EGG (Brazil) $25,200
5th place: Mafews (United Kingdom) $16,800
6th place: Rodrigo "caprioli" Caprioli (Brazil) $14,000
7th place: Lyndon360 (New Zealand) $11,200
8th place: kuhns89 (Germany) $8,400
9th place: Lovos111 (Sweden) $7,000

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

Before Kollander's late surge, thanks to a large pot in the final couple of hands, David Brady was leading the race to be Day 1B chip leader with 114,000. Up until then it was looking like it may be a break in conventional poker wisdom; that the largest stack going into Day 2 would be from the first, smaller half of the draw. Brady wore a greedy hat and seemed to play as such, hoovering up chips like cocktail sausages at a Christmas party. It wasn't blind gluttony. Late on he passed to a single raise on his big blind with relaxed discipline, his opponent flashed aces. Then Kollander came through.

The Californian had been studying at the University of Hawaii when Black Friday struck and after some commuting back and forth decided to relocate to Toronto. Somewhat incredibly this is the online grinder's first major live tournament, but he soon revealed some live inexperience.

Having already bagged his chips, Kollander was in the process of being interviewed by the PokerStars Blog, in the presence of tournament floor staff no less, when he absent-mindedly stuck his hand in his hoody pocket and pulled a couple of low denomination chips out, looking slightly confused as to what they were doing there.

"Oh, I didn't even know I had these. Is that a problem?" said Kollander.

The floor staff swiftly indicated that it was. Kollander put them on the table, they weren't worth much.

"Sorry, I don't know. I just found them. I think it was when I had that huge pot. I can just forget that I had them. I don't care that much," he chuckled, perhaps not realising the gravity of the situation.

UKIPT tournament director Toby Stone was called over.

"This should make a great blog entry. Guy has a load of chips but is an idiot at the same time and messes up the whole tournament," said Kollander, while waiting for Stone.

"They were in your pocket?" asked Stone.

"I'm sorry," said Kollander, looking equally amused and surprised by the chips appearance.

"I'm keeping them now. What were they doing in your pocket?" asked Stone.

Kolander explained that he'd won a big pot late on, that some chips must have fallen over the lip of the table - his stack was certainly large enough, that pot messy enough. The story checked out.

"You know you can never, ever put chips in your pocket in any tournament in the world?" said Stone.

"I didn't realise I had. I prefer to display them out front to scare people."

Stone seemed satisfied it was a genuine mistake, it certainly seemed to be. A lesson learnt for the online player: get better at stacking your betting discs.

Kollander's topped a 398-strong field, which was exactly twice the size of that yesterday. Just 153 made it through among which were UKIPT Newcastle champion Richard Sinclair (30,100), Mark Muldoon (103,000), Martin Baláž (98,800), Sam Grafton (63,500) and, so we've been told, a Big Brother contestant by the name of Glen 'Spiral' Coroner (103,000).

Grafton, 'high in confidence' after his $234,193 SCOOP result (see 3pm: Getting the SCOOP with Sam Grafton), started badly, down to just 6,000 early on. Quad aces and a set of kings helped breathe life back into his tournament ambitions and he chipped up steadily from there. Come the close of play he had a short stacked WSOPE winner, Scott Shelley, on his right and a big stacked Martin Baláž to his left. Shelley also made it through (32,500). Many others did not.

Andy Black turned up late, sleeping off the night before we've been told, and if the photos are to be believed wasn't necessarily in the finest of fettle. His UKIPT Dublin adventure didn't last but with 244 other fallers today he was far from alone. Craig Burke, looking for three from three Season 3 cashes, hit the rail, as did many others; Ian Woodley, Daiva Barauskaite, Damian Porebski, EPT Tallinn runner-up Grzegorz Cichocki, Michael Leedham, Paul Jackson, Albert Sapiano, Mick McCloskey and Ciaran Taggart were just a few players to go. They are now just footprints in the history of UKIPT Dublin.

Focus tomorrow will be on the 244 remaining players, the 153 of today that joined the 91 of Day 1A, and which can make the final 72 places that pay. The prize pool was confirmed late in the day and it looks like a juicy one. This season's increase in buy-in has swollen the pay outs making some very attractive prize pools. To find out who makes it and who doesn't, join us from 12 noon tomorrow.

To catch up with the action from today click on the links below. Click here to see combined Day 1 chip counts and here if you you want to see the prize pool.

Levels 1-4
Levels 5-8

All images are copyright of Mickey May and must credited as such. She can kick at head height even with an injured leg, which is something Chuck Norris is unable to.

