Friday’s Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) action kicked off with Event #4, a $200 + $16 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Cubed Event (with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on). Always a favorite amongst the multi-table tournament regulars, the event easily surpassed its $600,000 guarantee thanks to the 1,406 person field, 979 rebuys and 912 add-ons.

All told, there was $659,400 in prize money up for grabs with a nice six figure score for the tournament’s winner, Kiv56. Several recognizable names were vying for a spot at the final table, including Ram Vaswani, who had the best finish of any of the Full Tilt Red Pros with his 44th place showing. Tom “hitthehole” Middleton (41st), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (39th), Corey “Comandr_Cool” Burbick (37th), Chance “Chances Cards” Kornuth (20th) and Carter “cswidler” Swidler (13th) also had deep runs in the event. However, it would be the following nine players, headlined by former FTOPS jersey winner David “Doc Sands” Sands who would be the lucky ones to make it to the final table:

Seat 1: Kiv56 (2,592,822)
Seat 2: Ballzdeepx (322,022)
Seat 3: David “Doc Sands” Sands (584,590)
Seat 4: nomaddman (456,332)
Seat 5: GoCubsGo969 (372,475)
Seat 6: Cowboy3362 (160,344)
Seat 7: Michael “YrrsiN” Huber (617,214)
Seat 8: archwatcher (1,348,218)
Seat 9: Adam “ProbBluffingYou” Shuman (595,993)

With the blinds climbing to 12,000/24,000 ante 3,000, it took literally no time at all for the chips to start flying. Action got off to a fast start with Adam “ProbBluffingYou” Shuman doubling up “Ballzdeepx” with AK to Ballzdeepx’s JJ on the very first hand of final table play and it only took a few hands for Ballzdeepx to tangle in a big pot again. Ballzdeepx raised from middle position and “GoCubsGo969” called from the big blind. The flop fell AK6 and GoCubsGo969 shoved all-in for 300,000 or so with K9 for middle pair. Ballzdeepx called with A3 for a better pair, which held as the board ran out Q then 4 to eliminate GoCubsGo969 in 9th place.

The next big hand saw the two big stacks clash when “archwatcher” raised from middle position and “Kiv56” called from the big blind. The flop fell J73 and Kiv56 checked to archwatcher, archwatcher bet, Kiv56 check-raised and archwatcher put in a 4th bet to half a million chips total. Kiv56 called the reraise and checked when the 5 came on the turn. Archwatcher moved all-in for over 950,000 and Kiv 56 thought briefly before making a big call with Q7 for second pair. It was a great call, as Kiv56 was bluffing with KT for king high, but a T on the river brought archwatcher the better pair and they scooped the more than 3 million chip pot to double up to a substantial chip lead.

While the big stacks were clashing, “Cowboy3362″ was blinding away and down to their last 80,000 or so. Doc Sands put them all-in from the small button holding Q4 and Cowboy3362 called with A5. The board ran out QT28J and Sands eliminated Cowboy3362 in 8th place with his pair of queens. Next, Michael “YrrsiN” Huber made his exit in 7th place shortly thereafter when his KQ failed to get the best of archwatcher’s AQ.

Archwatcher continued to stay active and picked up another 800,000 or so when their pocket kings held up against the pocket jacks of “nomaddman” to knock them out in 6th place, pushing their chip count up to nearly 4 million—almost three times as much as their next closest competitor, Kiv56. The very next hand Kiv56 would retaliate though. Kiv56 opened for a raise with KQ and Doc Sands reraised all-in for his final half million chips. Kiv56 called and Doc Sands showed KT. There was no help for Doc Sands on the A96[KQ board, as neither player held a club in their hand, Kiv56’s two pair was enough to oust Doc Sands in 5th place.

A little later, Kiv56 would take a big bite out of archwatcher’s stack as well. The board once again brought out the clubs, running out T8473 and archwatcher made a half million chip bet on the river. Kiv56 raised to 1.2 million and archwatcher called, only to muck their hand when Kiv56 showed AQ for the nut flush.

That hand left archwatcher and Kiv56 neck and neck for the chip lead while ProbBluffingYou was struggling with a very short stack. He doubled up once when his A3 made a pair of threes against Kiv56’s A2, but would make his exit in 4th place soon after.  ProbBluffingYou got it all-in on a board of T975 holding KK to archwatcher’s QT. While he had the best hand when the money went in, the river 9 put a four flush on board once again to give archwatcher the queen-high flush and eliminate ProbBluffingYou.

Ballzdeepx would double up with pocket queens to Kiv56’s AJ, to draw within striking distance of the other two players and struck just a few hands later when their Q9 flopped two pair against Kiv56’s KQ on a Q93 board. The queens and nines would hold to give Ballzdeepx the pot and the chip lead, while Kiv56 would drop down to 870,000 chips.

Kiv56 would rally though, first doubling through Ballzdeepx with A8 to Ballzdeepx’s A5 and then picking up a monster pot against archwatcher with a full house. The two players bet and raised each other on every street as the board ran out K83Q2 and Kiv56 moved all-in for their last 350,000 on the river. Archwatcher called and mucked when Kiv56 showed pocket eights for a full house to rake the 2 million chip pot. The chips flew back and forth some more as archwatcher and Ballzdeepx got it all-in preflop with archwatcher’s tournament life on the line holding AJ to archwatcher’s A8. The superior ace would not hold, as archwatcher flopped an eight to double up and once again take hold of the chip lead.

A coin flip with pocket fours versus Kiv56’s AQ finished off Ballzdeepx a few hands later, setting up heads-up play between archwater and Kiv56. The two players were virtually dead even in chips, but it only took five hands or so before Kiv56 pulled out to a 4-3 chip lead. Down to 2.4 million, archwatcher decided to make a move preflop with JT and reraised all-in for their last 2.4 milion over the top of Kiv56’s opening raise. It was a case of bad timing as Kiv56 quickly called with KK, which held up as the board ran out QT623 and Kiv56 claimed the pot and the match.

It was an outright victory for Kiv56, who racked up a $141,771 first place prize as well as the coveted gold jersey. Meanwhile, archwatcher would take home $89,678.40 for their second place showing.

Here are the complete results from the final table of FTOPS XIV Event #4:

1st: Kiv56 ($141,771.00)
2nd: archwatcher ($89,678.40)
3rd: Ballzdeepx ($66,599.40)
4th: Adam “ProbBluffingYou” Shuman ($52,752.00)
5th: David “Doc Sands” Sands ($39,564.00)
6th: nomaddman ($28,354.20)
7th:Michael “YrrsiN” Huber ($18,463.20)
8th: Cowboys3362($13,188.00)
9th: GoCubsGo969 ($9,231.60)

Related posts:

1. Online Poker: Eight Players Score Six Figure Paydays Thanks To Sunday Major Chops Like a Ric Flair match from the 80s the Sunday...
2. FTOPS XIV Event #19: Mueller Defeats POKERPR0 There is probably some sort of etiquette violation in a...
3. FTOPS XIV Event #24: Little Chief17 Racks Up Big Win An impressive 9,832 runners took part in the penultimate event...
4. FTOPS XIV Event #7: “Toms2up” Soars Above the Competition For those players who didn’t get their fill of rebuys...
5. FTOPS XIV Event #6: An “Auspicious” Victory While the poker world’s attention has been rigidly fixed to...