Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS Event #37 was action-packed and a showcase for aggressive, winning poker from scores of players. Iseeyouthrough won the tournament, but not without extremely stiff competition from pros and amateurs alike.

Mike McDonald, the young Canadian professional who became the youngest person ever to win a European Poker Tour event, played hard and fast in Event #37 of the FTOPS. In 2008, McDonald won $1,370,161 and shot to fame, eventually becoming a Full Tilt Red Pro. Today, he competed at a stellar level as he sought to carve out his portion of the event’s $479,000 prize pool.

For hours on end, McDonald stomped the competition. As a rush poker tournament, players were felled left and right, and the cream of the crop, i.e. Mike McDonald, rose to the top. Down from the beginning 1,157 entrants, with only 45 players remaining, McDonald found himself in the lead with 416,235 chips. Second place, barely close enough to see his dust, let alone eat it, sat at a measly 251,758 chips. In fact, all places 2 through 9 were separated by only 100,000 chips between top to bottom. For the third hour, the tournament took on whatever tone Mike McDonald set.

Fellow Red Pro and Budapest national Luigi Kwaysser provided competition, consistently seen in the top 10 spots throughout the tournament.

But, like all Rush Poker tournaments, chips moved at lightning speed, and players cswidler and InescapableD managed to break the 300,000 mark as the player pool dwindled to 28. McDonald dropped to fourth place, as both these players built up beyond 400,000 and McDonald dropped to 330,000.

In a sudden and disastrous turn of events, after hours of dominating the whole tournament, McDonald busted out in 23rd place. From 330,000 to zero chips, McDonald fell from grace in literally 3 minutes. McDonald, for all his skill, found his efforts stymied by the misfortunes of a bad beat.

Professional Kwaysser ended up making the final table as middle stack and played tight, while the other players harassed each other with multiple all-in bets pre-flop and great action on every street. Iseeyouthrough took command of the table with 1.8 million in chips, while the final table average stack sat around 450k.

Iseeyouthrough ended up giving the final blow to Kwaysser, as Kwaysser moved all-in with pocket queens, and iseeyouthrough called with AJ. The ace came on the flop, and Kwaysser went home in a very respectable 4th place. Iseeyouthrough, as the big stack, dominated the rest of the final table, and ended the tournament handily in first place.

Final table results:

  1. iseeyouthrough – $105,380
  2. pommesXD – $67,060
  3. cswidler – $48,498.75
  4. Luigig Kwaysser – $38,918.75
  5. bindernutnut – $29,362.70
  6. Revenga – $21,555
  7. InescapableD – $13,891
  8. culazzon – $10,0059
  9. Moormanl – $7,185