Today saw Event 24 of FTOPS XVIII take place, a $200+$16 NL Holdem Rush Turbo tournament. A Rush turbo event always gets a great turnout, and today was no different. The $400,000 guarantee was eclipsed by $55,000 as 2,275 people participated, creating an impressive first place prize of $92,797.25.

It is no surprise that the event was over and done with in less than three hours. In fact, the final table was formed just after the tournament had been underway for two hours.

As usual in a turbo, the stacks were shallow and the eliminations were fast and furious. Troubaduren was the first victim at the final table, receiving $5,460 for his 9th place finish. MikeyG16 was the next casualty, finishing 8th for $7,280.

It looked like papychulo777 might go next as he finally found himself down to less than 5bb. He had something to hope for, however, when tarheelkid pushed his 15bb stack on the CO and justakid69 called with 10bb on the BU.

Unfortunately for papchulo777, though, justakid69’s hand held and tarheelkid was merely crippled.

Papchulo777 got one last chance to move up in the pay scale when tarheelkid pushed all-in with 3bb and was called by Dr McG. Tarheelkid’s hand held, however, and Papchulo777 was disappointed once again.

Dr McG was crippled, but papychulo777 could no longer wait as he had just 2bb remaining. He shoved his remaining chips when it was folded to him in the sb, but he could not win versus butchuk.

Papychulo777 busted in 7th place for a payday of $10,465.

It looked like Dr McG might be the next to bust as he had under 4bb remaining in his stack, but he was fortunate enough to get dealt A7s and double up through justakid69. This, as you will soon see, allowed him to avoid being eliminated in 6th and move up in the pay scale.

Which of the short stacks was the next victim? Tarheelkid hoped it would be sparky522, but sparky522 had other plans. He was lucky enough to have a dominating ace against GoLeafsGoEh blind versus blind, and this allowed him to double up to over 10bb.

With no one else in a lot of immediate danger, it looked like tarheelkid was going to have to make a move. He waited a few hands before doing so, but then he finally called all-in with K2 in the big blind blind versus blind. He was ahead but could not hold, and he was eliminated in 6th place for $15,470.

Chips were traded around for quite a while after the 6th place elimination, but because sparky522 failed to win any pots during the exchange, he got very short once again. It would appear that he was running extremely well blind versus blind in flip situations, however. He called a 3-bet jam in the big blind with QJs with only 3bb behind and was against GoLeafsGoEh’s small pocket pair.

Dr McG did not have the same luck. He got it in versus GoLeafsGoEh ahead by a decent margin but could not hold.

Dr McG busted in 5th place for a disappointing but healthy $23,660.

Sparky522’s elimination was not delayed for much longer. A mere two hands later he pushed all-in with a suited ace but was behind justakid69’s pocket pair. He could not conjure up a suck out and finally busted in 4th place for $33,670.

The table was 3-handed at this point. It almost felt deep stacked as for the first time in a very long time; no one had under 10bb. In fact, butchuk was the smallest stack and he had almost 20bb!

Butchuk might have had the smallest stack, but he was not prepared to go out in 3rd place. He put his chips at risk by 3-bet shoving over an open and won a healthy amount to keep himself out of danger. Soon afterwards, justakid69 tried to help butchuk out with a trap gone wrong: he limp/reraised all-in blind versus blind against GoLeafsGoEh, but he ended up having the losing hand!

Justakid69 must have felt incredibly luck to chop that pot, but lady luck left him the next time he was forced into an all-in showdown. He raised/called all-in against GoLeafsGoEh’s 3-bet push on the button with A9s and was a huge favorite going to the flop. GoLeafsGoEh ran good at the right time, however, and justakid69’s hand did not hold.

Justakid69 left the tournament in 3rd place, receiving $44,590 for his stellar efforts. “Gg ul” GoLeafsGoEh said as he raked in the chips.

Now it was heads-up with butchuk and GoLeafsGoEh, but it did not look like it would last long as the effective stacks were only 19bb. It took 13 hands before butchuk was unlucky enough to run into GoLeafsGoEh’s AA. Butchuk flopped a variety of outs, but the turn was bad and the river did not help.

Butchuk busted in 2nd place for a healthy $60,060.

Huge congratulations to GoLeafsGoEh for placing first and winning $92,797.25! He will also receive the coveted golden FTOPS jersey. Surprisingly, this cash was not his largest of the year. Back in February he played the FTOPS $2.6k 2-day event and made the final table there, too. He busted in 5th place for $110,000. It is safe to say that he has had an excellent year on Full Tilt so far!

The highest finishing Red Pro in the field was JonoKaramalikis. He finished in 30th and received $1,183 for his efforts. Other Full Tilt Pro cashes included Johan Storakers who finished in 66th for $750.75 and Bruce Buffer who finished in 224th for $455.

FTOPS XVIII is almost over, but you still have time to get in on the action. There are some truly exciting events remaining! Be sure to come back to FTR as we wrap up our FTOPS coverage later this week.