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#585 – BlogChild of Thursday, November 6 – Part III
FTOPS X
FTOPS X began yesterday, the first of 25 events ending with the FTOPS Main Event, $500 + $35 NLHE on Sunday, November 16. I’ve kept a low profile in my writing about this FTOPS because (a) my FTOPS record is dreadful, and (b) I’m currently running as bad as I’ve ever run.
But that didn’t stop me from entering the first event, $200 + $16 NLHE 6-handed, last night. My luck continued. I last a third of my stack in the first five minutes, starting with a pair, having my opponent make a gutshot straight on the turn, and then (by far worst of all) making a worse straight myself on the river. I rebounded, but busted after about 90 minutes, when I raised with A-K and hit an ace on the flop, only to find an opponent with A-A.
My failure notwithstanding, it was an incredibly exciting event. They guaranteed $1 million – gigantic for a 6-handed event on a Wednesday night – and exceeded the guarantee, drawing 5,124 starters. After 9 1/2 hours, davin77 took down the top prize, over $195,000. Halfrek, the monster who took down the two biggest events in FTOPS XIII, made the last two tables. Four red pros finished in the money out of the 34 who entered, but the best any could manage was Aaron Bartley finishing 225th, worth $563.64. Especially because I haven’t heard anything about him sharing his profits with the rest of us bums, it would have to be regarded as an unsuccessful event from the red perspective.
Even though I’ll be a no-show for most of the first ten or so events, there’s a lot about this series of FTOPS to be excited about:
* The first $5,000 buy-in FTOPS event;
* A dozen superstack FTOPS events, where players will start with 5,000 in chips;
* Lots of big guarantees;
* The continued trend toward daily events starting at 14:00 ET, reflecting the increased participation in FTOPS events throughout the world; and
* A good mix of tournaments: rebuys, 6-handed, KO, heads-up, shoot-outs, mixed events, limit events.
Maybe I can get this FTOPS collar from around my neck once and for all, and even my ever-uglier losing streak.
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