One of the more interesting events of FTOPS XVII came to an end early this morning. The 12th Event of the FullTilt Online Poker Series was a heads-up championship pitting 1,024 players against one another in a single-elimination bracket style tournament. Winning the tournament is easy, all you have to do is win 7 straight heads-up matches against some of the best high-stakes tournament and cash game players in the world.
One of those players, FullTilt sponsored professional and Event #12 host Melaine Weisner, failed to make it out of the first round. If you are unfamiliar with Weisner you are certainly not alone. While most female poker players receive attention only for their looks Weisner is one of the few that backs up a pretty face with excellent tournament results. She has won two EPT Ladies Events and and made a deep run in this year’s WSOP $10,000 Heads-Up Championship before falling in the round of 32. Melanie was joined in Event #12 by twenty-three other FullTilt professionals including big names such as former WSOP Main Event winner Carlos Mortensen, the always entertaining Canadian Gavin Smith, and one of the best young players in the world, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger. With only 128 players making the money it took winning at least three matches to make the money. Only two FullTilt red pros, Luigi Kwaysser (54th) and Trond Eidsvig (90th), were fortunate enough to cash in what has to be one of the toughest events of the series.
Despite the lack of success from the team FullTilt members there were still plenty of online and live professionals around late Sunday night. One of the world’s best cash game and tournament players, Gavin “gavz101” Coachrane made the Sweet Sixteen before being eliminated in 14th place for $7,680. The winner of the $5,200 SCOOP PLO Championship earlier this year makes a lot of his money in high stakes Omaha cash games on both FullTilt and PokerStars.
Nick “agriffrod” Mitchell made it to the elite eight before busting in 7th place for $14,336. The top-10o ranked MTT professional has a few big scores to his name including a win in the WCOOP 2nd Chance in 2007 for $77,479 and a 2nd place finish in the PokerStars Sunday Million in 2009 for $173,514. The biggest cash of his career came two years ago on FullTilt when he won FTOPS Event #11, a $1,060 buy-in tournament for $322,500. Overall he has more than $3,500,000 in cashes between the world’s two biggest poker sites.
The final four had some solid players including a former FTOPS winner Mark “xqsays” Radoja who took down Event #17 last August for $206,120. With three other FTOPS final tables on his resume this high-stake tournament professional was one of the most decorated players in FullTilt history before reaching the final table in Event #12. He was the first winner of the two final four matches and took out “Buckster316” when his AK held up all-in before the flop against A6:
Another former FTOPS winner was on hand in the second semi-final which came down to “Smokinokun” and “SteveTheWebGuy”. Back in 2007 in just the 3rd installment of the FullTilt Online Poker Series, Smokinokun took down Event #5 for over $82,000. Back then the prize pools were nowhere near as big as they were today but with over $400,000 in the middle it was one of the biggest events of FTOPS III. While xqsays finished off his match very quickly he was left waiting on Smokinokun and SteveTheWebGuy who battled it out for a long time with Smokinokun holding the chiplead for the majority of the match. Down to just his last 13 Big Blinds, Steve was more than happy to get all of his chips in with pocket Queens. Smokinokun was forced to make the call and while his A4o was well behind it quickly caught up after making the nut flush on 4th street. SteveTheWebGuy was eliminated in 3rd place for $27,136 and Smokinokun moved onto the final to face xqsays:
The final match swung quickly in xqsays favor as he flopped bottom two with Q3s from the Big Blind and was able to check-raise the flop and bet both the turn and river for value. With the blinds at just t15/t30, he held a t5,500:t500 chiplead just 15 hands into the final match. The tournament was far from over though as Smokinokun battled back and doubled up twice in a row holding AK and AJ and soon found himself with t1,700 chips. However the comeback fell flat on its face just a few hands later when xqsays found AKs and was able to get all the money in before the flop against ATo:
A great tournament and a solid finish to one of the more anticipated events of the year. Congratulations goes to winner Mark “xqsays” Radoja and all 128 players who made the money in FTOPS XVII Event #12!!
FullTilt Online Poker Series Event #12
1,024 Entrants; $512,000 prize pool
1. xqsays $89,088
2. Smokinokun $53,248
3. SteveTheWebGuy $27,136
4. Buckster316 $27,136
5. pommesXD $14,336
6. sozsozsoz $14,336
7. agriffrod $14,336
8. GhettoFabolous $14,336