There’s barely been time to draw breath since the last Full Tilt Online Poker Series impacted the internet and it’s already time for the next installment in this multi-annual poker festival. FTOPS XVIII is set to feature 34 events, with $19 million in guaranteed prizes spread across every tournament. The competition kicked off yesterday with four contests, one of which was Event #3 – a $300 + $22 6-max turbo shootout.
If you’re not up on the current poker lingo, then you might need reminding that a ‘shootout’ tournament is a very particular kind of event. Each table stands alone, playing down until online one combatant remains. Then, the winners of each table are collected together into new groups and the process repeats. Eventually you’re left with a final table of players who’ve battled their way to the top by winning what is, essentially, a series of Sit & Gos.
This particular shootout contest attracted 1,158 players, enticed by the $300k guarantee laid on by Full Tilt. The final prize pool comfortably topped the pre-arranged figure, rounding out at $347,400. Winning your first shootout table would put you in touching distance of the 144 cash places.
Each and every FTOPS event since the dawn of time has featured a pro player as host and Event #3 was no exception. Former youngest bracelet winner, Jeff Madsen was on hand to officiate last night. He failed to cash, but can console himself with his $3.1 million in lifetime live tournament earnings. As well as famously winning 2 bracelets in 6 days at the 2006 WSOP, Jeff recently took the $625,000 title at the 2010 Borgata Winter Poker Open. He may well have been picked to commemorate his success in the previous series’ Event #3. In the third contest of FTOPS XVII, the part-time rapper finished in 3rd place. That tournament featured exactly the same format as this with a very similar number of players.
There was a surprisingly low turnout from the other Red Pros, but a few managed to break through into the money spots. Rambunctious Canuck Gavin Smith finished in 53rd, perennial FTOPS casher Aaron Bartley ended his night in 108th place, and Roberto Romanello snuck into the money in 123rd.
Up at the business end of the tournament, BigGamesJames, otherwise known as James Whittet, was dispatching his last opponent. The $60,795 first prize brings his online earnings to over $150,000. Second placed DenverSports from Golden, CO is no stranger to online tournament success. The $38,214 second place prize money brought his lifetime online tournament winnings to just over $600,000. In third place was thedudelb from Holland, MI.
Fourth place finisher kingpin023 will be well known to fans of FTOPS past. Back in FTOPS XV he took down the top prize in Event #12. Known in the real world as Lance Harris, kingpin023 has to date accrued over $1.1 million in online tournament winnings.
Final table payouts were as follows:
1st: BigGamesJames ($60,795)
2nd: DenverSports ($38,214)
3rd: thedudelb ($25,429.68)
4th: kingpin023 ($17,370)
5th: CptnSTFury ($12,159)
6th: Nelissimo ($8,337.60)