Posts Tagged ‘Big Money Sunday’
Big Money Sunday – November 1st
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
After the Full Tilt pros were practically skunked last week during the Big Money Sunday events, Michael Tureniec and Lee Watkinson almost made up for it on their own in the first big game of the day. Watkinson was the final table bubble boy and Tuerniec finished second in the Sunday Brawl for a nice showing. That final table also features a friend of the bloggers and regular player in the Battle of the Blogger Tournament Series as katiemother shipped 5th place for a cool $28,000.
Naturally the biggest draw of the day was the 43,000+ player FTOPS XIV Warmup game that played so crazy that it actually made the Double Deuce look sane. I’m not going to say it was a complete crapshoot, it was more like 95% luck, 4% timing (sort of luck I suppose), 1% skill (getting the hell out of the way). The biggest name I saw running deep, and quite proud of it per his twitter page, was Dutch “Dutchalicious” Boyd who somehow got through most of the field to finish in 80th.
I’d like to highlight just one player and three hands to give a feel for the game. I just happened to have the table up at the time and watched “her” go from decent stack to chip leader in just a few hands with less than 500 players left, I believe the first player over 1,000,000 in chips. Then all in one swoop was out of the tournament in 413th. I am by no means picking on “MsKitty0487″, just dump luck that I happened to have the table open.
It all starts off with either the most brilliantly played Aces or the biggest head scratcher. She limped in late position after one other limper. Checked it down on the ace-high, two heart flop. Flat called a min-bet on both the turn and river for a very small pot. “david koch” pretty much lost the minimum he could on that hand. No matter, just one hand later she turned on the burners and took all his chips with AJ versus A9 on a jack-high flop. How could he get a read after the previous play?
Here is the hand that got her up near the stratosphere. No aggression, just check/called the entire way has her next victim hung himself betting into the mortal nuts. This hand pretty much played itself at this level. Nice flop.
It didn’t take very long after that for it all to start circling the drain. After a few sketchy hands at her new table, she tangled with the only player at the table who could knock her out, with a borderline hand out of position. Called a pretty sizable preflop raise, a huge re-raise on the flop, and the shove on the turn with a 7% chance to pick up the pot. From hero to out in no time. “Froggetaboutit” went on to finish 33rd, a $450 difference from there to 413th.
I’m no expert, just presenting it as I saw it. What hand can she beat there on the turn? QQ or an airball is just about the only thing she beats with the pre-flop action.
While I was running around grabbing screenshots, I was also taking down all the information I could gather. You see, I have this freaky love of numbers. Random numbers, formulas, statistics, etc. I’m always running a few spreadsheets on the side tracking random things just for fun. I thought for sure I’d see something interesting if I kept a note how the field busted out between breaks in the FTOPS XIV Warmup and wasn’t disappointed. Generally you see some sort of slowdown as the field corrects itself with blinds and chipstacks. Once this monstrosity got past the second break the pace of people hitting the rail stayed about as consistent as possible. From then until the very end of the tournament the rate between 65% and 69%. Of course it went even quicker when down to two tables.
Break 3 – 23,971 down to 7,581 (68.3%)
Break 4 – 7,581 down to 2,405 (68.3%)
Break 5 – 2,405 down to 733 (69.5%)
Break 6 – 733 down to 259 (64.7%)
Break 7 – 259 down to 85 (67.1%)
Break 8 – 82 down to 20 (76.4%)
Break 9 – 20 down to 5 (75.0%)
As far as I can tell, a statistical loony bin.
Hopefully the run a version of this tournament for the miniFTOPS and the rest of the FTOPS as they progress. It’s just too compelling of a spectacle to resist.
Here are your FTOPS XIV final table results, the rest of the Big Money Sunday can be found after the jump.
