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#413 – FTOPS Notebook – Days of Glory, Nights of Anguish
This is shaping up for me like all the FTOPS: a giant hole in my resume as an online player. I figure I’m underwater $15,000 or so, though the actual amount may be less because I’ve had a lot of success gaining satellite entries. What should have been my two best events – NLHE Turbo and HORSE – were both huge disappointments.
The Turbo event was much anticipated, by me and a lot of other people, as evidenced by over 2,100 entries and more players on the site at the start of the tournament than I’ve noticed in a month or more. Unfortunately, I got all my good cards in the first three hands and in two of them just picked up the miniscule blinds. I waited in vain for a hand as the blinds rose, finally picking up Ks-Qs in the big blind. I had just 900 chips and the blinds were 80-160.
The button limped, which of course set off alarm bells. The small blind moved all-in. I didn’t care about any of this. Unless I was up against K-K and Q-Q, I felt it was time to get my chips in and I did. I was up against A-A and A-K.
I almost pulled it out, catching two spades on the flop and an open-ended straight draw on the turn (though with 3 aces out, it was just 4 more outs). I busted about 45 minutes in.
Both of the “You’re Uncle Tilty” winners who played the event did better, making it past the first break, but didn’t do well enough to cash. SchaefPerro, who has played a lot of FTOPS events (though I don’t know how much he has played turbos), finished about 600th. He sent me an e-mail going into the first break telling me he was 549th out of 675. “This is a rollercoaster. I will be out or have a lot of chips soon.”
Major General, who I take it from the following e-mail, fared about the same: “Of all the crazy, card-catching, coin-flipping tournaments I’ve ever been in, this one takes the cake. …. Thank you for the 70 minutes of adrenaline.”
The tournament was won by dud711. He was rewarded with over $87,000 for less than 3 1/2 hours of work. In contrast, it took 5 1/2 hours for a player named Baji Kimran to finish 65th in the other FTOPS event, $500 + $35 HORSE, which, because it was the bubble, earned him $0.00. The event concluded 3 1/2 hours later, with the aviator1 taking down first place and over $70,000.
I saw some familiar names at that final table, including aviator, vitiver, TheComeUp, and Magic Aces. But I saw them from a distance, having busted in 515th. I can’t say I played bad … but I can’t say I played good.
