Clarkson7 have been with regards to COOP success a couple of times in recent memory. Excruciatingly close, really, with runner-up finishes in both WCOOP and TCOOP events during 2015. It searched for a time tonight like a last table appearance in Event #35-M would end with out a chance to move that far, after which it gave the impression of a 3rd COOP runner-up finish could be added to Clarkson7's PokerStars tournament resume. Then everything changed in a span of minutes, and the third time became the charm for COOP success that Clarkson7 were on the lookout for since early last year.

A $109 no-limit hold'em freezeout, this tournament drew 4,596 players on Day 1, which might last for 28 levels, all however the first four of which have been 20 minutes long. The highest 585 players shared within the $459,600 prize pool, the highest 142 of whom returned to play a second day of poker. It took seven and a half hours to achieve the general table, and it will take nearly four more to figure out a champion.

Seat 1: krousmenos46 (3,967,624 in chips)Seat 2: JulieBRIGHT (5,256,571 in chips)Seat 3: frayjuniper (7,398,946 in chips)Seat 4: Go0se.core! (5,095,464 in chips)Seat 5: Clarkson7 (2,919,461 in chips)Seat 6: Jamaikaner04 (2,505,356 in chips)Seat 7: Prof. Shark (1,334,419 in chips)Seat 8: Jordan "JWPRODIGY" Westmorland (1,625,259 in chips)Seat 9: NemesisMsop (15,856,900 in chips)

With four players holding lower than 25 big blinds each, there action early and frequently. Germany's Prof. Shark found a double-up with Q♦ Q♠, dodging a straight draw at the river to overcome frayjuniper's 5♥ 5♦ for 3.94M chips. But fellow German short stack (and past Sunday Million runner-up) Jamaikaner04 wouldn't fare besides. Sitting within the big blind with A♠ Q♦, Jamaikaner04 called all-in for 1.94M after Go0se.core! opened for 301K at the button and past SCOOP/TCOOP /WCOOP finalist Clarkson7 re-raised all-in for 2.99M within the small blind. Go0se.core! folded, and Clarkson7 turned over A♥ K♠. That was good for kings filled with aces after the board had run out 6♦ K♥ A♦ J♥ K♣, knocking out Jamaikaner04 in 9th place ($3,676.80).

frayjuniper took a second shot at knocking out a brief stack in a coin flip at the next hand, this time with A♦ Q♦ for the overcards to Jordan "JWPRODIGY" Westmorland's pair. 6♦ 6♥ held up at the 9♠ 9♦ K♠ 5♥ 8♥ board, and JWPRODIGY climbed to 4M. That turned to 8.1M for the EPT10 Sanremo finalist and past Super Tuesday winner an orbit later after opening at the button with 9♣ 9♥ after which calling all-in following krousmenos46's shove from the massive blind with A♥ 9♠. That left krousmenos46 with 1.01M chips, and two hands later JWPRODIGY would get those, too, min-raising with A♣ 8♠ after which calling for 908K total when krousmenos46 jammed at the button with K♣ Q♦. The 2♠ T♣ 9♠ 3♠ 4♠ board was no help, and krousmenos46 left in 8th place ($5,745).

JWPRODIGY had gone from short stack to contender briefly order, and shortly enough he topped that by becoming the chip leader. After min-raising to 320K at the button with A♥ 3♠, he called JulieBRIGHT's re-raise to 640K from the large unaware of see the 5♦ 8♣ 4♦ flop. JulieBRIGHT led for 480K into the 1.5M pot, and JWPRODIGY's call was paid off with the 2♥ at the turn for a wheel straight. He flat-called 800K there after which moved in excessive of JulieBRIGHT's 960K bet after the Q♦ hit the river. JulieBRIGHT called with T♦ 8♥ for a couple of tens and departed in 7th place ($10,341).

That 9.9M-chip pot moved Westmorland into the lead by 15 big blinds over NemesisMsop, the previous leader. He extended it to 85 big blinds in a heads-up pot with the Brazilian player, semi-bluffing on a flush draw with 9♣ 3♣ and backing up into three of a type with runner-runner treys. NemesisMSOP called smallish bets at the flop and switch before calling 2.97M at the river and mucking with 7.25M chips remaining.

Clarkson7 opened the following hand under the gun with A♦ J♣ and called when Prof. Shark moved all-in for 1.75M with 4♥ 4♠, taking down the pot with a couple of jacks at the J♦ Q♦ K♠ 6♥ T♠ board, sinking Prof. Shark in 6th place ($14,937).

Go0se.core! picked up a far better pocket pair at the next hand but ended up with the similar result. The player from the uk made a small three-bet to 585K from the massive blind with K♦ K♠ after frayjuniper opened for the minimum within the small blind. frayjuniper called with Q♦ 8♣ and hit gold at the Q♠ 8♥ flop, check-raising to 807K there after which jamming at the 2♣ turn. Go0se.core! called all-in, frayjuniper made queens full at the Q♥ river, and Go0se.core! left the tournament in 5th place ($19,533).