FTOPS XIV Warmup
Entrants: 43,874
Prizepool: $250,000
First place: $22,500
IGetMugger – 23,703,448
propopl77 – 17,943,316
redr1212 – 13,349,496
TILTOHOLIC – 9,407,018
Aunt Bessie – 6,381,052
Junokeo – 6,268,573
marciwallace – 4,750,096
Bura-AA – 3,736,488
Tigermitfell – 2,208,513
1st – propopl77 – $22,500
2nd – TILTOHOLIC – $15,725
3rd – Aunt Bessie – $11,500
4th – redr1212- $9,000
5th – IGetMugger – $7,250
6th – Junokeo – $5,750
7th – marciwallace – $4,500
8th – Tigermitfell – $3,250
9th – Bura-AA – $2,000
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, FTOPS Warmup
Big Money Sunday – October 25th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s a rare Sunday that I have a hard time finding a theme for the evening. Generally there are a few big Full Tilt pros running deep in a tournament or we’ve got a popular online pro ripping up the leaderboard or maybe an unknown player with a monster chip lead. It shouldn’t be that tough to find the lead with nearly $1.8million on the line. I spent some time railing friend-of-the-blog Shawn “sprstoner” Glines as he cashed in the $750k Guarantee but was run out in 275th. I did enjoy watching 3 other player shove into him holding AA, sometimes even this big majors play like a $22 Double Deuce.
Your Full Tilt player to cash for the most money on Sunday was none other than Somyung Sim. After a little research I found out our newest red letter pro is the most successful player of something called Starcraft. I’m sure that means something to gamer geeks but I gave up non-poker computer games the day they stopped producing for my IntelliVision. Sim pocketed $660 for his 141st place finish. Lee Watkinson and Steve Zolotow were the only other two members of Team Full Tilt to even cash and that was in the Double Deuce, technically not even part of Big Money Sunday.
Thank God for twitter as I saw Shaun Deeb was running deep. “looks like I have to miss my 730am flight due to still being in the 750k so I might stick in europe after all who knows now”. That at least added another table to my railbird duties and Deebs came oh-so-close to another big payout final table, crashing in 23rd after some horrific play at his table. Early in the evening I kept an eye on Justin “RoothlusJr” Levy who finished 56th in the Sunday Brawl. Justin is starting to come out of the shadow of his brother Adam “Roothlus” Levy with some big online cashes and a win at this year’s Borgata Poker Open. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst, old school Poker from the Rail contributor, made an appearance this week also finishing 42nd.
All in all a pretty uneventful Sunday. We’re getting prepared around these parts for the November Nine so a nice quiet day was welcome. You can find the Big Money Sunday results after the jump.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail
Big Money Sunday – October 18th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It was one of the rare Big Money Sundays where the blog post almost writes itself. This week brought the monthly upgrade from the $750 Guarantee to the cool $1 Million Guarantee with a slightly smaller field and hugely larger prizepool. Big names were running deep all across the major tournaments and my little laptop screen was full of different tables as I attempted to capture some of the action.
My usual routine when keeping an eye on these tournaments is start at the beginning and move my way towards the big one, checking for red letter pros and big online runners, always looking for notables. When I took a quick look at the $1 Million Guarantee I saw two Full Tilt pros sitting together deep in the tournament. Both Vivek Rajkumar and Michael Craig (fresh off my having fun at his expense last week) were sitting together at one of the few remaining tables. Unfortunately Mister Craig busted out shortly after began railing him, getting out pipped when he 77 ran into 88 for 52nd place. Rajkumar, on the other hand, was a completely different story.
Once the field was down near 3 tables he picked up the lead and rarely released it. He started the final table with the chip lead and I sent an IM message to a friend saying “Vivek is running over the final table, he’ll have to be unlucky to lose.” I saw the exact same action in person when he took down the 2008 WPT Borgata Poker Open championship. He put his foot on their throat with constant pressure and never let up. In the end he chopped the prizepool heads up and took down the title for literally 1 penny short of $180,000. It was an impressive showing by the Full Tilt pro who also cashed in the Sunday Brawl. Also running deep in the $1 Million Guarantee were former FTOPS winner Jake “psutennis11” Toole, Brian Hastings, Phil “USCphildo” Collins, Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins, and Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis.
All finishing in the top 100.
I also spent quite awhile railing the final few tables of the Sunday Mulligan that saw Matt “All In At 420″ Stout make a final table push along with FTOPS runner up Austin “The Quietwinner” McCormick, Dan “USCswimmer” White, Bruce “Not Michael” Buffer, and Rick “MookieBlaylock1″ Whittington. I have to give props to MookieBlaylock1 since he’s based in my home neighborhood. Stout battled the entire final table, eventually moving his way up into a 3rd place chip stack but ran into a big blind versus blind hand. His JackAce was no good against the small blind’s KQ. That put a hurt on his chances and the JackAce was his final undoing when it ran smack into Kings.
Matt Stout is a ton of fun, if you get a chance you should read his blog post about getting berated at the Borgata in a preliminary event. I was one of the bloggers who witnessed the hand and this guy would not let it go. Just laying into Stout while he calming stacked the poor Jersey gentleman’s chips. He got “scumbagged”.
Those were the two really interesting developments during the evening, the Brawl moved along quickly and I continue to only throw a mildly amused eye towards the $200k Double Deuce. Yet another situation developed as they moved towards the final table that me shaking my head in disbelief. Simple question for every poker player on the planet, except for maybe this one. You need to call here with any two cards.
It was a 5-handed table just short of the final 9 players. With blinds at 50k/100k/10k ante it folded around to totsev on the button who pushed for 1,085,351. slikone is the chip leader sitting in the small blind and flat calls the all-in bet. JetYourChips in the big blind reshoves for 1,508,393. How can a player possibly fold getting near 10 to 1 with over a million already invested? Here’s the math, slikeone only needed to call 423,042 to win a 4,152,137 pot. 9.8 to 1 odds with any two cards with a chance to knock out two players and hit the final table with a much larger chip lead. Needless to say, slikone folded or I wouldn’t be writing this. Don’t believe my account, here’s the screenprint before he folded. Don’t ask me why I grabbed it then, I just had a feeling he was going to fold.
Click to enlarge
I felt pretty confident in my prediction that slikone was not going to win this tournament even with the chip lead. And I was correct.
You can find final table numbers and results after the jump:
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Matt "All In At 420" Stout, Michael Craig, Vivek Rajkumar
Big Money Sunday – October 11th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Another week gone by and another Big Money Sunday is in the books. Another success day for many at the virtual tables and we saw some big names running deep and late. A former FTOPS champ won The Sunday Mulligan, one top online grinder jinxed himself via Twitter, another found himself blinded off due to a connection issue.
While no members of Team Full Tilt were able to make a final table, we did see Chris Klecz duck and weave the $20 grinders in the $200k Double Deuce to finish in 28th. Adam Schoenfeld also cashed in the tournament but so did 1,349 other players. Jens Voertmann had the deepest red letter pro run in the $750k Guarantee in 33rd with Isaac Baron right behind him in 47th. Fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig came close to glory by finishing 3,398 out of 3,838. That’s tough to do. Our big runs in The Sunday Mulligan came from Kristy Gazes in 73rd and Poker from the Rail favorite David “The Dragon” Pham* in 42nd. Towards the end it seemed Pham had his opponents confused as they often put all their chips in the middle with TPSK (top pair s*&t kicker) against his overpair or monster flop. He was ultimately undone by running his Aces into a sooooted AK.
“Pocketownage420″ has another win to his credit after taking down The Sunday Mulligan, just a small percentage of the money he took down for winning the Main Event for FTOPS XII. Also joining him at the final table was FTOPS XIII Event #3 winner “UgA7211″. Kevin “GetPWNS3D” Saul was running huge in the $750,000 Guarantee, right up until he sent out a twitter message saying “19/193 FTP 750k…last tourney of the day” He finished 104th.
17,885 players signed up across the 4 big tournaments of the day creating prizepools totaling $1,703,740. The big winners of the evening were our two players to bank 6 digit wins in the Sunday Brawl and $750k Guarantee, TheRyanKing07 for $112,818.62 and tong26 for $101,281.57.
Final table numbers and results after the jump:
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, David Pham
Big Money Sunday – October 4th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s a wonderful time in my little corner of the world. If I could just avoid the impending change of weather towards Winter than it would be pretty close to perfect. I’ll be fighting ol Mother Nature on my terms this year, it will be the tropics or the desert for this middle aged degenerate. The sporting world is in full swing around me, my favorite baseball team is in the playoffs trying to defend their title, football (the American version) is a quarter of the way through their season, professional hockey is underway, and I was able to watch live as my beloved Chelsea schooled the Scousers in the EPL (spell check doesn’t understand “scousers”. Neither do I).
