Sunday brought to close another successful FTOPS with 25 more events and over $18,000,000 dished out among the players. We had some big score by the top online and professional poker players such as David “The Dragon” Pham, Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder, Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire and Thayer “THAY3R” Rassmussen. Brad “bd3109″ Albrinck came out of nowhere to claim the top of the FTOPS XIV leaderboard with one title and a runner-up result in back-to-back days (Event #16 and 18) collecting nearly $100,000. Gary Jones was your big money winner amongst the Full Tilt pros when he banked $193,462 with his 4th place finish in the $2,500 Two Day Event.

The series started off with a little controversy in Event #1 when the players decided to not pay attention when making a deal at the table. If you want to know what happened, feel free to check out the Full Tilt forums. Yesterday concluded the series by paying out $6,487,7000 across four huge tournaments and awarding 13 players with paydays in the six digit range. There were actually four events this series which fell just short of the guarantee which meant that Full Tilt kicked in an extra $200,000 to the players in the form of overlays bringing the final prizepool payout to $18,153,100 across the 25 events.

I spent most of the series sitting in Las Vegas covering the November Nine but that didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping an eye on the biggest set of online tournaments running at the same time. After spending my days with the live players I would return to see what I missed, or what was still going on after one particularly long day. I asked fellow blogger Brad Utz to help me out and here are some of things we witnessed. You can find the final table results of all events after the jump.

- Full Tilt pros have a tough time breaking through to win these major events. Before this series only Erick Lindgren, Berry Johnston, and Gavin Smith were able to accomplish that feat with Smith and Johnston doing it last series. FTOPS XIV saw two more red letter pros score victories with David “The Dragon” Pham and Greg “FBT” Mueller. Pham had several prior FTOPS final tables to his credit but no joy until Event #14. Mueller’s victory was previous documented as he joined Erick Lindgren as the only Full Tilt pros to actually capture a victory in the event they were “hosting”.

- Coming into FTOPS XIV there were only 10 players who have won multiple events across the near 240 tournaments prior to this series. csimmus and Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein lead the way with 3 FTOPS titles. This series added three more to that list with Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder, Deception Pt, and elheroe all earning their second “golden jersey”. Event #5 was the FTOPS stacked table of the series with three previous winner with Burkholder almost adding another, “yuvee04″ going for his FOURTH, and it was here that Deception Pt picked up his second. There were actually quite a few former winners who came close to adding another this series including Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, David “Doc Sands”, and lilkimmer77 who all made final tables.

Live poker update: While finishing up this post I found out that “yuvee04″ just took down the H.O.R.S.E. event at the L.A. Poker Open. Congrats to a friend of the blog!

- Miscellaneous numbers from FTOPS XIV:

Number of events: 25
Guarantee Prizepool: $16,000,000
Actual Prizepool: $18,153,100
Largest Prizepool: $2,735,500 (Main Event)
Smallest Prizepool: $111,000 (Stud Hi/Lo)
Overlay (4 events): $221,300
Number of players: 54,823
Players with over $100,000 payout: 30 (thirty!)
Largest Payout: $539,350.00 (obiedman)
Largest FTP pro Payout: $193,462.50 (Gary Jones)
Total FTP pro cash (#): 79
Total FTP pro cash ($): $481,343.36

- I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t witnessed millions of online hands can appreciate some of the complete insanity the follows along with the big names on the site or when the tournaments get down to just a few tables. The regular Big Money Sunday events are crazy enough but FTOPS brings out the top shelf. The beggars are still there but practically drowned out by every nutball that’s ever posted on a forum or played a $1 SnG offering up their opinions on every move. It’s almost priceless when they start fighting amongst themselves. When the railbirds start challenge to play any for any stakes, it’s pure comedy. That’s why Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron has one of my favorite screennames. In a moment of weakness I decided to start a Railbird Hall of Shame Fame. I witnessed the following names on the rail who will join our inaugural class with nh83012001 getting special honors for challenging everyone “ill play you in any game any stakes”. It seems his apostrophe key was stuck that day also.

Your FTOPS XIV Railbird inductees, be sure to congratulate them:

chuckie247: you think im a fish, yet im the one in profit…
(ragging the rail, while on the rail)
Joey1029: go cry to your mom kid.
(overused the word “kid” when abusing)
nh83012001:ill play you in any game any stakes
(we have a winner!)
xMONSTERxDONGx: u guys dont know what ur talking about
(no-it-alls annoy me on the last day)
i8aNET15: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
(with a incredibly impolite message to “FBT” Mueller)

I’m always looking for something amusing on the rail, feel free to pass anything along if you see something worthy of notice.

After the jump you can find the results for all FTOPS final tables and other notables. You can also find the complete unofficial Full Tilt Poker Red Letter Pro Challenge.

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1st through 4th made a deal:

1st – s00tedj0kers89 – $120,000
2nd – Kevin “kev19 Tanner – $115,000
3rd – taaffey – $80,000
4th – nolez7 – $98,600
5th – Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire- $37,000
6th – Andicover – $23,000

Notables: Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (54th), David “The Dragon” Pham (124th), Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder (134th)

1st – RymesWOrange – $35,782.60
2nd – Stephen “St3phenHendry” Hendry – $23,464.00
3rd – Randers – $16,760.00
4th – 7PRS – $12,737.60
5th – jnksauser – $9,050.40
6th – real-nic – $5,782.20

Notables: RNallin (14th), Scott Fischman (36th)

1st – chrispeace – $76,545.00
2nd – JonEeeWhite – $51,030.00
3rd – Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen – $36,450.00
4th – bastet2004 – $27,337.50
5th – buck99 – $20,047.50
6th – MuckCMuckC – $14,580.00
7th – GnightMoon – $10,206.00
8th – jt3013 – $6,925.00
9th – Laurrra – $4,920.75

Notables: VaShon “Julian Verse” Watkins (21st), Tuan “SuperTuan1″ Nguyen (39th)

1st – Kiv56 – $141,771.00
2nd – archwatcher – $89,678.40
3rd – Ballzdeepx – $66,599.40
4th – ProbBluffingYou – $52,752.00
5th – David “Doc Sands” – $39,564.00
6th – nomaddman – $28,354.20
7th – YrrsiN – $18,463.20
8th – Cowboy3362 – $13,188.00
9th – GoCubsGo969 – $9,231.60

Notables: Chris “boNeZee” Bonita (28th), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (39th), Ram Vaswani (44th), Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis (61st)Aaron Bartley (70th), Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (83rd), Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (105th), Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder (137th)

1st through 3rd made a deal -

1st – Deception Pt – $20,625.55
2nd – WB123456789 – $17,344.26
3rd – kobeallst – $17,974.19
4th – Steven “UFMan2″ Burkholder – $7,548.00
5th – dannymien – $4,662.00
6th – Shawn “Shawnzjones” Grant – $3,219.00
7th – Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein – $2,442.00
8th – pinishe45- $1,665.00

Notables: Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin (21st), Artie Cobb (44th)

1st – Auspicious – $79,872.50
2nd – MLH90 – $52,381.50
3rd – fuhrmanp1 – $37,632.95
4th – ihorKIM – $28,605.50
5th – JROBB – $20,432.50
6th – BADBOYNEL – $13,002.50

Notables: Thomas Bihl (67th)

1st through 4th made a deal:

1st – Toms2up – $98,674.77
2nd – Bbuddy4brkfst – $79,000.00
3rd – chessazhole1 – $97,737.42
4th – VeryEuropean – $64,000.00
5th – Chezebby – $34,746.40
6th – YanaSchv – $22,718.80
7th – thechad78 – $15,368.60
8th – AKTRE – $10,691.20
9th – crouts – $8,018.40

Notables: Stuart Paterson (34th), Marco Liesy (36th), David “GhettoFabolous” Randall (50th), Chris “Moormanl” Moorman (105th), Joe “JBlaze20″ Chaplin (141st)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – elheroe – $143,827.82
2nd – nrivanakc – $141,953.14
3rd – Egitai – $75,337.36
4th – lolli82 – $55,668.00
5th – yeza – $40,823.20
6th – LilPokerGirlie – $27,834.00

