#738 – The Action Blog: FTops XII, Dwan vs. Antonius, Craig vs. the Dublin Bellybusters

This Friday is the Scottsdale Relay For Life. But between now and then, it’s all about ACTION. FTOPS XII starts tonight (Wednesday), Patrick Antonius has made a major advance in his heads-up epic with Tom Dwan, and it’s put-up or shut-up time between me and the Dublin Bellybusters.

FTOPS XII

Tonight, Wednesday, May 6, FTOPS XII kicks off with a $1 Million Guarantee NLHE (six-handed) tournament hosted by Erick Lindgren. Because of Relay For life obligations, I will be missing the opening event, and I will miss it with some regret.

My original plan was to boycott FTOPS XII. FTOPS has been an online vampire to me, sucking thousands of dollars out of my account every few months. I can’t think of anything I despise as much as FTOPS. Still, I am not quite ready to sever the cord.

I’m due.

So you can expect to see me in several FTOPS events. More important, I want to support MiniFTOPS. For those of you unaware, MiniFTOPS are events run concurrently with FTOPS, for 10% of the buy-in and starting five minutes later. There are going to be a lot of great $20 – $50 tournaments running on Full Tilt the next week and a half.

For tonight, the $1 million guarantee means Full Tilt is expecting a field of at least 5,000. First prize will be at least $191,000 – not bad for a Wednesday night tournament.  The MiniFTOPS event looks unbelievably juicy: a $200,000 guarantee (expecting a field of 10,000) and a first prize of $32,000. The buy-in for FTOPS Event #1 is $200 + $16. For MiniFTOPS #1 it is $20 + $2. (I’m probably going to sign up for Mini #1 even though I’ll miss the first hour or two. But only because I’m really, REALLY due.)
DWAN VS. ANTONIUS

Patrik Antonius opened up the biggest lead of the challenge a few days ago and is now ahead of Tom Dwan by $488,133. They have played 13,246 hands out of the 50,000 that compose the challenge. Although almost three quarters of the challenge is still to be played, this represents the biggest lead of either player and Patrik picked up most of that lead during the last few hundred hands.

Somebody looking at the graph on Full Tilt’s durrrr Challenge page could be excused for considering this a massive turn of events.

I think they are just getting started.

I don’t know Tom Dwan very well, but I don’t need to talk with him to know he is unfazed. I watched Tom closely during the Million Dollar Cash Game in London last September and he quickly got stuck several hundred thousand playing like a maniac. It didn’t bother him a bit, didn’t cause him to change his play a bit, and he mounted an impressive comeback.

If I had to choose someone to play poker with my life on the line, maybe Tom Dwan wouldn’t be my first choice.  But if someone was playing for my life and was stuck a half-million dollars a quarter of the way through, I’d want it to be Dwan. The guy has unlimited nerve, guts, heart, balls, chutzpah.
CRAIG VS. THE DUBLIN BELLYBUSTERS
 
Dr Fill Good, the member of the Dublin Bellybusters who won my second Relay for Life charity tournament on Full Tilt donated his winnings to Relay and challenged me to take on the Bellybusters for charity. On Thursday, May 7 from 21:30 to 00:30 EDT, I will be playing a pair of simultaneous heads-up matches against three members of the Dublin Bellybusters: Dr Fill Good, LAPPIN, and Rounder63. We will play .50 – $1 NLHE (deep stack) and $1 – $2 HORSE.

Here is what’s at stake for charity. If I win, the Bellybusters’ team will donate another $250 to Relay for Life. I’ll also donate all my winnings. If the Bellybusters win, I’ll donate $250 to Relay and they have pledged to donate a substantial portion of their winnings to Relay.

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