Poker Articles

By MattW | Published Nov 20 2007, 03:05 PM
The FTOPS ended this Monday with the completion of the Main Event.  Last week we did a recap of the first eight events, and since then eight more events have been played, three of which had prize-pools of over $1 million.  Well known players and no names alike have cashed in on the FTOPS and in a big way.

Event #9 was a PLO Hi/Lo game with a guaranteed prize-pool of $150,000.  The tournament attracted over 1,331 players with a little help from the host, Jesus Ferguson, and the guarantee was exceeded by over $100k.  Four P5ers made the final table, and one of them ran away with the whole thing.  Almost making the final table was well-known live pro John Cernuto, who finished in 13th.  Finishing in 7th was Elise "taaadaaa" Brent (whambamtysir on FullTilt) from California.  Her deep run earned her $7,719.  Taking 6th was junkie4free from Denmark.  He boosted his bankroll by $11,979.  Runner-up in this event was 12stacks, who took home a nice $37,268 score.  Winning it all was boogey77 from Ireland.  This $58,564 score was the biggest of his life, although he has had several other 1st place finishes across the net in the past.

Event #10 brought the return of NL play in style by guaranteeing $750,000 and including host iMsoLucky0.  As would be expected, the guarantee was shattered, with the total prize-pool reaching $1,048,500.  The benefactors of this million plus include several P5ers.  JohnnyBax had a nice run but was stopped short of the final two tables when he was knocked out in 19th. 

SPOTLIGHT19 from Florida, on the other hand, was fortunate enough to make the final table and take home 8th place for $21,704.  The 6th place cash went to Astrolux85 (Broberts85 on FullTilt) from Staten Island.  This earned him $35,125, but the cash was nothing new to him as he has had a couple similar sized scores in the past two months.  4th place went to high-stakes cash player dsindy from Nebraska.  He added a few more buy-ins to the big game to his roll, as he won $74,444.  Finishing one better than dsindy was PlayaPlz (OffmePlaya on FullTilt) from Illinois.  We haven't seen much of him lately, but it's quite possible $99,608 will change that.  Finally, we have TheFitGuy  from New York (CrayonBox on FullTilt), who won it all and in doing so made it four straight FTOPS events won by P5ers.  He is now enjoying $214,418.

The 11th event broke the streak of wins put together by our community, but a couple P5ers still made the final ten of this HORSE Limit Event.  Jennifer Harman was the host, and the guarantee of $250,000 was surpassed by just shy of $62k.  Player frostey from Virginia finished 6th and won $9,033.  Fellow P5er Pelopidas finished in 9th.  The winner of the tournament was tommyboy83.

Event #12 was a four-betting fiasco of Limit Hold'em.  Kenny Tran hosted the $200,000 guarantee, which ended up generating $211,400 and a 1st place prize worth $44,076.  P5'er Sourgrapes78 from Illinois went out one place short of the final table in 7th (it was a 6-max tournament), winning $4,439.  Player Jbombs won the event.

Event #13 produced the largest 1st place prize of any of the events, including the Main Event.  The event was a $2,500+120 buy-in NLHE tournament hosted by John Juanda.  In the end, this two day tournament garnered a prize-pool of $1,745,000 ($1.5 mil guaranteed) and boasted a 1st place prize of $418,800.  At the last two tables, 10 of the remaining 18 players were PocketFivers.  Finishing in 17th, 15th, 13th, 12th, 11th, and 10th respectively were 1999TL from Texas, FishRoller, Ruprikkt (McGuiler on FullTilt and Fishlist_net on PokerStars) from Utah, fangus from California, NotoriousBIL from Florida, and mattg1983 from Louisiana.  Mattg1983 won $17,450 for being the bubble boy.

At the final table, amak316 from Minneapolis went out in 8th.  Amak is no stranger to final tables, and he had a strong performance worth $41,880.  Aaron "GambleAB" Bartley, a FullTilt Pro who is also well known around the PocketFives community, finished in 6th, picking up $78,525.  39th ranked rdcrsn (heyfreddy on FullTilt) from Canada took 3rd place and a whopping $196,312.  The man of the hour, however, was high-stakes cash pro wuddacooler (potstabber10 on PokerStars) from Menlo Park, California.  He played beautifully at the final table and was in control the majority of the time.  He beat Kongsgaard HU for an enormous pay day of $418,800.  Not too shabby for two days work.

