Billy Argyros | Poker From The Rail

FTOPS XX and Big Money Sunday for May 1st

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

“May you live in interesting times.” – Chinese proverb/curse

We’ve seen a few weeks of interesting news around Full Tilt Poker but the show must go on, including the 45 events comprising FTOPS XX which saw smaller fields with the exclusion of US players but also a winning class from all around the world. While we work out the details for our US-based players (you can find the FAQ here), there was plenty of action the deserved attention.

One result is we now see a new batch of players from outside the States who will have a chance to shine. I personally expected to see a large number of Brazilians jump to the forefront during FTOPS XX but it turns out Europe was ready to shine. Russia lead the way with 7 FTOPS titles followed by Germany with six, while Canada was the top country from the Americas with 6 and Brazil only collecting two jerseys. Below is how the 45 titles were divided up around the world.

7 – Russia
6 – Canada
6 – Germany
3 – Sweden
2 – Australia
2 – Austria
2 – Brazil
2 – Denmark
2 – Kazakhstan
2 – Norway
2 – Ukraine
2 – United Kingdom
1 – Italy
1 – Malta
1 – Netherlands
1 – Portugal
1 – Romania
1 – South Korea
1 – Switzerland

This was also a remarkable series for both repeat winners and new Full Tilt Red Pro winners. Newly minted pro Peter Jetten took advantage of the smaller, expensive field to win his first FTOPS title in the $10,000 buy-in Heads up tournament. The only two titles for Australia were captured by red pros, Jonathan Karamalikis won the $300 6-max rebuy event (Full Tilt pro Cristiano “crisbus” Guerra finished 3rd) and the always charismatic Billy “The Croc” Argyros conquered the Stud/8 Event #36.

There were also four repeat champions including the only two wins this series for Kazakhstan when KoksharovSergey captured FTOPS XX Events #18 and #34. The other player to capture two titles in FTOPS XX was “iseeyouthrough” from the heavy Russian contigent. Germany’s “NatWork” followed up his FTOPS XIX victory with his second jersey in Event #41 while Russia’s “NoParasan” also added his second FTOPS title.

The absence of the US players was evident throughout with total entries dropping from 82,429 during FTOPS XIX to 39,021 for FTOPS XX. But there were also plenty of added value for our players as we saw nearly $259,000 in overlays due to missed guarantees, the total prizepool for FTOPS XX still exceeded $16,000,000.

Stayed tuned for more information to come out later this week, in the meantime we still have our WSOP Main Event seat satellites for eligible players and we’ll be there to cover the proceedings.

FTOPS XX Sunday results below.

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Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Billy Argyros, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, Jono Karamalikis, Peter Jetten

2009 World Series of Poker – Day 2a Pictures

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

Sometimes things just go way over the top when you’re dealing with the biggest poker tournament in the world. You’ll see some crazy things along the rails, loud player disagreements, whack jobs dressed in all types of getups looking for camera attention. Then you have the times when a table pulls the attention of every player and media outlet in the room.

Actor/comedian Brad Garrett drew a table that was far away from the rail and virtually in the center of the blue section. 5 time bracelet and 1984 Main Event winner Berry Johnston was also at the table. Garrett was laughing it up with the players at the table and anyone who would listen. To the point where his table was completely surrounded by every media outlet with a badge to get there. Witness the picture above and below.

Before long players at the other tables were begging the floor staff to deal with the situation. It will certainly make good TV for ESPN when it airs, but neither Garrett or Johnston would move on to Day 3.

Images from the rest of Day 2a after the jump: