Lefrancois Claims Largest Prize of the 2023 PokerStars SCOOP So Far

Pascal “Pass_72” Lefrancois is no stronger to massive online poker tournament scores, especially at PokerStars. Lefrancois reeled in another $207,900 on May 24 after coming out on top of the SCOOP 86-H: $10,300 Super Tuesday High Roller. The $207,900 Lefrancois won is the largest single prize of the 2023 SCOOP so far.

You may recall Lefrancois took down the $5,200 Main Event 2nd Chance during the 2020 SCOOP, a result that banked him $416,742, a sum only surpassed by the $1,069,210 he collected for a runner-up finish in the 2021 World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event. Don’t bet against Lefrancois bagging another six-figure sum before the 2023 SCOOP concludes.

SCOOP 86-H: $10,300 NLHE Super Tuesday High Roller Final Table Results

Eighty-seven entrants created an $870,000 prize pool that the top 11 finishers shared. Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira was the unfortunate soul who burst the money bubble, bowing out in 12th place, and locking in $21,957 for the surviving players.

Claas “SsicK_OnE” Segebrecht and “Ebaaa11” busted in the money, the latter’s elimination setting the final table.

Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden sat down with less than four big blinds at his disposal, so it was unsurprising when he fell in ninth. Vousden busted at the hands of “monzemann” who opened with queen-nine of spades, and Vousden called all-in with ace-seven of hearts. Vousden flopped an ace, but “monzemann” turned a spade flush to reduce the player count by one.

Eighth place went to recent SCOOP winner Espen “Hymn2Ninkasi” Jorstad one hand after Vousden’s demise. Jorstad jammed for almost exactly a single big blind and found himself up against Marius “DEX888” Gierse after the latter raised to isolate the micro-stacked Jorstad. Gierse’s king-jack stayed ahead of Jorstad’s nine-eight; and then there were seven.

The final seven became six with the untimely demise of Canada’s “Stumpfed”. “monzemann” min-raised to 60,000, “Stumpfed” jammed for 46,860 from the small blind, and Ole “wizowizo” Schemion squeezed all-in, folding out “monzemann.” Schemion turned over pocket queens which stayed ahead of the queen-nine of the now eliminated “Stumpfed.”

Next leaving the fold was “Gogac sniper,” who PokerStars’ Twitch commentator James Hartigan stated was Roman Hrabec. Their tournament ended when the action folded to them in the small blind, and Hrabec open-shoved for 15 big blinds with king-jack. Lefrancois instantly called with pocket tens in the big blind, before turning a set and improving to quads on the river!

The surviving players breathed a sigh of relief when Swedish legend Niklas “Lena900” Astedt was sent to the showers. Astedt came unstuck against Lefrancois.

Astedt min-raised to 70,000 with ace-jack, Lefrancois called in the big blind with ace-trey and promptly flopped two pair. Lefrancois check-raised a 58,800 bet on the flop to 157,500, and Astedt responded with call. A six on the turn was greeted by Lefrancois leading for 247,500. Astedt jammed for 780,058, and Lefrancois snapped him off. The river bricked, and Astedt was gone.

The final five-figure prize went to Schemion as the final table action passed the two-hour mark. With blinds of 25,000/50,000/6,000a, Schemion limped in, “monzemann” pumped it up to 175,000 only for Schemion to jam for 1,194,214. “monzemann” snap-called and showed ace-queen; Schemion flipped over jack-ten of spades. An ace on the turn proved more than enough to bust Schemion from the Super Tuesday High Roller.

Heads-up was set after Gierse ran out of steam in third. Down to 24 big blinds, Gierse three-bet all-in with pocket threes from the big blind over an opening raise from “monzemann,” who called and showed king-queen. “monzemann” won the flip courtsy of a king on the flop.

“monzemann” held a 5.4 million to 3.2 million chip advantage over Lefrancois at the start of the heads-up battle, but it did not stay that way for long after “monzemann” got a hero call horribly wrong.

The final hand occurred when Lefrancois opened to 132,000 with ace-king, “monzemann” three-bet to 480,000 with pocket eights, and Lefrancois moved all-in before “monzemann” called off the 1,964,082 chips they had behind. It was a coin flop with $36,000 on the line, a coinflip that went Lefrancois’ way when a king landed on the turn.

Game over and $160,667 for “monzemann” but a title and $207,900 for the one and only Lefrancois.

Other Notable PokerStars SCOOP Results

Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser has done it again and taken down a non-Hold’em SCOOP event. Having secured his eighth SCOOP title earlier in the series in the $1,050 NLO8 6-Max PKO, Glaser banked SCOOP victory number nine in the $215 PLO8 6-Max.

Glaser reeled in $12,572, and is now the only player with nine SCOOP wins, and trails Calvin “cal42688” Anderson by a single outright title. You would not bet against Glaser matching or even surpassing Anderson by the time the 2023 SCOOP concludes.

Elsewhere, there were victories for the likes of Marius “DEX888” Gierse and Dzmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich.

Is Tonight Veldhuis’ Night?

Team PokerStars’ Lex “L. Veldhuis” Veldhuis has endured some near misses during the series as he continues his quest to become a SCOOP champion for the first time. Veldhuis has yet another shot at glory after navigating his way to the final table of SCOOP 91-H: $3,150 NLHE PKO High Roller.

Only nine players remain, and Veldhuis is sixth in chips. You can tune into Veldhuis’ latest final table via the PokerStars Twitch channel or Veldhuis’ personal streams on May 25. Good luck, Lex!