SCOOP Main Event Winner Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi Takes Home $1.4 Million

Talal Shakerchi, known online as “raidalot,” won the SCOOP, aka Spring Championship of Online Poker Main Event (high) on Tuesday, bringing to a close a record-breaking online PokerStars festival and the richest of all time.

Talal Shakerchi wins SCOOP Main Event

Multi-millionaire British philanthropist Talal Shakerchi, shown here at the Monaco EPT in 2013, won the SCOOP $10K Main Event, defeating a final table that included pros Scott Seiver and John Juanda. (Image: thetimes.co.uk)

So much for boycotting PokerStars. Over the course of the 17-day festival, $91 million was won by thousands of players across 56 events (168 tournaments in all), breaking the previous record of $81 million that had been set by SCOOP in 2014.

The $10,000 high-buy in the Main Event alone had 824 entries, up 25 percent over last year, which generated a prize pool of more than $8 million. Meanwhile, the $1,000 medium Main Event garnered 5,026 entries for a prize pool of $4.8m, and the $100 low Main Event attracted 24,591 entries and a prize pool of $2.2 million.

It seems the death of online poker has been somewhat exaggerated, as PokerStars’ Director of Corporate Communications Eric Hollreiser noted this week.

“This record-breaking prize pool is testament to the enduring popularity of online poker,” he said.

The Main Event final table was packed with some of the world’s top players, with the likes of John Juanda (Luckbox), Scott Seiver (gunning4you), Lasse Nielson (IReadB00ks), and Sean Winter (Nolez7).

The Rich Get Richer

But it was British hedge fund manager, high-stakes player, and philanthropist Shakerchi who entered the final with the chip lead, and rode it to the finish line, defeating Winter heads-up.

Shakerchi founded his own hedge fund, Meditor, and the UK’s Sunday Times Rich List has estimated his wealth at around £100 million ($146.6 million), although we’re not certain they factored in his winnings from live poker tournaments, which have been substantial over the past few years.

Shakerchi has live tournament winnings of $2.6 million to his name. Now he has an extra $1,468,001 to add to the top of his giant stash.

Shaun Deeb Wins More Than Cash

That win capped a series of impressive performances across the entire series for the 53-year-old Brit, who cashed 36 times and reached five final tables. But that wasn’t enough to win him the SCOOP Player of the Series title. That accolade went to Shaun Deeb, who tallied 41 cashes and eight final tables across the series. He narrowly edged out PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier for the top spot.

Elsewhere, another British player also triumphed in the medium Main Event, where Andres “Educa-p0ker” Artinano took $578,621.27 after striking a deal with second-place finisher Jordan “Jymaster11” Young. The latter has relocated from the US to Mexico in order to play in the international pool.

The low Main Event, meanwhile, was won by Brazilian Leandro “mmleandro” Macedo for $196,058.

Written by
Philip Conneller
As part of the team that launched Bluff Magazine back in 2004, and then as Editor of Bluff Europe, Philip Conneller has (probably) written thousands of articles about poker and has travelled the globe interviewing the greatest players in the world, not to mention some of the sexiest celebrities known to man in some of the world’s sexiest destinations. The highlight of his career, however, was asking Phil Ivey (as a joke) how to play jacks, and emerging none-the-wiser. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 offsuit. He has been told off for unwittingly playing Elton John’s piano on two separate occasions, on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. He lives in London where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal football club, yet in Wenger he trusts.

Comments

maminom wrote...

iv watch the final table.was very fun.congrats

Juan Oro wrote...

congrats great torney

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