The SCOOP Omaha Main Event, with a $5,200 buy-in, was held over two days. The total prize pool was $380,000 (42 unique players and 34 re-entries), with first place offering a six-figure prize. Seven players reached the final table.
- WhySoS€rious: [2] (Austria)
- Rodrigo "SELOUAN1991" Selouan: (Brazil)
- Alfred "Kzzon" Karlsson: (Sweden)
- Patrick "pads1161" Leonard: (United Kingdom)
- Prudently: (Denmark)
- Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi: [2] (United Kingdom)
- Ole "wizowizo" Schemion: (Austria)
Seating and Stack Sizes:
Final Table Prizes:
1. $119,975.16
2. $81,711.32
3. $56,554.86
4. $39,140.45
5. $27,468.30
6. $18,747.22
7. $14,515.01
The tournament's huge chip leader, Brazil's Selouan, immediately makes it clear that he's flexible when it comes to opening ranges.
From UTG+1, he opens some trash ( ), and in the next hand, he folds from UTG, which makes the previous hand look like the nuts. On the next round, he open-folds in the cutoff with , demonstrating that he doesn't fall for double-suited hands without proper blockers.
Pads has to make his first interesting decision in the final table after he raised the whole table with aces, got called by Schemion in the BB, who then led the pot on a flop that was completely unfavorable for him.
To his credit, Patrick manages to correctly assess the situation. After a brief pause, he goes all-in, with almost 60% of the pot. Schemion calls, but can't improve and adds his chips to Patrick's stack, who has the second largest stack now.
PokerStars' PLO SCOOP Main Event is well underway.
raidalot shows a sound understanding of realistic ranges in human poker.
From UTG, he limps with double-suited queens, and everyone folds to WhySoSerious, who, instead of checking, suddenly raises to 3.5 big blinds. raidalot calls.
Against a microbet on the flop, in a world where the BB has bluffs, the queens are unlikely to give up so easily, but in real life, raidalot only has a couple of outs, so he easily folds.
The same Ole Schemion (wizowizo) plays a curious limped pot.
Everyone checks on the flop. The turn is a , and Selouan (who wouldn't have been in this pot at all if Schemion had made a standard preflop raise) loses additional chips.
Karlsson with two pairs and a flush draw makes a very simple fold, wizowizo neatly calls the nuts without a redraw. The river is a board-pairing . The Brazilian checks, and Schemion musters up the courage to bet half the pot. Selouan quickly calls, giving his opponent back second place in the chip count.
A bit of psychology and dynamics.
Earlier, Selouan opened with trash and folded to Karlsson. Now the same situation arises. Karlsson doesn't have aces, but he has a pretty good hand – kings and an ace-blocker. He could reraise, but isn't it too arrogant to reraise the chip leader twice in a row?
Karlsson answers this question with a "Yes" and folds. Selouan's steal works.
The nameless Dane isn't shy about beating the chip leader with a much weaker hand. Selouan has a decent card for an open, blockers, but it's completely unsuitable for calling a 3-bet—he has to fold.
A few minutes later, he gets his strongest card of the entire final table, which he raises from the cutoff and gets called by raidalot in the big blind. Selouan gets the nuts on the flop, and he checks.
The turn:
raidalot bets 4.76 big blinds—a big bet, and it's tempting to think he might make a crazy fold to a raise... but of course, no one will raise.
Selouan would have called in this situation even without blockers for two top sets, and with them, raising is a crime here.
The river brings a .
raidalot goes all-in for less than half the pot and is eliminated in 7th place.
Selouan faces a tough decision against the shortest stack. After some thought, the Brazilian realizes he can be reraised with more than just aces and kings, and he calls!
- Flop (26.1 bb):
A great flop for WhySoSerious's range, but a horrendous flop for his hand. It seems like a perfectly acceptable bet-fold in this situation, but the problem is that the Austrian only has 7.7 big blinds left.
After some agonizing, he decides to maximize his fold equity, goes all-in, and is left with 6% equity. Luck is not on his side—Selouan knocks out another opponent and strengthens his already huge lead.
Now let's turn our attention to the Danish participant's performance.
This limp with an obviously very strong hand shows that top Omaha cash game player Prudently understands the challenges ICM presents, and takes them seriously. Schemion folds to Selouan's isolation raise in the big blind, and Prudently calls.
On the flop of , both players check. Selouan is quite cautious postflop. The turn is a and Prudently bets 3.3bb – about a third of the pot. Selouan... does something unexpected.
Prudently calls, taking a few seconds from the time bank. The river is an , and the SPR is about 0.5. Selouan's straight gets even bigger, but the Brazilian immediately checks, realizing it barely changes his hand strength.