Players like Team PokerStars Pro Martin Staszko (104th place, $383.04), James "Andy McLEOD" Obst (22th place, $839.04) and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken (21st place $839.04) made the cash and threatened late but were swept up by the wave of scoops. 912 players piled into this Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournament giving us a $182,400 prize pool which once again beat out the $150,000.00 guarantee.

Medium level Player of the Series leading SebbyGl did not signed up to risk getting a few extra points to bolster the lead. Tied for second place, cyberkanguru did sign up but faded fairly early in the first day finishing 406th. Also tied for second place in the standing was newly minted SCOOP champ Dan "djk123" Kelly who would fare a little better, but finished out of the cash in 274th place.

Down to 12 players left and nearly 30 minutes of play before the tournament would take a break for the evening it was evident that we would reach the final table tonight. With the blinds at 10K/20K midastruck went looking for gold against a short-stacked theone93 preflop. 441,818 chips in the middle as theone93 needed to hit with [As][4c][Qd][9d] but was up against a better low draw [7s][2s][Qh][Ac]. Not a nut-nut hand but close enough as midastruck not only hit a flush but the wheel as well [5d] [Ts] [8s] [4s] [3c] ending theone93's night in 12th place ($1,915.20).

Three minutes later trelskig would be in a similar short-stacked position as theone93 hoping to double up before the long break. RoxmorE had another plans and matched the pot bets from trelskig until both were all-in preflop. Suited aces [As] [5h] [Ad] [Qh] for RoxmorE would be a tall order for trelskig's better low draw, pocket eights, and suited ace [8h] [2d] [8c] [Ac]. The flop [4d] [3c] [4c] was everything trelskig could ask for but the turn [Ks] and river [Td] came up woefully short as trelskig would be invited to day two finishing in 11th place ($1,915.20).

Eight minutes before the two tables would break for the evening superowl99, who finished runner up to ozenc in the high-version of this event last year would take a chance against paulgees81 by shoving [Ac][Th][7c][4c]. Unfortunately, the soon-to-be overnight chip leader was more than happy to call with suited aces [Ah][2d][4d][Ad]. Despite picking up a straight flush draw on the turn, the [Ts] [6c] [9h] [5c] [6d] did not get superowl99 out of this jam, and would not return to a SCOOP PLO8 final table as the final table was set below:

Seat 1: midastruck (515143 in chips)
Seat 2: remsi144 (567815 in chips)
Seat 3: Cashcid Linc (384854 in chips)
Seat 4: daxfut (406739 in chips)
Seat 5: XoTime (427582 in chips)
Seat 6: paulgees81 (1077729 in chips)
Seat 7: sitation (508921 in chips)
Seat 8: RoxmorE (460465 in chips)
Seat 9: DrKoolDan (210752 in chips)

RoxmoreE would be trying to get back into the spotlight today after taking down the Sunday Million a few years ago for $121K. But, the eyes would be on the overnight chip leader as paulgees81 brings a Sunday Million win from last year for $253K, Semifinalist in this year's SCOOP Event #12-H (PLO Heads-up) for $33K, and (5th place ($14,700) Event #15-H (again fittingly Omaha Hi-Lo).

No passive play allowed at this final table as the players returned to 20 minute blinds and average stacks near 20 big blinds. True to form the final table's second hand would have DrKoolDan and midastruck all-in preflop but they would split the 459,004 chip pot as the blinds immediately moved up to 12.5K/25K. Cashcid Linc showed a willingness to go toe-to-toe with the most accomplished player at the final table, taking down a 732,208 chip scoop from paulgees81early on.

Chip leader asks for more chips

paulgees81 would take a hit from losing the all-in to Cashcid Linc, but four hands later would take some of those chips from other sources. With the blinds still at 12.5K/25K, paulgees81 would open for 54,250 chips as DrKoolDan called from the cutoff and the blinds folded to see a [3h][Kh][8c] flop. paulgees81 kept the pressure on with a 146,000 chip bet as DrKoolDan felt it was time to double-up and shoved for 217,752 total. paulgees81 would make the call holding [Ah] [4s] [8d] [Jc] for a pair of eights and a low draw as DrKoolDan's tournament hinged on [5h] [2h] [Ks] [As] top pair, a flush draw, and the nut low draw. Seemed ripe for a scoop by DrKoolDan as the turn [5s] gave DrKoolDan the nut-low, but the [2c] turned a 180 on the hand by giving paulgees81 the wheel and the 581,504 chip pot. Despite the uncool finish, DrKoolDan would take away $2,280.00 in ninth place.

sitation sits on the nuts

Blinds moving up to 15K/30K as two short stacks would try to pick the pockets of paulgees81. Watch below for the three-way all-in preflop between sitation, paulgees81, and XOTime ends with one player holding 1.2 million chips and one player holding eighth place cash:

XoTime: [Ac] [2c] [Qc] [3s]
paulgees81: [As] [5s] [2h] [Qs]
sitation: [Ad] [Jd] [6c] [Ah]

All three players holding premium hands but the all-diamond flop [5d] [Kd] [6d] would give sitation the nut flush. Two high cards later on the turn [Qd] and river [Th] shipped the entire 1.29 million chip pot to sitation, leaving paulgees81 with under 500K, and XoTime holding eighth place cash ($3,739.20).

