Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Another version of the hugely popular MiniFTOPS has wrapped up it’s run and we have a fresh new group of players with bloated bankrolls courtesy of the cheap buyin events. The four MiniFTOPS events which completed yesterday came just short of a $2,000,000 prizepool, nearly 1/3 of the guaranteed prizepool for the entire series and “KnoK_U” was the big winner of the day. The Danish player collected $115,759 for his win in the $250 2-Day event outlasting a tough field. The 6-handed final table was a true international field with the other players hailing from the U.S., Germany, Brazil, Finland, and the U.K.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Sunday was one of the biggest tournament days on the site with the combination of MiniFTOPS XV and Big Money Sunday. About the only thing that could have made it bigger is if it fell on the switch from $750,000 Guarantee to $1,000,000. Over 50,000 players participated in the three MiniFTOPS events alone and it would have been more if the Heads Up event was not capped at 4,096 players. 10 events are in the bag for the series which continues to grow in popularity. Unlike the FTOPS series, there has not been even a sniff of an overlay in the first events and already $2,600,000 has been awarded in prizepool money with some of the bigger events are yet to come.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s once again that time for Full Tilt Poker to offer up another MiniFTOPS event full of tournaments allowing smaller bankrolled players a chance at mammoth sized prizepools. For just a few dollars or FTP points it’s possible to hit a score that can change your poker game for good and move you up to play with the big boys. MiniFTOPS XV will have over $6,000,000 in guaranteed money for just a 1/10th the price of the regular FTOPS events with the same structures and tournaments. That is some major coin for a small price.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Big Money Sunday became practically mind numbing as I unsuccessfully attempted to track the progress of seven big tournaments that ran 20 hours start to finish. Four of those tournaments alone drew over 50,000 players including the tiny buyin/big payout MiniFTOPS XIV Event #24 which had 22,240 runners. Throw in the normal $200k Double Deuce (10,838) and the MiniFTOPS Main Event (15,987) you begin to feel the gravity of the day.
From a prizepool perspective, we had grinders shooting for over $2,000,000 across just three tournaments. MiniFTOPS XIV Event #24 and the Main Event combined to award $1,021,750 and the monthly Million Dollar Guarantee pulled in $1,165,500. The finally of the Two-Day tournament added $600,000 making this one of the biggest prize money days for online poker. CardRunner’s Mike McDonald seemed to be the most common name amongst all tournaments on Sunday as he made a deep run in the all majors including a 4-digit payday in the $1 Million Guarantee.
The Main Event brought MiniFTOPS XIV to a close and another successful run of the campaign to bring big field, big payout poker to lower bankrolled players. The field blasted through the $4,000,000 guaranteed for the series with a final prizepool of $5,540,280 and 171,993 players. Former FTOPS winner Str8Forward finished atop the Tournament Leaderboard by finishing with 5 cashes overall including two final table appearances.
I attempted to catch as much action as possible from start to finish but finally threw my hands in the air after watching the final four in the $250 Two Day Event make several attempts to reach a deal. The term “monkey humping a football” kept popping my head while watching the process. Nothing was finally accomplished until kiwidownunder and hidden1s found themselves heads up and that took some convincing. The big loser in the process was Frenchman dscoa who eventually lost $11,000 in prize money after quibbling over $1,000 in negotiations.
I was left with no desire to watch the Main Event which would run until 9amET and well past my limitations.
After the jump you can find MiniFTOPS XIV by the numbers, as well as final table results for MiniFTOPS second half and Big Money Sunday:
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
While today is not necessary the “middle” of MiniFTOPS XIV, it was on Tuesday when I finally emerged from my self-imposed hibernation to check back into the fantastic world of online poker. Yesterday found us with 12 of the 25 events completed and 3 more to run throughout the day with something for everybody. Event #13 kicked off in the afternoon as a sold out 6-max shootout tournament. Events #14 and #15 ran consecutively with a little HORSE action and Turbo NLHE. It was a rough day for the Full Tilt pros as Eddy Sharf was the only one with a small cash in the turbo.
The first half was up and down for the rest of the red letter names. Christian Kruel started things off well by making the final table and finishing 4th in Event #1 ($14,872.79). After that only Sascha Biorac has been able to make another final table. Scott Fischman, Esther Rossi, and Roy Winston have cashed in 3 of the 15 tournaments but nothing big finishes to set the world on fire. 26 Full Tilt pros have cashed in the series so far which has attracted just south of 100,000 players and $3,000,000 total.
