Event #12 of FTOPS XIV was the first $1,000 buy-in event of the series. The only other 4 digit buy-in will be Event #22, a $2,500 tournament featuring ante’s from the start. This one however, was just a good old fashioned 6-max no-limit Texas Hold’em Poker tournament. It did feature one thing that has become fairly rare in the large “series” type tournaments though; an overlay. The $1.5 million guarantee was not quite reached as only 1,366 players bought in, creating more than $130,000 in overlay for the players.
As is pretty standard in 6-max games the action was aplenty, despite the large buy-in. Everyone was vying for the nice even $300,000 first place prize and of course the title of FTOPS Champion. The Full Tilt Pros turned out in force, led by host Erick Lindgren. Erick is one of the more well-known “Red Pros” playing at Bovada. He has one a World Series of Poker bracelet, 2 World Poker Tour Championships and has over $7 million in career tournament winnings. He was joined by some other familiar faces, including Allen Cunningham, Bruce Buffer, David Pham, Huck Seed, Erica Shoenberg, Josh Arieh, and Jon Turner, a.k.a. PearlJammed, among others.
One of Full Tilt’s finest was able to make it very deep indeed in this tournament as Peter Feldman, a.k.a. Nordberg, made the final 2 tables, eventually going out in 9th place. Feldman has won more than $1.1 million playing tournaments in his career, including cashing in the WSOP Main Event in 2006 and 2007. He took down $20,250 for his time in Event #12, a very solid day. The next best finish by one of Tilt’s Pros was Thomas Bihl, finishing 101st, who was just preceded by Josh Arieh, busting out in 103rd.
The final table was made up of some very tough customers. Finishing in 6th place was hikkespett, a Norwegian player with some nice cashes to his name, but without the signature win to launch him in amongst the best players.
Fifth place went to Wretchy, real name Dan Martin. Wretchy is one of the young, up and coming tournament players looking to break through with a big win. He has a lot of very solid finishes and has taken down some great tournaments on both PokerStars and Full Tilt, but has yet to land the big fish so to speak. He always seems to be around the final table though and it’s just a matter of time before his name sits atop a huge tournament payout list.
Finishing 4th was another big name in the tournament circuit, Shannon Shorr, who plays as BLUFFforRENT. Shannon has over $3.2 million in tournament winnings, according to his blog at ShannonShorr.com. He’s more well-known perhaps as a live tournament player than an online player, but one to be feared none the less.
Amak316 finished this tournament in 3rd place. He is another solid tournament player with some serious wins and finishes, but without the huge score to propel him up the winnings leaderboards.
In second place was another young rising star in the tournament world. Neverbluff67 is a solid tournament and lower stakes cash game player. This second place finish and the prize money that comes along with it, will likely allow him to play some bigger games with a solid bankroll. With that in mind there’s little doubt that we’ve heard the last from neverbluff67.
Finally, taking down 1st place was another very solid, if somewhat unknown player. OmadJoped is a good heads-up and short-handed cash player and a solid tournament player. This is his first really big score so it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.
1st – OmadJoped -$300,000
2nd – neverbluff67 – $198,000
3rd – amak316 – $138,300
4th – BLUFFforRENT – $105,000
5th – Wretchy – $72,750
6th – hikkespett – $49,500