World Record $91m overall Prize Pool set by 2016 PokerStars SCOOP

It seems like a lifetime has passed since PokerStars held it’s inaugural Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) in 2009. It was a relatively small tournament series back then, boasting just 22 low, mid and high events (total 66), originally designed as a way to satiate the pallets of players as they awaited the much greater Winter Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Now, 7 years later, it’s obvious the SCOOP has earned its own, rightful place in the hearts of online poker fans.

The Spring series has grown larger and more affluent with each passing year. The 2014 SCOOP set a world record for generating the highest overall prize pool of any online poker tournament series with $81 million paid out. This year’s championship raised the bar, breaking its own record with $90,984,283 in prizes; more than double the original $40 million GTD.

The 2016 SCOOP kicked off earlier this month with 56 events designated for low, mid and high stakes buy-ins – a grand total of 168 events in all. Despite the fact that Americans have been unable to participate in the international online poker tournament series for the last five years, PokerStars has once again proven its esteemed reputation in the iPoker community by drawing hundreds of thousands of entries throughout the series.

3 Main Events, 3 New Records

All three 2016 SCOOP Main Events set records of their own this year. The High-end Main Event, which carried a $10,000 buy-in comparable to the WSOP Championship, drew a crowd of 824, producing a prize pool of $8,000,001.76 (well above the event’s advertised $1mm GTD). That’s quite a bit higher than last year’s record of 694 player and $6,940,000.

In the Mid-level Main Event, a $1,000 buy-in that originally guaranteed just $300k, PokerStars harvested 5,026 players, bringing the prize pool to $4,786,661.88. Again, that busted the record set last year of 4,238 and $4,238,000.

On the Low-end, the $100 Main Event drew 24,591 entries, obliterating the $100k GTD with a total prize of $2,255,978.34. Those figures topped a SCOOP record set in 2013, when 23,045 players jumped the guarantee to $2,304,500.

As always, PokerStars Director of Corporate Communications, Eric Hollreiser, was on hand to extol the dedication of their members and the powerful effect the brand’s flagship online poker championships have had on the gaming community.

“This record-breaking prize pool is testament to the enduring popularity of online poker,” commended Hollresier.”It’s also a result of the talented people and hard work exhibited by everyone at PokerStars, from the poker room tournaments team who put the schedule together, to the customer support teams helping our players get the most out of their experience.”

2016 PokerStars SCOOP Winners

Now that the action has come to an end, we can proudly announce who benefited most from the bolstered Main Event purses.

Congratulations go out to UK online poker player ‘raidalot’, who routed the SCOOP’s High Main Event for an impressive $1,468,000. Next up is  ‘Educa-p0ker‘, another UK native who survived the Mid-Main to collect $578,621. And finally, congrats to the Brazilian ‘mmleandro‘, whose $100 Low buy-in and amazing endurance over a 24k field earned him $196,059.