Everyone knows that MTT’s can be a serious grind with heavy swings in variance meaning that the best players don’t always win. Sometimes though, variance behaves itself and we end up with some pretty big stories come spring time….
Charlie Carrel wins the SCOOP Main Event High
He may have achieved quite a bit of notoriety by winning this year’s SCOOP Main Event High at PokerStars, but in many respects, this UK pro had flown under the radar in recent years. By no means a huge star, he has always been highly accomplished tournament player, both live and online. He has over $5.5 million in live cashes, including multiple wins in EPT side events, and he now adds $1.2 million in online winnings to his bankroll for winning this prestigious SCOOP title.
Carrel, who plays under the online name ‘Epiphany77’ didn’t exactly have an easy time of things at the final table, experiencing connection issues and entering the final table as the shortest stack. He also had to overcome a final table that included Connor ‘blanconegro‘ Drinan and Harrison ‘gibler321’ Gimbel. Carrel soon played himself into contention once the final table began, before a big hand against Ola ‘Odd_Oddsen’ Amundsgard propelled him into the chip-lead. Carrel never looked back after that, and after a deal was struck two-handed, he took down the event for $1,200,899. Harrison Gimbel took 2nd for $1,122,873.
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) |
| 1 | Charlie “Epiphany77” Carrel | $1,200,899 |
| 2 | Harrison “gibler321” Gimbel | $1,122,873 |
| 3 | th’Kick | $690,348 |
| 4 | Garrin4e | $492,542 |
| 5 | Ola “Odd_Oddsen” Amundsgard | $351,414 |
| 6 | Connor “blanconegro” Drinan | $250,723 |
| 7 | C. Darwin2 | $178,883 |
| 8 | Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden | $127,628 |
| 9 | Emil “maroonlime” Patel | $91,058 |
Isildur1 shines once again
Having previously won the SCOOP Main Event High four years ago, Isildur1 showed his class once again this year by leading for much of the SCOOP Player of the Year Race, before eventually taking runner-up spot.
Given the quality of players who enter the middle and high buy in events, any player who can win a SCOOP Main Event High and make placing in the top few spots on the Player of the Year leaderboard look easy must truly be a special all round poker player. Isildur1 continues to prove himself in this regard and had a fantastic SCOOP once again this year.
Isildur1 accumulated 785 points on the ‘overall’ Player of the year leaderboard which combines results for low, medium and high and was narrowly pipped by Naza114 from the Netherlands, who finished with 815. Naza114 takes home a trophy, and $20,000 cash.
Japan’s Naoya Kihara also had a noteworthy series, taking 2nd on the Player of the Series low leaderboard.
SCOOP (Overall) Leader Board
| Place | User ID | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Naza114 | Netherlands | 815 |
| 2 | Isildur1 | Sweden | 785 |
| 3 | bedias | Brazil | 740 |
| 4 | MITS 304 | Cyprus | 730 |
| 5 | krakukra | Russia | 710 |
Doug Polk triumphs in Powerfest High Roller during live stream
We took it down for $272,000! Thanks to everyone for tuning in, couldn’t be happier to win another tournament streaming!
— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) May 22, 2017
Doug Polk spent years building a name for himself as a top high stakes player before eventually turning his efforts towards building a name for himself as a great Youtube content provider and online poker live streamer. In case anyone had forgotten he’s still a top-class poker player, he managed to use his latest live stream to remind us all of that fact. In a field of 273 players, all of whom paid $5,200 to enter, Polk managed to emerge as the last man standing in the Powerfest High Roller at Partypoker, in front of a streaming audience of around 10,000.
Polk adds this win to the big results he has already had while streaming online, one of which holds the record for the largest tournament prize ever won on a live stream – the $455,000 he picked up for chopping the WCOOP $10K High Roller last year. With this victory, he picks up a further $272,000 and no doubt a few thousand more fans to add to his growing collection.
Full stream
Article by Craig Bradshaw
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