Poker From The Rail
a Poker Blog brought to you by Full Tilt Poker
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.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Billy Argyros, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, Jono Karamalikis, Peter Jetten
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
This was the “slow” Sunday on Full Tilt, the weekend sandwiched between Double Guarantees week and the kickoff of FTOPS XX on April 17th but how that definition was crushed with a nearly $2,000,000 prizepool in the biggest game of the day along with the $1,000 Onyx Cup Qualifier. So while there wasn’t the kind of action we’ve seen over the last several weeks, there were still plenty of opportunities out there for players to pick up a big prize.
$1,922,400 was the prizepool in the biggest tournament of the day after the guarantee was bumped to $1,500,000 and switched to a Multi-entry format. A significant increase in money from the standard $750,000 which usually accompanies the $200+16 buyin and nearly 10,000 players took advantage off the field. 1,080 entries made the money but it was “Mr Boogerz” (nice name sir) who would take the top prize of $307,584 for the win.
We saw another interesting deal made in the Sunday Brawl to kickoff the day when “lindah3″ finished in 3rd but banked more money then the runner up and eventual winner “Exan13″. The $200,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) had another stellar final table on display with Full Tilt pro Jono Karamalikis, Michael “grindtherail” Lavin, and Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen who would beat Stan “stanman420″ Lee after a long heads up battle. Kevin “Wu_Wizard” MacPhee was the player of note to make the Sunday Mulligan final table but drop out of the tournament in 6th.
The most entertaining final table was in the second Onyx Cup Qualifier, a $1,000 buyin satellite to the high stakes poker tournament in May. At stake was a winner-take-all $100,000 seat in the first Onyx Cup event and 3 of the 4 final players were all world class. “Eldos” from Kazakhstan was facing three players with six WSOP bracelets between them in Daniel “FakeSky” Alaei (3), Josh Arieh (2), and David “Bussa Buss” Baker (1). After a long battle, the anonymous “Eldos” would outlast, outflop the rail favorite David Baker to book a seat in the biggest tournament of his life. Look forward to meeting the mystery man on May 11th.
With the conclusion of Big Money Sunday it is time to turn the grinder attention to FTOPS XX which starts with a nice $3,000,000 in the first event. Satellites for all FTOPS events are running around the clock, pick up a big score on the cheap. Full Tilt also recently announced the schedule for MiniFTOPS XX for our lower bankrolled players. Plenty of chances for our players to inflate their bankroll.
Big Money Sunday results listed below.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, MiniFTOPS, Onyx Cup Series
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
I wasn’t exactly going out on a limb last week when predicting the records set would not hold up more than a week. Full Tilt put a $3,000,000 Guarantee on the FTOPS XIX Main Event and never came close to sweating it. That number was passed before the first card was dealt and the poker world watched as the prizepool continued to climb throughout the two hour late registration period. With an hour remaining we were already looking at a 1st place prize over $1,000,000 which would be a first for the site.
When registration closed and the official numbers were posted, we had a tournament with the biggest prizepool and biggest payout in the history of Full Tilt Poker. 14,479 entrants for a $8,687,400 prizepool and $1,326,044 to 1st place.
The size of the field also ensured that it would be a very late night/morning for a lot of people including players looking for the biggest payday in the career.
It took more than 14 hours to play the field down to the final table which began with just 8 players as Nicholas “Colonel Mustard” Stowell was part of a double knockout during hand-for-hand play. “beerocrat” and “GIAMPP” were looking at some big money even though they fired only a single bullet, each were into the game for just one entry in a game that saw most major pros with 6 entries. “beerocrat” finished in 8th place for over $121,000 after his previous biggest tournament cash was $230 in a 90-person SnG way back in 2007. Daniel “WiLDmAn75″ Buzgon was the first big name to drop off the final table and we were soon looking at the joys of 3-way deal making with a combined $2.8million on the line.
WSOP bracelet winner Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle was sitting comfortably ahead with double the chips of second place “GIAMPP” and “SirMad” on the shortstack. Hinkle stated during his negotiations that he would take $1,150,000 and let the other two chop it as they saw fit. Somehow “SirMad” used freaky Jedi skills to get a bigger payday then he seemed to deserve via experience or chips and took no time to hit the rail. In the end it was “GIAMPP” and his single buy-in who would finish the day as the FTOPS Main Event champion but it was Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle who would walk away with the biggest payday in Full Tilt history for $1,162,949.
This was an extremely successful series by every measure. Records were set for the most number of entrants, most number of tournaments with a $1,000,000 (or greater) prizepool, most 6-digit payouts, biggest field and prizepool. The FTOPS XIX Main Event was also the biggest prizepool and payout of any tournament since the site opened for business. FTOPS XIX ran 45 events with 82,429 entrants and paying out just shy of a cool $40,000,000.
