The no-limit hold’em Main Events in the Spring Championship of Online Poker at PokerStars have reached the halfway point.
Two days down, two to go, and while everyone who remains is in the money, we know there will be plenty out there with an eye on the results and how they may affect the standings in our Pick 3 for SCOOP 2026 contest.
In case you missed it, we’re sending a lucky player to the Irish Poker Open next week — so long as their team of three SCOOP players earns more points than all the others.
We won’t know who’s won until the final SCOOP tournament ends this Wednesday, but with registration in the Main now closed we do know one thing — the answer to the contest’s tiebreaker question: ‘How many entries will the 3 SCOOP NLH Main Events get (Low, Medium and High) combined?’
The answer to that is 19,999, as each tournament reached and surpassed its guaranteed prizepool.
As far as who will bag the big points for success in the Main Events, there’s one player in particular worth keeping an eye on.
Can ‘ShipitFTW911’ ship it for the win?
Sweden’s ‘ShipitFTW911’ was drafted 20 times for various Pick 3 teams, but so far has not been anywhere near the top points earners.
With only 190 points earned to date, it’s been hard to make a case for them as a wise addition to a Pick 3 trio — top scorer ‘FAL1st’ has racked up 4,470 points over the same period.
But at the time of writing, ShipitFTW911 has something FAL1st doesn’t have: the chip lead in the $5,200 High Main Event.
Just 40 of the 443 entries have survived two days of play, and ShipitFTW911 stands atop the chip counts with a stack of 8.4M, good for around 169 big blinds.
The total prizepool stands at $2,215,000, of which $397,025 has been set aside for the winner. All remaining players are guaranteed at least $11,180.
Here are the Pick 3 players we’ll be watching on Tuesday’s Day 3:
- ‘ShipitFTW911’ (1st, 8.4M)
- ‘Leqenden’ (33rd, 1.1M)
- Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi (26th, 1.6M)
- ‘bbernardinho’ (24th, 2M)
- ‘starwins :)’ (12th, 3.5M)
Additionally, while he didn’t make it into the Pick 3 draft, Benjamin ‘bencb789’ Rolle currently sits in the middle of the pack with 2.6M chips, in 19th place. To say Rolle has form would be an understatement; he won the WSOP Online Main Event in September for $3.9M.
More to watch in the Medium and Low Main Events
The larger fields in the cheaper Main Events tend to result in fewer of our 100 Pick 3 draft choices making it through to the business end of the tournaments, but each still has the potential to impact your score.
And let’s not forget, big fields means big points when it comes to the leaderboard.
The $1,050 Medium Main Event is down to 80 of 2,673 entries, with a total prizepool of $2,673,000. Everyone is now guaranteed a minimum payday of $4,464, but all eyes will be on the $391,389 up top.
Somebody’s got to win it, and right now that somebody could be ‘$()meb()dy’. Playing out of Indonesia, they’ve built a stack of 13.3M — over 190 big blinds — with which to make a charge for the title.
Here’s who we’ll be railing to see what value they can bring to their Pick 3 teams:
- Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth (7th, 6.8M)
- Benny ‘RunGodlike’ Glaser (64th, 1.3M)
Glaser will need to divide his attention on Tuesday thanks to some more deep runs in the pot-limit Omaha Main Events — more on those below.
The $109 Low Main Event, as is customary, has drawn the biggest crowd of all. 16,883 entries have created a pot worth $1,688,300, with $181,540 heading to the winner.
All 159 surviving players have locked up a little over a thousand dollars, and are led by Switzerland’s ‘Lanor2004’ with 9.2M chips (115 big blinds).
Flying the flag for their Pick 3 team captains are:
- Andrey ‘Premove’ Skvortsov (51st, 2.8M)
- ‘starwins :)’ (76th, 2.3M)
Another Pick 3 player leads the PLO Main Event
Let’s not forget that SCOOP’s Main Events come in two flavors: no-limit hold’em (NLH) and pot-limit Omaha (PLO).
The PLO events are shorter — the Low and Medium are two-day events, while the High is a three-dayer — but the buy-ins are equal to their NLH equivalents, and the quality of the field is arguably much tougher.
Each has seen Pick 3 players make a mark, but none more so than the $109 Low, which, after one day’s play is being led by the widely-drafted Jerry ‘Perrymejsen’ Odeen.
The Swede has a stack of 775K, 193 big blinds, and designs on the $20,174 first-place prize money.
178 of the 1,291 entries remain, and each has banked a couple of hundred dollars so far. Among them are:
- Renan ‘Internett93o’ Bruschi (4th, 590K)
- Benny ‘RunGodlike’ Glaser (61st, 207K)
- Denis ‘aDrENalin710’ Strebkov (111th, 100K)
- Ivan 'zidix' Zhechev (118th, 88K)
- Ben ‘Spraggy’ Spragg (151st, 55K)
- Andrey ‘Premove’ Skvortsov (153rd, 53K)
The top-scoring player of the series so far, ‘FAL1st’, sits 164th with 39K.
Both Odeen and Glaser, as well as FAL1st, are also still contesting the $1,050 Medium PLO Main Event, where 35 of 288 runners remain.
The event has a total prizepool of $288K, with $54,972 going to the eventual winner. Here’s where our Pick 3 interests lie:
- Benny ‘RunGodlike’ Glaser (5th, 1.4M)
- ‘AmateurGOAT’ (6th, 1.4M)
- Jerry ‘Perrymejsen’ Odeen (12th, 1M)
- Blaz ‘Scarmak3r’ Zerjav (13th, 945K)
- ‘FAL1st’ (18th, 615K)
Finally, the $5,200 High PLO Main Event is down to its final table, as 76 entries are down to the money.
All nine players will be paid a minimum of $10,940, but the top prize is $119,975. And still in with more than a fighting chance is the newly crowned ‘king of the COOP’, Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard.
Leonard is 6th of 9 (1M chips, 17bb) heading into the final day’s play, and is joined by fellow Pick 3 player Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi (8th, 715K). Also at the final table are the likes of Ole ‘wizowizo’ Schemion and Gruffudd ‘d. apollo777’ Jones.
A significant chip lead is currently held by Brazil’s ‘SELOUAN1991’, who has over a third of the chips in play.
Play resumes on Tuesday, March 24 at 1:30pm ET (NLH) and 2:05pm ET (PLO) at PokerStars, and you can follow the action at the PokerStars YouTube channel.