Rox'd

The 15K/30K blind level went smoothly after that big three-way all-in and the 20K/40K blind level was much of the same except for Cashcid Linc dragging a monster one million chip scoop off daxfut. Seven hands after the seven figure pot RoxmorE would start the betting with a raise to 88,000 as remsi144 shoved all-in for 276,203. Holding a double-suited low hand [3h] [5d] [Jh] [Ad] RoxmorE made the call and needed a little help facing the aces of remsi144 [Ah] [As] [7s] [9s]. The low never materialized but the diamonds did [Jd] [6d] [7c] [Td] [9h] giving RoxmorE the nut flush and sending remsi144 home in seventh place ($5,544.96).

Not adding a SCOOP title today

Winning a Sunday Major such as the Sunday Million is a tremendous feat. Adding a WCOOP or SCOOP title to that gives you even more tournament cred. paulgees81 has the Sunday Million title and already made one final table in this series. And despite bringing the chip lead into today, it was not to be. With the blinds still at 20K/40K and down to 180,600 chips due to that million chip pot against sitation and only winning the blinds once since that hand, paulgees81 needed some serious help. A pot bet for paulgees81 to lead off the betting got a re-raise from midastruck as paulgees81 only had 40,600 behind to make the call holding [9c] [4c] [Jh] [8d]. midastruck however held a premium double-suited hand much better low possibilities [4h] [3h] [Ts] [As]. Neither player would connect to the [2c] [Qd] [5c] [7s] [5d] as midastruck's nut-low plus ace-ten high played to win the 421,200 chip pot, as paulgees81 settled for sixth place ($7,368.96).

Nuts meet the second nuts

In the tournament's biggest pot to this point, sitation would trade bets with RoxmorE preflop as both slowly got 1.59 million chips in the middle. RoxmorE turned up [2s] [Qh] [6h] [Ad] as sitation held the same low draw but with a suited aces [Ah] [2c] [4h] [As]. The board would give both players a hearts flush [9h] [5s] [8h] [Kh] [Td] but sitation's ace-high allowed the Swede to extend the chip lead as RoxmorE got rox'd in fifth place ($9,192.96).

Winning ugly is necessary, but not nice

Thanks to the added cards, Omaha tends to produce more than its share of groan worthy boards where a player comes out of nowhere to win. Feast your eyes on the hand example below between daxfut and midastruck. Aces cracked and then... not so much.

midastruck held the aces [Ad] [Ac] [9h] [4d] after daxfut smooth called the raise from the small blind holding [3h] [2h] [3s] [4h]. The [3d] [6h] [Ts] got daxfut to immediate shove 239,781 chips in as midastruck wept over cracked aces. [6s] on the turn gave daxfut a boat but still open for hitting a low on the river. However, midastruck found the golden touch and wanted it all as the [6d] river counterfeited daxfut's boat giving midastruck the higher full house for the entire 779,562 chip pot.

A brief chip-chop discussion would bring Team Online's Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome http://www.pokerstars.com/team-pokerstars/team-online/adrienne-rowsome/ out on the floor. However Cashcid Linc had the need to gamble and sitation's chip lead was a little too big to give any money away as the threesome got back into the game.

Struck is stuck

Blinds moving up to 25K/50K midastruck would take a massive hit against Cashcid Linc as a low draw missed against Cashcid Linc's aces for a 2.1 million chip scoop. Three hands later holding only 291,182 chips midastruck tried to make something happen from the button with a pot sized raise as sitation called out of the big blind to see a [Jd] [4d] [5h] flop. sitation would bet enough to put the short stack all-in as midastruck called holding kings [2c] [Kc] [Th] [Kd]. sitation needed some help with [Ac] [6s] [5s] [2h] was a lock for a low if any non-pairing low card hit. A pair of aces [Ah] [As] was exactly the type of drop needed for sitation as midastruck golden reign came to an end in third place ($17,692.80).

Again the players would ask for Rowsome's assistance but Cashcid Linc wanted an even chop despite sitation holding a one million chip lead. sitation declined the offer as Cashcid Linc was ready once again to GAMBOOOOOOOL!.

