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Familiar Faces Go Deep in FTOPS V Event #7
FTOPS V’s double stack, 6-handed No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament drew 1,282 entrants and, with a buy-in of $1,000, the total prize pool swelled to $1,282,000. Jeezy888, who took second place in Event #1, doubled up twice with A-K late in the tournament, but eventually had to push with A-J and ran into saladfingers44’s pocket Kings. Jeezy888 took home $9,999 for this 13th-place finish, adding to his already impressive FTOPS V run.
JJ Liu played well as one of the short stacks, picking her spots and moving up the money list. She eventually pushed her remaining 50,000 with A-10 suited and was called by smokinokun who held pocket 5s to knock the last pro out of the tournament. The 10th-place finish earned Liu $18,589 in prize money while smokinokun stacked over 1 million in chips. Donning a custom avatar from FTOPS III event #5, smokinokun moved within striking distance of a second FTOPS championship.
Fighting to make the final table, saladfingers44 was on a good run, but lost a huge pot when his A-K ran into Reds20’s Q-Q, taking him from chip leader to the short-stack. But saladfingers44 refused to go quietly. With only 20,000 chips remaining he mounted a comeback by pushing all-in on every hand. saladfingers44 stole a lot of blinds during his all-in stretch and won races, doubling up when he was called and building his stack back to 271,000.
Then with seven players remaining, saladfingers44 pushed all-in after Reds20 tripled the blind. Reds20 held 8-8 and saladfingers44 had A-J. A Jack came on the flop, giving saladfingers44 the lead. But Reds20 made an unlikely flush on the river, crippling saladfingers44 and earning Reds20 the chip lead with over 1 million. saladfingers44 pushed his remaining chips with A-Q and was called again by Reds20 who showed A-3. The flop brought a 3 and the final table was set.
smokinokun played on FTOPS experience, making great reads on players who were trying to steal. , Executing well-timed re-raises, he won a lot of small pots and retained control of the final table early on – a table that saw very little post-flop play.
The big stacks avoided each other and the small stacks were forced out of hands. Pot Odds 3 was the first player eliminated, pushing with J-J for 200,000. He was called by Round42 who showed A-K. A King fell on the river and Pot Odds 3 took home $42,947 for sixth place.
smokinokun continued to dominate the final table by challenging the other big stacks with huge raises and forcing the small stacks to make decisions for all their chips. Jschnett got too short-stacked and eventually went all-in with 10-2 and was called by Fixhult’s A-J. Jschnett finished in fifth place, good for $65,382.
Round42 then won a huge 630,000 pot off smokinokun when he made a full house on the river. This big swing seemed to be what Round42 needed to shift the tournament in his favor, allowing him to come over the top anytime one of the other players tried to make a move. On Fixhult’s knock-out hand, Round42 came over the top and Fixhult pushed another 550,000 with A-10 of diamonds. Round42 showed A-K, but two diamonds fell on the flop, giving Fixhult a flush draw. However, neither the turn nor river brought another diamond and Fixhult’s run ended with fourth place.
With a gigantic chip lead, Round42 had twice as many chips Reds20 and nearly four times as many as smokinokun, who finally pushed with A-7. Reds20 called with A-K, ending smokinokun’s shot at another FTOPS title and sending the tournament to heads-up play.
The two remaining players continued the final table trend of small pre-flop raises and very little post-flop play, trying to pick their spots for a big all-in showdown. At one point, Round42 showed 5-7 after a pre-flop raise, hoping to induce some action.
Then, on the last hand, both players saw a cheap flop. The board came Ah-Kh-8c. Reds20 went all-in with Ac-6s for top pair and was called by Round42 who had second pair with Ks-10h. But the turn brought the 7 of hearts and the river brought an amazing Queen of hearts, giving Round42 the improbable flush and $262,169 in first-place prize money. Reds20 took home $173,070 for second place.
Event #7 Results - FTOPS V