PokerStars French and Spanish SCOOP Smashes its �10 Million Guarantee
At the beginning of the year, PokerStars became the first online poker operator to share liquidity in France and Spain. The network is now the fifth biggest for ring-game players according to PokerScout, just behind the worldwide PokerStars, IDNPoker (poker network focused on the Asian market), 888poker, and partypoker.
The French and Spanish PokerStars client has been a success for tournament players as well. The site kicked off the year with its first poker festival dubbed the France Espania Hold'em (FRESH). The series smashed its �5,000,000 guarantee across its 50 events after it attracted more than 30,000 unique entries to generate combined prize pools of �6,149,751.
From March 25 to April 9, the online poker network hosted its inaugural Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) with 120 events broken out into High and Low tiers. The festival marked the first time that PokerStars launched a festival with more than 100 events.
Expectations were high with �10,000,000 in combined guaranteed prize pools or double that of what was guaranteed in January in the FRESH. The total guarantees were eclipsed by almost 18 percent with more than 37,000 unique players in the festival generating combined guaranteed prize pools of �11,768,035.
The two SCOOP Main Events also proved to be a success with more than 8,000 unique entries. Spain's "__elembolo" won �30,055 as part of a four-way deal after outlasting a field of 6,999 entrants (5,006 entries + 1,993 re-entries) in the two-day SCOOP �50 Main Event Low.
Meanwhile, Spain's "Sytoamd" shipped the two-day SCOOP �250 Main Event High for �117,600 after navigating through a massive field of 3,698 entrants (3,090 entries + 608 re-entries).
In addition to their winnings, both players were also awarded a coveted Platinum Pass valued at $30,000 to the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold��em Championship.
Spain's "lilo613" became the fourth Spanish player to win a Platinum Pass thanks to being lucky enough to win the free All-in Shootout after playing in a $100 buy-in SCOOP tournament. The All-in Shootout was open to all players who participated in at least one SCOOP event.
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