Take it, take it, ok I'll just take it all

See this pretty thing? It will go around the winner's wrist (or ankle if you are like Shaun Deeb with four of these watches)

Heads-up play consisted of mostly raise it and take it preflop for nine minutes until the big hand hit. With the blinds at 30K/60K both players had plenty of chips to hold out for a while as sitation retained the chip lead and made a raise to 142,00 from the button as Cashcid Linc called to see [Th][7s][6s] on the flop. Cashcid Linc checked as sitation pushed out 240,000 and Cashcid Linc check-raised to a little more than a million. Top set plus a flush draw is hard to get away from as sitation re-raised all-in holding [Ts][Jh][Tc][2s]. Cashcid Linc was true to the gambling form and called with the flush draw and an emergency low draw [8s] [Kh] [8d] [As]. The [8c] turn did not really help Cashcid Linc nor did the [9d] as the straight on the board would chop up a NLHE game, but in Omaha both sets played and sitation's top set would take down the 4.3 million chip pot along with $32,832.00 and the SCOOP 2012 Event #32-M title!

Players Entered: 912
Total Prize Pool: $182,400.00
Places Paid: 117

$150,000 guarantee SCOOP 2012 Event #32-M $215 PLO8 results (05-18-12):
1. sitation (Sweden) $32,832.00
2. Cashcid Linc (Germany) $23,712.00
3. midastruck (United Kingdom) $17,692.80
4. daxfut (Austria) $13,224.00
5. RoxmorE (Norway) $9,192.96
6. paulgees81 (Canada) $7,368.96
7. remsi144 (Switzerland) $5,544.96
8. XoTime (Portugal) $3,739.20
9. DrKoolDan (Romania) $2,280.00

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

Sometimes, however, the players have other ideas. The action generated in 2012 SCOOP Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo threatened to turn a two-day event into a one-day affair. But the tournament did make it to its second day, with four players still in, and at the end of that second day DamienRise amassed all of the chips.

We're 32 events into the 2012 SCOOP, and Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo is the closest I've seen to a guarantee not being met. PokerStars set the guarantee for this event at $75,000; the 4,282 registrants created a prize pool of $107,000. It was nowhere close to not meeting the guarantee, but it didn't double the guarantee as many others events have (perhaps a statement about the desire of PokerStars players to play pot-limit split).

Nonetheless, 540 players wouldn't have much to complain about, as they would be the ones carving up that prize pool. The lowest payout was worth $44.96; the largest, for the champion, a tidy five-figure sum of $16,808.74 and a Movado watch.

Six Team PokerStars Pro and five PokerStars Team Online players entered this tournament. All of Team Online failed to make the money, with Roy "GodlikeRoy" Bhasin's bustout perhaps the most painful. He finished 544th, just four spots out of the money. The Team Pros fared better, with both Martin Staszko (144th, $112.40) and Marcin "Goral" Horecki (31st, $240.86) pushing into the money and making respectably deep runs.

Their runs, however, were not deep enough to make the final table in this two-day event - a final table that commenced late on Day 1 with these nine players.

Seat 1: AugustasN (5368352 in chips)
Seat 2: Martin Glöck (1381888 in chips)
Seat 3: remars81 (2048749 in chips)
Seat 4: partybong (2008173 in chips)
Seat 5: DamienRise (1912452 in chips)
Seat 6: willrobrobu (2108415 in chips)
Seat 7: Zlushchiy (3775258 in chips)
Seat 8: MikLoW86 (1346729 in chips)
Seat 9: eitan_2004 (1459984 in chips)

Average stack: 2,378,889

There was a former SCOOP champion among the nine. willrobrobu kicked off SCOOP in 2011 by winning the first event, Event 1-Low, $22 No-Limit Hold'em (6-max). To start this final table, willrobrobu was in a pile of players that could all claim to be 3rd in chips.

Those players were trying to scramble over each other even as partybong became the first player to get knocked off the final table. partybong's open-raise to 200k was called by willrobrobu before Zlushchiy three-bet to 800k, inducing a shove to 941k by partybong. That was enough to fold willrobrobu but Zlushchiy called with single-suited aces, [ac][ah][2h][7h]. partybong had a reasonable hand, [as][kh][qc][2c], but it turned into nothing of significance, high or low, on a board of [6s][tc][th][2s][7c]. Neither player had a qualifying low, but Zlushchiy's unimproved aces were enough to claim high and send partybong off to chill out in 9th place.

25 more minutes passed before MikLoW86 was 86ed from the tournament. Sitting in the blinds, MikLoW86 called a minimum-raise from under-the-gun player AugustasN. A bet and several raises on a queen-high flop, [6h][qs][8s], ensured that all of MikLoW86's chips were in the middle with top pair and a strong low draw, [ac][qc][5s][3h]. AugustasN showed down a stronger low draw and a baby flush draw, [ad][kc][3s][2s]. The [as] on the turn filled both of those draws for AugustasN; the [3c] river changed nothing. MikLoW86 exited in 8th place.

