By
Dan |
Published
Aug 05 2008, 08:27 PM
The Full Tilt Online Poker Series kicks off today, with players from around the world ready to flock to the popular online poker site for the ninth installment of the tournament series. Among those competing tonight will be a handful of PocketFivers who are competing against one another as part of the FTOPS Contest officiated by Craig "cjm" Muir. A talented graphic designer and poker enthusiast, Muir has set up the popular contest for the FTOPS, enabling teams of three as well as singles to square off with over $100,000 on the line. PocketFives.com sat down with Muir to talk about what we can expect out of the contestants in FTOPS IX.
Players who enter the Full Tilt Online Poker Series Contest can do so on their own or as part of a team of three. The buy-in for a three-man team is $6,000. All FTOPS events count for the contest and the top eight individual scores from each team make up the team’s final score. Since not every FTOPS event is alike, shootouts and heads up tournaments are scored by taking the average placement in the round that a player went out in. For singles, the buy-in is $2,000 and each person’s top eight scores will count towards their final score. The contest is so serious that stipulations for what happens if a tournament crashes are also accounted for.
So how is each score tabulated? Just take the number of people a player outlasted, divide that by the total number of entrants, and multiply by 100. Then, add in any bonuses achieved during the tournament and you’ll have the final score for the contest’s purposes. Bonuses for each tournament are based on the number of players who entered and include extra points for finishing in the money, making a final table, and winning an FTOPS event.
The Sunday contests have been around for a while, harking all the way back to the JJProdigy days. Muir noted, “I thought it would be cool to watch the contests play out as they were happening, so I started doing live updates for them. We started to run contests for the FTOPS and WCOOP because there was demand for it.” He added that half the fun of these contests is watching them develop: “I think a lot of people end up watching it and getting involved through pure interest. They may not be able to play, but they want to see how it will all unfold.” In the forums, stevester214 does a lot of the legwork updating of the contest and helps Muir stay on top of his game. The Full Tilt Poker event runs until Sunday, August 17th, the date of the $535 buy-in $2.5 Million Guaranteed Main Event.
As soon as the FTOPS contest winds down, the WCOOP will be picking up steam. The PokerStars tournament series begins on September 5th and guarantees a total of $30 million in prize money. The Main Event of the WCOOP is a $5,200 buy in $10 million guaranteed two-day tournament. Muir comments on his elation at the turnout for FTOPS IX: “The biggest prize pool we’ve ever had was for last year’s WCOOP, which was $78,000.”
Nat Arem even brought Linux hosting to the FTOPS Contest, which means that it can now support php. Here is a list of teams registered so far. Get your picks in early on who you think will take it down in the end:
Team 1
Akat11
AJKHoosier1
TheChronic420
Team 2
stevei444
apestyles
mig.com
MoorPils4You
PURPLEPILS99
Willcutyou
Moorman1
Muffin Eaters
BeL0WaB0Ve
mattg1983
JCarver
Team Muffin
Imabigkidnow
Ship_the_perc
dipthrong
Team 6
usourcek
FishOnTilt
bdbeatslayer
Team Bladin' Bops
blaaaaaaaaaade
hafizzle
toetagu
Team 8
GB2005
BigRiskky
PearlJammer
Team Platts and the Twins
Plattsburgh
Jason Gray
Craig Gray (MRSespn)
Team Sweden
eisenhower1
mendieta19
Tomgus456
Team 11
TopTizzlePizzle
Isaac Baron
BigEgypt
Team 12
itssuited
charder30
shaundeeb
420ftwcubedobv
The Donator
cane3418
miamihans
Team 14:
chipsteela
sowers
holdplz
Those competing in the $2,000 buy-in singles event are:
SCTrojans
PearlJammer
PURPLEPILS99
Bel0wAb0ve
JCarver
Pokersavage1
DipthronG
blaaaaaaaaaade (OneUponAStar)
MoormanI
Scott Clements
AJKHoosier1
x2then
Tomgus456
The Donator
cane3418
mig.com
apestyles
holdplz
dabears87
PocketFives.com spoke to a few of the combatants to get the trash-talking started before even one card of the FTOPS was dealt. Here’s the story from the horse’s mouth:
Kevin BeL0WaB0Ve Saul: “There’s pretty much no shot that my team loses. We have the best team out there.”
Matt Plattsburgh Vengrin: “There are a lot of great teams and players who I respect a lot. I feel like our edge in this contest will come from our team’s ability to play all of the different variations of poker. I look forward to a great contest.”
Adam Akat11 Katz: “I really like my team’s chances even though the field of teams is stacked. AJKHoosier1 himself is one of the top three tournament players online and he’s on a heater. TheChronic420 is a rebuy superstar. I’ll have to make sure I don’t drag the team down.”
Toetagu: “The WD40 is coming out. Our team wins tournaments for the ladies and that motivates us before playing.”
Mark dipthrong Herm: “Team Muffin is out for BLOOODDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!”
Scott BigRiskky Clements: “We have a real good chance in the contest. I feel like Pearljammer and GB2005 will carry our team. I will not have to do much, except collect a check at the end.”
Alex AJKHoosier1 Kamberis: “There are a lot of really great teams and it's impossible to predict who might win, but we're definitely the best-looking.”
Eisenhower1: “We are not that worried about the competition. Sure, there are one or two decent players, but we are more worried about staying awake during those late events starting 3:00am for us. If we do that, we don’t see any problems bringing victory to Team Sweden.”
Jason Gray: “Craig and I have a very diverse background in all of the mixed games which gives us some type of edge over the players who stick to hold’em. Plattsburgh is well-rounded in those games as well.”
Check out the official thread on PocketFives, located in Poker Discussion. Catch yourself up on the full rules by clicking here. Once play begins, make sure to root on your favorite team or player in the live updates page on PocketFives.com.