Notables: Michael Tureniec (38th), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (47th)

1st – willb77 – $89,088.00
2nd – cczzarr – $53,248.00
3rd – biftaraf – $27,136.00
4th – DuckU – $27,136.00
5th – glogow – $14,336.00
6th – whatariver1 – $14,336.00
7th – Joe “JBlaze20″ Chaplin – $14,336.00
8th – KevboyStar – $14,336.00

Notables: Brian Hastings (38th), Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers (65th), Jeff Madsen (81st)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – Jakivi – $222,137.99
2nd – rakeinfools – $228,000.01
3rd – KAFFEPUNCH – $131,937.00
4th – rjmgrace – $99,340.80
5th – LucaG – $74,427.99
6th – Jeff1515 – $51,222.60
7th – lilkimmer77 – $33,372.30
8th – harliee – $23,283.00
9th – bryn2 – $16,298.10

Notables: Aaron Bartley (21st), Kevin “GETPWN3D” Saul (36th), Simon “tedlogan19″ Charette (43rd), Somyung Sim (48th), Nick “FU_15″ Maimone (79th), Lee Watkinson (107th)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – legblch – $42,767.12
2nd – Julian Gardner – $41,760.88
3rd – Zuludogg – $23,773.50
4th – Pointer2 – $19,077.50
5th – Beef_Curtains – $14,393.24
6th – dfunks222 – $10,566.00
7th – JoeSewok – $6,809.20
8th – rover454 – $4,930.80
9th – ILoveClOCKS – $3,522.00

Notables: Roy Winston (14th), Karina Jett (58th), Chris “Moormanl” Moorman (74th)

1st – OmaJoped – $300,000
2nd – neverbluff67 – $198,000
3rd – amak316 – $138,300
4th – Shannon “BLUFFforRENT” Shorr – $105,000
5th – Dan “Wretchy” Martin – $72,750
6th – hikkespett – $49,500

Notables: Kevin “GETPWN3D” Saul (8th), Peter “Nordberg” Feldman (9th), Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire (13th), Matt “NoBadBeatsPlz” Kay (34th), Chris “boNeZee” Bonita (95th)

1st – AbdullahOchalan – $54,486.00
2nd – Steve Zolotow – $34,810.50
3rd – endzeit – $22,702.50
4th – MSUsWorst – $15,740,40
5th – CTAPblU KA3EJI – $10,594.50
6th – aiMfoRtheEheAd – $7,264.80

Notables: Austin “The Quietwinner” McCormick (28th), Ram Vaswani (38th), Peter “Nordberg” Feldman (101st)

1st – David “The Dragon” Pham – $69,570
2nd – rumprammer – $45,750
3rd – Smokinokun – $31,800
4th – Zack “Zacpacker” Fellows – $20,400
5th – POCKET FIVE – $12,600
6th – Grippolio – $8,700
7th – FatsoFat6969 – $6,600
8th – nuttynutt – $4,500

Notables: Justin “Boosted J” Smith (11th), Brandon Adams (17th), Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (19th), Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (28th), Marco Traniello (29th), David “Doc Sands” (38th), Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (40th)

1st – charder30fanobv – $114,654.40
2nd – skinijimi – $73,988.80
3rd – bobboufl11 – $54,785.60
4th – fan4mizzou – $41,230.40
5th – brin1285 – $28,804.80
6th – DE KID – $19,203.20
7th – FresnoDull – $12,990.40
8th – Big Bear Hills – $9,036.80
9th – overbe777 – $6,777.60

Notables: Mario “Pwnasaurus” Silvestri (11th), Dan “USCswimmer” White (90th), Simon “tedlogan19″ Charette (104th)

1st – Brad “bd3109″ Albrinck – $35,036.41
2nd – Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron – $39,538.75
3rd – Hudzzzzz – $32,962.70
4th – Andrew “bigpimping777″ Malott – $38,828.64
5th – icecreamboy – $16,538.74
6th – charly3005 – $12,141.00
7th – roo_400 – $7,824.20
8th – JollyJoker1971 – $5,665.80
9th – acehole60 – $4,047.00