It was another twenty minutes before eitan_2004 became the unfortunate 7th-place finisher. This time, the chips were all in pre-flop. AugustasN was the culprit again, showing down a strong [ah][qc][2h][3s] against eitan_2004's [ac][ks][5s][6s]. Neither player made a low on the [4h][9s][jh][qh][5c] board, but AugustasN came up with the nuts, an ace-high flush, to claim the high and knock out eitan_2004.

The former SCOOP champion, willrobrobu, was unable to duplicate the 2011 SCOOP win at this final table. It was a case of a busted draw:

The blinds were 100k-200k and the average stack was about 4.3 million. With five players left, it was time to cut a deal. 21 big blinds wasn't going to last very long at all in the split-pot version of this action game.

Once the deal was in place, there was one more elimination before Day 1 came to an end. On the very first hand after the deal was cut, short stack Martin Glöck four-bet shoved pre-flop with [jh][jc][5s][2c]. DamienRise, the pre-flop three-bettor, called with [ac][ks][8c][2s] and scooped the whole pot with two pair, kings and eights, on a board of [kd][8h][tc][9d][7d].

Day 2 started with the blinds up to 125k-250k. The fireworks began within five minutes of the resumption of play. DamienRise's unimproved kings held up against remars81's wrap draw, with all the chips going in on the flop. Neither player had a qualifying low. When remars81's draw bricked out, Day 2 was over for remars81 in 4th place.

The stacks stayed relatively unchanged as the blinds rolled up to 150k-300k. AugustasN led with roughly 10 million, DamienRise followed with roughly 7 million, and Zlushchiy pulled up the rear with roughly 3 million. Sure, there were minor variations along the way, but each player's relative chip stack remained the same until the moment when Zlushchiy picked up single-suited aces, [ah][ad][7d][4s] against AugustasN's single-suited kings, [ks][kd][6d][7h]. It looked like a great piece of luck for Zlushchiy - until the river. The [jd][4c][js][th][kc] board made a full house for AugustasN and sent Zlushchiy to the rail in 3rd place.

That elimination left AugustasN as the leader to start heads-up play by about a 2-to-1 margin. AugustasN jumped out to the early lead, but one quick double-up by DamienRise drew the stacks level. A few more small pots pushed DamienRise into the lead, but then AugustasN fired back and took down a big pot with a flopped straight to reset the match. DamienRise responded by quartering AugustasN, all in pre-flop, to swing the lead back the other way.

But all good things come to an end, and so did this see-saw heads-up battle. After DamienRise limped the button in the 250k-500k level, AugustasN bet pot to 1.5 million. DamienRise called to a flop of [8c][9c][3h]. That flop brought another pot-sized bet from AugustasN of 3 million, leaving AugustasN 1.6 million behind. It went in after a raise from DamienRise. At showdown, DamienRise produced a strong hand: [th][tc][jc][qs], an overpair, a partial wrap draw and a flush draw. AugustasN showed down [js][jh][8s][7h], an overpair of jacks and a straight draw. The [4c] turn card gave DamienRise a flush and left AugustasN drawing to a low for a chop. The [7c] river was a low card, but not one that was of any use to AugustasN.

Day 2 was finished in less than an hour. DamienRise is a new SCOOP champion and will be receiving a Movado watch to prove it.

2012 SCOOP Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo results (including 5-way deal):

Number of entrants: 4,282
Places paid: 540

1st: DamienRise (China) ($9,149.00)*
2nd: AugustasN (Lithuania) ($16,000.00)*
3rd: Zlushchiy (Russia) ($9,435.03)*
4th: remars81 (Spain) ($7,974.10)*
5th: Martin Glöck (Germany) ($6,312.07)*
6th: willrobrobu (United Kingdom) ($3,479.12)
7th: eitan_2004 (Poland) ($2,408.62)
8th: MikLoW86 (Hungary) ($1,338.12)
9th: partybong (Germany) ($856.40)

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

Sometimes, however, the players have other ideas. The action generated in 2012 SCOOP Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo threatened to turn a two-day event into a one-day affair. But the tournament did make it to its second day, with four players still in, and at the end of that second day DamienRise amassed all of the chips.

We're 32 events into the 2012 SCOOP, and Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo is the closest I've seen to a guarantee not being met. PokerStars set the guarantee for this event at $75,000; the 4,282 registrants created a prize pool of $107,000. It was nowhere close to not meeting the guarantee, but it didn't double the guarantee as many others events have (perhaps a statement about the desire of PokerStars players to play pot-limit split).

