SCOOP: Mattsson outlasts stacked FT to win $10k High Roller

The final table of the SCOOP 16-H: $10,000 Super Tuesday High Roller brought together a murderer's row of poker minds. You know it's an all-time SCOOP lineup when multiple players are better known by their online monikers. That includes eventual champion Simon "C. Darwin22" Mattsson, who rose above the rest to claim the prestigious SCOOP title and the $186,237 top prize. 

As mentioned, Mattsson wasn't the only online legend that showed up to battle. Just take a look at the rest of the players rounding out the final table: Niklas "lena900" Astedt, Adrian "Amadi_017" Mateos, Pedro "pvigar" Garagnani, Juan "MalakaStyle" Pardo, Espen "Hymn2Ninkasi" Jorstad, Dinesh "NastyMinder" Alt, Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov, and "DingeBrinker". 

The event drew a field of 69 entries (including 17 re-entries), generating a prize pool of $690,000. Only nine places paid out, meaning the final nine players above started today's action in the money, each with $21,511 locked up. 

Bustouts come quick and early

The first few eliminations came in quick succession as several players entered the final table on short stacks. 

Astedt, the shortest to start proceedings, made his exit in ninth place. The Swedish online crusher committed the last of his chips - a little more than four big blinds worth - with . Alt made the call with and his pair held up across the runout as his opponent failed to improve. 

Astedt fell first, but he'll be back

Vezhenkov fell next, in eighth place, after running into Alt's in a blind versus blind confrontation. The flop left Vezhenkov with less than 1% equity, and the turn sealed the deal. 

After securing a couple of pay jumps, Garagnani pulled a stop-and-go move against Mattsson. On a short stack, the Brazilian didn't have much fold equity when he moved all-in with on a flop and Mattsson called with just ace-high. The turn and river brought no help to Garagnani and he exited in seventh place.

Pardo bowed out next, in sixth place, after a three-way all-in pot left him with only crumbs. The action saw the Spaniard commit his stack from the button with , only to see a re-jam from Alt in the small blind and a snap call from the covering stack of Mateos in the big blind. 

The trophy fell out of reach for Pardo this time

Pardo needed a lot of help as he found himself up against Alt's and his fellow countryman's . The board ran out to provide Alt with a triple up, but Pardo only crumbs. A few hands later, those crumbs disappeared, hoovered up by the Mattsson vacuum. 

Mattsson pulls ahead as field thins

Despite starting the day as chip leader, Jorstad failed to find good spots to chip up in a meaningful way. Instead, his chips seemed to siphon away to his immediate left — straight into Mattsson's stack. 

For the second time at this final table, a player committed their stack with , only to find themselves flipping against a middling pocket pair. This time around, Alt held the suited connectors and Mateos the small pair, . Again, the pocket pair held up across the runout, and Alt's day ended in a fifth-place finish. 

"DingeBrinker" saw his run end in fourth place following a rather unfortunate runout. The Estonian-based player laid a perfect trap for Mattsson when he merely limped in from the small blind with . Looking down at , Mattsson opted for maximum pressure and moved all in. "DingeBrinker" quickly made the call, but couldn't fade the three-outer as the board ran out to give Mattson two-pair and the winning hand. 

The start of three-handed play saw Jorstad - the 2022 Main Event Champion - take a big hit when his top pair ran into Mateos' trips. The Norwegian, now short-stacked, then took his final stand in a hand against Mateos. 

Jorstad wasn't the chosen one this time

NEIL STODDART

After defending the big blind with against Mateos' button open, Jorstad opted to check-raise the flop. Mateos, with , called the raise and immediately improved to the lead on the turn. Jorstad then opted to check, rather than continue betting in flow after raising the flop, and Mateos bet small. Jorstad's call brought in the river and he checked once again. 

With a little less than a half-pot bet remaining in his opponent's stack, Mateos jammed to put Jorstad at risk. After deliberating hard, Jorstad clicked the call button only to see the bad news as his virtual chips slid into Mateos' stack. 

Mateos vs. Mattsson

The heads-up battle between Mattsson and Mateos saw the former start proceedings with a little over a million more chips than his opponent. It took only three hands to decide the winner as Mattsson's run good overpowered Mateos' in a massive pot. 

Mattsson's raise with was met with a three-bet from Mateos, but that didn't deter the Swede as he made the call. The flop connected with Mattsson's hand, leading him to check-call Mateos' continuation bet. Mateos continued with another large bet on the turn and Mattsson came along for the ride. The river improved Mattsson to a full house and left Mateos with the worst of it. The Spaniard wisely checked to his opponent and Mattsson dipped into his time bank before moving all in. 

With his tournament life on the line, Mateos let his time bank run nearly all the way down. With just six seconds left, he clicked the call button and saw the bad news as Mattsson showed his full house to claim his seventh COOP title, denying Mateos his second SCOOP title of the series in the process.