Sigi Stockinger (22nd), Ross Boatman (39th)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – gametime1111 – $191,301.00
2nd – ambiguosity – $189,211.50
3rd – driverseati – $10,8405.00
4th – MichahJ – $81,030.00
5th – chicagocards1 – $58,035.00
6th – rumprammer – $37,230.00

Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis (16th), Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron (33rd), Brent “Bhanks11″ Hanks (36th), Mario “Pwnasaurus” Silvestri (40th), Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger (44th), Halfrek (60th), Isaac Baron (64th), Martin Klaeser (71st), Kevin “GetPWN3D” Saul (76th), Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (86th), Dan “Wretchy” Martin (91st), Beth Shak (102nd), Lee “acumen53″ Childs (112th)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – m_hawk_1 – $32,793.63
2nd – Brad “bd3109″ Albrinck – $30,271.17
3rd – MagicGog – $18,624.40
4th – MarleyGroup – $14,567.60
5th – HustlerGrune – $10,879.60
6th – Insky_Bros – $7,560.40
7th – Hyperbaric – $4,610.00
8th – fnnwizard – $3,134.80
9th – Nesby – $2,212.80

Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (46th), Matt “All In At 420″ Stout (68th)

1st – Greg “FBT” Mueller – $36,081.50
2nd – James “P0KERPR0″ Campbell – $23,660.00
3rd – Vito Roma – $16,900.00
4th – Sect6G – $12,844.00
5th – OmadJoped – $9,126.00
6th – SENORSCOOP – $5,830.50

Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp (43rd)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder – $102,240.40
2nd – SaulGood – $85,000.00
3rd – SmokeChoke – $54,378.20
4th – TIGR778 – $40,923.80
5th – David “muckducks” Cairns – $28,590.60
6th – LuckyLukeKK – $19,060.40
7th – 007-2053 – $12,893.80
8th – S_Dot111 – $8,969.60
9th – Tarsis – $6,727.20

Johan Brolenius (45th), Michael “michaelsc” Schwartz (39th), Simon “tedlogan19″ Charette (97th)

1st through 5th made a deal:

1st – BaDnEwS216 – $18,060.17
2nd – fulltiltok – $19,217.17
3rd – NES_Pro – $17,277.09
4th – Moleon – $19,240.48
5th – Sensor – $16,655.09
6th – Gator93 – $5,400.00

“Miami” John Cernuto (11th), Luis Velador 7 (17th), Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (19th), Thomas Bihl (45th), Chris Ferguson (47th), Dutch “Dutchalicious” Boyd (50th)

1st – obiedman – $539,350.00
2nd – Supa4real – $340,025.00
3rd – Timvd20 – $252,087.50
4th – Gary Jones – $193,462.50
5th – the_real_magic – $146,562.50
6th – TheAlligatorNo1 – $105,525.00
7th – Ahvall – $70,350.00
8th – DanOBrien – $54,873.00
9th – Rabbit_hunterSA – $39,865.00

Jake “psutennis11″ Toole (15th), Shannon “BLUFFforRENT” Shorr (40th), Dan “Wretchy” Martin (56th), Shawn “jordankickz” Busse (67th), Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp (77th), Taylor Caby (78th), David “Doc Sands” (87th)

1st – Genius28 – $93,302.00
2nd – Snake8484 – $59,374.00
3rd – aviator0925 – $42,940.13
4th – krazylouie – $34,458.13
5th – bearbuck – $25,997.33
6th – portblair – $19,084.50
7th – borromias – $12,298.90
8th – TheBjerre – $8,906.10
9th – BigDawg427 – $6,361.50

Vitaly Lunkin (10th), Justin Smith (40th), Julian Gardner (48th), Kevin “GetPWN3D” Saul, Mario “Pwnasaurus” Silvestri (72nd), Trond Eidsvig (76th), Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire (83rd), Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron (92nd), Jon “Pearljammer” Turner (93rd), Erica Schoenberg (94th), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (96th)

1st throught 3rd made a deal:

