Luke Schwartz Wins SCOOP Event #36 For $174,200

UK pro Luke “lb6121” Schwartz collected his first SCOOP title at the weekend, after taking down a 134 player field at Event #36-H ($5,200 PLO 6-max) for a $174,200 payday.
The tournament attracted many top names to the PLO event, all hoping to capture a SCOOP crown as well as carve out a share of the $670,000 prize pool. These included George “Jorj95” Lind III, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, and Ville Wahlbeck. Making the deepest run, however, were Jesper “KipsterDK” Hougaard in 17th ($8,710), Jorryt “TheCleaner11” van Hoof in 16th ($8,710), Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero in 12th ($14,405), and Paul “paulgees81” Volpe in 9th ($21,775).
Eventually, the competition played down to its six-man final table, with Luke “lb6121” Schwartz sitting in pole position and the finalists lining-up as follows:
Luke “lb6121” Schwartz   (179,070)
Joe “ender555” Ebanks    (156,379)
MrDurden                           (111,016)
Nicolas “niccc” Chouity   (102,109)
GlassOfBeer                        (96,164)
Jorge “twin-caracas” Arias (35,263)
Despite scoring no eliminations at the final table, Luke “lb6121” Schwartz entered the heads-up phase of the competition with a 377,116 to 292,884 chip lead against Canada’s MrDurden.
An hour later, and the defining hand of the competition was played with MrDurden all-in pre-flop holding Qh-10h-10d-9d to Schwartz’s Ad-Kd-Qc-5s. The board then rolled out Ah-7h-6d-2c-4c to relegate MrDurden to a runner-up finish worth $117,250. Meanwhile, Luke “lb6121” Schwartz collected the impressive $174,200 first place prize with the final table payouts as follows:
1. Luke “lb6121” Schwartz (UK) $174,200
2. MrDurden (Canada) $117,250
3. Nicolas “niccc” Chouity (Lebanon) $87,100
4. GlassOfBeer (Finland) $56,950
5. Jorge “twin-caracas” Arias (Venezuela) $43,500
6. Joe “ender555” Ebanks (UK) $30,150
Giving an insight into his mindset a few years back, Luke Schwartz prophetically explained:
“Obviously I’ve proven myself at no limit cash games online – all forms of no limit online – but poker is more than just that. There’s Omaha and tournaments [as well]. I feel I can profit in every section of poker. Even though my specialty is no limit hold’em heads-up cash games I feel like I’m a very, very strong all-round player and I think I’m one of the best tournament players as well.”