Poker From The Rail

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

It’s been a few months since Full Tilt introduced the latest tournament system tweak, the much talked about Multi-entry format. There are players out there who absolutely love throwing their buyins at this new type of tournament. There are just as many who weep, wring their hands, and bemoan the oncoming death of online bankrolls. My general response is play them if you like, don’t play them if they are not your style (or exceed the delicate boundaries of proper bankroll management). It’s not rocket science.

Love them or hate them, they are a lot of fun to witness.

Since they were introduced, we hadn’t seen the mythical “merged stacks” as defined in the rules of the game. The system is set up so that players are never seated with any other their other entries. If a player has more entries than tables remaining then two stacks are merged together with the eliminated entry being paid at that finished position. A novel idea and one that (to my knowledge) had never been enforced. That was until early Tuesday morning in the $1k Monday $2,000,000 Guarantee Multi-entry tournament.

Thanks to random overly dedicated railbirds, it looks like Huck Seed did it for $7,000 finishing 7th and 9th way back in January 2011.

Adam “TheSquee” Sherman and Bjorn “kleath” Kleathersson came close to this accomplishment, both in the $400,000 Guarantee (rebuy) back in January but it was Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers who finally pulled it off. The first idea that we could see something unique appeared with just 72 of the starting 2,404 remaining and Sowers had two entries remaining with them sitting 1st and 2nd in chips.

The chip counts were still deep with the average stack sporting an effective M in the 18-20 range and it would still take another 4.5 hours to play it out. The play slowed dramatically when the field hit the final two tables with Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania exiting in 12th and the unique merged stacks finally occurred when “SqueezePlease” turned in his bid as the final table bubble boy.

There was finally a situation were a player had more entries than tables remaining. The tournament was paused slightly as both of Sowers stacks were combined, with his removed entry grabbing the 9th paid position for cool $28,848 and still playing for the big prize. The other seven players still presented him with a huge hurdle that included Mickey “Mement_mori” Petersen, Chris “MoormanI” Moorman, Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen, Michael “YrrsiNN” Huber, and Ben “Bttech86″ Tolleren.

While the interesting historical story was written with the first ever merged stacks, Sowers didn’t stop there and went on to cap off an evening by adding another $490,000 with a first place finish. He defeated a tough field, much larger than normal due to Double Guarantees Week, to book over $500,000 for 11 hours work. A nice up-tick in his yearly ROI statistics and putting his career online tournament winning near $3,000,000.

It’s good work if you can get it.

1st – Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers – $490,296
2nd – Kagm7F7 – $317,328
3rd – Chris “MoormanI” Moorman – $235,592
4th – Kadabra – $177,896
5th – Michael “YrrsiNN” Huber – $125,008
6th – Ben “Bttech86″ Tollerene – $81,736
7th – Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen – $55,292
8th – Mickey “Mement_mori” Petersen – $38,464
9th – Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers – $28,848

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Double Guarantees Week, Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers, Multi-entry

Read more | Comments (1) | March 30th, 2011 Play Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

While the latest Double Guarantees Week wasn’t scheduled to kick off until midnight eastern, Full Tilt decided to double up on the regular $750,000 with a Multi-entry $200+16 with a $1,500,000 Guarantee which grew to $2,267,800 before registration was closed. Yesterday was also the first of three Onyx Cup Qualifiers giving players a chance to win a $105,000 package for $640 which was sporting a significant overlay.

Calvin “Cal4688″ Anderson was the big money winner on the day after a heads up chop in the $1,500,000 put over $300,000 in his bankroll. It was battle at a final table that featured 2010 November Nine runner up John Racener, Bryan “Boston3Party” Leskowitz, and Barry “bearw8″ Wiedemann. Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, Joe “bigegypt” Elpayaa, and Lauren “locoenlacabeza” Kling were also in the running for the top prize but all fell just short of the final table.

Leskowitz also produced a nice result in the shark filled waters of the $200,000 (Rebuy) tournament. That was just another stacked final table with Joe “hoodini10″ Udine, Andrew “Browndog19″ Brown, and another 2010 November Niner in Soi Nguyen continuing his solid beginning to the year. The Sunday Brawl trumped them all as far as talent to entertain the rail with Mickey “Mement_mori” Petersen, Brent “Bhanks11″ Hanks, Cyriel “supa4real” Dohmen, and David “gaucho2121″ Paredes all looking up as TJ “DarkHorse19″ Ulmer took the top prize.

Also having an excellent Sunday were Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, David “Doc Sands” Sands, and Stan “stanman420″ Lee. Full Tilt’s David Chiu came up just one spot short of winning the Sunday Mulligan as Ed “foxypham” Pham took it down.

2010 BLUFF Player of the Year Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi hit perhaps the single biggest prize becoming the first player to book a seat at the inaugural Onyx Cup Series Event. He outlasted 123 other players in a winner-take-all battle that included some of the biggest players in the game. Satellites continue to run for the Qualifiers as well as near non-stop freeroll SnGs for the final Onyx Cup freeroll on May 1st. All Onyx Cup Series Qualifier information can be found here.

Big Money Sunday results below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Double Guarantees Week, Imper1um, Sorel Mizzi

Read more | Comments (1) | March 28th, 2011 Play Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers Corner

Yesterday kicked off another special week on the tables here on Full Tilt, this time aimed at the players who take their shot in the various tournaments. Starting midnight ET on Monday running straight through the entire slate of Big Money Sunday games all cash tournament guarantees have been doubled in the Double Guarantees Week promotion. The prizepool of your favorite tournaments will now balloon with stacks of dead money for the taking creating huge fields and huge payouts.

Last night’s $1k Monday tournament was a perfect example for players of all bankroll levels. The regular $1k Monday tournament jumped from $300,000 to $600,000 guaranteed and the field was stack with the top players including deep runs by Jeff Madsen and Erica Schoenberg. On the flip side, The Daily Dollar guarantee is now $20,000 and sported a tasty overlay near $8,500. Players looking for good value will be jumping all over these games throughout the week as a great way to boost the roll.

This all ends with the biggest Big Money Sunday in the history of Full Tilt where you can get a piece of $2,700,000 in guaranteed money across just 3 tournaments. The Sunday Brawl (now $800,000) and Sunday Mulligan ($400,000) will set the pace but the big event will be when the regularly scheduled $750,000 becomes a $1,500,000 guaranteed prizepool for just a $200+16 buyin. Throw in another $400,000 for the Double Deuce and players have a great opportunity to pad their accounts. Satellites are available at any time of the day and waiting for you to take your shot.

Good luck this week!

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Double Guarantees Week

Read more | Comments (0) | January 26th, 2010 Play Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker