MiniFTOPS XIV Weekend Report

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

MiniFTOPS XIV" width="234" height="281" align="right" />Every once in a blue moon I feel the need to pull away from the laptop for a little live action. This weekend provided that and even more. It was the yearly gathering of bloggers in Las Vegas and I once again stuck my head into the craziness. Much more to come later on that insanity including your (barely) humble author finishing second in the blogger poker tournament at Caesar’s.

Naturally the timing of my run to the west coincided with the kickoff of MiniFTOPS XIV and reporting on it here. My laptop never left the bag so I had regular guest blogger Julius_Goat keep track of the action this weekend since he was one of the few unfortunate who could not make the trip.

I asked him to keep an eye on the Full Tilt pros and big online names for anything spectacular or out of the ordinary. He passed along a bunch of reports but I figure my favorite is from Event #7.

The Full tilt pros got mowed down in Event #7 like extras in Saving Private Ryan and thus there was nothing to report on their actions in that event.

He stuck around the entire final table of Event #4, $200 rebuy tournament with a $600,000 guarantee. His first reports as well as the final table results after the jump.

The Julius_Goat Report on Event #4:

It’s a given that one of the thrills of playing Mini FTOPS is the chance for us low-stakes players to have a chance to run into some of the Full Tilt pros that might usually play above our level. But without taking away from that opportunity, there’s something about the huge prizes (for a very small buy in) that makes the final table of one of these events intrinsically compelling, with or without pros. I was reminded of this as I sweated the final table of Event #4, 1R + 1A $22 No Limit Holdem

12 remaining

3000/60000 7500

Starting pot 135,000

Cool Sonji (4.825)
bigace223 (3.75)
I’mDoneCallin (3.412)
JOEYYJOE (3.419)
anarstetch (2.6)
phatboyflex
Peter_rey75
DrinkingBuddy
miki2121
Mike-010485
darbysuckling
LUu-9

The final table was set with a big car-crash of a hand, as heavy three-player preflop action brought a 7dAd along with an offsuit ten.

All three were more than happy to get all-in, and Peter_rey75, the shortiest of the shorties, was happiest of all. He held a black Ace and a black Ten, putting him ahead with top two, and he had to be feeling good when he saw how the other two were stepping on each other outs. Mike-010485, who was holding JdKd for the flush/inside straight draw, couldn’t have been happy to see darbysuckling holding QdTd. But Mike? Think how darbysuckling must have felt to have a flush/pair of Tens into just a dominated pair of tens that was hoping for a miracle. I bet that felt bad.

I bet it felt even worse when the board brought a 3rd diamond, and Peter_rey went from king of the world to final table bubble boy, just like that. Poker is a cruel thing to do to a nice guy sometimes. Good run, Peter.

And, in that appropriately dramatic fashion, the final table was set. Over 6,500 players had winnowed down to a final nine. Let’s look at our heroes. (Chips amounts from here on in millions unless otherwise stated.)

FINAL TABLE

Cool Sonji (5.4)
bigace223 (6.7)
I’mDoneCallin (3.2)
JOEYYJOE (2.7)
anarstetch (3.5)
phatboyflex (1.6)
miki2121 (1.2)
Mike-010485 (3.1)
darbysuckling (1.9)
CoolSonji (5.4)

The first majors hand came, as they often do in final tables, from the short stacks. Miki2121 doubled through bigace223 with QJ when the board brought miki a str8 to win from behind. Darbysuckling got caught stealing like he was Jane’s Addiction by anarstech, who made the call with. darby showed 57 for two live cards, but he only caught a club draw which didn’t compled. Killed by the flushes that got there and those that didn’t, darbysuckling went out in 9th, and anarstech took the chiplead with 7.1 million.

Next, one of those common brutalities of poker transpired. Bigaces’ AJ rivered miki’s AK, and miki2121 went out in 8th, bringing bigace up to 7.5.

The big stacks didn’t avoid each other. Bigace took a pot off of anarstech, holding AT vs. anarstetch’s pocket Jacks, moving him further up to to 8.5

At the 60K / 120K level with 15K antes, phatboy, way short pushed Q9 into ImDoneCallin’s big blind. ImDone called with A6 clubs and the thin lead held. Phatboy hit the skids in 7th, and the very short ImDone moved up to 2.7 million, which was only the beginning of a tear. Shortly thereafter, ImDone got AK all in vs. CoolSonji’s QQ, and won the classic showdown by catching an Ace, moving up to 5.1 million, and tearing Cool’s stack down to 3.0 million. Sometimes the rich get poor and the poor get rich. Of course, once the poor get rich, they’re going to want to get richer. ImDone took a big pot off of bigace, and a small pot off of mike, bringing him to 7.0 million, and then, in the 80K/160K level, re-raised anarstetch off of a 223 flop to take the lead with 8.1.