1st – little chief17 – $125,959.96
2nd – cristinalindley – $106,460.01
3rd – SNG Ninja – $95,968.83
4th – Dinhjo – $52,306.24
5th – Alcatraz27278 – $38,344.80
6th – bethwolf22 – $27,529.60
7th – BikStik8585 – $19,664.00
8th – boltsva – $14,059.76
9th – Al-Extrem1 – $9,940.15

Scott “kickyourace” Neuman (56th)

1st through 3rd made a deal:

1st – zhivago2 – $418,839.16
2nd – Itstime2Win – $316,554.40
3rd – Adam Junglen – $290418.94
4th – dfunks222 – $175,072.00
5th – kinheim – $131,167.23
6th – bankrollme – $90,271.50
7th – nuts7878 – $58,813.25
8th – Valuechecking – $41,032.50
9th – Dr Fill Good – $28,722.75

Here’s how your favorite Full Tilt pros made out:

Post from: Poker From The Rail

FTOPS XIV Wrap Up

Related posts:

1. FTOPS XIII Wrap Up

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:

* Not a real dragon

The Sunday Brawl
Entrants: 2,483
Prizepool: $496,600
First place: $101,281.57

tong26 – 2,378,121
Schlicker1337 – 1,634,222
pocketrockets11 – 986,145
icudonk – 658,322
Dudderz – 577,056
endlessj83 – 374,277
MrRenniW – 360,063
TheIllestFlopz – 324,000
NIKOLAJ73 – 156,794

1st – tong26 – $101,281.57
2nd – endlessj83 – $65,551.20
3rd – Dudderz – $48,666.80
4th – pocketrockets11 – $36,748.40
5th – Schlicker1337 – $25,823.20
6th – icudonk – $16,884.40
7th – MrRenniW – $11,421.80
8th – NIKOLAJ73 – $7,945.60
9th – TheIllestFlopz – $5,959.50

The $200k Double Deuce
Entrants: 10,407
Prizepool: $208,140
First place: $32,261.70

storyteller1 – 7,513,215
CharlotteBronte – 7,234,866
matcroc – 3,975,264
Dunsmor4 – 3,784,025
icebizzie – 3,165,720
ImPushinIt – 2,679,135
frank8ball – 2,502,706
beerdonk – 2,193,369
magnolium – 462,240

1st – matcroc – $32,261.70
2nd – Dunsmor4 – $21,854.70
3rd – beerdonk – $15,402.36
4th – storyteller1 – $11,073.05
5th – icebizzie – $8,117.46
6th – ImPushinIt – $5,827.92
7th – magnolium – $4,162.80
8th – frank8ball – $2,976.40
9th – CharlotteBronte – $2,104.30

The $750k Guarantee
Entrants: 3,838
Prizepool: $767,600
First Place: $135,903.58

buttsauce33 – 3,849,037
henchness24 – 2,089,756
perlini1 – 1,190,624
AllTheAce – 956,451
bigt439 – 877,567
TheRyanKing07 – 825,601
jesarah – 772,759
Paul Merson – 498,471
RollinHand1 – 453,734

1st through 3rd made a deal:

1st – TheRyanKing07 – $112,818.62
2nd – buttsauce33 – $92,889.17
3rd – perlini1 – $66,060.99
4th – Paul Merson – $42,371.52
5th – henchness24 – $31,778.64
6th – AllTheAce – $23,565.32
7th – bigt439 – $17,654.80
8th – jesarah – $13,816.80
9th – RollinHand1 – $10,285.84

The Sunday Mulligan
Entrants: 1,157
Prizepool: $231,400
First place: $52,065

Kroock – 647,962
St3phenHendry – 584,000
Pocketownage420 – 536,010
THE_TRASHMAN – 443,890
Crawfdad – 361,341
magikstick8 – 261,540
busto_soon – 258,098
BIGSHOT_OWNAGE – 231,010
UgA7211 – 147,149

