There was so much action on the virtual felt today, you’d have thought it was a Sunday. Today’s trifecta of Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) XV tournaments is just a precursor to an epic day at the online poker tables tomorrow, and if today’s action is any indication, this weekend is going to be jam-packed with some interesting poker, players and stories.

Today we had a super turbo shovefest that saw Matt “Mcmatto” Affleck win his first jersey in record time. We also had a PLO rebuy tournament that produced a legendary, but slightly controversial winner in the form of Yuval “yuvee04” Bronshtein. And last, but certainly not least, we had some great Day 1 action from the $2,500 buy-in Two-Day Event.

Here’s the info on each of Saturday’s tournaments so you can get all caught up on your MTT news before the crazy Sunday action gets underway:

FTOPS Event #23

Most online poker pros dream of winning an FTOPS jersey. Some are even fortunate to have two. Then there is Yuval “yuvee04” Bronshtein, who has enough gold jerseys to outfit a small family. You may remember Bronshtein’s impressive performance during FTOPS IX, where he won two events in a single day. Tonight marked his fourth career jersey in the $100 buy-in PLO with rebuys event. The event drew 1,093 runners who rebought 2,414 times and generated 669 add-ons. All told, there was $417,600 up for grabs and the final table featured a number of players who’d been there before.

In addition to yuvee04, the top nine also boasted Maksim “GETGOT” Marandeyev and Tabalaba, two players who’ve already made final tables this series. Also making an appearance was Christian “da_professional” Iocabellis, but his stay was a brief one, as he busted out in 9th place. GETGOT and Tabalaba made their exits in 6th and 4th respectively.

After Tabalaba’s elimination is where things get really interesting. Yuvee04 held the chip lead when the final three players decided to pause play and talk shop. In a somewhat controversial move, yuvee04 made the following offer to his opponents:

yuvee04: hey i will give u guys each an extra 5k if i can have the title
yuvee04: and we can end it right here
stalex107: lol cool w me
yuvee04: its obviously important to me

It was so important to yuvee04 that he even upped the offer for Specialkmaster, who had the second largest chip stack at the time. He would receive $7,500 extra, stalex107 would get $5,000 extra and they would agree to raise and fold away their chips until yuvee04 was declared the champion. After running out of time to execute a custom deal, the trio agreed to do a chip chop and yuvee04 would transfer the extra money plus 1/3 of the money set aside for the eventual champion.

Whether or not this was the best way to procure a jersey is up for debate, but it doesn’t change the fact that Bronshtein has accomplished a remarkable feat and is arguably one of the most successful FTOPS performers in history.

Here are the final table results from FTOPS XV Event #23:

1st: Yuval “yuvee04” Bronshtein ($72,760.68)
2nd: Specialkmaster ($66,359.96)
3rd: stalex107 ($58,404.16)
4th: Tabalaba ($34,452.00)
5th: jgmrt3 ($26,100.00)
6th: Maksim “GETGOT” Marandeyev ($18,792.00)
7th: geeforce1 ($12,528.00)
8th: why do I call ($9,396.00)
9th: Christian “da_professional” Iocabellis ($6,681.60)

FTOPS Event #24

It is no exaggeration to say that FTOPS XV Event #24 was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair. The $500 buy-in Super Turbo event had each of its 910 players begin with 300 chips and 15/30 blinds, which resulted in an all-in free for all that lasted a grand total of two hours and forty-five minutes. The top 102 finishers made it into the money and the likes of Nick “FU_15” Maimone (29th), Darryll “DFish” Fish (28th), Adnan “nanq” Qureshi (12th) and mendieta19 (11th) were just a couple of coin flips short of the final table.

