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FTOPS Event #3 – Omaha Hi/Lo, The Word for Today is “Scoooooop!”

Posted by mystery | Filed under Uncategorized

FTOPS Event #3, the $200+$16 Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, drew 552 contestants. After five and a half hours of play, the dust settled and nine players were left to compete for the coveted gold Full Tilt Jersey and over $27,000 in first place money.

Keeping with the tradition of the first two FTOPS events, Event #3 had no shortage of red named Full Tilt Pros. Roland de Wolfe, Allen Cunningham, Andy Bloch, Erick Lindgren, Stuart ‘Donator’ Patterson, Erik Seidel, Steve Zolotow, and Aaron Bartley all entered the event. In fact, one particularly lucky (unlucky?) group of players managed to have three of these pros at their starting table at the same time!

While having players of this caliber in the field is always bad for players in any poker tournament, it does offer a unique opportunity to play with the best players in the World. The eight pros in the event all had a $200 bounty on their head, so some added money was also floating around. Roland de Wolfe was once again the last pro standing, but his 130th place finish showed that tonight, it was the Joes beating the Pros.

The stakes were 12,000/24,000 with an average stack of 184,000. gbmantis12 had the chip advantage, but there were plenty of players in striking distance. The final table chip count began as follows:

Seat 1: TOEY B (176,547)
Seat 2: Archangel21 (93,580)
Seat 3: gbmantis12 (487,556)
Seat 4: MiketheEye (126,828)
Seat 5: MickBt23 (26,150)
Seat 6: bobcards22 (37,982)
Seat 7: CaseyTheKid (269,082)
Seat 8: goaheadtiltme (377,637)
Seat 9: HoosierAlum (60,638)

bobcards22 started the final table desperately low in chips, in a dual with MickBt23 to avoid being the first knocked out. The table folded to bobcards22, who decided to raise it up from the small blind with 4h 8h 7d Ah. CaseyTheKid called in the big blind with 7c Ad 3h Th. The flop came A 2 2 and CaseyTheKid‘s 10 kicker still played by the river, eliminating bobcards22 on the second hand of the final table. bobcards22 did earn over $2,000 for his efforts.

MickBt23, the other desperate short stack, managed to scrape by for a full round by splitting a few pots, but he was unable to gain any significant amount of chips. He did buy himself time, while Archangel21 was struggling to build a stack.

Archangel21 raised from the button, leaving himself with less than a full bet. MiketheEye re-raised, and Archangel21 made his final all-in raise. Archangel21 had 6d 3c 4s 3h, while MiketheEye flipped over Ts 9c 2c Ad. MiketheEye caught two pair and sent Archangel21 packing with $2,760 in winnings. Archangel had a great showing, especially considering he was competing in his first tournament ever on Full Tilt!

MickBt23 escaped elimination for another round while waiting for an opportunity to double up. Soon after, he got his chance and raised with 3s 8c 4h As. gbmantis12 made the call in position with Ks Kh 2c 4s. They both liked the Qc 2d 5s flop, and the chips went in. Although gbmantis12 was in the lead, MickBt23 was the favorite to scoop. He hit a wheel on the river to scoop the 140,600 pot. MickBt23 managed to outlast two other players and increase his starting stack by a factor of five, making the chip count very interesting with seven players left:

Seat 1: TOEY B (278,547)
Seat 3: gbmantis12 (405,256)
Seat 4: MiketheEye (149,258)
Seat 5: MickBt23 (140,600)
Seat 7: CaseyTheKid (187,064)
Seat 8: goaheadtiltme (368,637)
Seat 9: HoosierAlum (126,638)

gbmantis12 and goaheadtiltme, the two chip leaders, were the next to play a big pot. gbmantis had just lost a 140,000 pot to a wheel, but ended up ahead when he dragged in a 318,000 chip pot with a wheel of his own. goaheadtiltme mucked after losing over 30% of his chips in the hand.

Several hands later, Full Tilt regular HoosierAlum decided to make a stand, but unfortunately for him, his chips would be divided up by CaseyTheKid and MiketheEye. CaseyTheKid managed a flush with his double-suited aces and MiketheEye made the nut low with his 2h Ah 2s Jd. HoosierAlum is no stranger to large Full Tilt Tournaments, with numerous cashes in the Sunday Night HORSE and $200K Guarantee. With his 7th place finish tonight, he added almost $3,500 to his tournament winnings.

The limits increased to 15,000/30,000 and MickBt23, who had managed to survive several all-ins was still in hot water. He appeared to be card dead while the blinds had squeezed him dry. MiketheEye raised from the cutoff and was promptly re-raised by MickBt23, who pushed his remaining 41k into the pot. MiketheEye made the easy call and both players flipped over similar hands. MiketheEye revealed an Ac 4c 5c 6s, while MickBt23 was a slight underdog with Ah 2h 3h 5s. The flop brought a 6, and no straights, flushes, or lows emerged to save MickBt23 for the umpteenth time. He did all he could on the short stack and took home $5,244 for sixth place. Here is how the remaining five players stood.

Seat 1: TOEY B (218,547)
Seat 3: gbmantis12 (625,756)
Seat 4: MiketheEye (345,277)
Seat 7: CaseyTheKid (185,883)
Seat 8: goaheadtiltme (280,537)

CaseyTheKid and TOEY B had hovered around the 200,000 chip mark for around 20 minutes and both were looking for opportunites to move closer to the chip lead. TOEY B thought opportunity knocked when his KJxx connected on a Js Jd 4s flop, but he ended up getting the door slammed in his face by an AJxx from CaseyTheKid. The betting was capped on the turn and CaseyTheKid was all-in, doubling up and leaving TOEY B with a mere 30,000.

