Full Tilt’s Mini FTOPS Series is definitely a place for recreational players to make a big, career-changing score, and usually these events meet or at least come close to meeting their guaranteed prize pools. What they usually don’t do, however, is nearly double their guarantees. If any event was set-up to do it, it was Event #22, which obliterated its own $300K Guarantee, generating a $554K Prize pool to be paid out to the top 3,690 runners in the MASSIVE 55,000+ player field.
At the outset, $79,000 and some change was set to be awarded to the winner of this absolutely enormous event. Hosted by Red Pro Ryan Dreyer, Event #22 was a NLHE event that featured super stacks (5,000 chips to start), KO Bounties ($2 out of each $12 entry fee was a player bounty), and the popular multi-entry format, meaning that each player could enter the event 4 separate times. To call it a war of attrition seems like a bit of an undersell, really, as the eventual winner was going to need to corral almost 300 MILLION CHIPS to win the event. Someone would eventually do it, and that someone was player “Niki1515”.
Many Red Pros showed up for the event, and among the ones finishing in the money would be Ferrari Zumbini (1191st), Jon Turner (828th), and Ross Boatman (405th). Any score by a Red Pro in this massive of a field is worth noting, but Turner in particular showed great mettle, entering this event only once, and still taking that lone entry well into the Top 2% of all runners.
As the field narrowed down to a few tables late into the night, player “immaturejansson” of Sweden took the lead and held it for several levels, becoming the first player to crest the T20 Million mark, and doing so with 37 players still running in the event! The aggressive Swede took a surprising exit in 22nd place though, paving the way for players like “SCNoodle” and “ChanMix”, both of whom held leads with over T35 Million at various points before the Final 18 players took their seats. As the final table loomed closer, the lead shifted around the tables. The Final Table itself found average chip stacks of almost T35 Million per player, and eventually a 4-way chop between “Niki1515”, “DylanPlay1”, “Casteletti”, and “Henry75F”. Each player took home at least $47,000 (not bad for the $13 investment!!), with $51,145 going to “Niki1515” for the outright win. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the marathon event. Final Table payouts can be found below:
Mini-FTOPS XIX Event #22 ($12+1 NLHE KO):
1. Niki1515 – – $51,145
2. DylanPlay1 – – $49,750
3. Casteletti – – $47,074
4. Henry75F – – $47,231
5. SCNoodle – – $18,287
6. jaybizzle3 – – $13,299
7. Chan Mix – – $9,974
8. Nickola007 – – $7,370
9. NadirManji – – $5,209