Jessica Welman Blog

Antonius is up over $8 million this year

Last night the ongoing saga of “Isildur1″ continued, but ended a little differently than the other chapters we’ve documented so far.  Not only was the mystery Swede on the losing end of a monster session against Patrik Antonius, he also dropped the biggest pot in the history of online poker, worth almost $900,000.

That monster hand was the crowning jewel of a remarkable run by Antonius, who took his opponent for $2.7 million at the $500/$1,000 PLO tables over the course of a lengthy evening session in which the two players logged more than 2,000 hands.  There were several other big pots, more than one exceeding half a million dollars.  As for the historical hand, here is how it went down:

Preflop, the two players kept it rather tame.  Isildur1 raised to $3,000 and Antonius called from the big blind.  The flop fell Q75 and Antonius checked to Isildur1, who bet out $5,000.  Antonius made it $21,000 to go, Isildur1 called and they both saw the turn come  A.  This is where the fireworks really start.  Antonious made a pot-sized bet of $48,000 and Isildur1 repotted it to $192,000 total.  Antonius moved all-in for $415,479.50 and Isildur1 called, having him covered by just over $11,000.

When the cards were turned up, Antonius revealed A6Q9 for top two pair, the nut flush draw and a gutshot.  Isildur1 also had top two pair and a better straight draw with his AKQT.  At that moment, the two were chopping the pot, but both players hands could improve on the river, which is exactly what happened.  The river brought the 8, making Antonius his nine-high straight and shipping the  $878,958.50 pot his way.

It seemed as though most of the big pots were going Antonius’ way last night and the big session only added to his ample profits on the year.  After a $3 million day yesterday, Antonius is up nearly $8.5 million over the course of 2009.  Prior to last night, Isildur1’s performance over the past month made him the second most  profitable player of the year.  Yesterday set Isildur1 back quite a bit, but he is still up more than $2 million since he started playing on the Full Tilt Poker high stakes tables.

It remains to be seen if Isildur1 is going to cut his losses, take a break, or be back at the tables tomorrow, but we’ll be keeping an eye out on those cash game tables to see if Antonius can continue to crush and if Isildur1 will be back for more any time soon.

Comment

While Full Tilt Poker was busy serving up its trifecta of FTOPS events on Sunday, the other sites did not just roll over and let them run the busiest online poker day of the week. Rather, quite the opposite happened and PokerStars hosted their “Landmark” Sunday Million tournament, commemorating more than $250 million in Sunday Million prize since the tournament’s inception. The special version of the popular weekly event promised a $2.5 million guarantee which was easily shattered when more than 18,000 players signed up to take part in the $200 + $16 buy-in event.

The tremendous Sunday Million prize pool came in at $3,656,600 and, thanks to a six-way chop, the top six finishers all took down in excess of $140,000. In addition to taking home the biggest payday at $282,662.86, “Zadman5311” also won the event while “m8675309a” and “call110” rounded out the top three. Mark “The Omaholic” Roland also made an appearance at the final table, but busted out in 7th place, just missing out on the chop talk.

Other big winners on the day included “egor2077“, who defeated Tom “titantom32″ Braband heads-up in the Sunday Warm Up and Marc “mysterio6044″ Karam who took down the Sunday 500.

Here are the final table results from several of the Sunday Majors, including the UB Poker $200K GTD:

PokerStars Sunday Million
Prize Pool: $3,656,600
Entrants: 18,283

1st: Zadman5311 ($282,662.86)
2nd: m8675309a ($200,844.74)
3rd: call110 ($250,037.00)
4th: ZyeD3 ($144,353.10)
5th: waWe ($205,477.38)
6th: Guldlemmen4 ($177,650.76)
7th: Mark “TheOmaholic” Roland ($54,849.00)
8th: MATPOC28 ($32,909.40)
9th: E-Daddie ($21,939.60)

Notable finishes: Bryan “bparis” Paris (14th), Str8$$$Homey (25th), Brian “$tinger 88″ Hastings (44th) and Ravi “govshark2″ Raghaven (62nd)

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up
Prize Pool: $952,600
Entrants: 4,763h

1st: egor2077 ($149,017.54)
2nd: Tom “titantom32″ Braband ($110,977.90)
3rd: FUTURE102 ($78,589.50)
4th: xQ024 ($53,821.90)
5th: olle101 ($40,485.50)
6th: fabregarp ($30,959.50)
7th: timdmd ($21,433.50)
8th: funywiteshss ($11,907.50)
9th: Brad “smerks” Marsh ($7,620.80)

Notable finishes: Matt “All_in_at420″ Stout (32nd), Lauren “locoenlacabeza” Kling (39th), Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong (41st), Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar (56th) and Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (64th)

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance
Prize Pool: $316,400
Entrants: 1,582

1st: WhoGivzABuck ($56,952.00)
2nd: Joao “vovo_leo” Monte ($41,132.00)
3rd: Bal87 ($31,640.00)
4th: dan82mur ($23,730.00)
5th: tcblade ($16,611.00)
6th: Sam “siola” Iola ($13,447.00)
7th: Kevin “KevBoyStar” Stani ($10,283.00)
8th: smokrokflock ($7,119.00)
9th: Ship ThA $$$ ($4,429.60)

Notable finishes: Brandon “AreTheseUtz” Hall (11th), PeachyMer (13th), Jared “SOXFAN83″ Mahoney (14th) and Matt “ADZ124″ Marafioti (18th)

PokerStars Sunday 500
Prize Pool: $614,000
Entrants: 1,228

1st: Marc “mysterio6044″ Karam ($102,568.70)
2nd: ohnistun ($74,908.00)
3rd: Steven “19FMS86″ Levy ($56,588.00)
4th: 1shark2007 ($41,752.00)
5th: McMang ($30,086.00)
6th: $30K ($23,946.00)
7th: Zackattak13 ($17,806.00)
8th: levinhostar ($11,666.00)
9th: Christian “charder30″ Harder ($6,385.60)

Notable finishes: Jay “J_HasTheNuts” Conley (20th), Evan “Oakplayer” Schwartz (25th), Bahbak “bigredAK” Oboodi (28th) and Randal “RandALLin” Flowers (29th)

UB Poker $200K GTD
Prize Pool: $209,200
Entrants: 1,046

1st: JAYHOVAHVOL1 ($37,321.28)
2nd: SCHAPPUSCHA ($37,321.28)
3rd: Eric “SHEETSWORLD” Haber ($18,932.60)
4th: Michael “MIKEIVEY” Meredith ($13,493.40)
5th: AMYGDYLA ($11,401.40)
6th: CLASS_ACT ($9,309.40)
7th: Mohsin “CHICAGOCARDS1″ Charania ($7,217.40)
8th: JVONK424 ($5,125.40)
9th: Mike “MEEELOSH” Lawson ($3,556.40)

Comment

The FTOPS XIV Main Event promised participants it would have at least $2.5 million in prize and it more than delivered on that guarantee, with $2,735,500 up for grabs and the promise of six figure payouts for the top five finishers in the massive event. It certainly helped that the FTOPS XIV Main Event was the largest Main Event it FTOPS history, drawing 5,471 players who plunked down the $500 + $35 buy-in.

Hosted by the newest addition to Team Full Tilt, Tom “durrrr” Dwan (who busted in 949th place and returned to his ongoing high stakes battle with “Isildur1” just fyi), the tournament drew nearly 70 Full Tilt Red Pros and a range of players from the full time online grinders to the recreational players who satellited their way in on a whim. A total of 720 players would make the money with the top 18 finishers all receiving a five figure payday. David Colclough had the best showing of the Full Tilt Pros with his 250th place finish and Garrett “GBecks” Beckman (93rd), Michael “Pot Odds 3″ McNeill (80th), Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle (49th) and FTOPS XIV jersey winner “RymesWOrange” (24th) made it deep as well.

While those players would bust out and likely head to bed for some much-needed rest, the top nine players, headlined by Adam Junglen, assembled at the final table around 7AM ET:

Seat 1: Adam Junglen (6,437,047)
Seat 2: Dr Fill Good (2,809,815)
Seat 3: kinheim (6,650,416)
Seat 4: bankrollme87 (6,205,370)
Seat 5: Kevin “ItsTime2Win” Pionkowski (2,171,959)
Seat 6: zhivago2 (8,358,848)
Seat 7: dfunks222 (2,187,007)
Seat 8: nuts7878 (2,563,029)
Seat 9: Valuechecking (3,649,009)

The action at the final table kicked off with a bang when “Dr Fill Good” doubled through “zhivago2” on the second hand of play. Zhivago’s JJ couldn’t hold up against Dr Fill Good’s AK. That put Dr Fill Good up to nearly 6 million chips, which was a much-need boost considering the blinds were up to 50,000/100,000 ante 10,000.

Just about a round later, zhivago2 would have their revenge. Dr Fill Good raised in middle position and zhivago2 called form the small blind. The flop fell 752, zhivago2 checked, Dr Fill Good continuation bet 300,000 or so and zhivago2 check-raised, making it nearly 1 million to go. Dr Fill Good responded by making it almost 2 million to go and zhivago2 retaliated by moving all-in. Dr Fill Good called, showing AT for two over cards and a flush draw. Zhivago2 showed 22 and had Dr Fill Good drawing dead after the turn came 5 to make zhivago2 a full house. That pot gave zhivago2 the chip lead with nearly 11 million chips, while Dr Fill Good was left with just 200,000 chips.

Dr Fill Good doubled up their short stack twice, but busted out in 9th place when they got it in again holding 88 to the AJ of “Valuechecking.” The eights looked good on the flop and turn, but a J on the river gave the pot to Valuechecking and sent Dr Fill Good to the rail. Coincidentally, it would be a dramatic river card that would be the demise of Valuechecking, who was poised to double up after getting it all-in preflop holding AK to zhivago2’s AT, but zhivago2 rivered a ten to knock Valuechecking out in 8th place. Just three hands later, “nuts7878” would meet a similar fate, getting their last 1.1 million all-in with AQ against Kevin “ItsTime2Win” Pionkowski’s QJ. The J9349 board was not kind to nuts7878 though, pairing ItsTime2Win’s jack and knocking nuts7878 out in 7th place.

