EXCLUSIVE: Mario Mosboeck Talks About Winning the SCOOP Main Event

Mario Mosboeck was part of the Pokercode Grindhouse project and has been crushing ever since. From online tournaments and 10k final tables to playing live $25k tournaments in Las Vegas at the Aria Resort & Casino. But Mario’s biggest score was yet to come with a career-defining win in the $1,050 SCOOP Main Event, cashing for $838,909.

We talked to Mario about his win, the emotions that go with it, and of course the experience of a lifetime that is winning the SCOOP Main Event.

Pokercode: First, of all congratulations, you're now a SCOOP Main Event champion and won an insane first place prize of $838,909. How does it feel?

Mario: It feels incredible. I was super focused during the whole final day and I remember when we got to the heads-up and the final hand came around. He tanked for a while and he called and it was all over. It was a really special moment. I jumped up and down and hugged my girlfriend. It was really crazy. The sick thing was that the final Stream House party was going on at the same time. It was about a 30-minute drive and it was super sick. Definitely one of my favorite nights of my life, it was really sick. It felt as if it all came together. The whole last year, all the preparation. I felt super in the zone and I played the best I could and it just felt really good. I knew that the world was watching and closing it down in this fashion, especially the heads-up was just really crazy. I’m super proud of the result and it’s super sick.

Pokercode: Do you already realize what happened over the last week, or does it still have to settle?

Mario: Yeah it takes a while. I remember during the night it was pure joy. I was just hyped and super excited. The next few days it felt like it didn’t happen. It felt like a dream that was super sick, but okay, cool… It will take a while before it settles in that I won the SCOOP Main Event.

Pokercode: Can you tell a little bit about how the tournament went for you, especially finishing Day 2 with the chip lead. Did you go into Day 3 and 4 with a lot of confidence?

Mario: The tournament went super, super nice. I’m not actually sure how I made it through Day 1 because it was SCOOP Sunday and I played way too many tables, but somehow at the end I had like eight starting stacks for Day 2. And I only remember playing like one or two hands at the end.

And then I made it to Day 2. I had Day 2 in the $530 Bounty Builder on Stars as well, and I two tabled that - I played the $10K as well. And, yeah, I think I had a good start. Then I lost a big pot with a flopped flush and the next thing I remember was a super sun run, like the last hour of the day where I just won, like, queens against jacks, blind-versus-blind for 50 (big blinds); ace-king versus ace-queen for 30 blinds; and then suddenly I’m sitting here with 120 blinds on the last level of the day. And then I win another all in for 20 blinds with aces against ace-queen and suddenly I’m chip leader. So Day 2 was super crazy.

Day 3 I was really prepared. It went really well; I started with like 18 million in chips and grinded it up to like 30 (million) really smoothly. I don’t remember any big hands, but it felt really good. I won a lot of non-showdown pots, and that was really nice. And then I remember a huge hand where I open under the gun, get three-bet from someone who has like 35 blinds - a Brazilian - I have pocket nines against a Brazilian. So I continue and the flop is 9s-5s-4s and I check. He bets half pot, I jam, and he calls with As-Jx; and there was like 30 million in the pot and (I had) like 18 (million) behind. And the chip leader at that time had 32 million so it was for like 1.5x the chip lead. The turn was a spade, so I lost the pot and was down to like 14-15 million.

And then everything got a little tougher. I got down to 6 million with about 29 players left, and I shoved for 10 blinds in middle position with jack-ten suited. I think the cutoff called with ace-ten and the flop was ace-queen-nine. Turn is a jack. The river is a jack. And I double up to like 20 blinds. I was like, holy fucking shit, I can actually make a run in this. So yeah, that was super sick.

That was with 29 left. So, yeah, I’m not really sure how I got up (from there), but I was back to chip leader at like 12 left with 80 or 90 million. And I remember winning a huge flip with sevens against ace-king, putting me to like 100 million.

And then a crucial hand came where I three-way called a preflop raise in the cutoff (with KQ), along with the button. The flop was king-queen-three with a flush draw and middle position c-bets. I call, and then the button raises - I posted the hand in the community Slack channel. I call, turn is blank, like an 8, doesn’t change anything. I check, he bets half-pot, and I call. River four, I check and then he checks back with a set of threes. And I really thought about folding the turn because it’s just a spot where it’s super difficult for him to have bluffs as he doesn’t raise flushes on the flop most likely. And it’s generally not a bluff spot against two pretty strong ranges, so I was close to folding the turn and would have definitely folded the river. But it was interesting. It was a huge hand, and took me down from like 95 million where I was first or second in chips, back to the middle of the pack with like 40 (million). That was probably like the last one or two hands, and so instead of being chip leader, I lost that.

And it was funny because against the guy I played heads up afterwards. He even asked me in heads up if I would have called and I didn’t want to share that information before I played heads up out. But I already wanted to fold the turn.

So yeah, that’s how I got to the final table. I think the final table went great. It went really, really well. I ran super hot and then I probably played one of my best heads-up performances I’ve ever played. I refute it  - I’m not happy with one or two preflop decisions that I made when there were three or more players - but heads up, I was really happy with (my play).

Overall on Day 4 I was super prepared; I was fully in the zone. It was one of the most exhausting four hours of poker I’ve ever played, because I was just super, super there. And every break, I’m like okay, another 55 minutes has come. And the next did, and the next did. It was super, super sick.

Pokercode: You participated in the Pokercode Grindhouse project last summer. Roli and Gaugi have had big successes on the live felt in Las Vegas and you had some cashes in Super High Rollers too, how much did the Grindhouse attribute to your success, and how is the contact with the boys?

Mario: (Laughs) Yeah, man, the Grindhouse. I mean, it’s incredible what happened in the last year. And it’s so, so nice, because the Grindhouse was like the perfect milestone. Like the perfect start of the journey. And we were a poker group before, but not in the professional way we are now.

And the Grindhouse just started the whole process; and now, suddenly Gaugi is doing four one-hour Pio sessions every week and Fabio’s spending more time with Pio than watching tv. And you can see how it turns out. I’m actually curious what the Grindhouse graph is looking like right now. It has to be fucking insane. Like everybody is crushing, and if we add live, it’s crazy.

Like (over) the last two months, we can change the title because we actually made the 2 month, $2 million. Like, not 1 week, $1 million. It’s 2 months, $2 million. It’s crazy, and if I thought about what the best outcome would have been from the Grindhouse, I would have never imagined it would have been like that with everybody crushing and on their way to being absolute end bosses. So, yeah, it was a huge milestone to get everything going. It was insane. Crazy.

Pokercode: Is there going to change anything for you, or is this just another step in crushing online and live poker?

Mario: What’s changing? I hope nothing, man. It’s going great, I really like the daily routine that I have now. I’m just enjoying it; I am really looking forward to the summer. Time at the lake, playing Sunday, and studying in between. And yeah, I have like two months to prepare for WSOP online - I definitely want to win a bracelet this summer and maybe in the fall in Vegas.

But yeah, that’s the next steps. I hope it’s just a steamroll through the summer - that would be sick, the Grindhouse boys crushing WSOP. We got the first ring, but we want a bracelet.

‍