Event #14 was a $100+9 Omaha Hi Pot Limit tournament (rebuy), hosted by Eddy Scharf.   The guarantee was for 300,000, but after all of the rebuys, the total prize-pool was $336,800.  Clonie Gowen finished just short of the final table in 10th.  NotoriousBIL went deep for the second straight event, getting 9th and $5,726 (in addition to the $17,450 he won in event #13).  Jesse42782 (thenaturalace on FullTilt) made his second final table of the FTOPS, taking 7th and $10,104.  54th ranked dabadestchic finished 5th, winning $21,050.  Finally, Rollover2k won $48,836 for being the runner-up.  

Event #15 was a $150+13 buy-in NLHE tournament hosted by Erik Seidel, but with a little twist:  for every opponent eliminated, $30 was instantly credited to the eliminator's account.  This idea of awarding "knockout bonuses" helped more than triple the $100,000 guarantee.  63rd ranked pbdrunks finished just outside of the final table in 14th.  Taking 3rd was czee2212 from Texas.  He outlasted over 2,600 people, and as a result walked away $31,784 richer.  Finishing in 2nd was moronamus from Indianapolis.  His efforts were good for $43,948.

Last but certainly not least was the FTOPS Main Event, hosted by Lee Watkinson.  Over half of the roughly 70 FullTilt pros came out to play, along with 4,300 others hopefuls (there were 4,371 total entrants, to be exact).  Barely missing the final two tables was Aussie_Jay (20KJAY on FullTilt) from Australia.  19th place made him $8,086 richer.  Sweens09 went out in 18th for $10,818, and Toetagu from Florida got 17th for the same amount.  Tennessee man Brentbb was the 13th place finisher and won $15,408.  Swede ATM4Life went out just afterward in 12th for $20,981.  Also winning $20,981 was imawhale26 from Chicago, who took a bittersweet 10th place.

At the final table, three P5'ers remained: 78th ranked eisenhower1 from Sweden, kavicarter from New Jersey, and itssuited (fkscreennames on FullTilt and aaaaaaaa on PokerStars) from Massachusetts.  Eisenhower1 went out in 5th after this hand:  eisenhower1 made a standard raise and was called by fkscreennames.  The flop was 5h3h10h.  Fkscreennames checked, and eisenhower1 bet 324,000.  Fkscreennames called.  The turn was the 9d.  Again, fkscreennames checked, and then eisenhower1 bet 700,000.  Fkscreennames raised all in, and eisenhower called with Ah10s for a pair of tens.  Fkscreennames showed KhQh for the flush, and the river was of no consequence, sending eisenhower1 to the rail with $90,261.

51 minutes into the final table, 2nd place finisher southside1 raised it up to 300,000 with blinds at 60,000/120,000 and a 15,000 ante.  Kavicarter 3-bet all in with QcJd and was called by southside1, who held Ac7c.  Kavicarter would not improve and was eliminated in 4th place for a payday of $120,202.  Approximately ten minutes later, fkscreennames eliminated 3rd place finisher mendieta19 and was HU with southside1.

Going into the HU match, fkscreennames had a 2.5 to 1 chiplead on southside1.  The roles would never be reversed, as after only five minutes of heads-up action, the two players collided:  southside1 raised to 400,000 with blinds at 80,000/160,000 and a 20,000 ante.  Fkscreennames called.  The flop came QdAh9c ,and fkscreennames checked.  Southside1 fired 500,000 and was called again.  The turn was the 6s, and fkscreennames opted to lead out for 960,000.  Southside1 raised it up to 2,750,000, at which point fkscreennames re-raised all in.  Southside1 called with AcJs, only to see that fkscreennames had made two pair on the turn with As6c.  The river brought the 8d, and a few seconds later both players vanished from the table...

Southside1 made a life changing $233,629 for being the runner up, but it was all about the man named by fkscreennames AKA aaaaaaaa AKA itssuited.  aaaaaaaa, as most of us know him, is no newcomer to big scores.  He has been maneuvering his way through giant fields since back in 2004 when the PokerStars Sunday Million was the 250k Guaranteed.  Most impressively, he has been able to CLOSE THE DEAL during some of the most stressful poker situations imaginable.  At the end of 2004, he won the PokerStars 250k Guaranteed for $90,762.  In September of 2005, he placed 5th in the WCOOP Main Event for $197,955.  In March of 2006, he again won the biggest Sunday tournament on PokerStars, except this time it WAS the Million Guaranteed, and got paid $173,843.  Now, approaching the end of 2007, he has attained his largest online score yet: $385,937.

Congratulations to everyone who either reached their goals or came closer to reaching their goals in this year's FTOPS.  A special congratulations to aaaaaaaa, a consistently remarkable player in the biggest online events.