ItsTime2Win continued to amass chips at a rapid rate. Next, he tangled with “bankrollme87” in a blind on blind confrontation. Bankrollme87 raised out of the small blind and ItsTime2Win called out of the big. The chips went in the middle after the 986 flop with bankrollme87 showing 39 for top pair, bad icker while ItsTime2Win held 79 for top pair with an open-ended straight draw. Bankrollme87 picked up a flush draw with the A on the turn, but the river 4 was no help and bankrollme87 was out in 6th place.

That hand out ItsTime2Win alongside zhivago2 and “Adam Junglen,” who spent the first portion of the final table picking up small pots without showdown to maintain his big stack. Zhivago2 put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field when they knocked out “kinheim” in 5th place. Zhivago2 minraised from late position and kinheim moved all-in from the big blind. Zhivago2 called with AJ and had kinheim’s JT drawing slim. The board ran out 99357 andzhivago2’s ace high was enough to rake the pot.

A little while later, zhivago2 would cross the 20 million chip mark after “dfunks22” open raised all-in for 3.7 million with the blinds at 120,000/240,000 ante 30,000 and zhivago2 was in the big blind with JJ and called. Dfunks222’s A7 could not catch an ace as the board ran out QJ4KQ and the field was cut to three.

The final three struck a deal that ensured each would walk away with more than $290,000 on their $500 investment. The assurance of a massive payout did not stop them for playing for the extra money on the side and the gold jersey though.

After sparring for several rounds, a big pot cropped up when ItsTime2Win raised from the button, zhivago2 called from the small blind and Junglen made it 1.4 million to go out of the big blind. While ItsTime2Win tossed his hand, zhivago2 elected to reraise all-in instead, having Junglen covered by nearly 10 million chips. Junglen called with 66, zhivago2 showed QJ and it was off to the races for the biggest pot of the tournament, worth more than 17 million chips. The J85 flop favored zhivago2 and the 9 on the turn helped neither player. The river brought the K and Junglen was out in 3rd place while zhivago2 headed into heads-up play with a more than 2-1 chip advantage.

The top two finishers would log nearly fifty hands of one-on-one play. ItsTime2Win would pull close to even with his opponent early on when his post flop aggression forced zhivago2 to concede a 12 million chip pot. The very next hand he would claim the chip lead when both players made two pair by the river, but ItsTime2Win’s eights and tens bested zhivago2’s sixes and nines.

Zhivago2 would take the lead back after the two bet and raised each other on every street as the board came out Q537. Zhivago2 bet out just over 1 million into the 15 million chip pot after the 4 hit on the river. Getting 16-1, ItsTime2Win called and mucked when zhivago2 showed 79 for a pair of sevens.

The match would be over two hands later when ItsTime2Win raised from the button, zhivago2 reraised out of the big blind, ItsTime2Win called and the duo saw a flop of 952. Zhivago2 led out for a 2 million chip bet and ItsTime2Win moved all-in for an additional 9.5 million or so. Zhivago2 called with JJ and ItsTime2Win showed A3 for just ace high. He picked up a club draw with the 6 on the turn, but the 3 on the river gave the pot to zhivago2 and concluded the Main Event at shortly after 9AM ET.

Zhivago2 earned $418,839.16 for the Main Event victory and brought the latest installment of the FTOPS to a close. Those looking for their next tournament series fix will have the Mini FTOPS getting underway on December 9th and those looking to rail some high stakes tournament can feast on the $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up PLO World Championships on November 21st and 22nd.

Here are the complete results from the Main Event of FTOPS XIV:

1st: zhivago2 ($418,839.16)
2nd: Kevin “ItsTime2Win” Pionkowski ($316,554.40)
3rd: Adam Junglen ($290,418.94)
4th: dfunks222 ($175,072.00)
5th: kinheim ($131,167.23)
6th: bankrollme87 ($90,271.50)
7th: nuts7878 ($58,813.25)
8th: Valuechecking ($41,032.50)
9th: Dr Fill Good ($28,722.75)

Comment

An impressive 9,832 runners took part in the penultimate event of FTOPS XIV, a $120 + $9 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Knockout event. Hosted by November Niner Steven Begleiter, the tournament generated a prize pool of nearly $1 million and offered a first place prize more than 1,000 times the size of the buy-in.

Some of the players who navigated their way through the enormous field to make it deep into the money include Bryan “Squirrely1″ Sapp (89th), “SpadeSkillz” (57th) and Andrew “TiltyJoker” Lee (47th). These players missed out on the final table, but nine other players, headlined by BLUFF blogger Christina “cristinalindley” Lindley, survived to battle for the jersey and the top prize:

Seat 1: Dinhjo (6,220,000)
Seat 2:BikStik8585 (7,276,474)
Seat 3: SNG Ninja (8,201,863)
Seat 4: Al-Extrem1 (1,458,822)
Seat 5: boltsva (1,401,536)
Seat 6: Alcatrez27278 (5,388,636)
Seat 7: little chief17 (12,996,445)
Seat 8: bethwolf22 (2,402,830)
Seat 9: Christina “cristinalindley” Lindley (3,813,394)

The final table got underway with a little Hollywooding. With the blinds at 100,000/200,000 ante 25,000, “Al-Extrem1” had just six big blinds to their name. That didn’t stop them from tanking when facing a raise from “little chief17” and then, after a good 20 seconds of thought, moving all-in. Little chief17 called with KJ while Al-Extrem1 showed AA. The QQJ paired little chief17’s jack and the J gave them a boat to crack Al-Extrem1’s aces and send them to the rail in 9th place.

“Boltsva” managed to triple up when they moved all-in for their last 1.5 million from the button and both “Alcatraz27278” and little chief17 called out of the blinds. After the flop fell T73, Alcatraz27278 moved all-in for their remaining 4.6 million, little chief17 folded and Alcatraz27278 showed 22 to boltsva’s QQ. The turn and river came 9 then K to give both players a flush, but boltsva’s was bigger, so they more than tripled up to 4.6 million. Christina “cristinalindley” Lindley was also able to chip up when her AK was able to spike an ace on “BikStik8585” to double up to 6 million chips.

On the hand following cristinalindley’s double up, boltsva lost those newly earned chips to little chief17. Little chief17 raised from early position, boltsva called out of the big blind and the two saw a flop of 942. Boltsva checked, little chief17 fired out a bet and boltsva check-raised all-in. Little chief17 called, tabling A9 for top pair while boltsva showed 66. With no six on the turn or river, boltsva was out in 8th and little chief17 took a commanding chip lead over the field with 18 million chips to their name. The very next hand, BikStik8585 busted in 7th place when their A7 was outflopped by Alcatraz2278’s 55 on a 753J3 board.

Alcatraz27278 was chipping up nicely until a blind vs. blind hand against “SNG Ninja.” The chips went all-in preflop with SNG Ninja holding KK to Alcatraz27278’s 66. The kings held to give SNG Ninja the more than 15 million chip pot and leave Alcatraz27278 with just 5 million chips. They would not be the next player to go though. The honor of 6th place went to “bethwolf22,” who shoved all-in from the small blind for 3 million chips or so with K6 and cristinalindley called out of the big blind with KJ. Cristinalindley would flop the nuts as the board fell AQT and, with no jack for a chop on the later streets, bethwolf22 was out. Alcatraz27278 would be the next to go, finishing in 5th place, while “Dinhjo” took 4th when their small blind shove with Q7 ran into SNG Ninja’s A4.

Once play got down to the final three, the trio paused to make a deal that offered more than $100,000 to little chief17 and cristinalindley and gave over $95,000 to SNG Ninja. Immediately after play resumed, SNG Ninja made their exit in 3rd place when they raised from the small blind, little chief17 reraised out of the big blind and SNG moved all-in for more than 12.5 million total. Little chief17 quickly called with QQ and SNG Ninja’s K8 was drawing slim. The board ran out 87792 and the queens held to take the tournament down to heads-up play.

Little chief17 held a more than 2-1 chip advantage over cristinalindley at the start of heads-up play and they steadily increased that margin to 5-1 as play continued. Down to her last 7 million chips, cristinalindley made a stand, calling little chief17’s reraise all-in holding KJ. Little chief17 showed AJ and had the advantage going into the flop. The innocuous board ran out T82T5 and little chief17 took the pot and the match to claim the gold jersey and a cash payout worth $125,959.96.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #24:

1st: little chief17 ($125,959.96)
2nd: Christina “cristinalindley” Lindley ($106,460.01)
3rd: SNG Ninja($95,968.83)
4th: Dinjho ($52,306.24)
5th: Alcatraz27278 ($38,344.80)
6th: bethwolf22 ($27,529.60)
7th: BikStik8585 ($19,664.00)
8th: boltsva ($14,059.76)
9th: Al-Extrem1 ($9,940.15)

Comment

The biggest prize of this prize of this especially lucrative Sunday was the $539,350 set aside for the winner of the prestigious $2,500 buy-in FTOPS Event #22. A total of 938 players turned out for the event, but only 100 of them returned for Day 2 of play on Sunday. Of those, all but ten would receive some sort of cash payout and the top six finishers would all bink six figure scores for their efforts.

The stacked Day 2 field included a number of experienced players, including the champion of the FTOPS XIII installment of this event, Jake “psutennis11″ Toole. Toole would not repeat as champion after busting out in 15th place, as he was one of the many known pros who fell just short of the final table. Others who made deep runs in the event included Tom “titantom32″ Braband (21st), Andrew “Browndog19″ Brown (19th), Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick (17th), Evan “NEONPILS99″ Parkes (14th) and Chad “jse81″ Batista (11th).

