If you grew up in the Nintendo generation, you probably battled Bowser at one time or another. The primary antagonist in the Super Mario universe, Bowser conquered the Mushroom Kingdom and much to Mario and Luigi's ire, had somewhat of a kidnapping fetish when it came to Princess Peach. The only way for the brothers to save Princess Peach was to wind through Bowser's castle and get past the evil reptilian boss himself. Tonight, the Finnish player who appropriated Bowser's villainous name played the role to perfection, casting out short stacks and pilfering his opponents' chips at every turn en route to his first SCOOP title.

Event #44-L drew 4,039 total entries (3,217 individual players and 822 re-entries), resulting in a $40,390 prize pool. 520 players earned a share of it with $6,565.84 up top. Day 1 concluded after 61 levels, and 81 players advanced to Day 2. Among them was TLB contender Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb, who made his 33rd cash of the series with a 19th-place finish.

On the final table bubble, the betting limits were up to 160,000/320,000 and the game was limit hold'em. Tigrenok.mn opened for a raise from UTG, short-stack xaffer three-bet, tigrenok.mn capped and xaffer called all-in for less. Xaffer's [Ac][Kd] was in great shape against tigrenok.mn's [4h][6h] preflop, but tigrenok.mn hit running hearts on the [Th][9d][7d][Jh][Qh] board to make a flush and send us to the final table.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: tigrenok.mn (8,475,849 in chips)
Seat 2: ALD74 (1,633,392 in chips)
Seat 3: homasapiens (2,861,657 in chips)
Seat 4: Bowsercastle (7,688,838 in chips)
Seat 5: chaka-G (5,509,001 in chips)
Seat 6: Mikki31 (3,973,517 in chips)
Seat 7: JobberJay (8,346,730 in chips)
Seat 8: Sharkomaha (1,901,016 in chips)

As the rotation turned to Omaha Hi/Lo, short stack ALD74 doubled through Bowsercastle. All the money went in on a [Ts][3h][3c] flop, ALD74's [2h][3d][5d][8d] up against [Ah][2d][6c][Qh]. The turn came the [Kd], but the river [2c] made ALD74 threes full, good for the 3.08 million pot.

Moments later, the action folded to chaka-G in the cutoff and he raised to 400,000. Sharkomaha called and they went to an [Ac][5d][3c] flop. Sharkomaha check-called, and checked again when the [6s] turned. Chaka-G bet, Sharkomaha raised all-in for 521,016 and chaka-G called.

Sharkomaha [Ah][6c][Td][Kd] (aces and sixes, low draw)
chaka-G [3s][4d][5c][5h] (set of fives, low draw)

The [Jc] river meant no low qualified and chaka-G scooped the pot with trip fives, ending Sharkomaha's run in eighth place.

The game had just switched to Razz when chaka-G, tigrenok.mn and Mikki31 went three ways to fourth street for 200,000 apiece. Chaka-G made the low board with A-T and led out, with both opponents calling. Chaka-G picked up a 6 on fifth and led again. Mikki31 caught a queen and folded, but tigrenok.mn called with 3-3-A. Chaka-G fired again on fifth street, tigrenok-mn raised, and chaka-G called. Chaka-G bet the river, tigrenok.mn raised again, and chaka-G called.

tigrenok.mn ([2d][4d]) [3h][3c][As][4c] ([7h])
chaka-G (X-X) [Ad][Tc][6d][8c] (X)
Mikki31 (X-X) [4h][Th][Qc]

Togrenok.mn's river 7 made him 7-4-3-2-A low and chaka-G mucked, losing most of his stack.

Two hands later, chaka-G got the rest of his chips in on third street vs. Bowsercastle and Mikki31. Both active players checked all the way to sixth street, when Bowsercastle bet 400,000. Mikki31 came along and called an additional bet when Bowsercastle bet again on the river. Bowsercastle revealed a 7-6-3-2-A low, chaka-G could only manage a queen-low, and he went out in seventh place.

One orbit later, the game was seven-card stud and JobberJay raised to 480,000 with the [Qd] up. Tigrenok.mn called with the [6c] and ALD74 reraised with the [As]. Both JobberJay and tigrenok.mn called to see fourth street. JobberJay paired his queen and led out, with both opponents calling. JobberJay checked fifth street, tigrenok.mn bet, ALD74 called and JobberJay folded. ALD74 led out for the rest of his chips on sixth street and tigrenok.mn called.

JobberJay (X-X) [Qd][Qh][3s]
tigrenok.mn ([Kc][3c]) [6c][8c][9c][Th] ([Js)]
ALD74 ([7s][Ac]) [As][8h][8s][5s] ([5d])

ALD74's aces and eights were no good against tigrenok.mn's king-high flush and he exited in sixth place.

