FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#970 – FTOPs Recap: Two of the Good Guys Won

Posted by Editor | Filed under Dr Fill Good, FTOPS, yuvee04

FTOPS XV is now officially in the books. It was a rare winning series for me, not that I am particularly happy about it. For me, the lingering memory will be busting out of the Main Event after flopping a set, only to lose to a player who flopped a higher set and made quads on the river out of what I thought was my can’t-miss full house. But there were some good moments, and two of my friends, Dr Fill Good and yuvee04, won events.

CALL ME THE BARBER

I suppose I was happy with how I played this time around. In several events, I busted not far from the money, and a few times, I got tripped up in very unlucky situations. But I made my second FTOPS Final Table, finishing fourth in Event #19, Seven Card Stud. (I was on a ridiculous heater for an extended period during that tournament so I guess it’s not all bad breaks and bad beats.)

I also went on a bizarre run, collecting scalps of fellow red pros. I’m not saying this to brag. I play thousands of tournaments per year, so someone gets MY scalp thousands of times. And because several red pros play a lot of tournaments, we all bust each other regularly.

But this was ridiculous. The night before the HORSE FTOPS, I played the $200 + $16 Razz, the $5,000 guarantee. I was one of three red pros to make the final table. Even though I finished fourth, I busted the other two.

The next day, I played three satellites into the HORSE FTOPS. In the first one, I busted Paul Wolfe early and won a seat. In the second, I busted Aaron Bartley early and won another seat.

In the third satellite, I busted Julian Gardner by accident. I had the bring-in when Julian bet. I was doing several things in my office and meant to fold but, in my rush, jostled the mouse, and accidently pushed “call”. I had no hand and didn’t improve on fourth street. I was about to fold to Julian’s bet when I realized he was practically all-in. So I raised him back and hit three miracle running cards to bust him.

Five red pros in less than 24 hours is a personal record. Because I’ve been losing weight, I dropped a t-shirt size so I can now replenish my casual wardrobe.

YUVEE04

On the rare instances in which I spot talent before everyone else, I like to remind people about it. In 2007, I talked with Yuval “yuvee04” Bronshtein after he made the Final Table of the WSOP-Europe HORSE and told Uncle Tilty, “sign that kid up.” Before I could even write a blog about him, he won an FTOPS event, coincidently an event in which I had the chip lead for the first hour. This time, I quickly posted about his skills and potential.

The next August, Yuval won two more FTOPS events ON THE SAME NIGHT. In another twist, one of the events was HORSE, which was hosted by Jens Voertmann, on whose couch Yuvee had camped for three weeks not long before. The other event that night, the Turbo FTOPS, was hosted by me. I wrote about this as well.

Bronshtein been especially hot lately. Last November, he won a HORSE tournament at the LA Poker Open. In January, he chopped the PLO Championship at Paradise Island, good for $89,000. And last week, he finished fourth in the HORSE Championship at the LA Poker Classic.

The little pischer did it again in FTOPS XV. In Event #23, PLO with re-buys, last Saturday, Yuvee won his fourth FTOPS, along with another $72,000.

One of these days, if this kid keeps working at it, he could become a decent poker player.

DR FILL GOOD

Patrick “Dr Fill Good” McAllister, a friend of the blog, won Event #8, the first Sunday knockout tournament, for $136,000. Patrick is a member of the Dublin Bellybusters and BadBeatsPoker.net. I first became acquainted with these groups through David “LAPPIN” Lappin. David and his friends were big supporters of my Relay for Life tournaments and, when Patrick won one of them last year, he donated the $250 first prize to the Scottsdale Relay for Life.

Shortly thereafter, David and his friends challenged me to a series of head-s up matches with the proceeds going to Relay. I lost to LAPPIN and then to Rounder63. I was behind in the final match to Patrick when, with less than five minutes to go, I won a huge pot with 7-6s against his pocket aces. That one pot was so large that it outweighed my losses from the rest of the match and the two previous matches, allowing me to declare myself “the winner.”

After Patrick won Event #8, I quickly shot him this note: “I hadn’t even seen the results from yesterday when one of your legions of fans sent me an email informing me that you won FTOPS #8. Congratulations! I know you couldn’t have done it without me.”