Congratulations to everyone who hit it big during the best online series! Of course we have our small bankrolled friends covered, just a few short weeks until we kick off MiniFTOPS XIX with $8,000,000 Guaranteed for just 1/10th of the FTOPS ticket price.
1st through 3rd made a deal:
1st – GIAMPP – $877,949
2nd – Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle – $1,162,949
3rd – SirMad – $805,440
4th – Nayza – $451,744
5th – Daniel “WiLDmAn75″ Buzgon – $321,433
6th – J NOCK – $230,216
7th – 425wedabest – $165,060
8th – beerocrat – $121,623
9th – Nicholas “Colonel Mustard” Stowell – $86,005
NOtables: Jim “reelhugefish” Gilbert (27th), Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski (47th), Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby (93rd)
1st through 3rd made a deal:
1st – NextCase222 – $332,041
2nd – enterthewu19 – $282,245
3rd – bonafidedonkey – $310,861
4th – minameeborat – $153,328
5th – Maxine Waters – $109,816
6th – Daheh – $70,448
Notables: Christian “da_professional” Iacobellis (15th), Alan “KGBluvsOreos” Neubauer (19th), David “Bussa Buss” Baker (20th), Isaac Baron (23rd), Chance “Chances Cards” Kornuth (26th), Andrew Black (50th), Carlos Mortensen (53rd), Jeremy “JBurleson” Burleson (56th), Stuart Paterson (58th), Erica Schoenberg (61st), Pass Lefrancois (65th), Matt “berkey11″ Berkey (70th), Mark “newhizzle” Newhouse (82nd), Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis (85th), Matt Hawrilenko (86th), John Racener (91st), Joe “bigegypt” Elpayaa (95th), Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik (96th)
1st through 4th made a deal:
1st – AndyMcloed – $163,365
2nd – King2173 – $131,611
3rd – Baby Drake – $143,459
4th – selinatis – $112,037
5th – aj66johnson – $53,917
6th – Cal42688 – $36,762
Notables: Patrick “Shevmouse” Renkers (24th), Nick “FU_15″ Maimone (40th), Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin (71st)
Tags: AlCantHang, Blair Hinkle, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It was a record setting day on the site yesterday as the first week of FTOPS XIX came to a close with three huge events. The day kicked off with Event #22 as a replacement to the popular Sunday Brawl, this time with multiple entries. The “small buy” $120 Knockout NLHE tournament drew the biggest field in FTOPS history with 23,342 entrants, more than doubling the previous mark. That set the stage for the $1,500,000 Guarantee Event #24 later in the day which blew the doors off every FTOPS tournament which came before. 11,343 entrants paid $322 for a chance at the prizepool which reached an incredible $3,402,900 besting the previous high set during the FTOPS XVIII Main Event. After just 24 events, the total prizepool for FTOPS XIX has reached $18,360,532.
Just a few of the records set this week and we still have a full week remaining including next Sunday’s Main Event.
Aside from the big action kicking off yesterday, there was also the matter of determining a winner in the inaugural $10,000 Heads Up FTOPS event. The tournament sold out at 128 players Saturday afternoon and played down to their Final Four. Some of big names coming up just short of the second day were Scott “mastrblastr” Seiver, Yevgeniy “bballer88″ Timoshenko, Scott “URnotINdanger2″ Palmer, and Ashton “theASHMAN103″ Griffin. Making it to Sunday afternoon were Full Tilt pros Scott Clements and Alessio Isaia along with Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe and “John00Flemming”. Isaia continued his great run after winning the 2011 World Poker Tour Venice title earlier in the week and made quick work of Volpe. Clements on the other hand had a battle on his hands with “John00Flemming”, going under T900 of his starting 6,000 before gutting it out to make the final match.
The two red letter pros chopped the match evenly leaving $5,000 and the title up for grabs. In the end it was Scott Clements winning the final match to become the 8th Full Tilt pro to win an FTOPS event. He joins Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith, David “The Dragon” Pham*, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Brandon Adams, Berry Johnston, and Soi Nguyen with those honors.
The monster field Event 22 battled it’s way down to the final table with some big names in the running but all coming up short in the end. Title winner LilPokerGirlie collected $279,428 for the victory while runner up “daCav04″ took home the bigger prize ($290,000) after the heads up deal was complete. Lee “acumen53″ Childs, friend of the blog, made noise late in the $800,000 Guarantee Rebuy FTOPS event while heading into the final table with the chip lead. He ran into a few unfortunate hands (AA down in flames to 96o for a taste) to finish the even in 4th.
