FTOPS XIV Events #8 & #9: “willb77″ and “elheroe” Latest Winners

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FTOPS XIV Events #8 & #9: “willb77″ and “elheroe” Latest Winners

Jessica Welman | November 9, 2009

Most online poker players will tell you it is difficult enough to win one FTOPS event, let alone two or three. They will also probably tell you that the chances of winning the same event in multiple FTOPS are very slim. Yet, that is exactly what “elderhoe” did tonight in FTOPS XIV Event #8 , a $240+$16 buy-in 6-Handed No Limit Hold’em Knockout event. Elderhoe won the same event during FTOPS VIII and became the second player this series to pick up their second career jersey with a victory Sunday night. “Deception Pt” accomplished a similar feat after winning the Stud Hi/Lo event just a couple of days ago.

The tournament drew a large crowd of 4,639 and smashed the $800,000 guarantee with a prizepool of $927,800. A total of 492 players would walk away with a piece of that prize pool including Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (47th), Peter “Belebacsi” Traply (43rd), Full Tilt Red Pro Michael Tureniec (38th), Jonathan “ChasingIdiot” Wein (25th) and Steven “SteveyMoney” Merrifield (18th), who took no time off between busting out of the WPT Foxwoods event yesterday and putting in a Sunday online session.

The fast paced action of the short-handed event saw the field drop at break neck speed and it was still fairly early on the East Coast once the final table was set:

ftopsxiv8

Seat 1: lolli82 (3,887,530)
Seat 2: elheroe (4,800,786)
Seat 3: nirvanakc (5,391,457)
Seat 4: yeza (2,985,522)
Seat 5: Egitai (2,661,945)
Seat 6: LilPokerGirlie (3,467,760)

“Nirvanakc“came to the final table with the chip lead and immediately proceeded to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field. They quickly built up their chip stack to 8 million and nabbed even more when their AA bested “LilPokerGirlie,” who held [8c8s]. LilPokerGirlie was eliminated in 6th place and that hand propelled nirvanakc over 10 million chips, which was more than twice as many as their next closest competitor, “Egitai.”

That differential swelled to 3-1 thanks to another all-in preflop showdown. Nirvanakc raised to 260,000 in late position and “yeza” reraised all-in for their last 2 million from the button. Nirvanakc called with JJ, which had yeza’s A9 drawing to a single overcard. Yeza’s hand failed to improve as the board ran out J8747 and they were eliminated in 5th place.

Nirvanakc tried to rack up knockout #3 when they got it all-in holding AT to elheroe’s 44, but the small pair was able to hold to double elheroe up to over 3 million chips. Elheroe would effectively double up again shortly after that when “lolli82” raised from the button and elheroe moved all-in for 3 million from the small blind having lolli82 just barely covered. Lolli82 called and tabled JJ, which was racing with elheroe’s AK. The K86 flop gave the advantage to elheroe and the pair of kings held as the turn and river came 7 then 3 to eliminate lolli82 in 4th place and give elheroe the big pot.

Elheroe would pick up their second KO when elheroe raised from the button and Egitai called from the small blind. The AT5 flop prompted Egitai to check and elheroe moved all-in for nearly 6.5 million, which has Egitai’s 4 million chip stack covered. Egitai called with A7 for top pair, but elheroe’s AQ has them outkicked. The turn brings the 9 and the river the 5 to ship the pot to elheroe and knock out Egitai in 3rd place.

The two remaining players had less than a million chips separating the two stacks, but elheroe rode their hot streak right into heads-up play and began to pull away from nirvanakc. Nirvanakc would rally back toregain the chip lead by the smallest of margins, but that chip lead did not last for long. Elheroe raised from the button, nirvanakc called from the big blind and the flop fell KT6. Nirvanakc checked, elheroe bet out half the size of the pot and nirvanakc check raised to 1.3 million. Elheroe responded by putting in a third raise to 5.5 million and the reraises continued until both player were all-in. Elheroe showed KT for top two pair and nirvanakc turned up K5 for just a pair of kings. The 8 on the turn changed nothing and the T on the river made a full house for elheroe, who scooped the 23 million chip pot.