The final table featured some recognizable names as well, like Dan O’Brien and the last Full Tilt Red Pro standing, British card player Gary Jones. Also in the mix was “Supa4real,” who is used to high pressure, high profile final tables as they finished in 8th place at the Main Event of this year’s WCOOP. Supa4real came up just short of the jersey Sunday evening, finishing in 2nd place to “obiedman“:

Seat 1: Ahvall (268,407)
Seat 2: Rabbit_hunterSA (500,726)
Seat 3: Supa4real (1,049,816)
Seat 4: Dan “DanOBrien” O’Brien (649,176)
Seat 5: TheAlligatorNo1 (277,421)
Seat 6: obiedman (414,152)
Seat 7: Timvd20 (1,769,808)
Seat 8: Gary Jones (315,432)
Seat 9: the_real_magic (383,062)

After beginning the day as the chip leader in the event, “Rabbit_hunterSA” was the first player to make their exit from the final table. Not ten hands after the remaining nine players consolidated on one table, Rabbit_hunterSA picked up KK against the AK of “Supa4real.” The J83 flop looked good for Rabbit_hunterSA, but running aces on the turn and river gave Supa4real the more than 1 million chip pot.

Supa4real would ship some of those chips to the last Red Pro standing when “Gary Jones” was able to flop a four while holding 44 to Supa4real’s QQ and double up. Not too long after that, Jones repeated the same feat to double up a second time, once again picking up pocket fours and once again cracking Supa4real’s pocket queens with a four on the flop to boost his stack up to 675,000.

“DanOBrien” was getting short on chips and shoved his last 250,000 in from the cutoff at the 10,000/20,000 ante 2,500 with A3. “Timvd20” called from the big blind with AK. The 765TJ failed to bring any help for DanOBrien and he was eliminated in 8th place. It would take a while before the next player to bust, as the final seven players exchanged chips in several dozen tiny pots. Eventually, “Ahvall” was getting down to the felt and shoved their last 270,000 chips all-in from early position and Gary Jones called from the big blind. Jones’ AK was racing with Ahvall’s 22. The overcards did not connect with the Q43 flop, but an A on the turn left Ahvall needing a deuce or a five in order to stay alive. The river brought the 4 and they were out in 7th place.

The next elimination would take place on the very next hand when “TheAlligatorNo1” moved all-in for 150,000 chips with A4 and Timvd20 called from the button with 99. The 994 brought quads for Timvd20 and TheAlligatorNo1 was drawing dead and out in 6th place. “The_real_magic” would disappear next when their QQ squared off against Supa4real’s AK in a blind versus blind all-in preflop confrontation. The_real_magic dodged the big cards on the flop and turn, but a king on the river gave Supa4real the pot and ousted the_real_magic in 5th.

With four players remaining, Timvd20 and Supa4real were the two players in control, wielding their big stacks against the shorter-stacked Gary Jones and “obiedman.” Timvd20 even picked up a couple of big pots off Supa4real to build their stack up past 3 million chips. They would give a chunk of stack to obiedman though, as obiedman picked up TT to Timvd20’s 77 to double up to 1.25 million. While obiedman was able to double up, Gary Jones was not so lucky when he put his remaining 200,000 in with A3 and Timvd20 looked him up with 44. The board ran out J3296 to eliminate Jones in 4th place.

Despite holding a substantial chip lead at the start of 3-handed play, Timvd20 would end up the 3rd place finisher. They took a huge hit after doubling up obiedman when they flopped a straight while holding A4. The board ran out 5329J and obiedman moved all-in on the river. Timvd20 called, then mucked, dropping down to 1.3 million chips. Later, Suap4real would collect the rest of Timvd20’s chips when Timvd20 ran their 33 into Supa4real’s AA. That nettedSupa4real a 2.5 million chip pot and sent Timvd20 to the rail in 3rd place.

Less than 300,000 chips separated the two finalists at the start of heads-up play and neither was in a hurry to get all of those chips in the middle since the blinds were still at a relatively low 14,000/28,0000 ante 3,500, which meant that each of them had around 100 big blinds to work with. Obiedman was able to put some distance between themselves and the competition thanks to two big hands in which they made full houses. They maintained that lead as the pair played out several dozen hands, culminating in the final hand of the tournament. Obiedman raised from the button, Supa4real called from the big blind and the duo saw the flop fall QQ9. Supa4real check-raised all-in over the top of obiedman’s flop bet and obeidman quickly called, holding QJ. Supa4real had the other queen, the Q along with the T, so they would need big cards, a nine or a ten to stay alive. The 5 on the turn was no help, nor was the J on the river. Obiedman scooped the pot and the outright victory, claiming all $539,350 of the first place prize money. Supa4real earned a respectable $340,000 for 2nd place.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #22:

1st: obiedman ($539,350.00)
2nd: Supa4real ($340,025.00)
3rd: Timvd20 ($252,087.50)
4th: Gary Jones ($193,462.50)
5th: the_real_magic ($146,562.50)
6th: TheAlligatorNo1 ($105,525.00)
7th: Ahvall ($70,350.00)
8th: Dan “DanOBrien” O’Brien ($54,873.00)
9th: Rabbit_hunterSA ($39,895.00)

1 Comment

Who is that masked man?

While Tom “durrrr” Dwan was busy filming the new season of “High Stakes Poker,” resident mystery Swede “Isildur1” continued in his quest to take over the high stakes online poker world by logging sessions with Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Brian Townsend, Phil Ivey, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, David Benyamine and Patrik Antonius over the past two days.

While some, like Ziigmund and Ivey called it quits after a short session, others, like Antonius, logged a number of hands against Isildur1. Like many others in the online poker world, Ziigmund grew suspicious and even expressed his concerns to Isildur1 in the chat box:

Ziigmund: I am afraid to play hu against you’
Isildur1: v funny
Ziigmund: who the **** r u?
Isildur1: noome u heard of

After dropping more than $100,000 to Isildur1, Ziigmund decided to call it quits, adding:

Ziigmund: this is too sick
Ziigmund: no more hu with you

Many railbirds are growing increasingly suspicious of Isildur’s extremely high win rate. Forum gossip has posited everything from bot use to a second account of an already established pro to a super user account. While the identity of Isildur1 remains a mystery, a post from Barry Greenstein in the Pokerroad Forums did shed some light on who Isildur1 is and why his identity remains a mystery:

“He’s not a publically known player at this time, but he has done very well in big head-up games on European sites. He just started playing on American sites…I have a feeling you will start hearing about in live games and tournaments once he gets a little older, since he likes to play poker all the time,” Greenstein wrote in the November 12th post. He also added that the steep taxes on gambling earnings in Sweden likely play a role in Isildur1 keeping his real identity under wraps.

Even though the identity of the formidable foe remains top secret, the biggest players in the game are all lining up to take their shot at him, even after watching durrrr drop $3 million to him earlier this week. Antonius took his crack at Isildur1 Friday night and, while he didn’t lose $3 million, he did drop a chunk of change to Isildur1 on both the No Limit Hold’em and the Pot Limit Omaha tables. The epic session with Antonius, plus several smaller winning sessions, puts Isildur1up more than $6 million in the month of November. Those kinds of numbers make Isildur1 the second biggest winner of 2009 so far. Isildur1 trails only Antonius in winnings on the year, up just over $5 million compared to Antonius’ profits of $5.7 million.

While it may seem that Isildur1 is unstoppable, a lengthy Saturday night session against David Benyamine proved to be less profitable for Isildur1. The Frenchman got the best of Isildur1, who ended up only $5,000 at day’s end Saturday night.  Townsend’s brief Friday session with Isildur1 also saw teh Red Pro and Cardrunners coach come out in the black.   These slight hiccups seem to be just minor setbacks for the new high stakes sensation who continues to put in more than 2,000 hands on the Full Tilt Poker tables daily.

1 Comment

It’s quite the big weekend for online poker players, what with the FTOPS Main Event, the $2.5 Million guarantee PokerStars Sunday Million and the regular onslaught of Sunday tournaments on most player’s MTT schedule. The festivities got off to an early start with the first of two days in FTOPS Event #22, the prestigious $2,500 buy-in 2-Day No Limit Hold’em event. This tournament saw its numbers up from FTOPS XII and XIII, netting 938 players competing for $2,345,000.

The big field helped the tournament to easily surpass its $2 million guarantee and there is over half a million dollars up ready and waiting for whoever can manage to take the event down. When play paused on Day 1 at the conclusion of Level 17 there were 100 players remaining in the field. Ten of those players will return to play Sunday only to walk away empty-handed as the bubble does not burst until there are ninety players remaining.

FTOPS XIII 2-Day Event winner Jake “psutennis11″ Toole is still alive and kicking, but short on chips. as is former FTOPS Main Event winner Va Shon “Julian Verse” Watkins. Red pros Taylor Caby, Bill Gazes and Gary Jones are all still alive, with Jones currently sitting on the second largest chip stack in the event with 174,804. The chip leader at the moment is Rabbit_hunterSA who has a more than 50,000 chip lead on the rest of the field with 229,047 chips. To put that in perspective of the blinds, when play resumes the blinds will be up to 500/1,000 ante 125.

Others with big chip stacks headed into Day 2 of this event include Chad “jse81″ Batista (144,248), Shannon “BLUFFforRENT” Shorr (134,049), Shawn “jordankickz” Busse (93,058) and Dan “DanOBrien” O’Brien (81,909).

Play resumes at 2PM ET and the $500 buy-in FTOPS Main Event getting underway at 6PM ET. Hosted by the newest Team Full Tilt Pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan, the event will boast a $2.5 million guarantee.

Here are the top ten chip counts from the end of Day 1 in FTOPS Event #23:

1. Rabbit_hunterSA (229,047)
2. Gary Jones (174,804)
3. Chad “jse81″ Batista (144,248)
4. Gazou007 (141,884)
5. LOL_COLLUDAMENT (135,663)
6. Shannon “BLUFFforRENT” Shorr (134,049)
7. 747wd (133,563)
8. FLIPokerHer (126,684)
9. the_real_magic (117,430)
10. hawkjb1 (110,386)

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The big names came out in droves for the final rebuy event of FTOPS XIV, Event #23. The $100 + $9 rebuy event drew a total of 1,167 players who rebought more than 2,400 times and racked up a fiendish 666 add-ons to boost the total prize pool to $424,100. While many of the biggest names were more focused on the $2,500 buy-in two-day FTOPS event, there were plenty of pros who made deep runs here, including the eventual winner, heads-up poker specialist Chris “Genius28″ Lee.