The poker world is also primed for another burst of activity. The WSOPE just crowned themselves a new champion, there are WPT, EPT, and other tournaments across the globe drawing crowds looking for the big score. The big bang is just a few short weeks away when the 2009 World Series of Poker Champion is determined at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The anticipation is beginning to grow and your humble blogger is making his plans to be there when it goes down.
There also looks to be some carryover from the latest run of big online tournaments. The Big Money Sunday tournaments drew a huge crowd yesterday with all blasting past their guarantee prizepool. There were some big names running deep in the fields and plenty of action. Early on I was railing Matt “All in at 420″ Stout and Lee “acumen53″ Childs in the $750k hoping for one of my Borgata regulars to hit big again. The both made the money with Stout giving me the best chance before crashing out in 16th. The best run by a Full Tilt pro on the day was from Martin Klaeser who just missed the Sunday Mulligan final table going out in 11th.
The most interesting name of the evening came out of nowhere. I only marginally keep an eye on the $200,000 Double Deuce these days because the field is monstrous and it’s very rare to see the same names near the top on a regular basis and even less to see a big name at the top. Dutch “Dutchalicious” Boyd was just cruising along without anyone paying him much attention, it’s my job to rail the tournaments and I didn’t even realize he was running deep in the Double Deuce. The WSOP bracelet winner can be a polarizing character for those with a long poker memory, it’s not often you can find someone who doesn’t have an opinion on the player. With all that aside, Boyd had a shot to outlast nearly 11,000 other players and pocket over $34,000. That is only $1,000 shy of the amount he earned for taking down FTOPS XII Event #19 during the spring.
Boyd was unable to complete the feat finishing in 5th place. Characterizing some of the play common during the Double Deuce, the tournament was eventually won by Dannish player leking1 who displayed some of the worst poker moves I’ve witnessed in my long life. Fortunately for me, I don’t believe leking1 will be tracking me down to dispute my opinion. It is truly a entertaining and frustrating tournament to witness.
Please come back later this week as I will be joined by a few blogger friends as we begin to handicap and preview the upcoming November Nine matchup.
Big Money Sunday final table numbers and results after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail
Big Monday Sunday and MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
If you couldn’t find action on Full Tilt Poker on Sunday, you just weren’t looking hard enough. On top of the regular Big Money Sunday games, you also had three additional large guarantee events for MiniFTOPS XIII. Those 6 tournaments alone drew just shy of 40,000 players and a huge prize pool over $2,300,000. You had a choice between Heads Up, 6-max, or good old fashioned Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em. There was a little something for every player.
Earlier in the weekend we saw a family battle to dominate MiniFTOPS. Both Chip Jett and wife Karina Jett found themselves at final tables in two different events. Chip Jett entered the MiniFTOPS Event #5 Stud tournament with 1,907 other lasted longer than all but one of them. “inter27″ was the only player left standing when defeated Jett heads up. Not to be overshadowed, Karina Jett battled through 2,210 players to take third in the Pot Limit Omaha Event #6. She may have finished one spot lower on the final board but she went through more players and banked more cash. Chip added $4,337 to his bankroll while Karina cashed for over $9,000.
My sad attempts to play in the MiniFOPS have been hard to come by. I’m certainly glad I did not make that prep bet with Michael Craig. As things settle down around me I will pony up some of my hard-won bankroll on some of these incredibly juicy, huge field tournaments. There are 5 great tournament over the next two days including a whopping $100+9 buyin, $250,000 guarantee tournament this evening with Antes from the start. You can find the complete MiniFTOPS XIII Schedule here.
Event #11 Pot Limit Hold’em / Pot Limit Omaha
When: Monday, September 14th at 13:00ET
Buyin: $20+2
Guarantee: $30,000
Event #12 No Limit Hold’em Ante from the Start
When: Monday, September 14th at 21:00ET
Buyin: $100+9
Guarantee: $250,000
Event #13 No Limit Hold’em 3x Shootout
When: Tuesday, September 15th at 13:00ET
Buyin: $50+5
Guarantee: $30,000
Event #14 H.O.R.S.E.
