If you were watching wistfully from the sidelines as the biggest names in online poker fought it out in FTOPS XVIII, you’ll be happy to hear that its little brother, the MiniFTOPS, is now firmly underway. This miniature poker festival stuffs more than $6 million of guaranteed prize pools into 24 events that perfectly mirror FTOPS XVIII, aside from one small detail. All the Mini tournaments have 1/10th the buy-in of their more illustrious forebears.

Last night’s Event #3 was no exception, featuring a $100,000 guarantee for a $30 + $3 buy-in. Anyone with the ready cash to enter would be treated to a Shortstack, Turbo, 6-Max Hold ’em experience. When the cash from all the 4,277 entrants had been totted up, the prize pool easily punched through the guarantee – ending up a healthy $126,810. That meant the cash would be shared between 648 players.

The event was hosted by British Full Tilt Pro, Andrew Feldman. The youthful Londoner is a major force online, where he first fired his passion for poker. He hasn’t failed to make an impact on the live scene as well, raking up over $870,000 in tournament winnings. His most recent success came at the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe, where he finished 4th in the £10,000 High Roller Heads-up event for £96,212. Unfortunately, he was unable to replicate his success in MiniFTOPS XVIII Event #3, ending his night in 2,802nd place.

In fact, only one member of Team Full Tilt managed to make it into the money. Although, given that only 12 sponsored pros turned out for the tournament, the relatively low number of Red Pro cashers is not surprising. Anyone who regularly follows FTOPS results will not be surprised to hear that the lone Full Tilt Pro making a profit was Aaron Bartley, who seems to be unnaturally successful in his site’s premiere events. Among those who didn’t finish in the black where, David Pham, Roy Winston, and Scott Fischman.

Event #3 was won by chilenogjr, after a deal was made to split the prize money with 4 players remaining. chilenogjr took one of the biggest chunks and made his chip dominance pay by ousting his three opponents to take the MiniFTOPS title. Second place finisher, Tamerlan9, ended getting the raw end of the deal, taking the second smallest chunk of the prize money. Third place, OWN_U2, on the other hand, will be far happier with his results, notching up almost $5,000 more than the player one place above him.

Final table results for MiniFTOPS XVIII Event #3:

1st chilenogjr ($16,001.55)
2nd Tamerlan9 ($7,981.52)
3rd OWN_U2 ($12,250.88)
4th paashaas1000 ($7,605.12)
5th TheAsianVampire ($3,043.44)
6th ttouch77 ($2,028.96)