The 16th installment of FullTilt’s Online Poker Series is underway! This year 30 tournaments hosted by some of the biggest and best names in poker will run over the next 10 days for more than $18,000,000 in guaranteed money. Event #1 was a $750,000 guaranteed $200+$16 NL Hold’em tournament. The event was hosted by one of the more famous FullTilt sponsored pros, Allen Cunningham. Cunningham is an extremely accomplished tournament professional who has won five World Series of Poker bracelets. His first bracelet came back in 2001 in the $5k Seven-Card Stud Championship and his most recent win was in the 2007 $5k Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship that was televised on ESPN.
There were a lot of FullTilt professionals in the field, easily identifiable by their names being highlighted in red in the FullTilt Lobby. Thirty-two professionals played and seven were able to make the money. In fact, one professional, Bruno Stefanelli made the final table. The other professionals making the money were David “the Dragon” Pham (343rd place), “Miami John” Cernuto (354th), Jon Turner (326th), Luis Velador (292nd), TheWaceKidd (499th), and Vitaly Lunkin (446th). Lunkin had a great 2009 WSOP including a win in the $40,000 No-Limit Hold’em Anniversary event for more than $1,800,000. He also finished 2nd in the world championship PLO $10k for more than $400,000.
The final table had a few big names in online poker besides the obvious in Bruno Stefanelli. Former FTOPS winners BRO20 and Kavin86 entered the final nine in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, both sporting a gold jersey avatar from their previous wins. Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo found himself in 3rd place, a familiar position for him as he finished 3rd in FTOPS Event #17 last year for a six-figure score. His claim to fame was a deep run in the 2009 WSOP Main Event where he finished in 21st place for $352,832. Here is how the final table looked after “Flippa42” assumed the bubble-boy position, taking 10th place for $5,625.
Final Table Stacks
bob2bob 3,910,453
BRO20 3,499,866
Kavin86 3,235,391
driverseati 1,781,418
mymuckyourluck 1,641,546
E-Cart7 1,270,968
GoldenGaze1 1,211,838
BrunoStefanelli 903,680
Agentu23 657,290
GoldenGaze11 busted in 9th place when he lost your typical final table coin flip as his QQ fell to Tamayo’s AKo. The 9th place finish earned him a nice $8,250 payday. FullTilt professional Bruno Stefanelli was next to go. In middle position, chip leader BRO20 opened 6s9s and Bruno called from the BB. The flop came 8cTh7s and Bruno led for 150,000 and BRO20 called. The turn was the Js and Bruno shoved his remaining 543,510 chips and was snap called. Stefanelli had some outs as he tabled JdTd but the 7d on the river sealed his fate as he was eliminated in 8th place for $12,000. BRO20 then had a chance to bust E-Cart7, but ran his AQo into AKo and failed to improve.
A few hands later mymuckyourluck shoved his 10BB stack in UTG and was flatted by bob2bob in the cut-off. The blinds folded and bob2bob was ahead with pocket Jacks vs. A8o. The board ran out 4s7dQs9d2h and mymuckyourluck was eliminated in 7th place for $17,250. Shortly thereafter an interesting hand went down as Agentu23 shoved 593,000 in chips from the CO. Kavin86 then re-shoved 1,330,000 from the SB. That move was met by a tank from driverseati who finally called. When the hands were turned over driverseati was way out ahead as his 99 dominated Kavin86’s 55 and Agentu23’s Kd2d. The board ran out TsQcAc2sQh and Tamayo’s pocket nines held and he scooped a 3,165,000 pot. Agentu23 took 6th for $25,500 while Kavin86 settled for 5th place and $36,750.
After the dust settled here are your four-handed chip counts:
BRO20 6,687,936
driverseati 5,329,131
bob2bob 3,833,463
E-Cart7 2,334,470
Players exchanged chips for a bit, E-Cart doubled up after getting short, and then a sick hand went down. E-Cart7 opened UTG to 160,000 at 40,000/80,000 blinds, BRO20 flatted on the button, and then bob2bob shiped his 1,550,000 stack in the middle. E-Cart7 re-shoved and BRO20 got out of the way. Bob2bob tabled Ah2s and E-Cart7 was well ahead with 8s8d. Way ahead that is, until the flop came 2h2c3d and bob2bob took a huge lead. A huge lead that is, until the turn was the crushing 8h, giving bob2bob pretty much a lock hand as the Qc bricked off and busted bob2bob in 4th place for $49,500. Just four hands later E-Cart7 doubled-up as he rivered a flush against BRO20 who called his all-in value shove. That pot sent E-Cart7 into the chip lead and left BRO20 in 3rd with about 34 Big Blinds. The stacks were then:
E-Cart7 7,649,036
driverseati 7,311,461
BRO20 3,404,503
About 20 hands later BRO20 had been whittled down to about 2,300,000 in chips and was forced to jam from the SB with As4s. Tamayo woke up with 88 and held until the river, where BRO20 made a straight on a 7dJhKcTsQc board. The double up took him into 2nd place while E-Cart7 still had more than half the chips in play. E-Cart7 then had a chance to bust Tamayo, but he ran pocket sevens into pocket Tens. A ten-ball on the flop gave Tamayo an easy double-up and he was back to over 4,000,000 in chips again. Players continued to pass chips back and forth until BRO20 won a few nice pots that left him with the chip-lead. At that point E-cart and driverseati got their stacks all-in PF with 88 for Tamayo vs E-Cart7’s AJo. The flop came down Th8s7d and Tamayo was way out in front. The Jd on the turn actually was a bad card, as all E-Cart7 could do now was chop. The river was a meaningless 6h and driverseati shipped the 7,183,823 pot and E-Cart7 was left with just 1,000,000 in chips. He would not wait long before doubling-up though as his A4s held against Q4o and he suddenly had 3,000,000 in chips. The very next hand he eliminated Tamayo when his AKo won a flip against 22 sending Tamayo home in 3rd place for $66,600. BRO20 held a nearly 2:1 chiplead as heads-up play begins:
BRO20 11,820,844
E-Cart7 6,544,156
E-Cart saw his stack dwindle to about 3,500,000 chips, but then hit a straight with J6o on a Th8h7c9sQc board and overbet shoved all-in on the river. BRO20 thought for a few moments before calling and saw his opponent double up to more than 7,000,000 in chips. The tournament ended just a few hands later when BRO20 raised on the button and was called by E-Cart7. BRO20’s continuation bet on a Ts9d5s board was met by a check-raise to which he countered with a 3bet shove. E-Cart7 quickly called but could not have like what he saw as his AdTh was well behind BRO20’s pocket Kings. The Kings held up as the harmless Qh and 3d fell on the turn and river, giving BRO20 the win and a $134,250 payday. Congrats goes to all of those who played and cashed in FTOPS XVI Event #1!!
FullTilt Poker FTOPS XVI Event #1
3,673 Entrants; $750,000 prize pool
1. BRO20 $134,250
2. E-Cart7 $93,000
3. driverseati $66,600
4. bob2bob $49,500
5. Kavin86 $36,750
6. agentu23 $25,500
7. mymuckyourluck $17,250
8. Bruno Stefanelli $12,000
9. GoldenGaze11 $8,250