When: Tuesday, September 15th at 21:00ET
Buyin: $50+5
Guarantee: $50,000
Event #15 No Limit Hold’em 6-max Turbo
When: Tuesday, September 15th at 21:00ET
Buyin: $20+2
Guarantee: $100,000
Big Money Sunday and MiniFTOPS results after the jump:
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Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
Big Money Sunday – September 6th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Another full weekend online with the Big Money Sunday tournaments and Take 2 promotions bringing out players to the tables as well as a Full Tilt pro making big moves in a live European Tournament. We also saw a huge jump in satellites as players get ready to take their shot at the miniFTOPS which kicks off in just a few days. Fun and profitable times at the virtual tables.
Amanda “Mandy B” Baker came close to a Sunday final table for the second week in a row. If I put up another picture of her in this post I might be accused of bias. She went through nearly 9,700 players in the $200,000 Double Deuce only to finish in 20th place. First the first time since I can remember, the $200,000 ran without reaching it’s guarantee meaning the tounament players were given a $6,000 overlay by Full Tilt. More free money.
The 3 Big Money Sunday regular tournaments kept up their pace with a combined prize pool of over $1.5 Million. ”TheBrain” was the biggest name at the Sunday Brawl final table finishing in 3rd. Previous wins from “TheBrain” include an FTOPS win last August as well as a $1,000 Monday and $100 rebuy $65k Guarantee tournaments on FTP.
The biggest winner of the evening is also a past FTOPS winner who took down one of the biggest online tournaments ever run. ”hAAydon” took down over $140,000 for his victory in the $750,000 Guarantee. That is nearly $400,000 less than he earned for his victory in FTOPS IX Event #22. His $540,000 payday for the two-day $2,500 tournament was one of the largest in history.
In live poker news, Team Full Tilt pro Roland De Wolfe is having a nice run in Spain. They are moving quickly towards the final three tables of the EPT Barcelona tournament and he’s sitting near the middle of the field. This summer De Wolfe claimed his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8 tournament. He was also the first to win the so-called “Triple Crown” which represnts a WPT, EPT and WSOP victory.
At the same time, you have the WPT Cyprus Main Event occurring with a field stocked full of Full Tilt pros. Currently wading through the tournament are Allen Cunningham, Phil Gordon, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, John Juanda, Mike Matusow and 2009 “November Nine” member James Akenhead. That event is just kicking off and promises to have a fine representation from Full Tilt.
After the jump you can find a video with Roland De Wolfe and Poker from The Rail favorite Melissa Castello as well results from the Big Money Sunday events.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Roland de Wolfe
Big Money Sunday – August 30th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Amanda “Mandy B” Baker finished 11th in the Sunday Mulligan
There’s no point hiding my favortism here in this space, on a weekly basis I’m pulling for a big score from a member of Team Full Tilt or one of the big online grinders. If I’m going to be staying up until the wee hours of the morning watching online poker I would love to turn it into a great story. Amanda “Mandy B” Baker gave me the best chance for some fun last night but fell just short, finishing 11th in the The Sunday Mulligan. There were two former FTOPS winners at that final table in uuhhhicall and Pot Odds 3 making things a little interesting but neither was able to bring home the big score.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching thousands of players and even more railbirds tear up the tables throughout the busy Sunday. It’s a blast watching some of the plays still occurring in the Double Deuce and the reactions. Obviously I am desitined to spend my remaining days from the rail because I’ve clearly lost touch with how to play. I witnessed a stunning play were Player A flopped the mortal unbreakable nuts with three aces on the board matching his weak ace. In a situation where you would expect him/her to extract some value from the hand, Player A overshoved 100BB’s into the pot. It’s the new “overbet for value” play because Player B paid off the move.
Your hero humble blogger did make a long run in several tournaments but have nothing spectacular to report. At one point when I was on the short side I started hitting like a monster. Shortstacked KJo flopped broadway then ATs flopped yonder flush. I was well on my way to a fine result when my QQ nailed a flopped Q against kings only to run into the dreaded four flush. Quite uneventful but enjoyable none the less.