1st – Pocketownage420 – $52,065.00
2nd – buston_soon – $32,974.50
3rd – Kroock – $24,412.70
4th – St3phenHendry – $19,090.50
5th – Crawfdad – $14,462.50
6th – magikstck8 – $10,413.00
7th – THE_TRASHMAN – $6,942.00
8th – BIGSHOT_OWNAGE – $5,206.50
9th – UgA7211 – $3,702.40

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Big Money Sunday – October 11th

Related posts:

1. Big Money Sunday – January 11th
2. Big Money Sunday – October 25th
3. Big Money Sunday – October 4th

Full Tilt sponsored two players in the Main Event with stories worthy of your interest.  Marlon Shirley (pictured right) is a two time Paralympic gold medalist, the first amputee to run the 100 meters in under 11 seconds, and an avid poker player. He came to Las Vegas to play in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event and the Ante Up for Africa Charity event. I could tell you the rest of the story but it be better to let a proper writer do that duty. Fellow blogger Michael Craig has a great writeup with Shirley’s story here. Unfortunately he was not able to “outrun” his poker opponents to reach Day 2a and will not win WSOP gold.

Also wearing Full Tilt red and white was Jack Ury, at 96 he’s simply the oldest to ever play in the WSOP Main Event.  Ury has been adding to his record each year since his first Main Event in 2007 at the chipper age of 94.  He was enjoying himself and the ESPN cameras were a constant audience.  Ury will have to get his rest over the next few days before he comes in Day 2a with just over 23,000 in chips.

You can see the rest of the Day 1b pictures after the jump:

Mike Matusow spent his Day 1b on display at the ESPN feature table.
He’ll start Day 2a with 37,875 chips.

Fabrice Soulier already has seven cashes in the 2009 World Series of Poker, he now he will be one of the top chips stacks heading into Day 2a with 97,725.

Five cashes during the 2009 World Series of Poker, 8 career World Series of Poker bracelets, over $4,000,000 in WSOP cash but zero Main Events bracelets thanks to Johnny (censored) Chan.  He tries to fix that this year going into Day 2a with 18,550 chips.

David Pham was one of the victims of the day, he will gear for the WSOP-E events.

A contrast in Day 1b’s between Barny Boatman and Bill Edler.  The Hendon Mobster was unable to add to his 2009 WSOP final table and will not be around for Day 2a but can look forward to the WSOP-E events in his native London.  Bill Edler however is still alive in the Main Event but will need to do some work with less than 14,000 chips to start.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – Main Event Day 1b Pictures

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1. 2009 World Series of Poker – Main Event Day 1a Pictures
2. 2009 World Series of Poker – Day 2b Pictures
3. 2009 World Series of Poker – Main Event Live Blog

David Pham lead FTOPS XI Event #8 most of the way
Photo credit: Pokerlistings.com

Calling last night Big Money Sunday doesn’t quite seem to do it justice.  The addition of FTOPS events and the newly upgraded $200k Double Deuce brought out a huge crowd of grinders to the virtual tables.  There were 3 FTOPS events on Sunday, The Sunday Mulligan and 120,000 players creating what has to be one of the largest $20 buyin tournaments ever run.

FTOPS Event #8 – 4,411 players – $882,200 prizepool
FTOPS Event #9 – 1,332 players – $666,000 prizepool
FTOPS Event #10 – 5,325 players – $1,597,500 prizepool
The Sunday Mulligan – 1,400 players – $280,000 prizepool
$200k Double Deuce – 12,000 players – $240,000 prizepool

Just shy of 25,000 players for a prizepool of $3.6 Million over just 5 tournaments.

Full Tilt pro Matt Vengrin, former FTOPS V Event #9 winner, took down The Sunday Mulligan in the final tournament of the evening.  We had several big names in online poker run deep across the 5 events including Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers with two cashes, David “The Dragon” Pham* running deep in Event #8, then Ryan Daut and Josh Arieh coming close to taking down the FTOPS HU tourments.

* – Not a real Dragon.

Details of the “monster” Big Money Sunday after the jump.

