‘Tankanza’ Successfully Defends SCOOP Main Event Title

The 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Event has come to an end and once again the man walking away with the prize is Italian pro Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza. Those who like playing at SCOOP will remember that Tankanza also took down the 2018 SCOOP Main Event.

Tankanza entered the 2019 SCOOP Main Event which had a $10,300 buy-in to defend his crown. Very few poker players succeed in doing that in an online poker tournament but that’s exactly what the online poker pro managed to do. Speranza outlasted a field of 662 entries to capture the historic win for $1,028,203. In 2018, the Austria-based player also grabbed the top prize of $1,133,160 after topping a 654-player field.

The $10,300 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Main Event surpassed expectations after it awarded a total of $6,620,000 to the top 87 finishers, significantly higher than the initially-announced prize money worth $5 million. Day 1 concluded with just 31 players left competing for the top prize. At this point, every player was already guaranteed $41,598 each in prize money.

SCOOP $10,300 Main Event Final Table Results

The second and final day of the Main Event saw a number of famous players exiting the game, including Sami “Lrsklzk” Kelopuro, Connor “blanconegro” Drinan, Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky, and three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos who bowed out in 10^th place for $81,377.

Austria’s “nailju90“, who finished second at the same event in 2018, managed to take the fifth spot this year for $324,119. Uruguay’s Francisco “Tomatee“ also won big this year after finishing in fourth place for $442,597. That amount adds to his first-place winnings from two other PokerStars events on May 26.

Tomatee’s exit left three players battling for the top prize: Speranza, “OMGitshunt” of Belarus, and Austria’s Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt, who later busted in third place for $604,383.

Speranza agreed on a heads-up deal with “OMGitshunt”, leaving $100,000 and the title to play for. During the deal, “OMGitshunt” already earned for himself a massive $924,096, the exact amount he was able to take home after finishing as runner-up to Speranza.

Other SCOOP Main Event Winners

A total of six main events took place during May 26-27. The other winners include: Jack Wastes (SCOOP 62-L NLHE Main Event, $315,955); “jakobgold” (SCOOP 62-M NLHE Main Event, $668,558); “tvtotalwin” (SCOOP 63-L PLO Main Event, $46,501); “PeiMaiPano93” (SCOOP 63-M PLO Main Event, $148,257); and “‘pkrbt” (SCOOP 63-H PLO Main Event, $285,762).

More than $105 million was awarded across the 2019 SCOOP. Will Speranza be able to defend his title for the third time? We will find out during the next installment of the popular online poker tournament.