It has been a great series so far for us lower bankrolled players, big payouts for low buyins. There hasn’t been much ballyhoo from those busy writing about nosebleed tables but I’ve got our back. Here are the current numbers as we get ready for two more events today.
Number of events: 15
Players: 98,887
Guarantee Prizepool: $2,210,000
Actual Prizepool: $2,996,820
Largest Prizepool: $536,370 (Event #10 NLHE)
Smallest Prizepool: $36,450 (Event #3 Shootout)
Overlay: NO OVERLAY
Largest FTP Pro Payout: $14,872.79 (Christian Kruel)
Total FTP pro cash (#): 26
Total FTP pro cash ($): $27,927.13
You can find the final table results as well as another Julius_Goat report after the jump:
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Julius_Goat, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
MiniFTOPS XIV" width="234" height="281" align="right" />Every once in a blue moon I feel the need to pull away from the laptop for a little live action. This weekend provided that and even more. It was the yearly gathering of bloggers in Las Vegas and I once again stuck my head into the craziness. Much more to come later on that insanity including your (barely) humble author finishing second in the blogger poker tournament at Caesar’s.
Naturally the timing of my run to the west coincided with the kickoff of MiniFTOPS XIV and reporting on it here. My laptop never left the bag so I had regular guest blogger Julius_Goat keep track of the action this weekend since he was one of the few unfortunate who could not make the trip.
I asked him to keep an eye on the Full Tilt pros and big online names for anything spectacular or out of the ordinary. He passed along a bunch of reports but I figure my favorite is from Event #7.
The Full tilt pros got mowed down in Event #7 like extras in Saving Private Ryan and thus there was nothing to report on their actions in that event.
He stuck around the entire final table of Event #4, $200 rebuy tournament with a $600,000 guarantee. His first reports as well as the final table results after the jump.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Julius_Goat, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We are just a few days away from giving lower bankrolled players a chance at huge chunks of cash within proper bankroll management levels. That means the next round of the MiniFTOPS series is upon us. A set of 25 tournaments set across a week and a half with the same schedule as the main FTOPS series yet with just at 1/10th of the buyin. MiniFTOPS XIV kicks off on December 9th with a $250,000 guarantee tournament for just $20+2 and things just get better from there.
The prizepools will swell to over $4,000,000 for buyins between $10+1 for the rebuys and $250+16 for the 2 Day Event #22. Even if you aren’t bankrolled to those levels, satellites are available for all events starting as low as $0.50 or 50 Full Tilt Points. If tournaments are your favorite poker variant or want to give them a shot with dumping your entire roll on one event, then this is for you. You get the same deepstack and slow structures as the big boys, if you one of the fortunate to win the entire thing you will event get your own MiniFTOPS avatar for a good brag at the tables.
You can join players like Bruno Steffaneli, Fabrice Soulier, Chris “Moormanl” Moorman, and Brandon “bgitty” Garrity as MiniFTOPS champions and create a name for yourself. Every great poker player in the world had to start somewhere.
You can find the entire MiniFTOPS XIV schedule by following the link as well as the new set of MiniFTOPS XIV Challenges to go along with the tournaments and satellites. I will be around for the first event of the series but then will be hopping a plane westward to Las Vegas for some blogger shenanigans but will leave you in the capable hands of Julius_Goat until I return next Monday. Or Tuesday depending on the amount of degeneracy involved.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Julius_Goat, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The schedule for FTOPS XIV has been released including the return of the incredibly popular miniFTOPS. Full Tilt also announced a new FTOPS XIV Warmup tournament with a huge prizepool and micro-buyin. FTOPS XIV is set to run from November 4th until the Main Event on November 15th. That will make for some exciting times to start November. 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event winner will be crowned, “Piece of Ivey” tournament will be run, and FTOPS XIV drawing huge crowds.
There will also be the introduction of the FTOPS XIV Warmup Tournament on November 1st. This is a new wrinkle in the FTOPS set up and is already set to be one of the biggest online tournaments ever run. For just $5+.50 you can enter the tournament that has a $250,000 guaranteed prizepool and the field will be capped at 50,000 players. That simply means that Full Tilt will sell out the tournament or you’ll see an overlay. In my opinion, I think you’ll see it sell out at least a week in advance creating a huge waiting list. I suggest getting signed up now or get working on a satellite which are available at all times starting as low as .50c of 50 Full Tilt Points. I’m signed up already, now it’s your turn to catch me, first place will take home $22,500.
While Full Tilt is still ironing out the details of which pros are hosting various events, the schedule is available for you inspection and satellites are now running. FTOPS XIV kicks off with Event #1 at 21:00ET on November 1st, starting off big with a $1,000,000 guarantee No Limit Hold’em 6-max tournament. That’s the first million dollars out of the over $16,000,000 guaranteed throughout the series. Back by popular demand are the Knockout, Shootout, and $2,000,000 Two-Day event. 6 of the 25 tournaments have guarantees over the $1,000,000 mark including the $2,500,000 Main Event on November 15th.
As usual, there are also various promotions and challenges associated with FTOPS XIV. Satellite Challenge, Survivor, Hold’em, Double up Challenge. They are all there for more chances at free money and encouragement to get in the big games. All the FTOPS XIV Challenge details can be found here, waiting for you to signup.
If you are sporting a smaller bankroll and unable to satellite your way into the big events, you always have the option to set your sights on the upcoming miniFTOPS XIV in December. The same run of events but with just 1/10th of the buyin amount and over $4,000,000 in guaranteed money. You can jump here for all the details on miniFTOPS XIV including challenge of it’s own.
I’ll be spending the next few days looking over the schedules for both series to work out which games will see me spend my hard earned bankroll. I’ll miss the first part of FTOPS while in Las Vegas for the November Nine but that won’t stop me from throwing down some money to get in the big games. miniFTOPS presents similar issues for your humble writer as I’ll be back out in Las Vegas to join a big group of bloggers in town for fun and poker. Look over the details and pick your spots along with me.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, 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:
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Wow.
That’s all I was saying last night as I watched the number of entrants sour through the roof for MiniFTOPS XIII Event #1. I would generally wait until the end of the week to do a little recap of the last few events but this turnout warranted it’s own post. 16,750 players for a mid-week, late-night (for my time zone) tournament is incredible. A prizepool of $335,000 with over $50,000 going to first place, all for a tiny buyin of $20+2 or satellite for as little as 75c. The event brought out a baker’s dozen of Team Full Tilt including fellow FTP blogger Michael Craig, Lee Watkinson, Roy Winston, and Scott Fischman. Jon “Pearljammer” Turner was the last pro standing but fell short of the cash.
Professional player Mike “GoLeahsGoEh” Leah was my interesting story of the event. I am spending my next two weeks camped out at the Borgata Hotel and Casino for the WPT event, a little writing and a little playing. Leah was seen here in the tournament room yesterday afternoon competing in their first event of the series but busted out in the late afternoon. Just a few hours later and I was railing him in MiniFTOPS Event #1 and he was tearing up the field. He went on to finish 273rd out of 16,750 and is now sitting in the live tournament room competing again.
The tournament ran an incredible 12 hours, finishing up at 9am my time. Long after my eyes were closed and I was dreaming of bracelets, trophies and little avatar jerseys. The time from start to bubble seemed to fly but there is only so many ways to bust players out. Sitting at the final table, the average chip stack was jus south of 10,000,000 and I was amazed to see that no one made a deal when things were short-handed. Here’s how everything was paid out in the end:
1st – leoelectric – $50,250
2nd – zcooper123 – $33,500
3rd – rova33 – $23,450
4th – Bio72 – $16,750
5th – Chantastic1 – $11,725
6th – ZBTHorton – $8,710
7th – Shadi888 – $6,301
8th – OMGlefty – $4,623
9th – Gags30 – $3,283
My personal MiniFTOPS experience was postponed by one game as I wandered the tables in search of stories and pictures. There were quite a few young guns from the online world in the live field including Matt “All in at 420″ Stout who mentioned to the table that he was missing this MiniFTOPS game, I tried to keep track of his sister for him while he played. We’ve already proven that their will be quite a number of players dividing their time between the live poker world here and the online world during this series.
There are two more MiniFTOPS events today. Event #2 (6-max NLHE Shootout) is already sold out at 1,296 players but there is plenty of room for the 21:00ET Event #3 ($20+2 Limit Omaha/8). You can find the complete schedule here. This looks to be a great series of events for the smaller bankrolled players, giving everyone an opportunity for a big money boost and experience in large field tournaments. My plan is to pony up the money for the Omaha/8 and prepare for my Borgata run at the live version fo the game tomorrow.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
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The opinions expressed by this blog and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt Poker is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the author of this blog nor any content contained herein.