Former FTOPS winner James “TheFatFISH” Obst, Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene and Matt “Mcmatto” Affleck headlined the 6-handed final table:

Seat 1: Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene (79,014)
Seat 2: James “TheFatFISH” Obst (33,419)
Seat 3: The Fiend 34 (46,356)
Seat 4: glowin20 (25,682)
Seat 5: AZNNC (20,724)
Seat 6: Matt “Mcmatto” Affleck (67,805)

Blinds were up to 1,200/2,400 ante 300 by the time the final table was set. If a quick glance at final table starting stacks doesn’t clue you in, everyone was desperately short on chips, as is to be expected in a Super Turbo event. Despite the ridiculously shallow stacks, the top six went a few orbits without a confrontation. It was only when James “TheFatFISH” Obst’s AK ran into The Fiend 34’s TT. The flop fell AT5, giving The Fiend 34 a set and leaving TheFatFish drawing very slim. The 8 on the turn was no help to TheFatFISH and the Q on the river sent him packing in 6th place.

The Fiend 34 racked up knockout #2 the very next hand when his KQ bested glowin20’s A9. With that elimination, he became the first player to cross the 100,000 chip threshold. He gave up a chunk of his stack when his A8 doubled up Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene with his AQ. Bttech86 passed most of those chips along to AZNNC when Bttech86 shoved the button with A2 and AZNNC woke up in the big blind with AK. The altercation left Bttech86 with just 4,000 chips, and he made his exit at the hands Matt “Mcmatto” Affleck just two hands later.

The pivotal hand of 3-handed play came down to the classic race situation. For AZNNC, QQ. For The Fiend 34, AK. The board? JJ772. AZNNC raked the 178,000 chip pot, while The Fiend 34 was left with just 17,000 chips. He doubled through Mcmatto just a couple of hands later, but couldn’t repeat the feat a second time around, as his A2 fell to Mcmatto’s Q9.

The final two players agreed to a chop that would ultimately reward each of them with around $80,000 a piece. AZNNC had Mcmatto outchipped by 30,000 at the outset of heads-up play, but in one of the few big pots that did not go to showdown, Mcmatto was able to claim the chip lead. Blinds were up to 4,000/8,000 ante 1,000 when Mcmatto raised on the button and AZNNC called from the big blind. The flop fell Q32 and both players checked. The turn brought the K, prompting AZNNC to bet out 24,000. Mcmatto responded by shoving all-in and AZNNC was forced to fold, leaving himself with 94,000 chips.

Mcmatto shipped AZNNC all the way down to 60,000 when he put AZNNC all-in from the button and AZNNC called with A6. Mcmatto was behind with his QT, until the flop fell T84 to give him top pair. The 9 on the turn gave each player their own straight draw, but the river brought an anticlimactic 5 to ship the pot and the victory to Mcmatto.

Here are the final table results from FTOPS XV Event #24:

1st: Matt “Mcmatto” Affleck ($80,842.50)
2nd: AZNNC ($80,000.00)
3rd: The Fiend 34 ($45,500.00)
4th: Bttech86 ($34,580.00)
5th: glowin20 ($24,570.00)
6th: James “TheFatFISH” Obst ($15,697.50)

FTOPS Event #22

It may have come first on today’s FTOPS schedule, but we decided to save the 2-day $2,500 buy-in event for last. The highly prestigious tournament fell short of its $2,000,000 guarantee, perhaps because several of the top online pros opted to take part at the NAPT Venetian event instead. With 794 players, the tournament came up six players short of avoiding an overlay, but instead Full Tilt put up an additional $15,000 to get the prize pool to the $2 million mark.

By day’s end, only 65 of the 794 remained. Some players advancing to Day 2 to keep an eye on include Red Pros Caio Pimenta and Steve Yea, Steve “gboro780” Gross, Jake “psutennis11” Toole, Tim “TMay420” West and Dan “Wretchy” Martin.

Those players and the other 57 who survived the day will be returning to their computer screens tomorrow at 2PM ET. Here are the top ten in chips headed into the second day of play:

1st: ericberen – 324,612
2nd: Caio Pimenta – 195,862
3rd: GoLeafsGoEh= – 157,094
4th: bubbledav – 147,600
5th: Harry “UgotaBanana” Kaczka – 145,629
6th: Dan “Wretchy” Martin – 144,397
7th: MURIBE – 129,205
8th: phat_cat1 – 127,561
9th: bearbuck – 124,579

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