Justin Smith (40th), Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark (39th), Tony “DrunkPPlaya” Gargano (19th), Jordan “pimpin_pens” Smith (14th) and Bjorn “kleath” Kleathersson (13th) also outlasted the vast majority of the field, but they would all fell short of the final nine. It appeared as though WSOP bracelet winner Vitaly Lunkin was going to rack up another final table for the Red Pros, as he held the chip lead with just 16 players remaining. However, in a testament to just how swing the game of Omaha can be, Lunkin went from chip leader to final table bubble boy, busting out in 10th place, while these players remained in contention for the jersey:

Seat 1: Chris “Genius28″ Lee (1,330,640)
Seat 2: borromias (683,066)
Seat 3: Clark “Snake8484″ Hamagami (370,176)
Seat 4: bearbuck (432,621)
Seat 5: aviator0925 (806,603)
Seat 6: portblair (657,082)
Seat 7: Kevin “krazylouie” Stanford (787,000)
Seat 8: TheBjerre (728,942)
Seat 9: BigDawg427 (898,370)

With the blinds at a relatively low 15,000/30,000, there was a lot of play for the final nine players. They took advantage of it, seeing flops before committing too many chips. Early on in the action, “BigDawg427” raised in early position and Chris “Genius28″ Lee called behind them. BigDawg427 led out for the size of the pot on the J93 flop and Genius28 raised the pot. BigDawg427 moved all-in and Genius28 called. BigDawg427’s AAQ8 was ahead for the moment, but Genius28 held a big straight draw plus top pair with his KQJT. The 3 on the turn benefited neither player and the T on the river made Genius28 his straight to eliminate BigDawg427 in 9th place and extend Genius28’s chip lead.

“Aviator0925” would pull even with Genius28 after eliminating “TheBjerre” in 8th place. The chips went all-in preflop with aviator0925 holding QJT2 to TheBjerre’s AA82. The K95 brought a straight draw for aviator0925 and the J on the turn would complete their straight. The river was an inconsequential 5 and the field was down to seven. Aviator0925 would help to shrink that number even further when they got it all-in preflop holding KK68 to the KJT7 of “borromias“. The 842 flop brought a flush draw for aviator 0925 and they improved to two pair with the 6 on the turn, which also left borromias drawing dead with one card to come and out in 6th place.

While Genius28 and aviator9025 consistently picked up pots to maintain their 2 million + chips apiece, the shorter stacks were struggling to stay alive. With the blinds up to 30,000/60,000 a short stacked “portblair” decided to make a stand with their remaining 380,000 chips. Clark “Snake8484″ Hamagami raised from middle position and portblair called from the small blind. The flop fell AAJ and both players checked. The turn was the 7 and portblair led out for 60,000 and Snake8484 called. The river brought the 4 and portblair bet out 120,000 into the 450,000 chip pot, leaving just 77,000 chips behind. Snake8484 raised enough to put portblair all-in and portblair called and subsequently mucked when Snake8484 showed ATK4 for aces full of fours.

Play continued five-handed for a while and she shorter stacks began to gain ground on Genius28 and aviator0925. Kevin “krazylouie” Stanford doubled through aviator0925 in a blind versus blind confrontation in which aviator0925 raised out of the small blind and krazylouie called from the big. The flop fell QT7 and aviator0925 bet out half the size of the pot. Krazylouie potted the action and aviator0925 moved all-in. Krazylouie called, tabling KTT5 for a set of tens while aviator0925 showed Q739 for top and bottom pair. Aviator0925 failed to catch up on the turn or river and they dropped to under 500,000 chips. They would quickly recover though, doubling through Genius28 when their AA42 prevailed over Genius28’s JJ89.

Aviator0925 would pick up even more chips when they racked up their third knockout of the night, eliminating “bearbuck” in 5th place. The chips went in preflop in a button versus small blind situation with bearbuck holding KQJ9 to aviator0925’s AAT7. The board came J7768 to make aviator trip sevens and eliminate bearbuck. From that point forward, the big pots kept coming at a rapid fire pace thanks to short-handed play and the rapidly escalating blinds. Genius28 and Snake8484 clashed in a blind vs. blind pot which saw all the chips go in the middle on a K72 flop with Genius28 holding a heart draw to Snake8484’s two pair. No hearts came on the turn or river and Genius28, who had been atop the leaderboard for nearly the duration of the final table suddenly found himself on the short stack.

Aviator0925 also saw their stack decrease substantially during 4-handed play, but a crucial double through krazylouie popped them back up to a workable stack of 2 million while krazylouie was left with just 200,000 chips. Genius28 would finish off krazylouie a few hands later when his JJ35 held against krazylouie’s A8QT to knock them out in 4th place and set up a relatively even-stacked final three.

The chip lead shuffled around the trio of players until Genius28 raised from the button and aviator0925 reraised to 960,000 from the big blind, leaving just 120,000 behind. Genius called the reraise and called aviator0925’s all-in on the KT5 flop as well. Aviator0925 was looking for a spade or a queen with their QQ84 while Genius28 needed straight cards in order for his QJT8 to improve. Genius28 improved to two pair with the J on the turn and made a straight with the A on the river to eliminate aviator0925 and take the slight chip lead at the start of heads-up play.

After a brief disconnection scare, Genius28 started to pull away from his opponent, taking a more than 2-1 chip lead. On the final hand of play, Snake8484 raised the button, Genius28 reraised and Snake8484 moved all-in holding AJJ6. Genius28 called, showing the superior pair with his KK8Q. The T86 flop changed nothing, nor did the 5 on the turn. The river K cemented the win for Genius28, who scooped the pot and his first outright FTOPS victory. Lee earned $93,302 for the win while Hamagami took home $59,374 for his runner-up performance.

Here are the complete results from Event #23:

1st: Chris “Genius28″ Lee ($93,302.00)
2nd: Clark “Snake8484″ Hamagami ($59,374.00)
3rd: aviator0925 ($42,940.13)
4th: Kevin “krazylouie” Stanford ($34,458.13)
5th: bearbuck ($25,997.33)
6th: portblair ($19,084.50)
7th: borromias ($12,298.90)
8th: TheBjerre ($8,906.10)
9th: BigDawg427 ($6,361.50)

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Earlier this series, Steve “UFman2″ Burkholder had an opportunity to rack up another FTOPS jersey in Event #5, the Stud Hi/Lo event. He would fall short, finishing in 4th place, while another former jersey winner, DeceptionPt,”would nab win number two. Burkholder was back at the FTOPS final table again last night and, this time, he would not walk away without the victory to his credit.

With his final table showing in Event #20 last night, UFman2 joins the ranks of rumprammer, OmadJoped and bd3109, who have all made more than one final table so far during the course of FTOPS XIV. Bd3109 is currently #1 on the FTOPS series leaderboard with 370 points, but after his showing last night, UFman2 is nipping at his heels with 340 points to his credit.

It would be a tough road for UFman2 to notch that second victory, as Event #20, a $200 + $16 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event, absolutely shattered its $400,000 guarantee thanks to a surprisingly large field of 2,803 players. There was more than $560,000 up for grabs in the event, including a six-figure payout for the first place finisher.

Some of the notable names who made a run in the event, but fell short of the final nine include, nanQ (31st), WhySoCereus (22nd), Bobby “getting deep” Hodson (18th). Johan Brolenius had the top finish of the Red Pros, busting out in 45th place. Once the final table was set, UFman2 had to contend with a number of experienced players, including former FTOPS winner David muckducks” Cairns, Shyam “S_Dot111″ Srinivasan and longtime poker forum mainstay, Aaron “SaulGood” Surbeck:

Seat 1: TIGR778 (1,149,995)
Seat 2: Shyam “S_Dot111″ Srinivasan (1,026,607)
Seat 3: Steve “UFman2″ Burkholder (1,540,747)
Seat 4: 007-0253 (1,320,542)
Seat 5: SmokeChoke (1,068,868)
Seat 6: David “muckducks” Cairns (1,438,274)
Seat 7: Tarsis (614,863)
Seat 8: Aaron “SaulGood” Surbeck (5,033,197)
Seat 9: LuckyLukeKK (821,907)

Aaron “SaulGood” Surbeck came into the final table with a substantial chip advantage thanks to a lucky nine on the river that eliminated “melder1” in 10th place and set the final table. He would quickly drop a million of his chips to Shyam “S_Dot111″ Srinivasan when his TT failed to hold up against S_Dot111’s AK, but he still held almost twice as much as his next closest competitor. S-Dot111 would soon narrow the gap even further though, eliminating “Tarsis” in 9th place when his 88 held up against Tarsis’ 33.

S-Dot111 went for another knockout when he picked up KK against “LuckyLukeKK” who held QQ. The flop fell QJ3 and, with no king on the turn or river, LuckyLukeKK doubled up while S_Dot111 dropped to 1.7 million chips. Another big pot in which S_Dot111 raised from the small blind with AT and Steve “UFman2″ Burkholder moved all-in from the big blind with 9T did not work out his way either. S_Dot111’s ace high looked good as the board ran outQ62[Q, but the river 9 paired up UFman2 and they doubled up. A short while later, S_Dot111 raised from the cutoff and “SmokeChoke” moved all-in from the big blind. S_Dot111 called with A5, which was in bad shape against SmokeChoke’s AA. The board brought no help and S_Dot111 was out in 8th place.

“007-0253” was the next to fall when they shoved from middle position for their last 650,000 chips and SaulGood called from the button with 99. 007-0253 showed A8 and was drawing slim after the flop fell T72. The 2 on the turn left 007-0253 dead to an ace and with the Q on the river, they were eliminated in 7th place. SaulGood would eliminate another player shortly thereafter when LuckyLukeKK raised from under the gun and SaulGood reraised from the big blind. LuckyLukeKK moved all-in and SaulGood called, tabling 88. LuckyLukeKK showed AK. An eight on the flop meant the end for LuckyLukeKK and they were out in 6th.