The premier event of the day would run nearly 15 hours before we had our latest jersey winner. Five players were guaranteed a 6 digit payday, nearly $1,500,000 spread between those players. In the end it was German pro Alexander “AD_84″ Debus earning the coveted gold jersey along with $341,268 while 2nd place Jason “NovaSky” Koon had to settle for runner-up status but a bigger payout of $458,550.
Nick “Grippolio” Grippo tops the FTOPS XIX Leaderboard as we head into the final week. He has 8 cashes during FTOPS XIX including a victory in Event 6 and a runner up finished in Event 17 earning nearly $158,000 for the series. Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe is right on his tail with six cashes, one final table, and his 4th place finish in the $10,000 Heads Up tournament. There are still several others who could jump to the top of the leaderboard and win approximately $14,000 worth of tournament buyins for FTOPS XX.
Only 24 events into FTOPS XIX and it’s on pace to be the most successful in the series. To date there have already been seven tournaments to top the $1,000,000 prize mark with four more guaranteed in the next week. There is still plenty of time to get in on the action, FTOPS satellites continue to run throughout the day for as cheap as a few FTP points.
FTOPS XIX Week 1 results below.
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – David “OSUTexan” Walker – $191,065
2nd – Mattssons – $176,944
3rd – Fonsemand – $109,676
4th – halunited07 – $81,926
5th – Drf1209 – $59,643
6th – Ghiogghiero – $42,284
7th – petit_bourgeois – $28,145
8th – o mrBuBbLeS o – $19,556
9th – RiverRuben – $13,742
Notables: Maxi Mueller (20th), Corey “Comandr_Cool” Burbick (30th), Joao Barbosa (45th), Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (52nd), Steve “gboro780″ Gross (60th), Jack “JackQKA” Ellwood (85th), Scott “SCTrojans08″ Freeman (90th)
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – flycoolj – $44,960
2nd – Wallyayay – $40,000
3rd – PixKim – $23,895
4th – TheKinGDonalD – $19,175
5th – DJilago – $14,466
6th – a game rob – $10,620
7th – sernas – $6,844
8th – CabanaFreeRoll – $4,956
9th – jersch – $3,540
Notables: Stuart Paterson (15th), Caio Pimenta (23rd), Devon “horryclutch” Biehn (33rd), Bradley “FatsoFat6969″ Craig (36th), Tim “highlandfox” Finne (50th), “Ozzy 87″ Sheikh (61st), David “DonkCommited” Miscikowski (68th), Brandon Adams (73rd)
1st – Jonas “Klausen” Klausen – $182,650
2nd – Michael Turenic – $128,349
3rd – JHoWn – $87,869
4th – toddybrun2 – $65,161
5th – citation3 – $49,365
6th – Michael “mossified84″ Skomac – $36,628
7th – simon1471 – $26,163
8th – herbhealsme – $18,561
9th – callyoudownn – $12,538
Notables: Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (10th), Josh “Professor Plum” Prager (12th), Scott “SCTrojans08″ Freeman (13th), Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik (18th), James Dempsey (24th), Eric “Avril Sharapova” Ladny (30th), Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (32nd), Nick “Grippolio” Grippo (41st), Corey “Comandr_Cool” Burbick (48th), Huckleberry Seed (50th), “Ozzy 87″ Sheikh (53rd), Mark “uuhhhicall” Leonard (59th), Erick Lindgren (62nd), Kevin “GetPWN3D” Saul (80th), Eric “Avril Sharapova” Ladny (92nd), Adam “csimmsux” Geyer (97th)
1st through 3rd made a deal:
1st – max_zefir – $185,957
2nd – adametes – $177,565
3rd – Joe “JBlaze20″ Chaplin – $177,863
4th – Adam “csimmsux” Geyer – $88,466
5th – jeppish – $63,546
6th – Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin – $41,741
Notables: Josh “Professor Plum” Prager (12th), Brandon “bgitty” Garrity (17th), Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis (19th), Timothy “Tim0thee” Adams (22nd), “Ozzy 87″ Sheikh (23rd), Kevin “Wu_Wizard” MacPhee (36th), Mark “uuhhhicall” Leonard (52nd), Matt “berkey11″ Berkey (53rd), Praz Bansi (61st), Melanie Weisner (64th), Chris “herdgolf86″ Tipper (72nd), Adam “TheSquee” Sherman (77th), Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby (88th), Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo (91st)
1st – daPHUNNIEman – $18,436
2nd – Ketse – $12,151
3rd – tuzla1 – $8,799
4th – omgqq1cup – $6,536
5th – DEESGOTCHA – $4,609
6th – Flying Smile – $3,016