TOEY B survived until his next big blind when goaheadtiltme put the nail in the coffin. TOEY B earned over $7,000 for his fifth place finish.

While the table waited for TOEY B‘s departure, CaseyTheKid took a 360,000 pot from gbmantis12 when gbmantis missed on his straight, flush, and low draws. With four players remaining, CaseyTheKid was the chip leader, but it was still anyone’s game.

Seat 3: gbmantis12 (438,256)
Seat 4: MiketheEye (292,777)
Seat 7: CaseyTheKid (551,766)
Seat 8: goaheadtiltme (373,201)

gbmantis12 continued to bleed chips, losing another 360,000 pot, this time to goaheadtiltme‘s wheel. A few hands later, goheadtiltme woke up with Ac Ah 2d 4c, and managed to win a 370,000 pot from gbmantis.

Gbmantis recovered after hitting a set of Queens. He won a 480,000 pot from MiketheEye, who mucked his hand but probably had a lower set or two pair. This pot kept gbmantis12 in the game and forced MiketheEye down to his last 80,000.

Within a few rounds of play, MiketheEye found a good hand to toss in his remaining 50,000 against goaheadtiltme. MiketheEye‘s Qd Kd Ah Tc held up and allowed him to move up another spot while gbmantis12 continued to play a lot of pots and miss all of his draws.

gbmantis12 committed his final 90,000 chips with 8c 8d Ks 2s against MiketheEye‘s Ac 4c 6s 6h. gbmantis12 bet from the small blind and MiketheEye felt that he had a good enough hand against the short stack. MiketheEye hit a set of sixes and sent gbmantis12 home packing in fourth place with an extra $9,660 in his pocket.

MiketheEye was still at a disadvantage to his two remaining opponents, as he still only had four big bets after the stakes went up to 25,000/50,000. CaseyTheKid had over half a million chips, and goaheadtiltme was just shy of one million. Both CaseyTheKid and goaheadtiltme were extremely active, going after the blinds while MiketheEye waited patiently for a chance to double up. He got his chance at about 3:30 EST.

goaheadtiltme raised from the button and got both players to call. The flop was 8h Qs 6d. The blinds both checked and called the 25,000 bet from goaheadtiltme. The Td turn clearly helped someone. The betting was capped three ways on the turn, putting MiketheEye all-in for a main pot of 540,540, while the side pot had 200,000. A Jack hit on the river, making the board 8h Qs 6d Td Js. goaheadtiltme bet one more time and was called by CaseyTheKid. goheadtiltme and CaseyTheKid both turned the nuts with a J9, but goaheadtiltme had a re-draw with Ah Kd Jh 9s. He scooped the pot with his broadway straight, taking down the biggest pot of the tournament.

MiketheEye mucked and left the table in third place with over $12,000 in earnings, not bad at all after winning a $24+$2 satellite to enter the tournament. The pot gave goaheadtiltme a substantial advantage in heads up play, starting with almost a 4-1 chip advantage over CaseyTheKid.

goaheadtiltme attacked CaseyTheKid‘s blinds relentlessly, putting The Kid below 300,000 after a few hands. CaseyTheKid wasn’t done fighting, and he raked in a 480,000 pot when his pocket Aces held up. Several hands later, CaseyTheKid struck another blow, catching a straight on the river for a 360,000 pot. The stacks were almost back to even with CaseyTheKid at 770,000 and goaheadtiltme at 880,000 and CaseyTheKid showed no signs of letting up.

The very next hand was the crucial hand of heads up action. The betting was capped pre-flop, as well as on the 3h Tc 2c flop. goaheadtiltme slowed down after then Ah on the turn, just calling the 60k bet from CaseyTheKid. Both players checked the river, a 6h and to the shock of the railbirds watching the hand, neither player managed to make qualifying low hand. CaseyTheKid showed Ac As 6h 3s and took the 600k pot with top set.

CaseyTheKid continued to pick up the big pots, flashing big hands at every opportunity. He chipped away relentlessly at goaheadtiltme‘s waning stack. goaheadtiltme couldn’t scoop any of the big pots down the stretch and wound up losing a significant portion of his chips by getting quartered on two big pots. Both times, CaseyTheKid and goaheadtiltme held identical low hands, but CaseyTheKid took the high pots. These two pots combined to cost goaheadtiltme 400,000 in chips and nearly any chance he had of winning this tournament and the gold Jersey. CaseyTheKid finished goaheadtiltme off in a 230,000 pot, when CaseyTheKid spiked a set of eights against goaheadtiltme‘s pair of jacks.

For the second night in a row, the winner of the FTOPS event made a terrific comeback after starting heads up play at a large chip disadvantage. We will see if this trend continues during tonight’s Pot Limit Hold’em Event.

Here are the final table results for Event #3:

1. CaseyTheKid $27,600
2. goaheadtiltme $17,112
3. MiketheEye $12,420
4. gbmantis12 $9,660
5. TOEY B $7,176
6. MickBt23 $5,244
7. HoosierAlum $3,422
8. Archangel21 $2,760
9. bobcards22 $2,152