UFman2 would handle the next elimination, knocking out the other former FTOPS winner at the the table, David “muckducks” Cairns in 5th place. It was another coin flip situation, with UFman2 holding AJ to muckducks’ 99. The A72 flop favored UFman2 and things only got better for him with the J on the turn. The river 4 did nothing for muckducks and they were eliminated. After taking down the more than 3.5 million chip pot, UFman2 overtook the chip lead from SaulGood, holding nearly 7 million to his 5 million, while SmokeChoke and “TIGR778” were struggling with 1.1 million and 850,000 chips respectively. They would be unable to overcome the chip disadvantage and would make their exits in 3rd and 4th place respectively.

That set up the lengthy heads-up match between UFman2 and SaulGood, who opted to make a deal before playing down to a winner. UFman2 was awarded $100,000 while SaulGood took $85,0000 and another $2,000 was set aside for the winner. The dealmaking process was arguably more challenging for the duo than the game itself, as they traded control of the dealmaking back and forth, both fearing they were going to mess it up.

Eventually the deal was successfully made and the two began a heads-up battle that would go on for nearly an hour before a winner was determined. The chip lead traded back and forth several times, including a huge hand in which SaulGood’s bottom pair of deuces dodged overcards and a flush draw to stave off elimination. Despite his best efforts, SaulGood was not able to overcome UFman2, who has a fair share of FTOPS experience on his side. In the end, it would be UFman2 who won out and joined Deception Pt as the second two-time career jersey winner of this FTOPS.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #20:

1st: Steve “UFman2″ Burkholder ($102240.40)
2nd: Aaron “SaulGood” Surbeck ($85,000.00)
3rd: SmokeChoke ($54,378.20)
4th: TIGR778 ($40,923.80)
5th: David “muckducks” Cairns ($28,590.60)
6th: LuckyLukeKK ($19,060.40)
7th: 007-0253 ($12,893.80)
8th: Shyam “S_Dot111″ Srinivasan ($8,969.60)
9th: Tarsis ($6,727.20)

The late event of the day was Event #21, a $300 + $22 6-handed Razz event hosted by Nick Schulman. The 493 people who decided they wanted to spend their Friday night playing short-handed Razz were not enough to meet the $150,000 guarantee and Full Tilt had to throw in an overlay of $3,100. The Red Pros had an exceptional showing, with Chris Ferguson (47th), Thomas Bihl (45th), Luis Velador (17th) and “Miami” John Cernuto (11th) all making it to the money. Other notable finishes include “rumprammer” (51st), Dan “imabigkidnow” Kelly (39th) and Yuval “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (19th).

With the elimination of Frank “Gator93″ Hernandez in 6th place and the bets getting astronomically big, the final five players decided to make a deal based on chip counts that guaranteed at least $16,655.09 to all of them, with the biggest payout going to 4th place finisher, “Moleon,” who netted $19,240.48. Runner-up “fulltiltok” got the next biggest sum, while the event’s champion, “BaDnEws216” had the third largest payout of the night with $18,060.17.

Here are the complete results from Event #21:

1st: BaDnEws216 ($18,060.17)
2nd: fulltiltok ($19,217.17)
3rd: NES_Pro ($17,277.00)
4th: Moleon ($19,240.48)
5th: Sensor ($16,655.09)
6th: Frank “Gator93″ Hernandez ($5,400)

Comment

There is probably some sort of etiquette violation in a host winning their own poker tournament, but we’ll forgive Greg “FBT” Mueller this time around. The Canadian Red Pro was both the host and the winner of FTOPS Event #19, a $200 + $16 buy-in 6-handed Limit Hold’em event. Mueller seems to win every Limit Hold’em event he participates in these days (both of Mueller’s 2009 WSOP bracelets were in LHE events), so it had to be expected that he could pull out another big showing last night.

Mueller would have to deal with some stiff competition though, including online poker regular James “POKERPR0″ Campbell and “OmadJoped,” who recently claimed their first FTOPS jersey with a win in the $1,000 6-handed No Limit Hold’em event. Omad Joped was the second player going for their second FTOPS XIV win Thursday. Event #16 winner “bd3109” made another deep run in Event #18, but fell just short of win #2, finishing in 2nd place. OmadJoped had a chance to best that finish with a victory in Event #19, but they had to deal with what was arguably the least enviable seat at the final table with both Campbell and Mueller sitting to their left:

Seat 1: OmadJoped (277,496)
Seat 2: James “POKERPR0″ Campbell (652,835)
Seat 3: Greg “FBT” Mueller (780,911)
Seat 4: Vito Roma (788,068)
Seat 5: Sect6G (639,264)
Seat 6: SENORSCOOP (241,425)

Betting limits were up to 12,000/24,000 by the time the final six were set and the bigger stacks quickly set to wrok trying to grind down the two short stacks at the table, like “SENORSCOOP” and “OmadJoped.” “Vito Roma” became the first player to cross the million chip mark after a blind vs blind confrontation against “Sect6G.” Vito Roma raised from the small blind, Sect6G called form the big blind and the duo saw the flop fall 544. Vito Roma bet, Sect6G raised, Vito Roma 3-bet and Sect6G called. Vito Roma fired again when the J came on the and Sect6G once again called. The river brought the T, completing the flush draw and Vito Roma led out a third time. Sect6G raised, Vito Roma quickly reraised and Seat6G called, tabling 29 for a flush. Vito Roma revealed AQ for the nut flush and scooped the more than 300,000 chip pot.

Mueller quickly caught up with Vito Roma thanks to a hand in which he flopped a set of nines against Sect6G’s AK and Sect6G made top pair on the turn. Mueller scooped the nearly 350,000 chip pot and Sext6G’s stack slipped even further, dropping under 300,000. SENORSCOOP was also headed in the wrong direction and found themselves with just 78,000 chips left when they picked up KJ in the big blind. “POKERPR0” raised in middle position and SENORSCOOP called from the big blind. SENORSCOOP check-called a bet from POKERPR0 on the JT6 flop and the two got it all-in after the 5 fell on the turn. POKERPR0 showed A5 for bottom pair and the nut flush draw. The 5 on the river made trips for POKERPR0 and SENORSCOOP was out in 6th place.

OmadJoped would have to settle for a 5th place finish at their second FTOPS XIV final table. After a series of pots in which OmadJoped had second best or was forced to fold, they were down to their last 120,000. They raised from middle position, Vito Roma called from the big blind and the two proceeded to get it all-in on the 994 flop with OmadJoped holding AK to Vito Roma’s 4T. The pair of fours held and OmadJoped was eliminated.

While those players were busting out, Sect6G rebuilt their stack after those early hits, only to have nearly 300,000 of it shipped to Mueller when theit AK ran into his KK on a king high board. The backslide continued for Sect6G who was down to 150,000 or so when they raised from the button and Mueller called from the big blind. Mueller checked the T55 flop and Sect6G bet out. Mueller check-raised and the two got into a post-flop war of aggression that saw all of the chips go in the middle of the pot. Sect6G held AK, which was trailing Mueller’s T9 for top pair. The turn and river came 3 then J and Sect6G was out in 4th place.

Mueller would pick up even more chips courtesy of a straight flush. Vito Roma limped from the button and Mueller checked his option in the big blind. The two saw the flop fall T86 and both players checked. The 5 on the turn prompted Mueller to check, Vito roma to bet and Mueller to check raise. Vito Roma then put in another raise and Mueller called. The river came 9 and Mueller led out. Vito Roma raised, Mueller reriased and Vita Roma called off the last of their chips. Mueller showed 78 for the straight flush and Vito Roma mucked their cards and made their exit in 3rd place.

There would be no chop talk for the final two known pros, but there would be a lengthy 75-hand battle. The two exchanged chips in a few small pots until an ill-timed bluff by POKERPR0 on a KQTJ board got picked off by Mueller, who turned the Broadway straight. That 660,000 chip pot gave Mueller a nearly 2-1 chip lead that he would never relinquish. POKERPR0 pulled within striking distance of his opponent a couple of times, but a big pot in which he missed a big draw would leave him short on chips. POKERPR0 invested more than half his stack in a hand in which he flopped an open-ended straight draw with 45 on a [Q]s76 board and picked up a tiny flush draw when the 2 fell on the turn. He tried to bluff the river, but Mueller picked it off once again, calling with 79 for third pair.

Another hand in which Mueller scooped 880,000 chips after flopping two pair had POKERPR0 down to his last 70,000. He was able to double through Mueller twice to get back up over 300,000, but the third time would not be the charm, as he ran his A5 into Mueller’s 66. POKERPR0 flopped a gutshot on the T42 board, but the turn and river brought no help for him and he would have to settle for second place. Meanwhile, Mueller racked up yet another big Limit Hold’em win worth $36,801.50.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #19:

1st: Greg “FBT” Mueller ($36,801.50)
2nd: James “POKERPR0″ Campbell ($23,660.00)
3rd: Vito Roma ($16,900.00)
4th: Sect6G ($12,844.00)
5th: OmadJoped ($9,126.00)
6th: SENORSCOOP ($5,830.50)

Comment

Every time a new form of specialty tournament hits the online poker scene, players debate what the ideal strategic approach to the new game is. Players have tactics for Matrix tournaments that differ for Double or Nothing events. Most poker regulars would never approach a Super Turbo the way they would a Sit-N-Go with a regular blind structure.

The new cashout tournaments have not been around Full Tilt very long, but many players have already concluded that it is never optimal to cashout chips in exchange for cash rather than going for the big win. Part of their argument stems from the fact that if you make the final table (or survive to the end of the predetermined cashout period), you are going to be given the cash value of your chips anyways and won’t have to cash them in.

Five of the nine players at the final table of FTOPS #18, a $200 + $16 Cashout tournament, earned more from the cashout prize pool than the regular prize pool and, though some of the payouts may have looked meager, when you factored in the cash value of their stack (roughly $.02 a chip), they actually made double and triple the money listed on the payout.

