Radoja Denied Heads-Up as "Fakhish" Wins PokerStars SCOOP $10,300 Main Event
From a field of 534, just one emerged triumphant. "Fakhish"
The Mexico-flagged player defeated Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja and topped a field packed with talent to win $948,434 and their first SCOOP title.
Almaz "Alister307" Zhdanov, who won his first SCOOP title earlier this month, started the final table as chip leader but would have to settle for third place.
The only other former SCOOP winners at the final table were Dmitry "yurasov1990" Yurasov and Juanki "B4NKR0LL3R" Vecino.
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fakhish | Mexico | $948,434 |
| 2 | Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja | Canada | $701,945 |
| 3 | Almaz "Alister307" Zhdanov | Belarus | $519,545 |
| 4 | Iago "neverstandard" Savino | Brazil | $384,531 |
| 5 | Vyacheslav "VbV1990" Buldygin | Kazahkstan | $284,604 |
| 6 | Dmitry "yurasov1990" Yurasov | Belarus | $210,644 |
| 7 | krokodil.by | Latvia | $155,904 |
| 8 | Peter "pitaoufmg" Patricio | Brazil | $115,389 |
| 9 | Juanki "B4NKR0LL3R" Vecino | Estonia | $92,083 |
Final Table Recap
Almaz "Alister307" Zhdanov may have started the day as chip leader, but it was "Fakhish" who moved through the pack to lead with six players remaining.
Peter "pitaoufmg" Patricio started the day fifth in chips, but followed Juan Carlos "B4NKR0LL3R" out the door as start-of-day short stack "krokodil.by" laddered twice before ultimately being eliminated in seventh.
Six-handed both Dmitry "yurasov1990" Yurasov and Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja doubled through Vyacheslav "VbV1990" Buldygin (pictured), who had started the day second in chips, before Buldygin himself doubled through Zhdanov.
Buldygin then picked up chips with the elimination of Yurasov, flopping a set of tens to send the Belarusian to the rail.
Despite this, Buldygin was next out, shoving with A?K? into the pocket threes of "Fakhish". The board ran out 9?8?4?10?7? and Buldygin was eliminated.
Iago "neverstandard" Savino was unlucky to bust in fourth, getting jacks in against "Fakhish", only for the river to pair his opponent's queen and he was eliminated.
Then Radoja caught fire, sniffing out bluffs from both opponents three-handed. First, with the board reading 9?6?4?4?2? the Canadian was shoved on by Fakhish, calling with Q?6? and getting shown the 7?3? bluff from his opponent.
His next bluff catch resulted in an elimination. On a A?9?8? flop, he called a check-raise from Zhdanov and then called a bet on the 5? turn. Zhdanov shoved the 10? river, and Radoja called.
Zhdanov showed K?7? for a stone-cold bluff with Radoja's 9?7? rivered flush, seeing him enter heads-up with 76 big blinds to Fakhish's 91.
As heads-up play got underway, there was a brief mention of a deal. "We don't look [at] numbers? We could play for slightly less," said Radoja.
"Maybe later if we will have equal stacks ok?" came the reply from Fakhish.
But there were never equal stacks. Fakhish soon opened up a 3:1 and then a 4:1 lead heads-up, with Radoja unable to mount a comeback.
In the final hand, Radoja held K?J? on a Q?10?8? flop for an open-ended straight draw while Fakhish had flopped two pair with Q?8?
The turn 6? changed nothing and although the J? river gave Radoja a pair, it wasn't enough and Fakhish was crowned champion.