Nonetheless, 540 players wouldn't have much to complain about, as they would be the ones carving up that prize pool. The lowest payout was worth $44.96; the largest, for the champion, a tidy five-figure sum of $16,808.74 and a Movado watch.

Six Team PokerStars Pro and five PokerStars Team Online players entered this tournament. All of Team Online failed to make the money, with Roy "GodlikeRoy" Bhasin's bustout perhaps the most painful. He finished 544th, just four spots out of the money. The Team Pros fared better, with both Martin Staszko (144th, $112.40) and Marcin "Goral" Horecki (31st, $240.86) pushing into the money and making respectably deep runs.

Their runs, however, were not deep enough to make the final table in this two-day event - a final table that commenced late on Day 1 with these nine players.

Seat 1: AugustasN (5368352 in chips)
Seat 2: Martin Glöck (1381888 in chips)
Seat 3: remars81 (2048749 in chips)
Seat 4: partybong (2008173 in chips)
Seat 5: DamienRise (1912452 in chips)
Seat 6: willrobrobu (2108415 in chips)
Seat 7: Zlushchiy (3775258 in chips)
Seat 8: MikLoW86 (1346729 in chips)
Seat 9: eitan_2004 (1459984 in chips)

Average stack: 2,378,889

There was a former SCOOP champion among the nine. willrobrobu kicked off SCOOP in 2011 by winning the first event, Event 1-Low, $22 No-Limit Hold'em (6-max). To start this final table, willrobrobu was in a pile of players that could all claim to be 3rd in chips.

Those players were trying to scramble over each other even as partybong became the first player to get knocked off the final table. partybong's open-raise to 200k was called by willrobrobu before Zlushchiy three-bet to 800k, inducing a shove to 941k by partybong. That was enough to fold willrobrobu but Zlushchiy called with single-suited aces, [ac][ah][2h][7h]. partybong had a reasonable hand, [as][kh][qc][2c], but it turned into nothing of significance, high or low, on a board of [6s][tc][th][2s][7c]. Neither player had a qualifying low, but Zlushchiy's unimproved aces were enough to claim high and send partybong off to chill out in 9th place.

25 more minutes passed before MikLoW86 was 86ed from the tournament. Sitting in the blinds, MikLoW86 called a minimum-raise from under-the-gun player AugustasN. A bet and several raises on a queen-high flop, [6h][qs][8s], ensured that all of MikLoW86's chips were in the middle with top pair and a strong low draw, [ac][qc][5s][3h]. AugustasN showed down a stronger low draw and a baby flush draw, [ad][kc][3s][2s]. The [as] on the turn filled both of those draws for AugustasN; the [3c] river changed nothing. MikLoW86 exited in 8th place.

It was another twenty minutes before eitan_2004 became the unfortunate 7th-place finisher. This time, the chips were all in pre-flop. AugustasN was the culprit again, showing down a strong [ah][qc][2h][3s] against eitan_2004's [ac][ks][5s][6s]. Neither player made a low on the [4h][9s][jh][qh][5c] board, but AugustasN came up with the nuts, an ace-high flush, to claim the high and knock out eitan_2004.

The former SCOOP champion, willrobrobu, was unable to duplicate the 2011 SCOOP win at this final table. It was a case of a busted draw:

The blinds were 100k-200k and the average stack was about 4.3 million. With five players left, it was time to cut a deal. 21 big blinds wasn't going to last very long at all in the split-pot version of this action game.

Once the deal was in place, there was one more elimination before Day 1 came to an end. On the very first hand after the deal was cut, short stack Martin Glöck four-bet shoved pre-flop with [jh][jc][5s][2c]. DamienRise, the pre-flop three-bettor, called with [ac][ks][8c][2s] and scooped the whole pot with two pair, kings and eights, on a board of [kd][8h][tc][9d][7d].

Day 2 started with the blinds up to 125k-250k. The fireworks began within five minutes of the resumption of play. DamienRise's unimproved kings held up against remars81's wrap draw, with all the chips going in on the flop. Neither player had a qualifying low. When remars81's draw bricked out, Day 2 was over for remars81 in 4th place.

The stacks stayed relatively unchanged as the blinds rolled up to 150k-300k. AugustasN led with roughly 10 million, DamienRise followed with roughly 7 million, and Zlushchiy pulled up the rear with roughly 3 million. Sure, there were minor variations along the way, but each player's relative chip stack remained the same until the moment when Zlushchiy picked up single-suited aces, [ah][ad][7d][4s] against AugustasN's single-suited kings, [ks][kd][6d][7h]. It looked like a great piece of luck for Zlushchiy - until the river. The [jd][4c][js][th][kc] board made a full house for AugustasN and sent Zlushchiy to the rail in 3rd place.