A sneaky limp with aces from the small blind! Selouan isolates, but is forced to fold to a reraise. The Danish high roller continues to build his stack at the expense of the chip leader!
Pads opened preflop, and Schemion defended the big blind. The lead flopped a full house, and the situation was eerily reminiscent of the one at the very beginning of the final table.
However, Pads now has additional equity in the form of a gutshot, so he pushes all-in without hesitation. However, Schemion is now stronger and even a slight favorite at 53%.
The turn, an , puts Schemion ahead, but the river is a , and Pads doubles up again!
I'd like to commend Selouan's determined chip-leading stance. He's not shy about regularly stealing trash both preflop and postflop, as in this limped pot:
The Brazilian isn't worried that this play seems primitive or dumb. It pays off!
Prudently, who had previously regularly fought back against the chip leader, folds in this hand. Despite holding top pair and all his backdoors, he carefully preserved his second stack.
Pads limped preflop, and Selouan isolated. The Brazilian had nothing on the flop; he'd usually check in such situations before, but now he decides to attack with a fairly large bet. Pads thinks for a long time and then calls.
- Turn (22bb, effective stack 18bb):
No more outs for Selouan, and it's time to decide whether to insist on having aces or kings, or to fold nobly.
We don't know how much the stack sizes influenced Selouan's decision. Pads is in third place out of five and could have tried to outlast one of the shorter-stacked opponents with a tight fold. He could have, if his hand had been a little weaker.
Having spent most of his time bank, Patrick bravely makes the call – and must avoid his opponent's two outs. A 95% chance of winning is enough for another double-up.
Another Brazilian steal, another Karlsson resteal – but the Swede's stack is already too short to fold a whole suited ace against him. Selouan goes all-in, with a whopping 45% chance of winning against his opponent's paltry kings.
The flop comes with two threes, and Alfred Karlsson (Kzzon) is eliminated in fifth place.
Selouan reveals a hand that would be considered negligible even in high-low. Pads, who has a monster hand in high-low but nothing special in regular Omaha, decides to defend the small blind.
On the flop, Pads checks, and Selouan makes an unconventional bet, betting pot. He can't force his opponent's straight flush draw, so Pads calls.
- Turn (25 bb):
Showdown value is getting boring. Both players check.
- River (25 bb):
Fun again! Selouan's nut-low is also the best high. When his opponent checks, he bets 16.6 big blinds.
Pads frantically tries to come up with some kind of nut hand for his opponent, but he's running out of time. His time bank runs out too quickly, and Pads calls at the last second.
Selouan's stack is almost twice as big as his three opponents combined.
Another limp with a strong hand from Prudently, when he faces an isolation bet from the chip leader.
The Dane thinks about it, but his stack is too deep for a reraise, so he calls.
- Flop (11 bb):
A very dicey flop! Prudently checks. Selouan bets pot with two very vulnerable pairs. Prudently, with top pair and a second flush draw, of course, can't fold, and opts to move all-in.
A pass from Selouan is also impossible, and the Brazilian goes all-in with 46% against 54%. Turn – , river – .
The Danish high roller doubles.
Preflop, Pads limps with bad aces, Selouan calls in the small blind with random trash and flops trips... but there's a catch.
It's unlikely the Brazilian's lengthy deliberation at this stage was a slow roll. Perhaps he genuinely sensed something was wrong. But he still went all-in and walked away with 36% equity against trips with a high kicker.
A blank turn, but a fatal came on the river, and Patrick Leonard is out in 4th place.
Preflop, Selouan opens from the button with and calls Prudently's 3-bet. The flop doesn't disappoint.
A clash is inevitable. Prudently, out of position, commits to the pot by making a max continuation bet. Selouan shoves all-in with a set and a gutshot. His opponent calls. Equity is 67% to 33%, with the set obviously higher.
Turn – . River – .
Prudently rakes in a huge pot and becomes the new chip leader.
For several minutes, a positional battle ensues, aimed at bleeding Schemion's short stack dry. He's slowly losing chips, but he refuses to go bust, even dodging the bullets at times.
In the next hand, he somehow resists the urge to squeeze preflop, and postflop, he's literally kicked out of the pot:
Shemion takes the hint and folds. Prudently, of course, does too.
Finally, left with 8 blinds, wizowizo goes all-in with kings. Prudently gets 54% equity on the flop, and he makes a flush on the turn.
Heads-up stacks:
- Prudently – 109.5BB
- Selouan – 48.8BB
The match starts off tight, with lots of limps and cautious postflop play. It seems like the game could drag on, but Selouan suddenly shows aggression to his opponent's first 3-bet—and the timing is clearly unfortunate.
Although...
And yet, a top reg is a top reg.
Prudently, one of the strongest Omasa players who continues to hide his name from the general public, wins the SCOOP Main Event in his signature game.
