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We are at the halfway point in FTOPS XII. I have several interesting items to report, both generally and personally.

1. Participation in FTOPS has been slightly less than expected.

In a majority of the first dozen FTOPS XII events, the turnout did not reach the Guarantee. I can speculate about three possible reasons: (a) the rotten economy is starting to have an impact on online poker; (b) with the World Series coming and its expanded satellite schedule, along with Full Tilt’s expanded schedule of quality tournaments, players are stretched a little thin; and (c) MiniFTOPS has taken some of the money away from the FTOPS events. Each reason is probably at least partly responsible.

The most alarming possibility would be that the economy is now hitting online poker. Although I do not want to completely discount this, it’s too soon to reach that conclusion. Because the World Series is starting in a few weeks, Full Tilt is running several daily Main Event qualifiers and Bracelet Races with buy-ins of $200-$1000. I think this schedule has expanded from last year but, in any event, a lot of players may have to choose among all these three-figure-buy-in events. I don’t play on any other sites but I assume their expanded WSOP satellites and tournament schedules are spreading the tournament bankrolls of online players even thinner this spring.

2. Gavin Smith enters the winner’s circle.

Gavin Smith recently said that he was playing more online tournaments. Thanks to Twitter we can all be privy to the thoughts and plans of most big-time poker pros.  This is even better than stalking them; they’re stalking themselves for our benefit.

Gavin’s efforts have borne immediate fruit. On Saturday, he won FTOPS Event #7, $100 + $9 NLHE with rebuys. Gavin picked up over $123,000 for the triumph, which, depending on the circumstances of a high-rolling poker pro, could mean many things: (a) it pays the bills for a little while; (b) it pays the buy-in for the next big cash game; (c) it keeps creditors from foreclosing or breaking thumbs; (d) it staunches the bleeding from the disastrous decision to bet on auto racing; or (e) it’s tip money.

Whatever it amounts to, congratulations Gavin.

3. MiniFTOPS has been a huge hit.

In the first dozen MiniFTOPS events, participation has typically exceeded the Guarantee by a factor of 2-4. The only event in which the players did not at least double the guarantee was Sunday’s $30 + $3 NLHE, and that was probably because the $300,000 Guarantee was 20% (rather than the customary 10%) of the Guarantee of the corresponding FTOPS event.

Somehow, I think this has taken some money out of circulation for the FTOPS events. Even though the MiniFTOPS buy-ins are only 1/10th of their FTOPS counterparts, the MiniFTOPS prize pools have been 25%-40% of the FTOPS pools. This may have caused a drop in FTOPS satellites or encouraged some players to skip the larger event and play just the Mini.

The experience demonstrates huge demand for tournaments in this price range. And congratulations to Full Tilt Pro Bruno Stefanelli for winning the $20 + $2 NLHE rebuy event last Friday. Congratulations are also in order to Rounder63, the Dublin Bellybuster who beat up on me Thursday night while winning the $50 + $5 NLHE Shootout event.

4. I made the quarterfinals of the heads-up MiniFTOPS event.

On Sunday, I finished 8th out of 2,048 in the $50 + $5 NLHE heads-up event. I made over $2,400 and, more important, decided that, at least for the time being, I am retiring from heads-up poker.

Maybe I’ve suddenly become old enough to be “curmudgeonly” but I’m becoming increasingly bothered by the knee-jerk reaction to attack an opponent after losing a pot. Playing heads-up, this is almost mandatory. Because I was playing as many as five tournaments at once on Sunday, I took the unusual step  (for me) of shutting off player and observer chat. During a break late in the day, I re-enabled that chat and was shocked at what I had missed

My first opponent, who was a truly awful heads-up player, said something nasty to me after every single showdown regardless of who won it. Because he never raised, and folded far too often to my constant raises, he said nothing about the 80% of his chips that I took that way.  I have no problem that the guy didn’t have a clue about heads-up play; it’s his money and in a $50 tournament I would have been happy to give him a few pointers. But to simultaneously to be so clueless AND critical was almost too much to believe.

Another opponent called me a fat fuck in every possible combination that Full Tilt would not sensor. Even though I don’t play heads-up for cash, he taunted me by “reminding” me about how many times he had owned me in heads-up cash games.

One of the players on the rail for that match agreed with the assessment said he had already busted me out of three tournaments (which must have been a bigger deal to him than me, because his name didn’t ring a bell), and prayed that he would get to face me heads-up. It turned out he was my next round opponent and managed to last all of 17 hands.

Then there was one nut-job that used his maximum allotted time on every decision point of every hand. I shudder to think what phucker-fhucker-fukker-fuckyr would have said if he had to spend an hour playing a couple dozen hands against this guy.

It’s almost like you need a personality disorder in addition to the buy-in to play heads-up. I am sick of it. So I am going to take my victory against the Dublin Bellybusters (who demonstrated none of these characteristics yet were somehow highly-skilled players) and my quarterfinal finish in the MiniFTOPS event and leave those losers I ran over on Sunday and their ilk with no chance at satisfaction. From now on, if you want to talk trash against me heads- up, you’ll have to make it to the final two of a tournament. I repeat: you have no chance at satisfaction.

Because of my involvement in the Scottsdale Relay For Life, I’ve played fewer events so far than ever before. Automatically, that means that I am having a better FTOPS experience than ever before. But with 6 days of little to do but play online poker, you will see me in a lot more events.

I should be easy to recognize. I’ll be the guy busting out early and miserable about it but keeping his opinions to himself.

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3 Responses to “#740 – FTOPS Update: Gavin Smith, Mini-Me, and My Farewell to Heads-Up Poker”

1. Doug Says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 7:03 pm

   This is fairly standard all over the FT site I have found. Berating people at the table for no good reason. I see it especially at the cash tables and I only play low limit 1/2 cent to 10/25 cent max (omaha h/l) usually. Too many players “tap the glass” and berate the bad players and chase them off. Sad actually all around.

2. GarethChantler Says:
   May 19th, 2009 at 3:33 pm

   yeah don’t turn on chat if you had it off… its always a mistake. If it makes you feel better you’ve knocked me out of Midnight Madness twice

3. Barb Says:
   September 24th, 2009 at 10:45 am

   I play many sites on and off–I’m not a good player—I’m not a horrible player—I’m somewhere in between. Adequate maybe? Anyway–the language and the harassment from players is the absolute worst on full tilt. No other site can come close for this kind of player abuse. And nothing gets done about it at all. It’s very sad, both in terms of how little full tilt cares about this issue, and in terms of how far society has slipped from having any manners whatsoever. To abuse any player that badly is sick—to abuse a pro is just plain stupid.

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