#132 - FTOPS to come - Big Game Tonight!

We’re just a few minutes before starting FTOPS #4, the $1,000 + $60 buy-in NLHE hosted by Gavin Smith. Well over 800 starters, including yours truly. First prize may exceed $200,000.

I did NOT engage in any last-longer bets on this one. I didn’t even propose any. Based on my play in the FTOPS of late, it would be foolhardy. But still, I put up my grand - and $200 on a turbo satellite where I lost my early chips to quads and then pocket aces - to give it a shot.

Last night’s FTOPS #3 proved rich and exciting

1. Homerindoors won it (he’s playing tonight, of course). He just accelerated through the final table, and dominated the heads-up session, which lasted 22 hands. He and kice32 were roughly even when they started heads-up. Maybe he was getting great cards - a couple big hands can make a huge difference - but he was much more aggressive than kice32 and quickly finished him off.

2. Only two Full Tilt pros finished in the money - Andy Bloch (130th) and Stuart Paterson (83rd). And their combined $1,900 in winnings didn’t make a dent in the $5,000 and change 16 pros paid to enter. That’s 3 in a row where the Tilters didn’t come close to covering their collective buy-ins.

3. The pools in these tournaments are gigantic. For the $1000 event, the pool is over $900,000, and first will pay $208,840.

More at the break. We’re now 8 minutes in and I’ve lost 1,000 of my starting 3,000.