- FTOPS XI #8 replaced the regular Sunday Brawl, keeping the buyin and Knockout formula but switching to 6-max. The first tournament of the day blasted past the $600,000 guarantee by nearly $300,000. Our newest FTOPS winner, Chancew, has several big cashes on Full Tilt including wins in the $32k and $20k guarantee and his latest big score was a final table showing at The Sunday Brawl just last week. Phil “USCphildo” Collins has been making noise of FTP over the last few months starting with an FTOPS IX Event #7 final table, 3rd place in the Sunday Brawl and 2nd place in the $1k Monday. David “The Dragon” Pham was looking good for a big payday as he was near the top of the leaderboard for most of the event but fell short in 17th.

- FTOPS XI Event #9 was a true marathon. Chris Ferguson hosted the $500 buyin Heads Up Shootout which lasted over 12 hours from start to finish. Full Tilt pros Ryan Daut and Josh Arieh were unable to break through into top 8 as well as online pro Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers fell short. The final 8 included several players who have had success on the FTP tables. Jake “Plz_Stop_Lookin” Nelson has a $750K Guarantee final table. Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek was the winner of FTOPS X Event #9. Cappuccio816 final tabled the $1k Monday tournament just this past week. “rivercrime”, “hickey987″ and Mario “Pokerccini” Puccinihave all have Sunday Mulligan final tables to their credit.

- FTOPS XI Event #10 replaced the regular big guarantee event, doubling the $750k guarantee up to $1.5 Million. The prizepool was reached easily and we saw all the big online names show up looking for a large payday. Steve “gboro780″ Gross was your big winner this evening taking down over $275,000 for the win. Gross is a monster online grinder with over $1,000,000 in tournament winnings on Full Tilt alone including a win in the $1,000,000 Guarantee this January and two final tables in the $1k Monday events. 3rd place finisher Shoomie does not have a ton of cashes under his belt but he has a 2nd place finish in FTOPS X Event #17. Roy “The Oracle” Winston was the last red pro standing with a chance to win it, finishing in 17th.

- The success of the $100k Double Deuce immediately after it was introduced was rewarded by doubling the guarantee prizepool up to $200,000 and setting a new players cap at 12,000. The first running of this new event had to blow expectations out of the water when the tournament maxed out on players out of the gate. 1,350 players cashed in the event with the top 18 banking a 4 digit bankroll boost for just a $22 buyin. The structure of this event is like nothing you’ll see anywhere else for such a small buyin. Congrats to everyone who made a splash.

- The Sunday Mulligan was the only Sunday tournament that was “unchanged” from it’s regular format and name. FTP pro Matt Vengrin was the last man standing with a red letter pro sitting atop the board after 8 and a half hours play. Vengrin has banked an FTOPS win, 2nd place finish in the $750k and two WSoP Final tables. Connor “blanconegro” Drinan has 4 other big FTP final tables, two in the $1k Monday event, one each in The Sunday Mulligan and The Sunday Brawl. Former FTOPS winner Garrett “GBecks” Beckman finished just short of the final table.

Below are the final number for the Sunday events.

FTOPS XI Event #8
Entrants – 4,411
Prizepool – $882,200
First place – $168,517

1st – Chancew – $168,517
2nd – RSGII – $103,217
3rd – USCphildo – $71,634
4th – Michael1123 – $52,932
5th – Alfa Alex – $38,816
6th – TPEHEP – $26,466

FTOPS XI Event #9
Entrants – 1,332
Prizepool – $666,000
Firstplace – $115,884

1st – Luie Sojo – $115,884
2nd – Plz_Stop_Lookin – $69,264
3rd – rivercrime – $35,298
4th – bigdogpckt5s – $35,298
5th – hickey987 – $18,648
6th – yahueyu – $18,648
7th – Pokerccini – $18,648
8th – Cappuccio816 – $18,648

FTOPS XI Event #10
Entrants – 5,325
Prizepool – $1,597,500
First place – $275,600

1st – gboro780 – $275,600
2nd – BUSTYOU79 – $166,938
3rd – Shoomie – $107,352
4th – Jerms13 – $83,868
5th – nevermo – $63,101
6th – ilovemypuppy – $47,126
7th – TorontoToro – $36,742
8th – J4d3dr4g0n – $27,956
9th – Drow – $20,767