McAllister stuck it to me a little bit in his response: “Thanks Michael. Our heads-up battle did inspire me. I was very careful to stack off with A-A with a made straight. I expect nothing less than ten blog posts written about this achievement.”

Thank goodness I had the appropriate reply: “Ten blog posts? No problem. I assume, as when you won my Relay tournament, you’ll be donating the entire amount to Relay for Life, right?”

You can count on me, if you ever do me a favor, to regret it for the rest of your days.

For all our correspondence and history, however, I haven’t actually met Patrick. David Lappin wrote me a detailed email about Patrick and his victory. Because it was such a fine account (and I get paid by the word), I am reprinting it in its entirety:

Hey Michael,

Just thought I’d drop you a line to let you know that Patrick ‘Dr Fill Good” McAllister just took down Event 8 for $136K.

Patrick is 22 and hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia but currently resides in Saint John, New Brunswick. Formerly a musician, Patrick has been a full time online poker player (and part-time Jon Heder look-alike) for about 3 years and is best known as ‘Dr Fill Good’, one of the top 45-man grinders on the net. Some moderate MTT success came last year as he moved a substantial portion of his focus into that area but coming into November ’09 and FTOPS XIV, he was still without a 5-figure score. That was, of course, until he made the Main Event Final Table.

Supported by all his Dublin Bellybuster and BadBeatsPoker.net friends, Patrick looked set for a massive life-changing score. 1st prize was a cool $480K and Patrick was sitting pretty on an above average stack. Disaster struck, however, as he got into a big pot early on versus one of the other big stacks. Always aggressive, Patrick fast-played (3-bet) his nut-flush draw and two overs on a flop of small cards but ran himself headlong in his opponent’s flopped set. Neither the turn nor river bailed him out and he was left with a stack of just 2 blinds. Seemingly dead, Patrick mounted a fantastic comeback over the next 5 hands, tripling and doubling up several times to find himself back in contention with a playable stack of over 20 big blinds. The very next hand, his hopes were dashed as he lost a race that would have put him amongst the leaders and exited in 9th spot for $28K – a tidy score but by no means the ‘big one’ for which he was hoping.

Three months on and Patrick is back dominating the 45-man circuit. January and February have been kind to him in this regard and he is perched right at the top of the 2010 standings. FTOPS, however, is the ultimate distraction for a SNG grinder. Buoyed by his good showing last time out but realistic about his chances of getting through another big field, Patrick finally gave in to the FTOPS buzz and p layed Event #8 earlier today. Thirteen hours later, he emerged as victor, $136K richer, claiming it to be the 2nd best Valentines Day ever. (The 1st must have been something/someone really special!)

It was the effort of a consummate professional. He got chips early and spent much of the tourney in the Top20. After the bubble burst, he faded back into the pack but always maintained an average stack. With 300 left, he made his move back up the leaderboard as a few big hands held. With 100 left he lost some crucial showdowns and a big coinflip. He had half the chip average and for the first time in the tournament was ‘All-In-Or-Fold’. Picking his spots well, he kept himself above water for several orbits before getting it in with a dominant Ace and holding. He doubled again an orbit later as his QQ held versus AK all-in pre-flop.

By 50 remaining, he had maneuvered him self into the Top10. The beneficiary of a huge set-up, his Aces held versus Kings in a pot with one of the other big stacks. Patrick had the chip-leader and he never gave it up. Avoiding showdowns where possible, he picked on the medium stacks and chipped up relatively risk-free. By Final Table time, he held a commanding chip lead and was not about to lose momentum. Raising and 3-betting, he applied constant pressure to his opponents, keenly aware of the leverage bet in every hand. While they jostled for position and an extra place up the money ladder, Patrick’s focus was firmly on 1st place and the jersey. He rode his luck 4-handed as his 77 overcame the JJ of his opponent. With two-thirds of the chips in play, he kept his foot on the gas and when his K10 overcame A5, he was heads-up with Kakafoni. The two made a sporting deal and played on for $8K and the jersey. Patrick had 80% of the chips and closed out the victory within 10 hands. A deserved winner and a genuinely good bloke, I look forward to seeing him don his FTOPS jersey tomorrow and of course King him for our usual $20 bounty!

Boooo yeaaaaah!

Regards,

David