The Week at FTP: Heads-Up Madness!

Posted by One Angry Monkey | Filed under The Week at FTP

Welcome to The Week at FTP, where the only thing on our minds is the $25K Heads-Up World Championship. Considering Big Donkey’s strong aversion to heads-up play, we thought it best if I took a crack at giving you a recap of the largest buy-in heads-up tourney ever. Without further ado, let’s get this show on the road:

Poker by the numbers…

64 players, a $25K buy-in, a prize pool of $1.6 million, and $560K for winning the whole damn thing – these are the big numbers from this weekend’s $25K Heads-Up World Championship. Oh yeah, the one number I forgot to put here was 22 – as in 22 Full Tilt Pros who played in the event. To say the best and brightest of poker’s elite showed up for this one is an understatement. There’s no telling how big this thing could get if we do it again next year, but for right now this has to stand as one of the biggest and most prestigious poker events ever held online.

Round of 64 (The Heat Check Round)

Play got underway just after 3PM Eastern time on Saturday with everyone claiming their seat on time – everyone, that is, except for David Oppenheim. We’re not sure where Oppie was exactly, but thankfully his opponent was The Grinder (better known as poker pro Michael Mizrachi, brother of Full Tilt pro Robert Mizrachi), who was kind enough to steal David’s blinds as slowly as possible until he showed up. And show up he did, coming back from a 2-1 chip deficit to take the match from The Grinder’s grasp.

With so many big names in the field, there were bound to be a few big time first round match-ups. The best of the best included Taylor Caby taking down Nick Schulman, whitelime besting Phil Ivey, the guru 11 teaching a life lesson to Erik Seidel, Brandon Adams eliminating tourney host Chris Ferguson, Max Pescatori smoking Huck Seed, and pr1nnyraid laying a quick beat down on Gus Hansen, who was the second player to be eliminated. For those of you counting at home, that’s $25K Gussy just dropped on about five minutes of play. Oh well, it’s still cheaper than Eliot Spitzer’s hooker…

Round of 32 (The Settling In For A Long Night Round)

12 Full Tilt pros made it to the second round of play, but not all 12 would advance. Great match-ups included: Caby v. whitelime (whitelime ftw), Nordberg v. the guru 11 (Nordberg ftw), Finddagrind (otherwise known as some guy named Patrik Antonius) v. Eli Elezra in the high-stakes players rubber match (Antonius ftw), Andy Bloch v. Durrr (Bloch ftw), Adams v. David Singer (Singer ftw), Pescatori v. Brian Hastings (Hastings ftw), and Howard Lederer v. Boosted J (Howard ftw).

The Sweet 16 (The Bubble Round)

Any player who won their match in the Sweet 16 would be guaranteed to make the money and take home at least $96K for their efforts, so this promised to be the longest and most painstaking round of them all. Five FTP pros remained in the hunt for the top prize, but with the field thinning and the stakes increasing, that would be no easy task. All of the match-ups in this round were big-time affairs, but the featured tables had to be: whitelime v. Nordberg (whitelime ftw), ActionJeff v. Bloch (Bloch ftw), and a showdown of former FTOPS champions as DaEvils took on mishchiefofmagic (with mischief taking down the match). Oh yeah, and then there was the Hastings v. Lederer showdown, with the young gun taking down the old pro and making the money.

Another worthy match of note in this round was David Singer taking on buck99. In fact, this match could be seen as the turning point of the whole tourney. As Singer and buck99 battled back and forth and the blinds got bigger and bigger, buck99 tried to strike a deal with Singer to ensure they both would make some money no matter who made it to the next round. No dice. Singer’s response was a simple “I like to gamble.” Might’ve been a good move for Singer, as we’ll see how things turned out for him later on down the line.

The Elite Eight (The Things Get Serious Round)

Eight players, four matches, an additional $72K in cold hard cash for the winner of each match – oh yeah, the shit was getting real now. Each winner would advance to the final four, which was to take place the next day, so this was the cut-off in terms of putting your money where your mouth is. whitelime took out Ansky451 in a battle of high-stakes online studs. Singer sent mastrblastr to the rail with a bang. Hastings ensured that there were no more tricks up mischiefofmagic’s sleeve. And, in the feature match of this round, Andy Bloch and Patrik Antonius battled it out for the final spot in the Final Four. It was a classic back and forth heads-up battle, with Bloch eventually pulling out the victory over Finland’s pride and joy.

The Final Four (Need we say more?)

whitelime versus Bloch. Singer versus Hastings. Two young Internet pros versus two grizzled live poker veterans. But who would prevail? The tournament was paused after the Elite Eight, allowing all four finalists a good night’s sleep before they took to the felt to compete for the $560K first-place prize. The action resumed just after 4PM Eastern time and got off to a rather slow start as the players took their time feeling their opponents out. But before you could sneeze (well, hopefully it doesn’t take you an hour to sneeze, but you get what I’m saying), whitelime had Bloch on the ropes and Singer had Hastings gasping for air. At one point, I looked away from my screen for a split second and, when I looked back it, was all over and the final was set. I didn’t catch how Bloch was taken out, but Hastings had a heartbreaking hand as he got all-in with pocket 9s versus the pocket 5s of Singer. Alas, Singer hit his 5 on the flop, and that was all she wrote.

The Championship Match (For all the moola!)

And just like that, 64 players had been whittled down to the final two. It wasn’t an epic match-up by any stretch of the imagination, but we still had a great fight on our hands as high-stakes online grinder whitelime took on Full Tilt Poker pro David Singer. Second place paid $320K, while first place was a whopping $560K prize. As the cards got in the air, Singer immediately jumped out to a lead that he was determined not to give up. After all, the biggest advantage in heads-up play is being able to cover your opponent when he goes all-in.

Singer, slow and methodical all through the tournament, kept putting whitelime to the test by pushing all-in several times after whitelime had three-bet pre-flop. Grinding whitelime down one hand at a time, Singer finally had his opponent on the ropes with about a 4-1 chip advantage. After being pushed around for much of the match, whitelime decided to fight back and shoved all-in against Singer holding just 10-3 off-suit. Unfortunately, Singer held pocket 8s at that moment and made the easy call. There was no help for Whitelime on the board, and, just like that, David Singer had been crowned the $25K Heads-Up World Champion. Congrats to David on a great run. I have enough trouble winning just one heads-up match, never mind six in a row against the best players in the world.

Overall, I have to say that this tournament was a complete success (and no, I’m not getting paid to say that). Now let’s see if we can push this thing to the max and get 128 players (and twice the prize pool!) for the next time around. Until then, there’s always another FTOPS to look forward to in August…

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