Notables: Brent “Bhanks11″ Hanks (19th), Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (21st), JD “jdpc27″ Wheeler (46th), Mike “Gags30″ Gagliano (51st)
1st – Nick “Grippolio” Grippo – $68,040
2nd – pokerproplaya08 – $42,768
3rd – To_Be_The_Man – $28,460
4th – Ross “zestfulyclean” Myers – $19,440
5th – tenselmi – $13,608
6th – inhidonks – $9,331
Notables: Steve Brecher (15th), Josh Arieh (23rd), Steven “LeoEleven” Rosen (37th), Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (47th), Josh “buttsauce33″ Weizer (61st), Kevin “GetPWN3D” Saul (78th), Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin (90th)
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – sfeedking – $31,452
2nd – Yubaball – $30,654
3rd – Suicide King007 – $17,252
4th – D-R_MAN-CARTEL – $11,259
5th – DAT MOOSE – $7,082
6th – i can flip – $5,084
7th – korjae – $3,541
8th – 8killmurph8 – $2,342
Notables: David “The Dragon” Pham (15th), Diego Cordovez (16th), Tim “highlandfox” Finne (20th), Michael Craig (21st), Nick “Grippolio” Grippo (23rd), Scott Clements (31st), Danny “THE__D__RY” Ryan (38th), Alex “ArgentinaBoy” Queen (44th), Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (73rd)
1st – Soepgroente – $25,750
2nd – actionDJ – $16,943
3rd – all_in_aquinas – $12,463
4th – tehopo – $9,064
5th – sqau777 – $6,489
6th – shuriken555 – $4,326
Notables: Huckleberry Seed (12th), Jon Turner (20th)
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – dfunks222 – $56,144
2nd – fabius00 – $43,000
3rd – COCOMIEL – $27,884
4th – sixthsense119 – $22,376
5th – Milanoz – $16,882
6th – David “Bussa Buss” Baker – $12,393
7th – Haibomi – $7,986
8th – whompakaMIT – $5,783
9th – Chris “herdgolf86″ Tipper – $4,131
Notables: Adam “TheSquee” Sherman (26th), Bjorn “kleath” Kleathersson (50th), Danny “THE__D__RY” Ryan (58th), Evan “NEONPILS99″ Parkes (60th)
1st – dutchmaster – $290,942
2nd – Kory “s00tedj0kers89″ Kilpatrick – $178,202
3rd – Alex “TheAssassinato” Fitzgerald- $123,675
4th – chaz_man_chaz – $91,386
5th – King_lewis8 – $67,016
6th – syyykee_mann – $45,693
Notables: Anthony “holdplz” Spinella (7th), John Racener (16th), Bradley “FatsoFat6969″ Craig (17th), Nick “agriffrod” Mitchell (22nd), Shawn Buchanan (24th), Chris “herdgolf86″ Tipper (25th), Joseph Cheong (49th)
1st – ash4simone – $39,531
2nd – hairypotter87 – $26,187
3rd – Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis – $18,348
4th – UBeenButlerfied – $11,342
5th – castellimich – $7,005
6th – BigBadDevil – $4,837
7th – bestof6billion – $3,669
8th – evermars – $2,502
Notables: Andrew “Skillville” Weisner (24th), Kelly Kim (37th)
1st – michigan091 – $73,600
2nd – Secret_Window – $48,950
3rd – danaldo – $36,085
4th – Yubaball – $28,225
5th – DontBluffMePLZZ – $21,079
6th – Matt “mattyv” Vengrin – $14,648
7th – badbeatme – $8,932
8th – uravtokonsul – $6,073
9th – YouOnlyLivOnce – $4,287
Notables: Ronald “ScarJo” Lee (22nd), Allen “albari” Bari (27th)
1st – Mike “SirWatts” Watson – $27,085
2nd – THE GENIUS 115 – $17,812
3rd – WiLDmAn75 – $12,380
4th – yankswinmore – $7,942
5th – Suicide King007 – $4,905
6th – Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe – $3,387
7th – mastershakezor – $2,569
8th – SNACKERS – $1,752
Notables: Kelly Kim (20th), Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (40th)
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – Specunder – $127,112
2nd – Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah – $111,279
3rd – Roxx Box – $67,047
4th – Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski – $53,803
5th – Shawn “Jordankickz” Busse – $40,592
6th – Magicbox_V – $29,799
7th – pommesXD – $19,203
8th – Brendooor – $13,906
9th – osokoso – $9,933
Notables: Ryan “ryanwelch” Welch (14th), Steve Yea (15th), Andrew “Skillville” Weisner (38th), Jim “reelhugefish” Gilbert (53rd), Christina “cristinalindley” Lindley (63rd), Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (66th), Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo (67th), Alexander “AD_84″ Debus (70th), David “Bussa Buss” Baker (73rd)
1st through 3rd made a deal:
1st – miserd00d – $182,447
2nd – JohnnyGstaks – $152,749
3rd – RuDyBoY X – $123,757
4th – Cuncydonky23 – $77,035
5th – Crocofantos – $54,250
6th – Pghfan987 – $35,805
7th – ChipRich – $23,870
8th – FromThaGroundUp – $16,275
9th – Micah “MicahJ” Smith – $11,935
Notables: John D’Agostino (15th), Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier (22nd), Andrew “Browndog19″ Brown (25th), Philipp “philbort” Gruissem (28th), Jason “NovaSky” Koon (31st), Jon “FatalError” Aguiar (32nd), Gavin Smith (33rd), Chad “jse81″ Bastista (35th), Chris “Moormanl” Moorman (61st), Zack “Zacpacker” Fellows (68th), Danny “THE__D__RY” Ryan (74th)
1st – JKwizzle – $37,327
2nd – John D’Agostino – $24,727
3rd – David Pham – $17,325
4th – nixsid – $10,710
5th – Beurice – $6,615
6th – CitizenMac – $4,567
7th – Jooston88 – $3,465
8th – pandabre – $2,362
Notables: Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (11th), Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe (12th), Zack “Zacpacker” Fellows (21st),
1st through 3rd made a deal:
1st – DevilTruck – $85,259
2nd – Nick “Grippolio” Grippo – $82,653
3rd – Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti – $47,500
4th – Caio Pimenta – $36,100
5th – syyyke_mann – $25,650
6th – kid_bramm – $16,387
Notables: Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen (15th), Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade (22nd), Chad “jse81″ Batista (32nd), Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp (43rd)
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – NatWork – $100,952
2nd – platon197846 – $103,392
3rd – CuteIsWhatIAim4 – $60,347
4th – BluffBlocker87 – $47,202
5th – ALKAYD66 – $35,252
6th – GeoffRas22 – $24,497
7th – AKSharky – $14,937
8th – winkiac – $10,157
9th – golf pro game – $7,170
Notables: James “croll103″ Carroll (20th), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (42nd), Eric “Avril Sharapova” Ladny (52nd), Tony “D1rtyR1v3r” Nardi (61st), Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano (63rd), Anthony “holdplz” Spinella (64th), Jeff Madsen (65th)
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – Scott Clements – $290,500
2nd – Alessio Isaia – $285,500
3rd – John00Flemming – $108,800
4th – Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe – $108,800
5th – Tight-Man1 – $57,600
6th – youreamaniac – $57,600
7th – canofcorn22 – $57,600
8th – Scott “mastrblastr” Seiver – $57,600
Notables: Nicolas “nicos11″ Chouity (9th), Yevgeniy “bballer88″ Timoshenko (12th), Scott “URnotINdanger2″ Palmer (15th), Ashton “theASHMAN103″ Griffin (16th)
1st – RenRad 01 – $95,081
2nd – WiLDmAn75 – $61,538
3rd – billybob187 – $45,687
4th – DuckU – $34,498
5th – Allie “The Prescott” Prescott – $24,242
6th – Burcak – $15,850
7th – Betong – $10,722
8th – MastrMultiTaskr – $7,459
9th – AretheseUtz – $5,594
Notables: Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano (13th), JD “jdpc27″ Wheeler (28th), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (35th), Karl “discomonkey” Fenton (45th), Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (53rd)
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – SuperDuty – $19,950
2nd – gardyone – $21,000
3rd – StabbFlation – $11,655
4th – Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek – $8,505
5th – Big Dutchie – $5,985
6th – aguacatal – $3,990
Notables: Svetlana Gromenkova (27th), Sascha Biorac (28th),
1st and 2nd made a deal:
1st – LilPokerGirlie – $279,428
2nd – daCav04 – $290,000
3rd – swish3113 – $157,558
4th – LeTruc – $110,874
5th – The Lab Rat – $78,195
6th – Haibomi – $57,187
7th – FrmRussiaWthLuv – $42,949
8th – Kory “s00tedj0kers89″ Kilpatrick – $31,511
9th – ElSkobar – $22,174
Notables: Steve “TheHesse” Hesse (10th), Shannon “BLUFFforRENT” Shorr (15th), Josh “Professor Plum” Prager (57th),
1st – npomocc – $166,396
2nd – NeverBettor – $109,854
3rd – Obvamentz_IMO – $81,582
4th – Lee “acumen53″ Childs – $63,812
5th – slaskovic – $47,657
6th – AceHigh800 – $33,117
7th – TheIBanker – $20,193
8th – lennepoker – $13,731
9th – nm_21 – $9,693
Notables: Nicolas “nicos11″ Chouity (17th), Pat “obiedman” O’Brien (22nd), Scott “SCTrojans08″ Freeman (23rd), Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo (26th), Steve “gboro780″ Gross (30th), Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (37th), Darryll “DFish” Fish (38th), Jeremy “daisyxoxo” Fitzpatrick (46th), Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (48th), Jim “reelhugefish” Gilbert (53rd), Chad “jse81″ Bastista (55th), Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano (60th), Erich Kollmann (61st), Matt “NoBadBeatsPlz” Kay (73rd), Bill Gazes (84th), Felipo Montenegro (91st)