Prior to the final table, only $40,000 of the $184,000 cashout prize pool had been redeemed. The vast majority of the 1,844 players elected not to cashout and had their sites set on the final table. Some of the players who had the final nine in sight, but fell just short included BLUFF Online Player of the Year contender Michael “4everunknown” Rocco (34th), Daniel “WiLDmAn75″ Buzgon (33rd), Jason “BUBBLESftt” Gray (29th) and Pat “TorontoToro” Pezzin (20th). Though these players did not survive to receive a cash payout on their chips, these nine players did and were still in contention for the jersey once the final table was set:

Seat 1: Michael “m_hawk_1″ Hawkins (1,037,601)
Seat 2: bd3109 (1,599,055)
Seat 3: Sean “Insky_Bros” Gibson (203,713)
Seat 4: Zachary “HustlerGrune” Gruneberg (595,754)
Seat 5: fnnwizard (311,596)
Seat 6: Joe “MarleyGroup” Urgo (870,049)
Seat 7: Nesby (135,812)
Seat 8: Hyperbaric (135,572)
Seat 9: Ivan “MagicGog” Bakay (2,204,075)

Play at the final table began with blinds at 12,000/24,000 ante 3,000, which meant four of the players were starting to run very low on chips. “Hyperbaric” was the first short stack to make a move to increase their chips, shoving all-in under the gun with A9 and getting called by “fnnwizard,” who held pocket kings. An ace on the flop was all Hyperbaric needed to double up to a workable, but still low 300,000. Sean “Insky_Bros” Gibson would double up next, taking chips off Zachary “HustlerGrune” Gruneberg when he picked up JJ to HustlerGrune’s 99. “Nesby” tried their hand to double up immediately after that, but fell short when Igor “MagicGog” Bakay’s Q8 ran out a straight against Nesby’s K9 and Nesby was out in 9th place.

Fnnwizard would follow in 8th in a hand that felt a little like déjà vu. Shortly after Hyperbaric cracked fnnwizard’s kings with A9, fnnwizard picked up A9 only to run it into MagicGog’s KK. It looked as though fnnwizard would get their just desserts as the flop came AT3 andthey picked up a third ace, the A, on the turn. However, the river 8 made a flush for MagicGog to take the pot and trim the field to seven.

MagicGog would be responsible for the next elimination as well, knocking out Hyperbaric when they shoved from the small blind with Q8, MagicGog called with KT and flopped the nuts on the AQJ board. No backdoor draws came for Hyperbaric and they were out in 6th.

At this point, the other players had to pause and marvel at MagicGog’s run and, more impressively, the amount of cashout money he earned for his 2.2 million chip stack at the start of the final table:

bd3109: did u cash out more than 1st place earlier majic?
m_hawk_1: he def did
MagicGog: 44K
bd3109: heh, vn, stressful FT bubble there

With the huge pay jump between 10th and 9th created by the cashout prize pool, “bd3109” had a point that the bubble was higher stress than usual, but at least bd3109 could take solace in the fact that this is their second final table of FTOPS XIV. They took down Event #16 just one day prior and were going for their second jersey here. Bd3109 picked up some chips to achieve that goal when they limped from the small blind, HustlerGrune raised out of the big blind and bd3109 shoved all-in having Hustler Grune easily covered. HustlerGrune called with Q8, while bd3109 showed 45. Bd3109 paired their five on the T53 flop and made trips with the 5 on the turn to leave HustlerGrune drawing dead and out in 5th place.

Joe “MarleyGroup” Urgo was the next to fall, losing a coin flip with 66 to Michael “m_hawk_1″ Hawkins’ AK. The big pot gave m_hawk_1 the more than 2-1 chip advantage headed into 3-handed play, but he gave up nearly 800,000 chips after doubling up MagicGog. M_hawk_1 held QQ to MagicGog’s A5, but MagicGog was able to spike an ace on the flop to stave off elimination and double up.

MagicGog’s small ace would not work out as well the next time around though. M_hawk_1 raised from the button, bd3109 called from the small blind and MagicGog moved all-in from the big with A4. M_hawk_1 folded, but bd3109 looked his opponent up with 33. The 763 flop gave bd3109 a set and left MagicGog praying for a five to make a straight. The five did not come and MagicGog was out in 3rd place.

It only took a dozen hands or so for bd3109 to lose the chip lead and put the two stacks back at even, so the players paused play briefly to work out a deal that essentially chopped the remaining money in the prize pool in half with around $30,000 going to each. After the deal was made, m_hawk_1 picked up several pots and momentum in the match and it was not too long before the last of bd3109’s chips went in with him holding JJ to m_hawk_1’s AQ. The board ran out AK29T to pair m_hawk_1’s ace and give them the pot and the jersey. Bd3109 has to proud of their performance though, as they now have two top two finishes on the series.

Here are the results from the final table of Event #18 as well as the minimum each player got from the cashout prize pool:

1st: Michael “m_hawk_1″ Hawkins ($32,793.63 + $20,753.02 cashout)
2nd: bd3109 ($30,271.17 + $31,981.10 cashout)
3rd: Igor “MagicGog” Bakay ($18,624.40 + $44,081.5 cashout)
4th: Joe “MarleyGroup” Urgo ($14,567.60 + $17,400.98 cashout)
5th: Zachary “HustlerGrune” Gruneberg ($10,879.60 + $11,915.08 cashout)
6th: Sean “Insky_Bros” Gibson ($7,560.40 + $4,074.26 cashout)
7th: Hyperbaric ($4,610.00 + $2,711.44 cashout)
8th: fnnwizard ($3,134.80 + $6,231.92 cashout)
9th: Nesby ($2,212.80 + $2,716.54 cashout)

Comment

The high stakes railbirds must be wondering if “Isildur1” really does have, “one ring to rule them all,” as he continues to work some magic in his high stakes No Limit Hold’em sessions against Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Isildur1 (whose name comes from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy) handed Dwan big losses on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, giving the unidentified Swede a perfect 4 for 4 in sessions against the online pro.

Dwan dropped nearly half a million dollars to Isildur1 on Tuesday and gave up another $700,000 last night, bringing the total amount of durrrr’s losses to Isiludr1 to around $2.9 million on the week. Thankfully for durrrr, winning session against Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and others have buoyed his losses to Isildur1 and, as a result, Dwan is down $2.6 million overall since Friday.

On Tuesday it appeared as though durrrr was going to recoup some of his losses plus some, as he had Isildur1 stuck as much as $1.7 million. The duo took a break midway through the action after Isildur1 rallied back to be down just $150,000 and a little break seemed to serve Isildur1 well, as he returned to erase his losses completely and book a win on the day against his formidable foe.

How exactly is durrrr dropping so much to this unidentified newcomer to the high stakes scene? Well, almost $700,000 of it can be explained by one of the biggest online poker pots in history. For those expecting some ridiculous bluff with 5 high, you’ll be disappointed to hear it was just a really, really expensive cooler. A series of raises led to all of the money going in preflop with durrrr holding AK to Isildur1’s AA. The T9898 board offered no help to durrrr and, just like that, Dwan was out $350,000.

Another $600,000+ pot on Tuesday involved more inauspicious starting hands. Durrrr raised to $3,000 preflop, Isildur1 made it $12,000 total and durrrr called. Isildur1 bet out $15,000 on the K76 flop and Dwan came along for the turn. The turn brought the 4 and Isildur1 bet around $34,000. Dwan raised all-in for almost $280,000 total and Isildur1 called with 57 for a pair, an open-ended straight draw and a spade flush draw. Dwan had a very similar holding, showing 36 for a pair, a gutshot and a smaller flush draw. The river brought the T and Isildur1 nabbed over $610,000 with just a pair of sevens.

Wednesday’s session brought more of the same for Dwan. In one of the biggest pots of the session, durrrr raised preflop, Isildur1 reraised and durrrr called. Both players check the 775 flop and Isildur1 checked again when the J came on the turn. Dwan fired $17,400, Isildur1 reraised to almost $65,000 and Dwan moved all-in for $176,000 total with AJ and Isildur1 called, showing 7T for trip sevens. Dwan would neat to catch a jack or a heart and, when neither fell on the river, the nearly $385,000 pot went to Isildur1.

Dwan is in Vegas filming “High Stakes Poker” for the next day or two, but he told Isildur1 he would see him on the felt again soon. Whether durrrr is motivated or just masochistic remains to be seen, but it seems as though the heads-up bouts between these two will continue until one is completely busto.

2 Comments

Once again, the evening short-handed event brought out the best of the best, who all ponied up at least $300 + $22 to play in FTOPS Event #17, a 6-handed No Limit Hold’em event with rebuys and add-ons. Plenty of the 1,080 entrants put up more than just $300 to play, as the tournament racked up 1,837 rebuys and 733 add-ons to boost the prize pool past its guarantee to a total of $1,095,000.

Some of the players who made deep runs in the lucrative event included Carter “ckingusc” King (28th), Travis “TravestyFund” Rice (25th), John “BlackFours” May (20th), Scott “mastrblastr” Seiver (19th), Carter “bdybldngpkrplyr” Phillips (17th), Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis (16th), Ravi “govshark2″ Raghaven (13th). The event’s host, Isaac Baron, had the best showing of the Red Pros with a 64th place finish.

The final table featured more than one recognizable screenname. Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania, Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo, high stakes cash game player “MicahJ” and recent runner-up in FTOPS XIV Event #14, “rumprammer,” all survived the tough competition to make the final table:

Seat 1: ambiguousity (890,578)
Seat 2: Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania (579,406)
Seat 3: gametime1111 (1,923,006)
Seat 4: MicahJ (403,656)
Seat 5: rumprammer (229,415)
Seat 6: Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo (1,818,439)

Thanks to a particularly long stretch of hand-for-hand play, the blinds were starting to catch up to the players once the final table was set. The top six were playing the 12,000/24,0000 ante 3,000 blind level at the start of the final table, which meant rumprammer needed to double up in the very near future in order to have a shot at the jersey.

They did just that, reraising all-in over the top of gametime1111’s button raise from the big blind. Gametime1111 called with J5, which was at least live against rumprammer’s A8. The ace high would hold as the board ran out KT93K and rumprammer doubled up. It would be MicahJ’s turn to double up next when they raised from the cutoff and ambiguosity reraised all-in from the big blind with 68. MicahJ called with 77 and easily faded an eight to double up as well.