That elimination left AugustasN as the leader to start heads-up play by about a 2-to-1 margin. AugustasN jumped out to the early lead, but one quick double-up by DamienRise drew the stacks level. A few more small pots pushed DamienRise into the lead, but then AugustasN fired back and took down a big pot with a flopped straight to reset the match. DamienRise responded by quartering AugustasN, all in pre-flop, to swing the lead back the other way.

But all good things come to an end, and so did this see-saw heads-up battle. After DamienRise limped the button in the 250k-500k level, AugustasN bet pot to 1.5 million. DamienRise called to a flop of [8c][9c][3h]. That flop brought another pot-sized bet from AugustasN of 3 million, leaving AugustasN 1.6 million behind. It went in after a raise from DamienRise. At showdown, DamienRise produced a strong hand: [th][tc][jc][qs], an overpair, a partial wrap draw and a flush draw. AugustasN showed down [js][jh][8s][7h], an overpair of jacks and a straight draw. The [4c] turn card gave DamienRise a flush and left AugustasN drawing to a low for a chop. The [7c] river was a low card, but not one that was of any use to AugustasN.

Day 2 was finished in less than an hour. DamienRise is a new SCOOP champion and will be receiving a Movado watch to prove it.

2012 SCOOP Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo results (including 5-way deal):

Number of entrants: 4,282
Places paid: 540

1st: DamienRise (China) ($9,149.00)*
2nd: AugustasN (Lithuania) ($16,000.00)*
3rd: Zlushchiy (Russia) ($9,435.03)*
4th: remars81 (Spain) ($7,974.10)*
5th: Martin Glöck (Germany) ($6,312.07)*
6th: willrobrobu (United Kingdom) ($3,479.12)
7th: eitan_2004 (Poland) ($2,408.62)
8th: MikLoW86 (Hungary) ($1,338.12)
9th: partybong (Germany) ($856.40)

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

George Lind recently won his first Spring Championship of Online Poker title. He did it in a Stud-8 event (as chronicled in this Exile on Main Street-themed recap from Paul McGuire). It was the sixth time he played a SCOOP Stud-8 tournament in his life. In the five previous runnings, he had a runner-up and third place finish.

So you'd think Lind would be really, really focused on the title. Instead?

"I was 6-12 tabling hypers throughout the final table," he said.

For the uninitiated, the hypers of which he speaks are hyper-turbo sit & go tourneys. They are SNG crack, and in some jurisdictions considered a Schedule-1 amphetamine. Lind eats them or breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Seriously, if McGuire was looking for a Stones tune in a Lind recap, he might have picked "Mother's Little Helper."

Keep in mind, Lind did this while playing a Stud-8 final table--the kind of tournament where paying attention is sort of a big deal. I've played my fair share of Stud-8, and for people like me (read: sort of slow on the uptake), if I'm not watching every card that comes off the stub, you might as well just take my chips and call me a cab. And then ask the cab driver to run me over.

Lind? While he was freaking winning a SCOOP event, he was playing up to a dozen hyper turbo SNGs at a time.

The logical question is this: how much could Lind legitimately be expected to win in the hypers if he's actually winning the SCOOP event?

The unexpected answer: Lind profited $80,000 in the hypers and 76,000 VIP player points that day.

As I said, I'm no doctor.

Two years ago, Lind took third in the very same event. He's a man who has a brain that can flip switches faster than most people can find the switches to flip.

"It's nice to have a chance to improve on that in such a big field tournament," he said. "I'm really happy to finally get a SCOOP title after winning Player of the Year in 2010, but not actually winning an event that year. It's definitely nice to get a watch to go along with my 2010 POTY trophy."

As of this morning, Lind held the top spot on the low buy-in leaderboard. If he can manage to keep his head in the game, the payoff could offer a little more than pride.

"I'm hoping to win that PCA package with a consistent final few days," he said.

Consistency? How much consistency can Lind possibly have if he's dozen-tabling hyper tourneys?

Well, a lot apparently.

*Consult your physician before beginning any sort of Lind regimen. Side effects include trouble sleeping, motion sickness, and not having enough places in your house to hide all your money.

George Lind recently won his first Spring Championship of Online Poker title. He did it in a Stud-8 event (as chronicled in this Exile on Main Street-themed recap from Paul McGuire). It was the sixth time he played a SCOOP Stud-8 tournament in his life. In the five previous runnings, he had a runner-up and third place finish.

So you'd think Lind would be really, really focused on the title. Instead?

"I was 6-12 tabling hypers throughout the final table," he said.

