The Week at FTP: ...And, It's Over

Hold on… don’t celebrate yet. We’re not going anywhere. Sorry to burst your bubble.

As for our Full Tilt Poker pros and the WSOP Main Event – stick a fork in ‘em because their done and the Big Dance is going to be won by some random donkey. (Technically, there are a couple of not-so-random donkeys left in the field like the lovely Tiffany Michelle, but that just doesn’t have the same ring to it, you know?)

Team Full Tilt’s Mike Matusow had the honor of being the last big name left in the 6,844 player field, and he bowed out in 30^th place after taking after his A-Q lost to a full house of Aces and 9s. We’re sure Mikey is hugely disappointed with his finish, especially since he’s been playing some insanely great poker over the past six weeks. Hopefully, the $193,000 he banked for his Main Event performance will help ease his pain.

Unlike most other tourneys at this year’s WSOP, the pros just didn’t perform as well as the amateurs in this year’s Main Event. Of course, with more than 6,800 players in a single tourney, even reaching the money in this kind of donk-fest is a pretty impressive feat. With that in mind, here are some of the other FTP pros who earned back their $10K entrance fee and a little bit more:

• The recently signed David Benefield - $77,200 for 73^rd place
• Mark Vos - $77,200 for 80^th place
• Jeff Madsen - $41,816 for 112^th place
• Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, and Chip Jett - $41,818 each for 117^th, 160, and 161^st place
• Ben Roberts - $38,600 for 178^th place

• Total amount won by the FTP pros during the 2008 WSOP: $12,213,376
• Number of bracelets won: 10
• Number of final tables reached: 46
• Number of pros who cashed: 80
• Number of pros who cashed for $1M or more: 1
• Number of pros who cashed for $500K or more: 8
• Number of other useless categories I can keep creating: 236

While the poker world was focusing on the action in the Rio’s Amazon Room over the past two weeks, there was another series of tourneys in Vegas that drew some big fields and big names; the Bellagio Cup.

Why do we care? Because one of the big names – and big winners – was Team Full Tilt’s Clonie Gowen. Yup, after cashing four times during the WSOP, Clonie found time in her busy schedule to take down the biggest event of her career, the $5K No-Limit event worth more nearly $438K.

With that win, Clonie has now officially earned more than $1.2 million in tournament winnings, a mere $1,199,995 more than yours truly.