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NemesisMsop departed shortly afterward in 4th place ($26,427), taking the table as much as the 10pm ET break with JWPRODIGY holding a slim lead at 19.1M chips over frayjuniper's 18.8M. Clarkson7 was trailing with 7.8M chips but at 42 big blinds was still in manageable territory. The 3 remaining players chose to play during the break, which might finally end up meaning no breaks in over two hours of poker for all of them, excluding some brief discussions for a possible deal that broke down.

The next 40 minutes saw the established order roughly maintained before Clarkson7 made a giant call. Having defended the large blind with A♣ 8♠ and caught a vulnerable top pair in a three-way pot, Clarkson7 called at the flop and checked the turn, which both larger-stacked opponents checked behind. Clarkson7 checked again at the river, as did JWPRODIGY, and frayjuniper bet 1.9M into the 3M-chip pot. Clarkson7 called, JWPRODIGY folded, and the quick stack clawed back to nearby of the leaders when frayjuniper showed down T♥ 9♥ - a pure bluff.

In the following 40 minutes JWPRODIGY slowly moved prior to the opposite two players before frayjuniper pulled back to within 10 big blinds, while Clarkson7 dropped back to third. Then JWPRODIGY went on a tear at the 200K/400K/50K level, winning 12 of 13 hands to double his stack and take out frayjuniper. The latter started the overall hand with 6.7M and was a large favorite after raising at the button with 4♣ 4♥ after which calling JWPRODIGY's all-in re-raise with 2♥ 2♠, and it gave the look of three-handed play might need another 40 minutes over the horizon with the board reading 8♥ 6♠ 7♠ 9♠. Then the 2♦ hit the river, giving JWPRODIGY a suite of deuces and bringing frayjuniper's run to an abrupt halt in 3rd place ($37,917).

JWPRODIGY held 36.3M chips to Clarkson7's 9.6M as heads-up play began at 11:18pm ET and applied continuous pressure during the first ten minutes in their match, whittling the two-time COOP runner-up's stack all the way down to 6.4M. Then Clarkson7 picked up K♥ K♠ at the same deal as JWPRODIGY's A♥ 4♠ and got right back within the game. The 2 traded pots for the following 20 minutes, with Clarkson7's stack slowly dropping back to 10.1M before another confrontation. This time Clarkson7 was at the wrong end of it pre-flop, having jammed with K♥ J♠ after JWPRODIGY opened with A♥ K♣, but a Broadway straight at the river of the Q♥ A♦ 9♥ 8♠ T♥ board extended the match.

They chose to play throughout the midnight ET break after Clarkson7 doubled up again, this time with J♦ J♠ against JWPRODIGY's A♦ 3♣, only to peer Westmorland get a few of the lost chips back at the very next hand. For 20 more minutes they battled from side to side with none major pots - after which the most important one of the crucial tournament came up. It started innocuously enough, with Clarkson7 raising the minimum to 1.4M at the button and JWPRODIGY calling to look a 4♥ 2♥ 5♠ flop. Then the action went check-bet-raise-shove-call, and JWPRODIGY's flopped wheel straight with A♦ 3♥ was up against Clarkson7's flush draw with J♥ 6♥. The draw hit at the turn with the T♥, and after the 7♣ hit the river, the match turned upside-down.

An hour of scrapping as a brief stack had ended up with Clarkson7 holding 41.4M chips to JWPRODIGY's 4.5M. It will take only one minute as chip leader to finish the tournament, with JWPRODIGY jamming at the button with 8♠ 7♣ and Clarkson7 calling with A♠ J♣. The board came down Q♣ J♠ Q♥ 7♥ 6♠ and a last table filled with twists and turns finally came to an end.

Congratulations are because of both players, who fought hard all of the way for the risk on the title. It was perhaps a disappointing finish for Jordan "JWPRODIGY" Westmorland, who played strong poker within the final table after battling back from one of the vital shortest stacks originally of ultimate table play, however the $53,773.20 prize on a $109 buy-in can help to ease the pain. As for Clarkson7, who knows the edge of losing a heads-up COOP battle all too well and doubtless anticipated its return various times during the last hour of play, this primary SCOOP breakthrough was worth $72,158.64.

SCOOP-35-M ($109 NL Hold'em) resultsEntrants: 4,596Total prize pool: $459,600Places paid: 585 

1. Clarkson7 (UK) $72,158.642. Jordan "JWPRODIGY" Westmorland (Australia) $53,773.203. frayjuniper (UK) $37,9174. NemesisMsop (Brazil) $26,4275. Go0se.core! (UK) $19,5336. Prof. Shark (Germany) $14,9377. JulieBRIGHT (Russia) $10,3418. krousmenos46 (Cyprus) $5,7459. Jamaikaner04 (Germany) $3,676.80

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