Three-Time WCOOP Champ Dan Kelly Collects First SCOOP Title

Three-time World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) champion Dan ‘djk123’ Kelly has added a Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) title to his resume after taking down event #29, a $109 buy-in plus Rebuys (medium) No-Limit Hold’em Big Antes tournament, for $73,040.06.

The Australian had to outlast 1,659 other players to collect the largest chunk from the $491,400 prize pool – which was way above the $300,000 guarantee – while 216 players, including PokerStars’ Team Pro member Chad Brown (209th for $540.54), made the money.

However, no one could halt Kelly’s path to glory as the Melbourne youngster added another online title to his ever-growing PokerStars collection as just 19 entrants made it into Day 2 – although the champion came close to exiting during level 31 on Day 1 before taking down a huge pot with Big Slick against the queens of Israel’s ‘Killer_ooooo’ when an ace on the flop took the eventual winner back into third place.

Aussie Scores Double Elimination

Fifteen players exited on Day 2 before Kelly scored a double knockout when eliminating Germany’s ‘Blackbeaty’ in third for $44,226 and Britain’s ‘matt20’ in fourth for $32,923.80 to set up his heads-up clash with Canada’s ‘pistons87’ – who had already collected a SCOOP title this year when taking down event #23, a $2,100 buy-in (high) No-Limit Hold’em Four-Max tournament, for $106,336.85.

Incidentally, ‘Blackbeaty’ is enjoying a great SCOOP, having also won event #1, a $27 buy-in (low) No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament, for $74,008 back on May 6.

Kelly started this event’s head-to-head with a huge chip advantage of 14.5 million to 2.9 million, but ‘pistons87’ fought back to find himself just 600,000 down – at 8.4 million to Kelly’s nine million – before the players agreed to a deal which saw the North American guaranteed $66,542.11 and the Aussie assured of $67,040.06.

Two-Way Deal Leaves $6,000 To Play For

That left $6,000 to play for – and it was Kelly who emerged victorious against his fellow WCOOP champion as the blinds hit 60,000/120,000 with a 24,000 ante.

The final hand saw Kelly call a minimum raise from big blind ‘pistons87’ to see an 8h-5h-5s flop, prompting a check from Kelly and a 240,000 bet from his opponent. Kelly then check-raised to make it 566,666, while ‘pistons87’ then three-bet to 1,080,000.

The crazy betting didn’t stop there, however, as Kelly replied with a 1,666,666 bet, only for ‘pistons87’ to stick in 2.4 million, before the Aussie then shoved 11.1 million to have the Canadian all-in.

He would have been happy to show his 3♦ 5♦ hole cards for trip fives, but Kelly turned over 5♣ A♥ to have a better kicker. Just three cards could help ‘pistons87’ – all threes! – but the 10♠ turn and K♠ river weren’t what he was looking for and that was that as the runner-up left disappointed.

Shawn Buchanan Secures First SCOOP Crown

In case you missed it, Canadian Shawn ‘buck21’ Buchanan became latest big-name pro to add his name to the list of SCOOP champions when taking down his first title, the $2,100 buy-in (high) Razz event #28, for $44,145 and a Movado watch.

The Vancouver pro topped an 81-player line-up – including the likes of Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, George Danzer, Martin Staszko and Jose ‘nachobarbero’ Barbero, as well as Team PokerStars Online Pros Kristian ‘CharismA3’ Martin and George ‘Jorj95’ Lind – to ultimately defeat Britain’s ‘sulbystar’ in a heads-up battle that left the runner-up with $29,970.

British Columbian Buchanan – who has one World Poker Tour (WPT) success to his name – will no doubt be thrilled to have added a SCOOP crown to the WCOOP $530 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha title he secured back in 2007 for $112,445.

Brit ‘sulbystar’ Takes Second Place

British player ‘sulbystar’ started his head-to-head with Buchanan holding a slight chip advantage of 207,631 to 197,369, only for the Canadian to steadily chip up until his opponent was all-in for his less-than-20,000 stack on fourth street during the final hand.

The Brit showed 5♠ 9♦, while Buchanan revealed A♦ 3♥. When the dealer had given both players all their cards,’ sulbystar’ held 3♣ 9♣ 5♠ 9♦ 10♥ 9♠ 8♦, but was well beaten by the 6♠ Q♣ A♦ 3♥ 7♣ 8♥ K♠ of the Canadian.

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