Nirvanakc was left with 90,000—less than one big blind—and doubled up the next hand when they picked up AJ against elheroe’s K3. They were unable to repeat the feat a second time though. Nirvanakc was all-in with Q4 against elheroe’s J5. The 983 flop helped no one, but running jacks on the turn and river gave elheroe the best hand and eliminated nirvanakc in 2nd place.

Thankfully for nirvanakc, the two players did a chip chop at the start of heads-up play and set only $8,000 aside to go to the eventual winner. As a result of the deal, nirvanakc earned $141,953.14 for second place, while elheroe took down only slightly more for first, netting $143,827.82 for their second FTOPS victory.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #8:

1st: elheroe ($143,827.82)
2nd: nirvanakc ($141,953.14)
3rd: Egitai $75,337.36)
4th: lolli82 ($55,668.00)
5th: yeza ($40,823.20)
6th: LilPokerGirlie ($27,834.00)

The second event of the day on the Full Tilt Online Poker Series agenda was the $500+$35 buy-in heads-up Event #9, which drew a sizeable crowd of 1,024. With such a large field and a shootout format, it seemed as if this tournament had the potential to last until early Monday morning, but the players breezed through the field in almost 12 hours exactly.

Several big names thrived through the first few rounds, but fell short of the illustrious elite eight. Brian Hastings’ 36th place finish was the highest showing of the Red pros, who all busted out before the round of 32. Players who did advance to the final 32, but failed to make the sweet sixteen included Jonathan “apestyles” Van Fleet (28th), Daniel “WiLDmAn75″ Buzgon (24th) and Pat “TorontoToro” Pezzin (19th). Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll (15th) and Kevin “Wu_Wizard” MacPhee (10th) were just two of the players who advanced to the sweet sixteen, as did Greg “DuckU” Hobson, who made it through to the final four before losing to “willb77” to go out in 4th place. While willb77 waited for the final table to start, “cczzarr” and “bitaraf” battled at the other semi-final table.

After being down as low as 500 chips at the 25/50 blind level, cczzarr rallied back from the brink of elimination in order to best biftaraf and stake claim to the second spot at the heads-up final table where they would face off against willb77, who had the advantage of a nice twenty minute break or so between the end of their semi-final match and the start of the last heads-up face off.

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The heads-up duel between the two finalists would last for almost 100 hands exactly, but less than twenty hands in it appeared as if the match might be over just as it was getting going. Willb77 min-raised the button and cczzarr reraised out of the big blind. Willb77 called and the two saw a flop of JT3. Cczzarr bet out 220 and willb77 called. Cczzarr checked when the A peeled on the turn, willb77 bet 450 on the turn and cczzarr called. The river brought the 8 and cczzarr checked once again. Willb77 quickly bet out just over 1,000 chips and cczzarr called and mucked after willb77 showed TT for the winning set.

That hand dropped cczzarr to 1,300 chips, but it would not be long before they doubled up to get back to their original 3,000 chip starting stack. This time willb77 would once again flop a set, holding 66 on an 865 board, but it was in bad shape against cczzarr’s 47 for a flopped straight. The money went all-in on the flop and when the turn and river failed to pair the board, cczzarr doubled up.

The chips started flying at a faster pace as the players traded the chip lead back and forth. Willb77 regained control in the hand when their KK held up against cczzarr’s AK after the money got all-in preflop. From that point, willb77 continued to slowly chip away at their opponent over the course of several small pots and soon cczzarr was down under 1,000 chips.

On the final hand of play, willb77 moved all-in from the button holding 44 and cczzarr called from the big blind with AQ. The 963 flop is no help to cczzarr, nor is the 3 on the turn. The river 5 seals cczzarr’s fate as the runner-up and willb77 is awarded the 9th gold jersey of this FTOPS along with the $89,088 first place prize.

Here are the top eight finishers from Event #9:

1st: willb77 ($89,088)
2nd: cczzarr ($53,248)
3rd: biftaraf ($27,136)
4th: Greg “DuckU” Hobson ($27,136)
5th: glogow ($14,336)
6th: Laurence “whatariver1″ Houghton ($14,336)
7th: Joe “JBlaze20″ Chaplin ($14,336)
8th: Kevin “KevboyStar” Stani ($14,336)

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