$91 million paid out in 2018 PokerStars Online Poker Championships

The tenth edition of the annual PokerStars online poker championship, SCOOP, has come to a close, setting a new record and paying out over $90 million in prize pools.

According to data from Poker Industry Pro, the 2018 Spring Championship of Online Poker set a new record for the total number of tournaments available (183 in all) and generated a $91 million prize pool. Even though the prize pool was slightly less than the $93 million paid out in 2017, that figure actually represented a substantial 38.5% increase on the amount that was originally guaranteed for the event.

For the first time in its history, the 2018 SCOOP offered players at least one tournament per day, with a guaranteed total prize pool of $1 million throughout the 15-day duration. As a result, a total of 28 tournaments with seven-figure prize pools played out between the 6th and 21st of May.

A mysterious Italian player, “Tankanza”, topped a notoriously tough field of 654 players to win the SCOOP Main Event. After a major struggle against Austrian player Julian “nailuj90” Stuer, he closed out the $10,300 High Main Event for a massive $1,133,160. He also walked away having received one of the much-coveted Platinum Passes for the 2019 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold ‘em Championship, worth $30,000.

Tankanza, who was the winner of the 2017 World Championship of Online Poker, declined to comment on his win and has since remained anonymous, leaving the online poker community desperate for him to reveal his true identity.

Calvin “cal42699” Anderson added yet another SCOOP title to his name (he now has a grand total of 10) by winning two major events this year. Now based in Mexico, Anderson is one of the original American “poker refugees” and a longstanding member of the PokerStars community. He made history by taking his ninth title after outlasting 337 other players in the SCOOP-19-H: $2, 100 NLHE [6-Max], walking away with $129,659.

But nine titles weren’t quite enough, and Anderson surpassed his own record with his tenth title: the SCOOP-26-H: $1, 050 FLO8 [8-Max]. After agreeing to a deal with Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski and Connor "blanconegro" Drinan, Anderson took home a purse of $26,305 to accompany his title.

Other notable winners at the 2018 event include Hungarian player “Wildace_hun”, who topped a field of 5,508 entrants to win the SCOOP Medium $1,050 Main Event for a cash prize of $783,166 and a Platinum Pass, and Germany’s “Cashcid Linc”. After beating a huge field of 26,361 entrants in the SCOOP Low $109 Main Event, the anonymous player won a total purse of $267,584.

This year the SCOOP attracted over 140,000 players from across the globe, and it remains one of the most important events on the PokerStars calendar. PokerStars is one of the largest online poker platforms in the world. In addition to running annual online events like SCOOP, the brand sponsors top live tournaments, such as the European Poker Tour, and operates a dedicated mobile casino for both Android and iOS.