1st through 3rd made a deal:
1st – Alexander “AD_84″ Debus – $341,268
2nd – Jason “NovaSky” Koon – $458,550
3rd – O0Brian0O – $336,750
4th – bigredAK – $181,034
5th – yadio1111 – $132,713
6th – RemixIt – $95,281
7th – MissOldy – $68,058
8th – keepthecarunnin – $48,661
9th – Tykoon35 – $34,403
Notables: Dave “doubledave22″ D’Alesandro (14th), Nicolas “nicos11″ Chouity (21st), Josh Arieh (23rd), Soi Nguyen (32nd), Paul “paulgees81″ Volpe (33rd), Matt Jarvis (49th), Jan Skampa (54th), Mike “Gags30″ Gagliano (57th), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (65th), Peter “Nordberg” Feldman (73rd), Ronald “ScarJo” Lee (81st), Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek (88th), Joao Barbosa (91st)
Tags: AlCantHang, Alessio Isaia, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, Scott Clements
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
By all measurements it was another successful FTOPS put on this quarter with 34 more big field, big prizepool, big winner tournaments. The addition of draw games along with the always popular Rush Poker only brought along a wider variety of games for the grinders.
Those who worked their way into the cash took home a portion of a prizepool which ballooned over $20,000,000, which also included eight tournaments putting up overlays to the tune of $156,000. Perhaps the most interesting “small” tournament was Event #14 with just a $75,000 guarantee which missed by $2,400 (or just 12 players) all because it was a brand new game on the site, Pot Limit 5-card Draw. Chances are your dad knows how to play that game better than you.
Brazilian monster Caio Pimenta looks like he will finish off his 2010 the way he kicked it off when he became a Full Tilt pro. He posted some ridiculous, triple digit, unsustainable ROI numbers at the beginning of the year but will finish they year in the high double digit percentage after a very productive FTOPS XVIII. He scored the biggest cash amongst the red letter pros with an even $100,000 for 3rd place finish in Event #22 but Soi Nguyen was right behind him for $78,000 and the FTOPS victory in Event #18. The final weekend brought us Annette Obrestad with another Full Tilt win but she fell just short in 5th of Event #33.
Looking at the raw numbers reveals the Full Tilt pros had another fine run collecting 2.55% of the prizepool ($529,702 of $20,734,087) while representing just 1.85% of the field (1,133 of 61,309). Felipe Montenegro lead the pros with 4 smaller cashes during the series followed by another 11 players with 3 cashes. The top 10 pros alone collected over $387,000 in prize money cementing themselves as some of the best players on the planet. Learn, chat and play with the Pros indeed.
“Wall131TCI-I” came out on top of the FTOPS XVIII with five tournament cashes and three of those producing final table appearances, two 2nd place and one 4th place finish, and over $150,000. Generally a lower buyin player, these five results put his 2010 ROI at a completely reasonable 432%. Those three close calls were just enough to keep him ahead of “Private ATM” who’s FTOPS also included five tournament cashes, a victory in Event #22, and nearly $230,000 in cash. Rounding out the top 3 is Ami “UhhMee” Barer with another five cashes and an FTOPS jersey in Event #5.
Random numbers from FTOPS XVIII:
Number of events: 34
Guarantee Prizepool: $19,000,000
Actual Prizepool: $20,734,087
Largest Prizepool: $3,013,800.00 (Main Event)
Smallest Prizepool: $75,000 (Five Card Draw Pot Limit Event 14)
Overlay (8 events): $156,600
Number of players: 61,309
Largest Payout: $411,932 (JHoWn)
Largest FTP pro Payout: $100,000 (Caio Pimenta)
Total FTP pro cash (#): 124
Total FTP pro cash ($): $529,702.20
Was all this action just a little too big for your bankroll? Don’t forget we have MiniFTOPS XVIII kicking in just a few weeks and satellites are already available on the cheap. See you there. Second week FTOPS XVIII results below along with the “Completely Unofficial Red Letter Pro Leaderboard”.
