Bungakat’s victory and other BBZ Stories from SCOOP 2023

Bungakat’s victory and other BBZ Stories from SCOOP 2023

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) 2023 on PokerStars has come to an end, but not without some more great news for Team BBZ Poker.

Before we say goodbye to one of the most prestigious online series of the year and turn our attention towards BBZ players at the World Series of Poker, let’s recap everything that happened in the final week.

BUNGAKAT’S BRILLIANCE

They call him the “bungakat”. They call him the ICM wizard. They call him one of the best BBZ coaches.

And now they can call Jargo Alaväli a two-time SCOOP champion.

Alaväli, the brains behind the Bungakat Final Table Bundle and ICM Pre-Flop Masterclass on BBZ Poker took down the $530 NLHE Turbo Main Event 2nd Chance event (#114-M on the schedule), to win $61,229 and the second SCOOP trophy of his career.

The tournament had 776 entries and plenty of beasts ended up joining him on the final table. Daniel “Oxota” Dvoress finished third, Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt finished sixth, and popular Spanish Twitch streamer Elias “SinKarma” Gutierrez finished seventh.

But in the end, it came down to a heads-up battle between bungakat and Thailand’s “whereisdonny”. The two made a chop and our man went on to win it.

SCOOP Champion! 😎 pic.twitter.com/kfzShfIox0

— bungakat (@bungakat) May 30, 2023

A massive congratulations to one of the hardest workers in the game.

LEKNES WINS PLAYER OF THE SERIES HIGH LEADERBOARD

Speaking of hard workers, how about the guy who finished on top of the High buy-in leaderboard for the entire series?

One of the newest additions to the BBZ Team, Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes was busy in the weeks leading up to SCOOP putting together the Mixed Games Beginner’s Bundle alongside Mason “pyefacepoker” Pye.

All that studying and preparation really paid off for Leknes in this series and just goes to show how valuable that Bundle is. If you want to learn mixed games, it’s essential.

Look, we all knew Leknes was an absolute crusher long before his performance this spring. He’s got nine WCOOPS – more than anyone – and had four SCOOP titles already, for crying out loud.

But this year the Norwegian added three more titles to his CV, making him one of only five players to capture a SCOOP hat trick in 2023.

• #14-H $1,050 NL 5-card draw PKO – $13,702*
• #54-H $2,100 FL 2-7 triple draw – $31,500
• #103-H $1,050 NLO8 6-max – $26,752

He also had multiple runner-ups and final table finishes across all buy-in tiers. But it was his performance in the High events that really stands out.

Needed top 6 in the very last SCOOP Event to clinch out the High SCOOP Leaderboard – I guess I had saved up some final rungood! LETS GO pic.twitter.com/1QFrpdVIft

— Tobias Jelsa Leknes (@TobiasLeknes) May 31, 2023

That’s why ended up pipping Patrick “pads1161” Leonard to the High Player of the Series title, earning himself $15,000. Congratulations, Tobias!

LUCKYFISH SO CLOSE

We’ve got to give a shout-out to John “luckyfish89” Clark, too. The BBZ coach and Multi-Way Bundle creator had a close call in the $1,050 PKO Series Saver (#112-H), finishing third out of 1,169 entries to win $62,867.

Clark is still hunting for his second SCOOP title, having won his first back in 2018 when he took down the $1,050 Thursday Thrill SCOOP Edition for a whopping $104,935 plus $64,915 in bounties, outlasting a 1,344-entry field.