For the uninitiated, the hypers of which he speaks are hyper-turbo sit & go tourneys. They are SNG crack, and in some jurisdictions considered a Schedule-1 amphetamine. Lind eats them or breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Seriously, if McGuire was looking for a Stones tune in a Lind recap, he might have picked "Mother's Little Helper."

Keep in mind, Lind did this while playing a Stud-8 final table--the kind of tournament where paying attention is sort of a big deal. I've played my fair share of Stud-8, and for people like me (read: sort of slow on the uptake), if I'm not watching every card that comes off the stub, you might as well just take my chips and call me a cab. And then ask the cab driver to run me over.

Lind? While he was freaking winning a SCOOP event, he was playing up to a dozen hyper turbo SNGs at a time.

The logical question is this: how much could Lind legitimately be expected to win in the hypers if he's actually winning the SCOOP event?

The unexpected answer: Lind profited $80,000 in the hypers and 76,000 VIP player points that day.

As I said, I'm no doctor.

Two years ago, Lind took third in the very same event. He's a man who has a brain that can flip switches faster than most people can find the switches to flip.

"It's nice to have a chance to improve on that in such a big field tournament," he said. "I'm really happy to finally get a SCOOP title after winning Player of the Year in 2010, but not actually winning an event that year. It's definitely nice to get a watch to go along with my 2010 POTY trophy."

As of this morning, Lind held the top spot on the low buy-in leaderboard. If he can manage to keep his head in the game, the payoff could offer a little more than pride.

"I'm hoping to win that PCA package with a consistent final few days," he said.

Consistency? How much consistency can Lind possibly have if he's dozen-tabling hyper tourneys?

Well, a lot apparently.

*Consult your physician before beginning any sort of Lind regimen. Side effects include trouble sleeping, motion sickness, and not having enough places in your house to hide all your money.

The WPT Championship, the $25,000 buy in event that has traditionally closed each year of the WPT schedule, is getting a bit later start this year than in the past. Formerly held in April of each year, the WPT may have made the move to the later start date in May to take advantage of the hordes of players that will be descending on the desert oasis for the World Series of Poker that begins at the end of this month. Regardless of the reason, the 2012 WPT Championship promises to be an exciting week of poker.

“The prestige of this event is unmatched as whoever is left standing will have defeated what many consider to be the toughest field in all of poker,” Steve Heller, the WPT Chief Executive Officer, stated leading up to the tournament. “Earning the right to be called WPT World Champion is poker’s crowning achievement and a career-defining moment.”

The list of prior victors at the WPT Championship demonstrates the factor of its difficulty. Alan Goehring won the inaugural champion back in 2003, with champions Martin De Knijff, Tuan Le, Joe Bartholdi, Carlos Mortensen, David Chen, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, David Williams and defending champion Scott Seiver following in his path. Others such as Hasan Habib, Matt Matros, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Shawn Buchanan and Galen Hall (among others) have made at least one appearance at the final table of this tournament.

Adding to the pressure of the tournament will be the race for the WPT Player of the Year honors. The eventual winner of the WPT Championship will take down 1400 points for the effort and, as such, there are a host of players that are in contention for the prestigious honor of WPT POY.

After leading the POY race for much of Season Ten, Will “The Thrill” Failla was unceremoniously dumped from the top slot by Joe Serock at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown during the WPT’s swing through the state of Florida. Undaunted, Failla climbed right back to the top of the table by finishing in sixth place at the WPT Jacksonville BestBet Open.

With 2050 points, Failla’s lead is far from secure. Other than Serock (who holds 1800 points in second place), there are 76 other players that are within the 1400 points that earning the WPT Championship would give them. Some of the players who could rise up to snatch the POY award (if none of the players in front of them make the money) include Season Ten champions James Dempsey, Tommy Vedes and Sean Jazayeri, Vanessa Selbst and Andrew Lichtenberger.

For those who find themselves on the rail after the WPT Championship is in full swing – and if they have deep enough pockets – the WPT will also be bringing back its Super High Roller tournament, beginning on May 23. The $100,000 buy in tournament (which will actually be a rebuy tournament), which first played last year, drew the crème of the poker playing world to battle it out for a $2.8 million prize pool. 29 players went to the felt in 2011, with Erik Seidel outlasting Erick Lindgren for the $1.09 million first place prize, and it is expected that this field will once again pull in several high profile names to compete for the Super High Roller title.

Late registration for the WPT Championship will last well into Day Three of the tournament, so the actual prize pool for the tournament will not be known until early next week. As the finale of the Season Ten schedule for the WPT, though, it is expected that the field will be replete with big name pros and the amateurs that are looking to take them down.