Not all shorties could get tall, though. CoolSonj shoved AQ, anarstetch made the call with 33, and the baby pair holds. Anarstetch took back the lead with 9.5 million, and Sonj went out 6th, leaving us this lineup.

bigace223 (6.7)
I’mDoneCallin (8.1)
JOEYYJOE (3.9)
anarstetch (9.5)
miki2121 (2.3)
Mike-010485 (2.3)

Now JOEYYJOE started making moves. He raised 400K from EP, anar re-raised to 800K, JOEYY mad it 2.6 million, and anarstetch, who had been the shorty-buster to this point, tanked and folded. It was a key hand for JOEYY, who got himself up to nearly 5 million.

ImDoneCalling (IDC) started being merciless with steals, moving up to 10 million and a strong chiplead, until anarstetch finally made him laydown with an all-in re-raise preflop, to scoop a 3.8 million pot, taking back the chiplead (8.2) and trying to take back the momentum. IDC didn’t slow it down a bit, though, butsting Mike by calling an all-in for 1.7 million with KT. Mike had TT, but he must have used up his karma with that final-table setting move, because IDC caught his king and sent Mike out in 5th.

Down now to four-handed, the two big stacks IDC and anarstetch continued to butt heads at every opportunity, raising and re-raising each other on almost every hand, leaving Bigace (medium-size stack) and Joey (short) effectively just watching what was turning into a heads-up match, and waiting for their spot..

It came at the100/200K level, as JOEYY played a big hand with anarstetch. At showdown it became clear that anarstetch’s A2 had flopped two pair, but the board paired the turn, counterfeiting the lower pair and making JOEYY’s A9 the better hand. Anarstetchtook a hit and JOEYY moved out of the shorty-zone.

CHIP COUNTS

JOEYYJOE 6.9
anarstetch 8.3
IDC 8.1
bigace 6.3

The next elimination came as anarstetch bet 1 million into a 1.8 million pot, and bigace shoved on a Qx7 board. It was queens-up for anar with Q7 vs. bigace QJ. For the first time, one player had 50% of the chips, as anarstetch moved up to 14 million and bigace got froze out in 4th.

CHIP COUNTS

anarstetch 14.4
IDC 9.4
JOEYYJOE 5.5

Just before the break came the next key hand. JOEYY raised to 545K, anarstetch re-raised and JOEYY shoved. Anarstetch made a surprising call with A2 spades, while JOEY showed Queens. The better hand won, and JOEYY took the chiplead with 12.2, leaving all three players fairly tightly spaced.

CHIP COUNT AT THE BREAK

JOEYY 11.4
anarstetch 10.9
IDC 7.5

After the break the 120K/240K level began. IDC was active but without any short stacks he was getting pushed off most hands post flop, whittling his stack down to 2.7 million. Anarstetch was the chief beneficiatry, and moved back into the driver’s seat with 15.5 million chips.

Weakened, IDC moved all-in holding A4 spades, and JOEYY called with A8. IDC turned a flush draw, but he missed his pull at a final spade and went out in 3rd. As the tournament shifted to heads-up play, the players were fairly even, with JOEYY sitting on 13.1 million and long-time big stack anarstetch appropriately holding the lead with 16.4 million.

Anarstetch looked likely to put it away early as he flopped a straight with The Grump (42), and managed to work up to 18.8, but in an all-in confrontation, Joey’s K9 was dominated vs. anarstetch’s KJ, but he the 678T board sucked all the noodles out of anarstetch’s soup, and JOEYY lived to play on with 13 million against anarstetch’s 16 million. It was starting to look like a long heads up, until . . .

JOEYY raised to 480K, and anarstetchmade it 960K. JOEYY made the call, and the flop came:

4d5c6d

Anarstetch acted first with a 1.2 million bet and JOEY shoved all in. After tanking, anarstetch made a call that had the rail chat on fire. He called most of his chips with just A8, for the unimproved overs and the gutshot. Even more dramatically, anarstetch was ahead already! JOEYYJOE showed Ks3s!! for the naked king and OESD. The outs didn’t come, and anarstetch won $54,691 and Event #4.

Congratulations to the final table and to the winner, anartech!

