Another day gone by, another great FTOPS Event in the books, another yellow shirt handed out. One of the most prestigious online poker tournaments in existence, Full Tilt Poker’s own Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) XIII is currently underway, and we just witnessed all the trials and tribulations (not to mention the drama, oh, the drama) of its Event #7: $109 NH Hold’em with Rebuys. 2316 hopefuls showed up for this tournament, but only 234 got paid, and only 90 of those got paid more than $1K, and only 8 of those earned more than $10K for their efforts for the night. The total prize pool for the event came in just shy of $700,000. Not bad at all for a few hours of work if you ask me!
Many of the biggest shots played tonight, including Eli Elezra, David “The Dragon” Pham, Jon “Pearljammer” Turner, Leandro “Brasa” Pimentel, Hans Vogl and Lee Watkinson.
Here follows a recap of what truly matters in every poker tournament: the Final Table. The recorded action starts at the 10-handed final table bubble.
Bubble: pzyclone got outdrawn by g0lfa with A4 versus AJ. On a three heart board, despite pzyclone holding the Ah, g0lfa still spiked an offsuit 4 on the river to severely cripple him.
The following hand shows how pzyclone got the boot:
Congratulations on reaching this far and better luck next time to reach the promised land!
9th: Steveymoney pushed AsQd all-in preflop versus mralan2950’s Ace of diamonds and King of Spades. The flop was all spades with both a king and a queen, but SteveyMoney couldn’t hit any of his bazillion outs.
Congrats to SteveyMoney, as you take home $8,355.60 for your efforts tonight!
That was the last of the four-digit payouts. There were only have 5-digit payouts going forward.
8th: In the previous hand, pracaka’s AK went against beanzMcGriff’s JJ for full stacks and pracaka lost the hand, leaving him with less than 1BB.
Guilhermeosa finished the job:
Congrats to pracaka, for taking home $11,140.80 for your efforts tonight!
7th: Shortstacked, 37ofhearts called all-in for a little over 4bb in the Big Blind. A deadly turn sent him packing in 7th, earning $16,014.90 for his efforts tonight. Congrats on a strong finish!
6th: 4-outers hurt, but they hurt a lot more after great calls at final tables, when they can mean the difference between thousands of dollars. BeanzMcGriff earned $23,674.20 for his efforts tonight. Congrats!
5th: g0lfa selfdetructs. He probably needed to be somewhere in a hurry, because he started openshoving wide. mralan2950 tried the previous hand with QQ vs. g0lfa’s 9dTd but failed, but g0lfa then inexplicably tried to overshove again, and lost this time A5o vs. TT. Congrats on the great finish though.
4th: mralan2950 continued to pound the table. His last victim, hmiester, had a very quiet final table only seeing one hand to showdown before this hand. hmiester’s snowmen were no match for mralan2950’s K9o. Congrats on the strong finish.
After this hand, the players suspended the tournament to make use of Full Tilt’s new and innovative deal making system. The system is excellent and fully automated, in the sense that players can now make a deal and instantly see how each of the deal options will affect their equity, all without bothering the tourney host. Even so, no deal could be agreed upon between the players.
When play resumed, there were a few small pots, with mralan2950’s dominant stack being wielded like a broadsword. But then, relentless aggression got the better of him, and the final table’s sole born-outside-the-USA player guilhermeosa doubled up through him, making the two top chips rather even.
Again, a barrage of small pots continued. Finally, we got to see some postflop poker!
blackjack9 would push a few hands, but then gulhermeosa got suspicious and called him with what looked like a weak king. But lo and behold, look what the flop brought!
Good game blackjack9, you should have taken the deal! Still, $68,237.40 is not bad so congrats!
Heads-up, the players started to talk about a deal again. At one point, mralan2950 simply stated that he was better than guilhermeosa, and would not take ICM deal on him but rather a custom deal which would give mralan2950120K and guilhermeosa 106K. ICM was 118K vs. 108K and play for 7K. Guilhermeosa would not accept less than ICM, and play was resumed.
During the HU match, however, the tide turned constantly. Both players enjoyed the chip lead at various points and there was no clear and dominant player. Then, a TT preflop all-in for guilhermeosa doubled him up to about 7M, and followed by a bet of 2.8M on a 7h4cKhKs board making mralan2950 lay down his 2.7M chip stack, and guilhermeosa crossed the 8M chip barrier for the first time in the match.
Play was then stopped so that the players could discuss a deal, again. mralan2950 now accepted to this new deal by guilhermeosa. Funny how that works, eh?
The final hand of HU play was a classic race. In fact, it is the very same race that appears on the cover of HUNLHE.
Congrats to mralan2950 for pocketing $107M and change for his 2nd place finish, and congrats to guilhermeosa for the huge score, and perpetual bragging rights for having won an FTOPS yellow jersey! You have both done very well. Also congrats to all who participated, and particularly to those who finished in the money. You have all done very well.
What are you waiting for? Show us you got what it takes to win a yellow jersey all for yourself, by registering at Bovada Poker and starting to play NOW!
FTOPS XIII Event #7
Start Aug 8 16:02
End Aug 9 03:14
Hosted by Leandro “Brasa” Pimentel
Prizepool: 696,300
Places Paid: 234
Final table payouts:
1) $126,632.27 guilhermeosa
2) $107,289.72 mralan2950
3) $68,237.40 blackjack9
4) $51,526.20 hmiester
5) $36.207.60 g0lfa
6) $23,674.20 BeanzMcGriff
7) $16,014.90 37ofhearts
8) $11,140.80 pracaka
9) $8,355.60 SteveyMoney