We're one week into the PokerStars Spring Championship of Poker (SCOOP) and Ben ‘Spraggy’ Spragg, while still to land a title of his own, is leading the SCOOP League.
The team that’s been doing so well for Spraggy up til now includes accomplished online players in ‘King153246’ and ‘mc1dot‘, but also those with serious live poker chops such as Patrick Leonard, Roman Romanovsky and Daniel Smiljkovic.
We caught up with Spraggy — a member of our Player Advisory Board — last week on the eve of the series, to find out why online festivals such as SCOOP are so important to him, not only as a player but as a streamer.
‘If you don’t understand what’s going on, SCOOP is when you're going to get punished’
“It's a very intense period to be playing,” says Spraggy of the three-week SCOOP series. “Usually that's when you see big meta shifts in the way people play, because everybody's been studying so much, everybody's been preparing so much."
“This is where everyone’s bringing out new tricks, bringing out their A-game, so you have to use these moments to get sharp or realign the way you play, because now you're going to have to start adjusting to some things you might not ever have seen before.”
With the amount of time Spraggy generally commits to online play, we find it hard to believe he comes across anything he’s not seen before. But with the combination of more players, more events and more at stake — both in terms of money and reputation — Spraggy insists this is a crucial time to sit up and take notice.
“When everyone's online for the series you're going to have players who’ve not played online for a while, as well as regulars that you’re used to but they've been away for a few weeks, studying and getting ready for the series.”
If series like these provide moments of evolutionary acceleration in poker strategy, Spraggy has been around long enough to know when to keep his eyes open. He’s been largely focused on streaming online tournaments for around eight years now, and is alert to shifts in population tendencies.
“There are definitely meta shifts that happen, where, for example, no one used to lead flops and then that becomes all the rage. Or in multiway pots everyone used to check to the aggressor, but over the last 6 months to a year people have been studying multiway and now everybody's leading from the small blind.”
Of course, it’s always crucial in poker to remain adaptable and move with the times but, as Spraggy warns, the penalties for taking your eye off the ball can be much greater during SCOOP.
“If you don’t understand what’s going on with that stuff, during SCOOP is when you're going to get max punished. This is where you have max exposure, as well, as a lot of people are playing probably the largest amount of buy-ins of the year online during SCOOP and WCOOP, so it’s very important to be shifting at these periods of time.”
‘The social side of poker can get lost online sometimes’
Last year saw the debut of the SCOOP League, with four team captains (Spragg, Fintan Hand, Lex Veldhuis and Parker Talbot) competing for points over 128 events.
This year’s SCOOP League is even bigger, with an extra team and a few extra events, plus the opportunity for players to back their choice of team for the chance to win extra prizes.
The series is the perfect time for Spraggy and his fellow streamers to double down, playing more events and engaging with wider audiences, using the community focus of the SCOOP League to extend their reach and grab more eyeballs.
But, as Spraggy points out, SCOOP also provides a platform to help people feel more connected to something greater than the solitary grind.
“SCOOP grinds can be really intense and lonely or isolating sometimes,” he explains. “Now with the SCOOP League there’s much more of a shared experience. While you may feel like you're just sat at the computer, you're not: you're sharing that with thousands of other poker players, and there are so many ways to interact."
“I think that's really important to poker, because while you're on your own when you're playing on the felt, you can lift that stress by seeing how other people are doing. People who might be having a bad SCOOP could see that maybe I might be having a bad SCOOP myself. It can happen, this is how the game works, it isn't necessarily something that I'm doing wrong or something that's only happening to me.
“Poker is, at its core, a social game. That can get lost online sometimes, and these mechanisms can kind of loop back to the social nature of it.”
While it’s well and truly up and running, SCOOP continues all the way through to June 2, with the three Main Events taking place next weekend. As Spraggy says, it’s the perfect time to engage more deeply with the ever-changing meta-game of tournament poker, but it’s also a great time to engage with other players.
The good news is that these days, through avenues like Discord and social channels, that’s never been easier. And if it all seems like too much of a grind — or if you’re based in a region where it’s not available — there’s always the chance to head to Twitch and watch someone else doing it. If that’s what you need, Spraggy’s got you covered.
And you might just see him win that first SCOOP title he craves.
SCOOP is available in PokerStars' global shared player pool, running through to June 2. Find out more and sign up at PokerStars.