Sunday did see over $1,700,000 in prize money and 18,000 players across just the Big Money Sunday major tournaments (yes, I personally include the 10,000+ player Double Deuce in there). Play across the online world seems to be picking up over the last few weeks and only looks to increase. miniFTOPS is right around the corner and the fields are sure to be huge. I certainly plan to take a few shots at the events looking for a big score for low buyin.
Big Money Sunday final table chipcounts and payouts after the jump:
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Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail
Big Money Sunday – August 2nd
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Vivek Rajkumar was my pick to be the surprise standout at this year’s World Series of Poker. He was finishing up his best year at the tables which started with a WPT win at the Borgata in September. Unfortunate his heater did not continue as his only cash this year was a 15th place in one of the many $1,500 donkaments.
Yesterday he continued the streak of Full Tilt pros making a run at the online equivalent $200k Double Deuce with an 8th place finish. We had a great shot at two red letter pros at the final table until Scott Fischman imploded coming down the stretch. I often wonder how players with so much behind them take a serious run at a $20 buyin event, but they keep doing it. Second place finished “timmay28″ is my favorite example of the Double Deuce style of play. When in doubt, shove 100 BB’s in the pot and pray nothing bad happens. It worked at the WSOP Main Event so it must be good here.
Newly crowned red letter pro and 2009 November Nine memeber James Akenhead made a fine showing this weekend with a 31st place finish (highest amongst Team Full Tilt) in the $750,000 Guarantee. I hope to have a WSOP profile of our newest UK grinder sometime this month.
While these folks spent their afternoon tearing up the Sunday Majors, I took some time to punish my fragile ego by playing some micro-limit cash games. I’m working on my next Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenge and also trying to work off the newly awarded “Biggest Bonus Ever“. You have picked up your bonus haven’t you?
It was a never ending string of frustration as I ran into bad play after bad play where Mother Variance made it quite clear it would not be my day. I will forgo the tales of running flush cards and disgusting two outers because no one likes a bad beat story. Also, the running position of the bloggers is to charge $1 per bad beat story which could get quite expensive spread of my reading audience.
I’ll continue working off the bonus and trying to earn my first Iron Man badge. I’ll also be praying to the poker god to turn Variance in my direction.
Click the link above to learn about the new $100 bonus available to ANYONE who earned at least 1 FTP point before July 28th. Big Money Sunday numbers after the jump.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, James Akenhead, Vivek Rajkumar
Big Money Sunday – July 26th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It certainly hasn’t been an easy week since I returned from the World Series of Poker but it’s mostly technical in nature. Foremost being my laptop taking a literal dump all over the place. That gave me an opportunity to unwind from the craziness which was very much needed. But Big Money Sunday rolls around again and we’re back in business. It’s been awhile since I’ve covered the full slate of Full Tilt’s Sunday night majors and I’m glad that nothing has really changed. The four tournaments I followed pulled in just south of 20,000 players and $1,900,000 in prize money.
I was not surprised to see the numbers are still huge especially in the $200k Double Deuce. You wouldn’t have been alone if you though that the draw would eventually lessen for the smaller buyin tournament but it’s holding with huge numbers. The Sunday majors went well beyond their guarantees with large fields stars all around. After spending two months in Las Vegas, I did manage to forget some of the insanity on the virtual rails as the tournaments narrowed to just a few tables. I’m not sure I would survive with the chat option turned on if I made it that far. Naturally I don’t have to worry about that with my skills.
I may have to start tracking some of the best comments but I’m pretty sure I’m not seeing any of the brilliant minds in poker. That doesn’t stop them from voicing opinions on just about every play or speculating wildly on every hole card. I think next week I’ll bring some of the best from the rail.
During the Sunday night majors, I’m always looking out for the top players and red letter pros. I’m not sure how the last few months of the Double Deuce have gone but we almost had a big name at this final table. Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, former FTOPS winner, was near the top of the leaderboard through the later parts of the tournament. He unfortunately ran his AA smack dab into a four-deuce.
Red Letter pro and Cardrunner instructor Mike McDonald (picture above) was our big name runner this weekend. He fought his way through the 1,300 plus entrants in the Sunday Brawl to make the final table where he ended up 5th. Starting next week we’ll bring you another twist as I tackle the $750k Satellite Challenge with fellow bloggers.
Final table and payout numbers after the jump:
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