Chicagocards1 was faring less well in his hands that got to showdown. After dropping a couple of pots to ambiguosity, chicagocards1 would lose the bulk of his stack when ambiguosity shoved all-in from the small blind for just over 300,000 with Q7. Chicagocards1 called from the big blind with A9 and went in with the best of it only to come out with the worst of it as the board ran out J8372 to pair ambiguosity’s seven and leave chicagocards1 with less than 100,000 chips. He doubled through driverseati the very next hand, but was still at a precariously low 280,000.

Chicagocards1 would not be the first player eliminated though. That honor would go to rumprammer, whose AQ fell to gametime1111’s A7 after all the chips went in preflop to send them to the rail in 6th place. Chicagocards1 would be out next thanks to another unlucky hand involving A-9. Driverseati raised from the button, chicagocards1 moved all-in with A9 and driverseati called with A8. The 853 flop gave driverseati the advantage and when the turn and river failed to bring a 9, chicagocards1 was out in 5th.

The chips driverseati won off chicagocards1 would end up in MicahJ’s stack shortly thereafter when MicahJ’s A6 held up against driverseati’s K9 to double up. That hand helped push MicahJ up to 650,000, which was decent shape considering the blinds were at 14,000/28,000 ante3,800. A button versus blind hand would spell the end for MicahJ not too long after their double up though. Gametime1111 raised from the button and MicahJ made it 225,000 to go from the small blind. Gametime1111 shoved all-in and MicahJ called with 33. The small pocket pair was racing against gametime1111’s AK. The board ran out A77KT and MicahJ was eliminated in 4th place.

With MicahJ’s elimination, the final three were all playing more than 1.4 million chips deep, which translated to more than 40 big blinds apiece. The trio took advantage of the deep stacks, clashing in several small pots post flop instead of all-in preflop showdowns. That is, until driverseati picked up A9 on the button and raised and ambiguosity reraised from the small blind. Driverseati moved all-in over the top of the aggressive ambiguosity, who quickly called with KK. Driverseati’s A9 was in trouble and the 642 flop did not help him at all, nor did the 6 on the turn and the Q on the river, so driverseati was left with just under 500,000 chips while ambiguosity took a substantial chip lead with more than 3.2 million chips.

Driverseati would double up through ambiguosity to get back over a million, but ambiguosity would win that back plus some when driverseati picked up A9 on the button a second time only to run into ambiguosity’s AQ. The superior ace held, driverseati was out in 3rd and ambiguosity held a 700,000 chip lead over gametime1111 headed into heads-up play. Before the two tangled mano a mano for too long, they agreed to a deal which gave ambiguosity $189,211.50 and gave gametime1111 $181,301.00 with an additional $10,000 set aside for the winner.

Ambiguosity chipped away at gametime1111 to up their stack to nearly 4 million, but a crucial coin flip in which ambiguosity’s TT lost out to gametime1111’s AK gave gametime1111 the chip lead. Ambiguosity would grind their wy right back up to the chip lead, but saw their progress shattered a second time when their KQ could not catch up to gametime1111’s A8 after all the chips went in preflop.

The match would end just two hands later with one last coinflip as ambiguosity raced off the last of their chips holding 22 to gametime1111’s A6. The board ran out A5545 to make fives full of aces for gametime1111, which was enough to win the pot and the match.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #17:

1st: gametime1111 ($191,301.00)
2nd: ambiguosity ($189,211.50)
3rd: Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo ($108,405.00)
4th: MicahJ ($81,030.00)
5th: Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania ($58,035.00)
6th: rumprammer ($37,230.00)

The prize pool of the early FTOPS event of the day paled in comparison to Event #17 but the $240 +$16 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event did draw a sizeable field of 1,349 and have almost $270,000 in prize money on the line. The action just breezed by and the tournament went from start to finish in less than seven hours.

Two of Full Tilt’s own were able to keep up with the pace until the late stages of the game. Hendon Mob member Ross Boatman got to 39th place before heading for the rail while his fellow Red Pro Sigi Stockinger finished in 22nd. Other noteworthy finishes in the tournament include David “DumbHick” Hickman (40th) and Brent “Broberts85″ Roberts (21st).

Once play got down to the final four at the final table, play was paused to discuss a deal. The quartet divvied up the remaining prize money based on chips, which meant each player took home between $32,900 and $39,500—not a bad payday for seven hours work. In the end it would be the short stack of 4-handed play, bd3109, who took the extra couple grand set aside for the winner as well as their first FTOPS gold jersey.  However, the biggest payout went to Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron, who held the chip lead at the time of the chop.  For his second place finish, he took home just shy of $40,000.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #16:

1st: bd3109 ($35,036.41)
2nd: Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron ($39,538.75)
3rd: Hudzzzzz ($32,962.70)
4th: bigpimpin777 ($38,828.64)
5th: icecreamboy ($16,538.74)
6th: charly3005 ($12,141.00)
7th: roo_400 ($7,824.20 )
8th: JollyJoker1971 ($5,665.80)
9th: acehole60 ($4,047.00)

Comment

We all know poker is a game of skill, but sometimes it is just kinda fun to sit back, relax and shove all your chips in preflop without much thought, hence the popularity of FTOPS Event #15, a $200+$16 buy-in Turbo No Limit Hold’em event. The tournament drew more than 2,800 runners, generated a prize pool of $564,800 and got all the way down to a winner after just 3 hours and 25 minutes.

Somewhere out there Christian “charder30″ Harder must be nodding his head proudly and maybe busting out a slow clap in honor of a player who so openly adores the young online pro that they’ve adopted the moniker “charder30fanobv.” That player, Don Boivon, vaulted to the top of the chip counts with less than 100 players to go and outlasted the likes of Shawn “buck99″ Buchanan (31st), “Black9ines” (21st), Kevin “Wu_Wizard” MacPhee (18th) and Mario ”Pwnasaurus” Silvestri (11th) to make it through to the final table and go on to win his first FTOPS gold jersey:

Seat 1: overbe777 (301,265)
Seat 2: brin1285 (1,186,754)
Seat 3: DE KID (322,678)
Seat 4: skinjiimi (457,592)
Seat 5: bobboufl11 (947,955)
Seat 6: FresnoDull (1,443,115)
Seat 7: Don “charder30fanobv” Boivon (117,380)
Seat 8: Big Bear Hills (111,106)
Seat 9: fan4mizzou (751,155)

You know you’re playing a turbo when the biggest stack at the final table has 23 big blinds (blinds were up to 20,000/40,000 at the start of the final table). You also know because the guy who started the final table with 3 big blinds can double up a million times and win the whole thing. Prior to the final table, the all-ins were coming fast and furious and nothing changed once the field was down to nine. We’ll take you through the biggest double ups and eliminations, just do your best to keep up:

Charder30fanobv hit the first of several double ups on the 4th hand of play when his J9 ran out a flush against “bobbouffl11.” Bobouffl11 would get those chips back plus some when their AT bested the pocket nines of chip leader “Fresno Dull.” That double up gave bobouffl11 over a million chips and the title of chip leader, but they were hungry for more and busted out “overbe777” in 9th place on the very next hand with AK to overbe777’s KQ to pick up another 250,000 chips.

One of the most anticlamctic all-ins of the night came during a 3-handed pot where bobbouffl11’s AQ and charder30fanobv’s A9 faced off against the A6 of “Big Bear Hill.” A double elimination looked imminent since bobbouffl11 had both the biggest stack and the best hand, but the card gods had other plans in mind…like quads on the board so that everyone’s ace played and the biggest pot of the final table saw all the chips returned to their rightful owners.

That pot was followed up by another 3-way all-in, this time with “DE KID” holding AQ to Big Bear Hills’ 46 and they were both covered by “fan4mizzou” and their 46. Amazingly, the best hand held once again, so DE KID tripled up while Big Bear Hills was out in 8th. Fresno Dull’s demise in 7th came first at the hands of fan4mizzou who bested FresnoDull with A7 to FresnoDull’s K5. FresnoDull then lost even more with pocket tens to DE KID’s J9. The final straw came when their J7 couldn’t crack fan4mizzou’s AT, so they were gone in 7th.

Despite successfully doubling up twice, DE KID would be the 6th place finisher when their K8 had the misfortune of butting heads with bobbouffl11’s A8. Where DE KID failed, charder30fanobv succeeded, doubling up for the third time when his 58 made a straight against bobbouffl11’s AQ.

Aces were no good to “brin1285” as they doubled up fan4mizzou and their Q9. To add insult to injury brin1285 couldn’t crack fan4mizzou’s pocket queens with K3 on the subsequent hand and they had to settle for 5th place as a result. Fan4mizzou’s hot streak was quickly nipped in the bud by charder30fanobv, who finally crossed the million-chip mark at the 50,000/100,000 ante 10,000 level when his 78 made trip eights against fan4mizzou’s J7. A few hands later fan4mizzou would be out in 4th after their K5 flopped top pair against skinjiimi’s A6 only to have “skinjiimi” hit an ace on the river to make a better pair.

That hand gave skinjiimi the chip lead, but they spread the wealth around when their A8 lost to charder30fanobv’s KT. Charder30fanobv then picked up their own A[8h and wrangled the rest of bobboufl11's chips when bobboufll picked up K2. Charder30fanobv paired his ace to win the pot and, after just 86 hands, play was down to the final two.

It took a whopping five hands to play heads-up as a short-stacked skinjiimi shoved 89 from the button when charder30fanobv had AJ. The Q327K board benefited neither player, so charder30fanobv took it down with ace high to claim their jersey and the entirety of the $114,654.40 first place prize. The fast-paced action must have been too busy to keep up with since more than one player suggested divvying up the money, but the top two elected to play the event out even though more than $180,000 was on the line.

Here are the complete results of the final table of Event #15

1st: Don “charder30fanobv” Boivon ($114,654.40)
2nd: skinjiimi ($73,988.80)
3rd: bobbouffl11 ($54,785.60)
4th: fan4mizzou ($41,230.40)
5th: brin1285 ($28,804.80)
6th: DE KID ($19,203.20)
7th: FresnoDull ($14,990.40)
8th: Big Bear Hills ($9,036.80)
9th: overbe777($,6777.60)

Comment

Looks like Julian Gardner’s runner-up finish in Event #11 inspired his fellow Red Pros to get some work done Tuesday night. Events #13 and #14 each saw big name Red Pros not only reach the final table, but make it down to heads-up play. One would prevail and win themselves the coveted jersey, while the other would rack up the second 2nd place finish for the sponsored pros this series.