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – dbfla – $40,560.69
2nd – Parus345 – $42,138.71
3rd – MickeyMouseSON – $23,061.18
4th – Christian Kruel – $14,872.79
5th – DaveClarke5 – $9,525.27
6th – mugwumphump – $6,584.13

Notables: Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy (21st), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (37th)

1st – djcarib1984 – $11,171.57
2nd – Praetoriani – $7,078.66
3rd – jk59876 – $4,889.26
4th – Inside Ur Head – $3,715.16
5th – pokerbrandan – $2,637.48
6th – amiropoker – $1,758.32

Notables: Esther Rossi (44th)

The Julius_Goat Report:

2,836 signed up for this true test of all-around poker skills, including a dozen Full Tilt pros. One of these, the inimitable Artie Cobb, was kind enough to take the title and sting that come from being “bubble boy,” busting out in 307th place.

When Keith Sexton went out just a few hands later, he left behind only 297 runners, with only Scott Fischman (sitting on approximately 35K in chips) and Esther Rossi, whose stack was right around 31K, carrying the flag for Team Full Tilt. The average stack was 56K, but both red pros had plenty of chips left to make moves.

About an hour later, Fish took a hit that left him very short after taking a hit and never recovered. He went out in 188th.

While the pros were playing around with average stacks, other Tilt players were dealing with more options, courtesy of their monster stacks. The top chips with 180 left:

- Felted5xxx 200K
- swan69 178K
- canebiere13 176K
- YummyPoker19 166K
- ellaspapi 158K

canebier13 was a quiet one, but he ran deepest of this crowd, falling just short of the final table in 11th, for a handsome return of $536 on a $20 investment. Yummy and Felted were at the same table and really mixing it up on the TV table, and Yummy finally came out on top. Felted spun out in 83rd, but Yummy lasted until 13th place for $400.

Esther Rossi was making moves, when she found a boat of Aces over nines in the Stud H/L leg Aces jumped to 184K. She ran her stack up nd lasting until 44th.

1st – donkos187 – $7,654.50
2nd – scoop you – $5,103.00
3rd – Wesolowski – $3,645.00
4th – KarlaIveyHansen – $2,733.75
5th – icehawk – $2,004.75
6th – NikolasDLP – $1,458.00
7th – qwertyak – $1,020.60
8th – TK420 US – $692.55
9th – akly1987 – $492.08

Notables: Scott Fischman (19th), Ryan Dreyer (26th), Svetlana Gromenkova (38th), Thomas Bihl (39th)

1st – anarstetch – $54,691.24
2nd – JOEYYJOE – $33,458.04
3rd – ImDoneCallin – $23,617.44
4th – bigace223 – $16,869.60
5th – Mike-010485 – $12,089.88
6th – CoolSonji – $8,153.64
7th – phatboyflex – $5,623.20
8th – miki2121 – $3,936.24
9th – darbysuckling – $2,811.60

1st – vmendi123 – $7,949.60
2nd – TheKunkMaster – $4,895.28
3rd – Bklyn4life – $3,347.20
4th – MalaParis – $2,259.36
5th – skinnyriver – $1,548.08
6th – key123 – $1,046.00
7th – donkeysrule0 – $711.28
8th – Andreasice – $510.45

Notables: Berry Johnston (12th), Esther Rossi (20th), Roy Winston (64th), hoyazo (77th)

The Julius_Goat Report:

Split pot stud is a game that many players find challenging to master. For example, noted low-stakes donkey Julius_Goat is reduced to sucking his thumb in a fetal ball under the table whenever he foolishly stumbles near this variant. Perhaps because of this, there were a larger than average percentage of Full Tilt pros cashing in this event. None had a monster stack by any means, but all of them stayed alive long after the bubble playing patient and methodical poker.

With 2,092 runners, 256 players got paid. When that bubble broke, the remaining players were in the 2K/4K, 300 Ante level, and the following pros were still competing for the big money at the end.

S Gromenkova 25K
Roy Winston 28K
Esther Rossi 13K
Berry Johnston 27K
Alan Boston 29K

None of this group had more than seven big bets, but the tournament was in that common area near the bubble where blinds had raced ahead of a more cautious group of players, so it wasn’t just the pros who were fairly short. There was a lot of blood on the virtual floor for a level, but Team Tilt all made it through. Esther Rossi, who’d made it deep the day before in the 7-Game Event #2, continued to display her talent as she ground back up to around 60K during the 2500/5000, 400 Ante level. The others had the following stacks:

Alan Boston 34K
Berry Johnson 54K
Roy Winston 32K
S Gromenkova 11K

Gromenkova was short and card dead, and by the 3K/6K, 500 Ante level she was sucking wind with 7,000 chips. She found herself all in 5 ways and couldn’t beat the field. She was the first of the cashing pros to bust, and went out 153rd.

In the end, Berry Johnson made it furthest of the team, finally going out shortly before the final table in 12th place. Congrats to vmendi123, who faded an enormous field (for Stud H/L anyway) and defeated TheKunkMaster heads-up to take the first place money and the mini-FTOPS title.

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Julius_Goat, MiniFTOPS