Tags: AlCantHang, Annette Obrestad, Bloggers on the Rail, Caio Pimenta, Felipe Montenegro, FTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Things settled down just a little bit after being hit across the head with constant November Nine updates, there are several smaller live events going on around the world and naturally FTOPS XVIII came along just in time to give the online grinders another fix with large pools of fish. Players are spread from California to Florida to New Jersey and jumping back across the ocean for action in Barcelona and Morocco but they all had access to the internet to balloon up prizepools in the quarterly online series.
On top of that we had a WSOP champion give up his hardware and Rush Poker going mobile. Below are just some of the poker news stories over the last week.
- 2008 WSOP Main Event champion Peter Eastgate first retired from poker and is now auctioning off his bracelet for charity. Tony G steps in to make a mockery of it all. Standard.
- Greatest FTOPS final table ever? I wrote about Soi Nguyen winning his hosted event earlier in the week, Thursday we had a 67% chance of having another red letter pro winning when Huck Seed and Robert Williamson III found themselves in the final three of the No Limit Deuce to Seven Single draw tournament.
- FTOPS XVII came to a close yesterday with massive prizepools and some newly rich players. I have the list of the day’s biggest winners.
- Rush Poker is one of the best innovations in recent memory and now you can play it on your mobile device.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, Peter Eastgate, Rush Poker, Rush Poker Mobile, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
When looking for a Soi Nguyen picture for a post I could easily track down an action shot or something from the final table but I just can’t help but post his post-game photo with his supporters. They were great.
It’s been just over a week since the latest poker legend was crowned and Full Tilt was nice enough to give us a day before launching into the latest FTOPS series of tournaments. 22 events have been played and each time I prepare to post the results something bigger occurs causing a pause in my post to upgrade. I think we can put a stake in the ground Tuesday evening with Soi Nguyen’s victory in Event #18.
Kory “s00tedj0kers89″ Kilpatrick became just the first player this series to add a second FTOPS jersey to his resume, my top story for the writeup until our very own Soi Nguyen accomplished a feat only done twice before. Every FTOPS tournament is “hosted” by a member of the Full Tilt family, taking their turn in the ProChat box while also trying to concentrate on their tournament. Before too long, quite literally, Nguyen found himself at the final table of his hosted tournament. It was a Super Turbo (300 chip!) Rush tournament which went from the starting 1,841 players to bursting the 189 money bubble just 25 minutes in.
It’s always interesting to see the fates of the past members of the November Nine play out once the lights are off and someone else is doing the winner interviews. Some use the experience to build their poker careers while others slip back into the crowd (whatever happened to that Phil Ivey guy?). It looks like Soi Nguyen plans to keep his name out front as long as possible.
After the craziness getting to the final table, the stacks were still pretty shallow and he still had plenty of work to do facing David ‘Davidp18″ Peters and Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier. He fought his way to heads up with big chiplead versus “hellviper86″ and the battle did not take long. Besides the ~$78,000 for first place, the 2010 November Niner joins the exclusive group of Full Tilt pros to win the event they were hosting which includes only Erick Lindgren and Greg “FBT” Mueller. In FTOPS history, he is just the 7th red letter pro to win an FTOPS event of any kind.
Erick Lindgren – FTOPS VII Event #9
Gavin Smith – FTOPS XII Event #7
Berry Johnston – FTOPS XII Event #14
*- David “The Dragon” Pham – FTOPS XIV Event #14
Greg “FBT” Mueller – FTOPS Event XIV #19
Brandon Adams – FTOPS XVII Event #14
Soi Nguyen – FTOPS XVIII Event #18
It’s been a pretty stellar series with just a few event left. Already over $11,000,000 in prize money with even a few events offering an overlay, more the $150,000 if you would to know what you are missing. 16 players have collected more than $100,000 in a single tournament, 4 of those topping $200,000 including Sebastian “sebbau” Bauer picking up $274,234 in Event #16 (no chop!). Full Tilt’s Caio Pimenta continues to prove his worth to the team with another great series, leading all red letter pros with over $110,000 in tournament cashes this series. The “Completely Unofficial Red Letter Pro Leaderboard” can be found after the results below.
