Players came out with their guns blazing in Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Event #3, a $500 + $35 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Shootout Tournament. The event got underway at 9PM ET, but by 1:30AM the tournament had already breezed through the first two shootout rounds and the final table was set.

The 729-person field easily beat the $300,000 guarantee and set up a potential first place prize of $76,545. Several big names emerged victorious in Round 1, but all of the Red Pros, including tournament host Eric Liu, were eliminated during the first round. Blake “Balla-B13″ Cahail, Corey “Comandr_Cool” Burbick, Va Shon “Julian Verse” Watkins, Jose “papadelpoker” de la Guardia and Moutray “wmmcl” McLaren all won their first round tables, but came up just short of a victory in Round Two. Several recognizable names, most notably Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen did advance to the final nine, setting up a tough line-up vying for the jersey.  Ultimately, the top prize would go to “chrispeace,” but not before some fast-paced and often chaotic final table action with these other eight players:

Seat 1: Thomas “GNightMoon” Fuller
Seat 2: bastet2004
Seat 3: JonEeeWhite
Seat 4: Laurrra
Seat 5: chrispeace
Seat 6: MuckCMuckC
Seat 7: Shawn “buck99″ Buchanan
Seat 8: Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen
Seat 9: jt3013

THAY3R jumped out to the early lead, quickly building up a 400,000 chip stack compared to the 243,000 chip starting stack. “Bastet2004” caught up with THAY3R on the chip counts when Thomas “GnightMoon” Fuller raised in middle position, bastet2004 reraised and GnightMoon called. The flop came down 6 6 2 and GnightMoon check-called a bet from bastet2004. The two got it all-in when the 3 fell on the turn and GnightMoon showed AA. He quickly discovered he was way behind bastet2004’s 22 for deuces full and when he was unable to hit an ace or six on the river, GNightMoon was left with just 14,000 chips.

Thanks, in part, to a double up from THAY3R, GNightMoon managed to stay alive long enough to dodge being the 9th place finisher. That dubious honor went to “Laurrra” after their 88 ran into chrispeace’s QQ in an all-in preflop showdown. After Laurrra’s elimination, GnightMoon doubled up two more times to build his stack back up to 100K. While GNighMoon kept successfully doubling up, “jt3013” fared less well in their first all-in confrontation. Their 77 lost a flip against chrispeace to go out in 8th place while chrispeace crossed the half million chip threshold to take the chiplead away from THAY3R.

Shortly after that, GnightMoon’s luck ran out as he became the 7th place finisher after his K8 couldn’t hit an overcard against bastet2004’s 55. “MuckCMuckC” was right on his heels in 6th place when they shoved all-in in late position with KQ only to run into THAY3R’s AK. It took a while before the next player was knocked out, but as the blinds began to pick up, so did the action. First, Shawn “buck99″ Buchanan lost the bulk of his stack to THAY3R when his AK couldn’t spike an overcard on THAY3R’s pocket sevens, then he lost the remainder of his chips to “chrispeace” when his pocket sevens ran into chrispeace’s AA.

Buck99’s elimination in 5th place left THAY3R and chrispeace as the two big stacks while bastet2004 and “JonEeeWhite” were down to around 20 big blinds each. Those roles quickly changed when JonEeeWhite’s KQ out flopped THAY3R’s 88 to double up. The very next hand THAY3R regained the chip lead with a double up of his own through chrispeace, who was knocked down to 315,000 as a result of the hand. Chrispeace would rebound as well though when their KK held up against bastet2004’s TT to eliminate bastet2004 in 4th place.

The coin flips continued at a hurried pace and JonEeeWhite became the first player to cross the million chip mark when his 77 held against THAY3R’s AT in an all-in preflop showdown. Just a few hands later, JonEeeWhite would relinquish that chiplead to chrispeace when the two got it all-in with chrispeace showing AK to JonEeeWhite’s KJ. The J T 5 flop favored JonEeeWhite, but chrispeace hit a queen on the river to make a straight and scoop the pot.

JonEeeWhite would fare better with KJ a little later when he was able to turn a jack against THAY3R’s 99 to eliminate Rasmussen in 3rd place and pull within half a million chips of chrispeace heading into heads-up play.

It appeared as if the heads-up match would be a quick one when the two players got it all-in with JonEeeWhite holding A7 to chirspeace’s 77, but an ace on the flop not only spared JonEeeWhite from elimination, it gave them the chip lead. Chrispeace was not ready to throw in the towel though and he quickly doubled back up to the chip lead when he picked up pocket kings.

On the final hand of the tournament chrispeace raised from the button and JonEeeWhite called from the big blind. Both players checked the 8 4 3 flop and JonEeeWhite led out when the 9 came on the turn. A series of bets and raises on the turn resulted in both players getting it all-in with a pair of nines, but JonEeeWhite’s 10-kicker was no match for chrispeace’s Q9. The river Q only improved chrispeace’s hand and he scooped the pot, the title and the entirety of the $76,545 first place prize.

Here are the complete results from the final table of FTOPS Event #3:

1st: chrispeace ($76,545.00)
2nd: JonEeeWhite ($51,030.00)
3rd: Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen ($36,450.00)
4th: bastet2004 ($27,337.50)
5th: Shawn “buck99″ Buchanan ($20,047.50)
6th: MuckCMuckC($14,580.00)
7th: Thomas “GnightMoon” Fuller($10,206.00)
8th: jt3013 ($6,925.50)
9th: Laurrra ($4,920.75)

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