Event #13, a $300 + $22 buy-in 6-handed and deep stacked No Limit Hold’em Shootout event, kicked off the day’s FTOPS festivities and the masses don’t appear to be growing bored with the large number of 6-handed events at all just yet. Just over 1,000 people signed up to participate and the event just squeaked by its $300,000 guarantee with a total prize pool of $302,700.

Like the heads-up shootout before it, this event moved remarkably fast and it wasn’t long at all befor the second and then third and final round was in the books. Several big names advanced out of Round #1 only to falter in Round #2 including top ranked online player Ronald “ronaldgrauer” Grauer (31st), Austin “The quietwinner” McCormick (28th), Christian “da_professional” Iacobellis (24th), Scott “stpauli111″ Hall (18th), Daniel “WiLDmAn75″ Buzgon (15th), Matt “mlagoo” LaGarde (14th) and inhidonks (10th). Those players may have just missed out, but these six, headlined by Steve Zolotow, racked up two wins in order to advance to the final table:

Seat 1: MSUsWorst
Seat 2: endzeit
Seat 3: Steve Zolotow
Seat 4: Abdullah Ochalan
Seat 5: CTAPblU KA3EJI
Seat 6: aiMfoRtheEheAd

With “aiMfoRtheEheAd’s” elimination in 6th place, the final table turned into a case of the haves and have nots; the haves being “Abdullah Ochalan” and Zolotow, who held 1.2 million and 750,000 chips respectively, and the have nots being “MSUsWorst,” “endzeit,” and ” CTAPblU KA3EJI,” who all had less than 500,000. With the blinds still at a relatively low 4,000/8,000 ante 1,000 though, there was still plenty of room for the short stacks to maneuver.

MSUsWorst picked up even more wiggle room when they got it all-in on a T83 flop holding KK to Abdullah Ochalan’s KT to double up. That hit would look like but a flesh wound to Abdullah Ochalan after the hit they would take against Zolotow though. Zolotow limped in late position and Abdullah Ochalan raised from the button. Zolotow called and the two players saw a flop of J94. Zolotow checked, Abdullah Ochalan bet 2/3 of the pot and Zolotow check raised all-in for almost 650,000 total. Abdullah Ochalan called the additional 450,000 or so with KJ for top pair. Zolotow’s A5 could win with any diamond and he picked up even more outs with the 3 on the turn. The 2 river did not make Zolotow a flush, but it did give him the wheel to take the pot, double up and leave Abdullah Ochalan with just over 300,000 chips.

It didn’t take long for Abdullah Ochalan to get those chips back though, doubling through Zolotow after getting it all-in on a 982 flop with A9 to Zolotow’s Q9. The clash of the two big stacked titans did not end there tough. A blind versus blind confrontation saw the two players get it all-in for a 1.3 million chip pot after the flop came 842. Zolotow had overs and a flush draw with his QT while Abdullah Ochalan flopped two pair with 48. Things did not look good for Abdullah Ochalan when the J turn made Zolotow his flush, but the river 4 would make Abdullah Ochalan a boat and ship them the pot and the chip lead.

That hand left Zolotow short on chips, but he reloaded courtesy of CTAPblU KA3EJI when they ran their pocket jacks into Zolotw’s pocket kings to bust out in 5th place. With four players remaining, the blinds were up to 10,000/20,000 ante 2,500 and endzeit and MSUsWorst were starting to get extremely short on chips. MSUsWorst took their stand when they shoved their last 125,000 all-in from under the gun with 44 and Abdullah Ochalan called with Q8. The board ran out J828K to give Abdullah Ochalan trip eights to take the pot and eliminate MSUsWorst in 4th place.

Endzeit would make their exit just a few hands later when they shoved all-in with 79 from the small blind and Zolotow called with A4 from the big. The board ran out AQQTJ to make aces up for Zolotow and endzeit was out in 3rd.

Abdullah Ochalan offered to look at numbers with Zolotow, but the pro declined despite being at a 2-1 chip disadvantage. Zolotow would have to win a flip in order to double up to the chip lead and he was content to call Abdullar Ochalan’s all-in shove holding 99. Zolotow’s opponent showed AT and it was off to the races. The K72 flop was good to Stevie Z, as was the 3 on the turn. The river A brought one of the six cards Zolotow needed to fade though and he would have to settle for second place.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #13:

1st: Abdullah Ochalan ($54,486.00)
2nd: Steve Zolotow ($34,810.50)
3rd: endzeit ($22,702.50)
4th: MSUsWorst ($15,740.40)
5th: CTAPblU KA3EJI ($10,594.50)
6th: aiMfoRtheEheAd ($7,264.80)

Zolotow may have fallen just short of the big win, but David Pham was able to pull one out for the Red Pros with a victory in Event #14, a $300 buy-in HORSE event. A smallish field of only 552 players meant there would be an overlay in order to make the $300,000 guaranteed prize pool, but what the field lacked in size it certainly made up for in star power. The final five tables was chocked full of live and internet pros a like and read more like a World Poker Tour seating chart than an online poker event.

Pat “TorontoToro” Pezzin (31st), Marco Traniello (29th), Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (28th), Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (19th), Brandon Adams (17th), Evan “NEONPILS99″ Parkes (15th), Josh “brikdog24″ Brikis (13th) and Justin Smith (11th) fell just short of the stacked final table, which featured the likes of WSOP HORSE bracelet winner Zac “Zacpacker” Fellows, David Pham, Nick “Grippolio” Grippo and Bradley “FatsoFat6969″ Craig:

Seat 1: Smokinokun (319,755)
Seat 2: Bradley “FatsoFat6969″ Craig (52,001)
Seat 3: Nick “Gripploio” Grippo (487,359)
Seat 4: rumprammer (260,234)
Seat 5: Zac “Zacpacker” Fellows (217,571)
Seat 6: nuttynutt (107,840)
Seat 7: David Pham (509,568)
Seat 8: POCKET FIVE (253,672)

The player known as “nuttynutt” hardly got their seat warm before they made their exit from the event in 8th place on the first hand of final table play. Left with just 100,000 chips, nuttynutt called Zacpacker’s completion bet with a 9 showing to Zacpacker’s 5. Zacpacker bet 4th street after catching a 2 and nuttynutt called when they picked up the 6. The last of nuttynutt’s took control of the hand on fifth street after Zacpacker was dealt a Q compared to nuttynutt’s 3 and bet out. Zacpacker called and regained the advantage in the hand when he hit the A and nuttynutt was dealt a second nine, the 9. Zacpacker bet again on 7th, putting nuttynutt all-in. Nuttynutt called and subsequently mucked when Zacpacker showed his A-2-3-5-7 low. That pot pushed Zacpacker up the chip counts and eliminated nuttynutt in 8th place.

Razz would be good to Zacpacker, as he would go on to knock out FatsoFat6969 in 7th place and collect a nice side pot from “POCKET FIVE” when he madea 3-5-6-7-10 low. Thos ebig hands propelled him to a virtual tie for the chip lead with Pham as both players had just over half a million chips. A big hand in which “Smokinokun” made an eight low against Grippolio, who had a pair of queens showing on 6th street, doubled them up to within striking distance of the two chip leaders, while dropped from 3rd in chips to 5th in chips.

Grippolio’s backslide continued into the Stud Hi round when their buried jacks failed to hold up against POCKET FIVE’s split tens. The very next hand, Grippolio picked up another buried pair, this time pocket kings, but lost the all-in pot on 7th when his opponent, Smokinokun, rivered queens and nines to take the pot and bust Grippolio in 6th place.

David Pham spent the early goings of the final table picking up small pots without showdown to maintain his chip stack, but once the game got to Stud H/L he became involved in a couple of sizeable pots. He too a 425,000 chip pot off POCKET FIVES when Pham made aces and nines while POCKET FIVES whiffed their low draw. Down to their last 116,000, POCKETFIVES got it all-in the very next hand once the game changed to Limit Hold’em. Their chips went all-in preflop against Smokinokun and, appropriately, POCKET FIVE’s pocket fives were way ahead of Smokinokun’s 44. A four on the flop would give Smokinokun the best hand though, and when no five came on the turn or river, POCKET FIVE was eliminated in 5th place, giving them the rest of the evening to reconsider their online handle.

Once play got down to the final four, “rumprammer” became more active as well, winning a huge Omaha H/L hand off of Zacpacker after making the nut straight on the river in a 580,000 chip pot. Pham would go on to finish Zacpacker off, getting it all-in on a flop of J54 holding A437 to Zacpacker’s KT64. Zacpacker would take the advantage, hitting two pair with the 6 on the turn, but the 3 on the river made a straight for Pham and eliminated Zacpacker in 3rd place.

The top trio of players would tangle at the table for over 50 hands before losing Smokinokun in 3rd place. The game had cycled back to Razz and Pham rivered an 8-7-6-5-3 low to best Smokinokun’s made 9-7-6-4-2. Pham collected the more than 650,000 chips in the pot while Smokinokun made their exit in 3rd place.

Heads-up play would be an epic affair as Pham and rumprammer took a small ball approach with each other that prolonged play into the early hours of Wednesday. Shortly after 6AM ET, Pham put the tournament to bed in a Stud Hi hand. The Red Pro began with three to a flush, picked up a pair of sevens on 4th street and completed his flush on 6th while rumprammer could only muster a mere pair of deuces. The flush took the pot and the match and Pham picked up the first Red Pro jersey of FTOPS XIV along with more than $50,000 in prize money.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #14:

1st: David Pham ($69,570)
2nd: rumprammer ($45,750)
3rd: Smokinokun ($31,800)
4th: Zac “Zacpacker” Fellows ($20,400)
5th: POCKET FIVE ($12,600)
6th: Nick “Grippolio” Grippo ($8,700)
7th: Bradley “FatsoFat6969″ Craig ($6,600)
8th: nuttynutt ($4,5000)

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