The addition of Draw games to the Full Tilt roster has also added more diversity in the games. 10-game mix, 5 Card Draw, Deuce to Seven Single and Triple Draw are some of the new additions and Rush Poker Tournaments continue to pack in the crowds. Plenty of time to get in on the action, check the FTOPS page for details.
Results after the jump:
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Caio Pimenta, FTOPS, Soi Nguyen, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
FTOPS XVII finished up its run yesterday filling out an already stacked Big Money Sunday roll call of tournaments. The prizepool for Sunday alone was just shy of $7,000,000 if you include the finish of the Two Day Event #29 sending the total FTOPS XVII cash over $20,000,000 for the series. “DQnk” has the unique honor of taking home the biggest single payout without the benefit of winning an event, his deal in the Main Event put $446,942 in his pocket while jersey winner TyboVegas took home $423,057.
The Full Tilt pros were led by Brandon Adams and Chris Ferguson. Adams collected the 6th total FTOPS title for a red letter pro while Ferguson had the single biggest cash among team members with nearly $70,000 for his 5th place finish in Event #13. Jeff Madsen came out like gang busters in the first week but lost steam towards the end with only one small cash while Dave Colcough topped all red letter pros with 5 cashes.
Four players come away from this series added a second FTOPS victory to their resume including Mike “chapmoney” Chapp who was the only player to win two titles during FTOPS XVII. Brent “Broberts85″ Roberts doubled up early then followd by Mark “xqsays” Radoja and Mickey “Mement_mori” Petersen. That also means Yuval “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (4)and Adam “csimmsux” Geyer (3) remain as the only players with more than two FTOPS wins. Chapp comes away with atop the FTOPS XVII Leaderboard with his two victories.
Number of events: 34
Guarantee Prizepool: $19,000,000
Actual Prizepool: $20,598,444
Largest Prizepool: $3,000,000 (Main Event)
Smallest Prizepool: $100,000 (Stud Event #25)
Overlay (4 events): $203,300
Number of players: 61,150
Largest Payout: $446,942 (DQnk)
Largest FTP pro Payout: $68,854.80 (Chris Ferguson)
Total FTP pro cash (#): 134
Total FTP pro cash ($): $347,984.55
More FTOPS XVII results after the jump as well as “Completely Unofficial Red Letter Pro Leaderboard”:
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Brandon Adams, Chris Ferguson, FTOPS, Jeff Madsen
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s been a great week in the poker world with FTOPS drawing huge fields to the tables, cash games are running at the insane levels, and ESPN began broadcasting the 2010 WSOP Main Event. There were plenty of stories throughout the week and here are five that caught my attention, details after the jump.
1. FTOPS XVII cruising right along. Brandon Adams represents Full Tilt with a win and Mike “chapmoney” Chappus is the first double winner this series.
2. The NFL withdraws it’s opposition to HR 2267.
3. Doubles Poker Championship debuts this weekend on the GSN network.
4. High stakes poker games on Full Tilt continue to run hot.
5. Phil Laak takes a bad beat, on an ATV.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Brandon Adams, FTOPS, Phil Ivey
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Brandon Adams must have been reading the other day when I mentioned only 5 Full Tilt pros have managed an FTOPS victory over the 300+ tournaments to date. He added a 6th title for the red letter pros on the very same day. Adams made the Limit Omaha/8 final table but as one of the shorter stacks and didn’t take command of the tournament until late. When the tournament ended just before midnight on the east coast he would collect nearly $40,000 and a custom FTOPS avatar which will never see the light of day. He continues the fine run of pros during FTOPS XVII.
Previous Full Tilt pro FTOPS victories:
Erick Lindgren
FTOPS VII Event #9 – No Limit Hold’em
Gavin Smith
FTOPS XII Event #7 – No Limit Hold’em Rebuy
Berry Johnston
FTOPS XII Event #14 – H.E.R.O.S.
David Pham
FTOPS XIV Event #14 – H.O.R.S.E.
Greg “FBT” Mueller
FTOPS XIV Event #19 – Limit Hold’em 6-max
Brandon Adams
FTOPS XVII Event #14 – Limit Omaha/8
Monday also brought out the big buyin tournament which featured one of the biggest single payouts for first place. The normal $1k Monday tournament was replaced with FTOPS XVII Event #15 and drew enough players willing to pony up the four-digit buyin to build the prizepool up to $1,370,000. The deepstacks and slow structure carried the event into the early morning hours where “yahoo33″ added over $300,000 to his/her bankroll. It will take some research to confirm but this might be the single biggest FTOPS prize awarded.
More FTOPS XVII results after the jump as well as an updated “Completely Unofficial Red Letter Pro Leaderboard” after the jump:
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Brandon Adams, FTOPS
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