Before the stud level could end, Bowsercastle brought it in with the [2d] and short stack homasapiens raised to 240,000 with the [Qh]. Bowsercastle called. On fourth street, homasapiens kept the lead and bet another 240,000, earning a call from Bowsercastle. Both players checked fifth street and on sixth, Bowsercastle checked with a pair of fives showing. Homasapiens bet 480,000 and Bowsercastle called. Bowsercastle bet the river and homasapiens called off his remaining 301,657.

Bowsercastle ([Td][3d]) [2d][5s][5d][Ks] ([6d])
homasapiens ([3s][Ah]) [Qh][2c][Th][As] ([5c])

Bowsercastle snapped off homasapiens' pair of aces with a ten-high flush on the river, ending his run in fifth place.

Shortly after four-handed play began, the players agreed to pause the action and discuss a potential deal. Here's how they stacked up at the time:

tigrenok.mn 11,716,633
JobberJay 11,162,730
Bowsercastle 8,763,137
Mikki31 8,747,500

The chip count chop and ICM figures came out very close together. JobberJay, Mikki31 and Bowsercastle were willing to accept either, but despite the fact that only $71.98 separated the two figures, tigrenok.mn declared, "only chip chop or play." Bowsercastle agreed to kick in $40 from his share in order to settle things, but tigrenok.mn was dead serious about that last $30.

tigrenok.mn: miki give me 30
Mikki31: no
Mikki31: u got 45
tigrenok.mn: lets play

An exasperated Bowsercastle, Mikki31, and JobberJay all donated another $10 each to tigrenok.mn's share and at last, the deal closed. With $500 left to play for along with the SCOOP watch and title, cards went back in the air.

The games ran through nearly another full rotation and we were back to Razz when JobberJay made his last stand. After three-betting on third street and calling bets from Mikki31 on fourth, fifth, and sixth, JobberJay bet his last 632,096 on the river and Mikki31 called.

Mikki31 ([Td][9d]) [8s][5s][6s][9c] ([Jc])
JobberJay ([As][Ah]) [8h][Jd][2s][4h] ([4c])

JobberJay ended up with a J-8-4-2-A low fell to Mikki31's T-9-8-6-5, and he exited in fourth place.

However, once the game circled back to limit hold'em, Mikki31 was down to 4.5 million while Bowsercastle and tigrenok.mn sat on 18 million apiece. With the betting limits up to 360,000/720,000, Mikki31 opened for a raise with [Qc][Jh] and Bowsercastle three-bet with [Ah][Qs]. Both players made top pair on the [Qh][8c][7h] flop. Bowsercastle led out and Mikki31 called. The turn came the [6h] and Bowsercastle fired again. Mikki31 raised, Bowsercastle three-bet and Mikki31 capped. When the [4h] rivered, Bowsercastle bet and Mikki31 called off his last 174,922. Although both players rivered flushes, Bowsercastle's was ace-high and Mikki31 hit the rail in third place.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 1: tigrenok.mn (17,910,902 in chips)
Seat 4: Bowsercastle (22,479,098 in chips)

Two of the top three stacks to start the final table, Bowsercastle and tigrenok.mn played heads-up for nearly thirty minutes. Tigrenok.mn kept the score close and nearly tied Bowsercastle in chips at one point, but Bowsercastle had a very successful Omaha Hi/Lo level, scooping four substantial pots to push tigrenok.mn down to 8 million in chips. Tigrenok.mn never recovered entirely and was down to 4 million when the game changed to stud high. In a pot that Bowsercastle raised on third street and tigrenok.mn capped on fourth, the rest of tigrenok.mn's chips went in on fifth.

tigrenok.mn ([2c][Ah]) [4h][3s][2s][6d] ([5h])
Bowsercastle ([5d][2d]) [Ad][2h][8d][9d] ([8c])

Bowsercastle made an ace-high flush on sixth street and locked up his first SCOOP title.

Congratulations to Finland's Bowsercastle on joining the ranks of SCOOP champions! Thanks to the four-handed deal, he banked $4,602.63 for the win while runner-up tigrenok.mn earned $4,544.56

SCOOP-44-L ($11 H.O.R.S.E) results
Entrants: 3,217 (822 re-entries)
Prize pool: $40,390.00
Places paid: 520

1. Bowsercastle (Finland) $4,602.63*
2. tigrenok.mn (Mongolia) $4,544.56*
3. Mikki31 (Finland) $4,150.81*
4. JobberJay (Denmark) $4,403.36*
5. homasapiens (Poland) $2,019.50
6. ALD74 (United Kingdom) $1,211.70
7. chaka-G (United Kingdom) $605.85
8. Sharkomaha (Russia) $363.51

*denotes a four-way deal

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