The 2016 Spring Championship of Online Poker is coming to a close, but there's still a lot of excitement happening over these last few days. Event #47-M -- a two-day "mix-max" no-limit hold'em event with a $215 buy-in -- provided plenty of it this weekend. The final table featured both Diego "Die Ventura" Ventura and Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker (stars online and live), then came down to a heads-up duel between a player from Greece seeking that country's second SCOOP title this spring and another from Brazil looking for that country's 20th (no shinola).

In the end Greece won out, with prsalute outlasting digopapel following a heads-up deal to take the victory and a handsome $49,170.61 first prize.

There were 1,590 entries all told, adding up to a $318,000 prize pool that easily bested the $200K guarantee. The first part of the tournament -- when the game was nine-handed -- played out on Saturday, taking less than seven hours to play down from those 1,590 entries to 185 players, with jaggalo1231 the chip leader at the completion of that stage. 

They moved to the event's second part -- six-max no-limit hold'em -- and before play concluded Saturday night just 49 players remained. jaggalo1231 was still in the mix with an above average stack (in 16th position), while prsalute enjoyed the overnight chip lead.

Play resumed Sunday morning, and after just over three hours they were down to the final two six-handed tables, with jaggalo1231 having slipped to fall in 13th ($2,591.70).

prsalute was still high in the counts then in third with about 1.8 million, Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker was in second position with just over 2.7 million, and 2015 PCA runner-up Diego "Die Ventura" Ventura was leading the way with almost 3.2 million.

SBGstyle (12th), OneMor3try (11th), and wantme1234 (10th) were the next players eliminated, each earning $3,339. Then Kloobes (ninth), fviana (eighth), and tvtotaliwin (seventh) were successively knocked out, with each of them taking $5,088 from the prize pool.

With Muehloecker now leading and Ventura in second position, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: Diego "Die Ventura" Ventura (Peru) -- 3,542,910 
Seat 2: Nick "PureCash25" Rampone (Canada) -- 1,570,707
Seat 3: TiltMeBig (Sweden) -- 2,353,366  
Seat 4: prsalute (Greece) -- 2,348,973  
Seat 5: Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker (Austria) -- 4,079,787  
Seat 6: digopapel (Brazil) -- 2,004,257 

They were a half-hour into the final table before the first elimination occurred. With the blinds 35,000/70,000 (with an 8,750 ante), TiltMeBig raised to 154,000 from the button, then prsalute three-bet to 378,550 from the small blind. It folded back to TiltMeBig who pushed all-in for 1,734,641 total, and prsalute called.

TiltMeBig had [Jh][Js], but prsalute had one of the bigger pocket pairs with [Qh][Qd]. The board came [As][9s][Th][Kd][5h], and TiltMeBig was the sixth-place finisher -- an 11th (and best) cash this SCOOP for the player from Sweden.

About 20 minutes later they had moved into the day's sixth hour of play when Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker opened from UTG for 150,500 (a little over 2x), then Nick "PureCash25" Rampone reraised all-in for 1,034,407 from the small blind. 

It folded back to Muehloecker who called, turning over [Ah][Jd] to Rampone's [As][8c]. The board came [7h][Jh][4s], then [Js], giving Muehloecker trip jacks and making the river no matter, ending Rampone's run in fifth. That makes 13 cashes and three final tables this SCOOP series for Rampone.

They marched on into the seventh hour of Day 2, with the blinds increasing once more to 60,000/120,000. By then Ventura's stack had slipped down to just over 1.37 million, and the Peruvian put it all in as an open-raise from under the gun. prsalute responded with a reraise all-in for more from the button, and the blinds got out.

Ventura showed [Qs][Jd] and needed to impove to beat prsalute's [Jh][Jc]. But the board ran out [2c][As][Td][5h][4d], and Ventura finished fourth -- just a few spots shy of his second SCOOP title of the series after having won Event #41-M ($109 NLHE). 

Not quite 20 minutes later, a big hand developed between prsalute -- who had newly taken the chip lead -- and Muehloecker.

The blinds were 70,000/140,000, and the hand began with prsalute just limping in from the small blind. Muehloecker then raised to 387,500 from the big blind, prsalute called, and the pair watched a flop fall [4h][4s][Jh].

prsalute checked, Muehloecker continued for 301,000, and prsalute called. Then on the [2h] turn prsalute led for 685,855, and Muehloecker called.

The river brought the [9d], and prsalute led again, this time for 1,240,665. Muehloecker responded with an all-in raise with the entire 3,216,150 he had left, and prsalute tanked for a while before finally calling and showing [Ac][As].

It had been the right choice as Muehloecker had [Ah][Qd], and the Austrian fell in third. That's a 13th cash and third final table for Muehloecker this series, who nearly was able to earn a second career SCOOP title after winning a $1,050 NLHE event in 2015. 

One hand later the remaining two players paused the tournament to discuss a deal, with prsalute sitting on 10,095,582 and digopapel 5,804,418. "ICM"-based numbers were produced -- leaving $4,000 to the side for which to play -- and after the pair readily agreed to the proposed figures play resumed.

From there digopapel began earning a series of small-to-medium pots to close the gap, seize the lead, then built up a big advantage, pushing up close to 11.73 million versus prsalute's 4.17 million by the time they reached the day's seven-hour break. 

prsalute was able to battle back, however, and retook the lead over the next 15 minutes of play, pushing up to about 10.1 million versus digopapel's almost 5.8 million when the following hand took place.

With the blinds up to 100K/200K, prsalute raised to 450,000 from the button, then digopapel shoved all-in and prsalute made the call.

digopapel: [Ah][9d]
prsalute: [7c][7s]

digopapel had a couple of live overcards to prsalute's pocket pair, but a board of [Qc][Ts][3c][Jc][6c] managed to miss them both while giving prsalute a flush, the pot, and the SCOOP title.

Congratulations to prsalute for topping a big, challenging field and tough final table to win Event #47-M, and kudos as well to digopapel for making it to the heads-up deal and securing a big score as well.

SCOOP-47-M ($215 NL Hold'em, Mix-Max) results
Entrants: 1,590
Prize pool: $318,000.00
Places paid: 180

1. prsalute (Greece) $49,170.61*
2. digopapel (Brazil) $42,731.39*
3. Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker (Austria) $29,415.00
4. Diego "Die Ventura" Ventura (Peru) $20,352.00
5. PureCash25 (Canada) $13,038.00
6. TiltMeBig (Sweden) $8,745.00
*denotes two-way deal.