The $200K Double Deuce
Entrants – 12,000
Prizepool – $240,000
First place – 36,480

1st – TheNutters – $36,480
2nd – JamaicanKat10 – $23,280
3rd – UNeedDaRiva – $13,920
4th – bitsy1 – $10,080
5th – FanKing – $7,920
6th – Greendoor – $6,000
7th – Godoy22 – $4,560
8th – Toohey Lisa El – $3,408
9th – waSk1 – $2,520

The Sunday Mulligan
Entrants: 1,400
Prizepool – $280,000
First place – $61,600

1st – Matt Vengrin – $61,600
2nd – macqueen56 – $39,200
3rd – The2Kid2 – $28,350
4th – changeover – $22,750
5th – mcnutz21 – $17,164
6th – negroblanco – $12,600
7th – barcs69 – $8,120
8th – max_pot – $5,880
9th – ZENFUL – $4,200

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Big Money Sunday – February 8th

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David Pham at Foxwoods World Poker Finals
Photo credit: WorldPokerTour.com

Last week was a good one for David Pham.  On November 11th he finished fourth in Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $240,344 then turned around and finished third the very next day in FTOPS X Event #16 for near $112,000.  By any measure, that is one fine week.

The rest of Team Full Tilt seemed to dominate the event even without collecting the win.  Get the rest of the numbers after the jump.

412 players paid $10,000 to play in Foxwoods World Poker Finals creating a $3,876,508 prizepool. Jonathan Little won the event for $1,120,310, this is his fourth final table and second WPT win. This was the seventh WPT final table for David Pham and fifth for Mike Matusow. Of the 412 players, 50 made the money and 7 of them play under the Full Tilt flag.

4th – David Pham – $240,344
6th – Mike Matusow – $124,048
14th – Bill Gazes – $32,950
21st – Phil Ivey – $27,135
22nd – Gavin Smith – $27,135
41st – Svetlana Gromenkova – $21,320
43rd – Chris Ferguson – $21,320

Mike Matusow at Foxwoods World Poker Finals
Photo credit: WorldPokerTour.com

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Full Tilt at Foxwoods World Poker Finals

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Now, just four months into 2008, the Dragon is chasing the title yet again. Last week, he took fifth at the WPT World Poker Challenge, which was good enough for nearly $94K in prize money. While the cash is nice (OK, very nice, if you ask us), we know David is really more excited about the fact that he’s now’s in third place in this year’s POY race, and in great position to capture yet another title.

With 2,590 points, David is less than 350 points behind Michael “Don’t Call Me a Doobie Brother” McDonald and only 20 points behind some donkey phenom named Ivey. Now, we’re not going to go out and predict that the Pham-tastic one will pull down back-to-back titles but… oh hell, sure we are.

Keep watching this space and the POY leaderboard to see if we’re right.

This is a big week for those of us who like to play a little online poker from time to time. That’s because there’s a Congressional hearing scheduled for Wednesday that could help determine whether the controversial UIGEA bill is actually enforced – or is even enforceable.

Entitled “Proposed UIGEA Regulations: Burden Without Benefit?”, the hearing is the first time Congress will hear concerns raised by the general public and affected business interests (the banks) regarding the legislation. While no one expects Wednesday’s hearing will result in any immediate action from Congress, it could help to pave the way for passage of new legislation that would overturn the bill and – hopefully – clarify the legality of online poker once and for all.

For those of you really into Robert’s Rules of Order, you can follow the live hearing here starting at 10AM ET on Wednesday.

Two red pros are among the month’s biggest winners on the site, according to our friends who track this info over at the High Stakes DB.

Leading the pack is March’s Million Dollar Man, Brian Hastings, who’s pulled down more than seven figures at the PLO tables. Following close behind is Erica Schoenberg’s main main, David Benyamine, who scooped about $976K off the tables over the past month.

In the NLH games, relative unknown yossarian_2_ has made a splash by taking down more than $330K over the past 31 days.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

The Week at FTP: It’s Pham-tastic!

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