One of the biggest poker rooms in the world is giving back to the little guy in September. FullTilt, host of the ever popular FullTilt Online Poker Series, has recently begun running a Mini series that gives players the ability to compete in huge tournaments for a tenth of the price. MiniFTOPS XVII will host more than 30 events ranging from $10 up to $216 over the next two weeks. Each tournament has a special FullTilt sponsored professional host including the likes of Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, Eli Elezra, and Michael Gracz. This weekend more than a handful of events took place including Event #9, a $10+$1 re-buy and add-on tournament.

Hosting event #9 was Jeremiah Smith, the producer of the FullTilt Poker Academy and one of the early chip leaders at the 2008 World Series of Poker.  The former poker journalist and reporter has appeared on shows such as the Aussie Millions “Million Dollar Cash Game” and is both a NL Tournament professional and a HORSE cash game enthusiast.  Joining Smith in Event #9 were nearly 20 other FullTilt professionals including the eccentric Gavin Smith, sports-betting savant Alan Boston, and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Scott Clements.  All in all more then 10,000 players entered event #9 and after 14,223 re-buys and 6,048 add-ons a massive $304,940 was formed. With $59,310 slated for first place this was certainly one of the best bang for your buck tournaments of 2010.

Unfortunately none of the FullTilt professionals made it to the final table which saw 9 players battling it out for a $59,310 first-place prize and a vaunted FTOPS Silver Jersey avatar.  As one can probably assume from the lower buy-in this tournament was full of both tournament grinders and amateurs.  The final table had some solid players including 5th place finisher “splashthaap0t” who earned $12,807 for his efforts. The former winner of the Sunday $750k, splashthaap0t has earned more than $350,000 on FullTilt over the course of his career.  Busting one spot before him was another good player, “BKBaddog”, who earned just $8,843 for his 6th place finish. The midstakes tournament grinder has won plenty of $50-$150 events and made the final table of the Sunday $750k last month where he finished in 7th place taking home $17,250.  Rounding out a solid trio of final table participants was “SimpleVr6” who was the first to go home in Event #9. With nearly $500,000 in cashes between FullTilt and PokerStars he might have been considered a favorite entering the final table but ultimately could not mount much of a charge.

Heads-up play came down to “Radrick Davis” and “MasterT2”. Radrick Davis appeared to have much more experience than his opponent and he put it to good use taking down the Event #9 crown and more than $59,000. The huge score was the biggest of his career on FullTilt, well ahead of a win in the 50-50 earlier this year for $10,773.  Congratulations goes to Radrick Davis and all 945 players who made the money in MiniFTOPS Event #9!

FullTilt MiniFTOPS XVII Event #9 $300k Guaranteed
10,223 Entrants; $304,940 prize pool

1. Radrick Davis $59,310
2. MasterT2 $36,135
3. lplaythabored $25,367
4. atlantisox $17,991
5. splashthaap0t $12,807
6. BKBaddog $8,843
7. FresaJunior $6,098
8. Chip me UP YOh $4,269
9. SimpleVr6 $3,049