Phil Laak enjoying a well deserved shuteye

It’s official: the world is ending soon. Phil Laak gave it his best effort to have a record to his name, in this case the “Longest Poker Game”, which was previously officially in the hands of Larry Olmsted. Larry Olmsted’s official time was 72 hours and 22 minutes, which he set at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut in 2004. The unofficial record, as in the one not sanctioned (yet) by the Guinness people, stood in the hands of Paul Zimbler who played poker nonstop for 78 hours and 25 minutes.

As FlopTurnRiver has previously reported, Phil Laak was not content with just edging out his nearest competitor, and decided to completely and totally decimate the previous record. In a herculean effort that I’m not sure will ever be matched until someone who has a permanent and possibly mutant sleeping insomnia disorder and a mean poker game will attempt to do, Laak now holds the record. The final tally? 115 hours exactly.

Most of us have trouble playing (winning) poker for 3 hours straight. This guy did it for 115 hours. That’s 5 hours short of 5 days, and even Jack Bauer, the fictional protagonist of the hit TV series 24 is going to be amazed at this feat. Phil Laak has been on a strict no sweets and low-fat diet since January to prepare for his attempt. His nutritionist was on hand to provide him meals every 5 hours to keep his wits sharp, and possibly for him to not go insane. His game of choice was $10/$20, and the reports indicate that he finished the ordeal being $6,766 in the black. Half of those proceeds will go to a charity for children with life-threatening diseases, so Mr. Laak shows he has a big heart as well.

For a guy who has won over $2,500,000 in lifetime tournament winnings, those are pretty small stakes, but it was a wise move as losing a very significant part of his roll (read: go broke) was totally possible if he would play at his usual cash game stakes.

For the record to be valid, the whole thing had to be videotaped, witnesses had to be present to ensure he did not have a quick nap or equipment malfunction in which some minutes of footage would be mysteriously missing. A variety of ways come to mind in which this effort could be cheated. The guys of Guinness World Records still have to verify all the proof, documentation and videotaping for this record, which means that the record won’t be certified for months.

The only word that comes to mind to describe what happened is: Epic. Who knows what’s next for Phil Laak… maybe he will try to emulate the fabled Nick Dandolos versus Johnny Moss HU grudge match of ’49 that lasted for a whole 5 months? All you need is to find a willing participant and … wink wink…

These guys were so brash and brazen, and it might even have been a spur of the moment thing in the way they were armed and how they were filmed enjoying a local McDonald’s just hours prior to the burglary. Anyway, these guys got away with the deed. But as you know for sure, the long arm of the law will always catch baddies, no matter how long it takes.

German Authorities later pointed out that the bad guys’ successful heist was worth around €242,000, or around $290,000 US in prize pool money. The tournament went on after the scare, with 29-year old American Kevin McPhee taking home €1,000,000 for taking down the tournament after defeating Finn Ilari Tahkokalio heads-up.

The investigations went on, and on Thursday May 27th, an arrest warrant went out for a Mohammed Abou-C. (identified like that because of German privacy laws) and he got arrested just one day later in the early hours of Friday, May 28th while driving through the German capital. The prosecutor Martin Steltner gave some light on details of how Abou-C. did what he did. Apparently, he got a peek at where the meat of the money was held while playing himself in a poker tourney. This info would then be given to the heavy hitters who wielded machetes to carry out the heist.

I guess that when you are a wanted man, it should make sense to get the hell out of the place where the deed took place. Apparently Mr. Abou-C. would disagree with me on that one however as he leisurely stayed behind within Berlin. Perhaps he was trying to score another big hit at another big poker tournament?

This incident had as prime consequence an increase of the amount of security on hand, and security measures as a whole, of poker tournaments everywhere. Something good came out of it after all.

With this latest arrest, it marks the total number of people who have ben arrested in connection with this crime at six. One piece of advice guys, and especially mastermind Abou-C. as you’ll be in it for a long time to come, don’t drop the soap!

The outspoken Negreanu, never one to spare words but usually pulls punches, had this to say on his blog: “Apparently, from what I’ve heard, in order to crack their software all you needed to have was a Windows calculator! That’s unreal.”

He goes on to say that about 10 years ago when UB.com was formed, he steered clear immediately upon hearing that Mr. Hamilton was involved with the site.

Daniel goes on to say this very valid point: “It is impossible that the same site to be implicated in the two biggest scandals the world of online poker has witnessed, and not realize that there is something inherently wrong going on there. Once a huge leak is discovered on your site like that, any responsible management should close the whole thing down until it is resolved. They should have put the kibosh on it immediately.”

Cereus needs to cereusly (see what I did there) rethink its security strategies, and not sit and wait until someone that is very prominent in the poker scene to lash out like this. And, strangely enough, UB’s own Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth, or Mark Seif from absolute Poker, remain very mum on the issue.

Practice caution when you are playing on the Cereus network from now on, until we know for sure that this very serious issue has been resolved.

In the physical world, as in beyond clicks and buttons, there has been an actual room after which the idea behind Ivey’s Room on Full Tilt Poker was based. That one was called Bobby’s Room, after card-shark Bobby Baldwin, who won the 1978 WSOP Main Event. Baldwin loves to gamble, and he would generate a lot of action; so much in fact that he ended up getting a room at the fabled casino Bellagio named in his honor.

Phil Ivey, on the other hand, never won the main event, but he has has won pretty damn near everything else. Phil Ivey has accomplished nearly everything tourney players dream, and has had multiple cashes in all sorts of tournaments around the world. It goes without saying that he is a high stakes cash game regular in pretty much every venue. Naturally, it would be only a matter of time before he got his own room at a casino somewhere. And that is exactly what will happen in just a short while.

The Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter, also located on the Las Vegas Strip just like the Bellagio, will be opening a high stakes room named in honor of Phil Ivey. It will be a one table, high limit poker room, and will be opened with a celebrity and VIP tournament on Saturday 5/22 2010, awarding the winner a whole $250,000 and the chance to play the man himself, Phil Ivey, for another $250,000. There will also be a bounty of $100,000 on Phil Ivey’s head during the celebrity tournament. And who knows, just as the best parties always have excellent after parties, Mr. Ivey will be on hand to play a few inaugural hands on his table as well.

The Ivey will be in the house. It’s obviously up to you if you practice avoidance or engage head on. But one thing’s for sure, and that is that you will be in for the time of your life!

As we know, each SCOOP event is broken down into 3 tourneys, with each one catering to a different audience in terms of buy-in. Today’s events had the following buy-ins: $22 for the Low Buy-in tournament, $215 for the Medium Buy-in tournament, and $2,100 for the Highest Buy-n tournament. The games in question today were NLHE Freezeout 2-day events.

L
We begin with the low buy-in tournament. Today’s event had a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000, which is an extreme amount when you consider that the buy-in for this event was $20+2. Despite drawing 21,481 hopefuls into the mix, they did not exceed the prize pool, which meant that there was a fair bit of overlay in this particular tourney. And if there is something that tourney players love, that would be overlay. Besides heaping oodles of Red Bull, of course.

But don’t let the buy-in fool you, as it’s possible that this might have been one of the toughest tourneys that PokerStars has hosted this year. That will change with upcoming Sundays events though. The reason is that since there are so many entrants, the average player is going to be matched up against so many unknowns that it’s impossible to figure out how everyone pays in time. So, theoretically, you’d have to play close to the standard lines, and this may or may not result in early exits.

3,600 out of its 20,000+ entrants got something for their troubles. But all eyes were of course on the final table. Action on the final table was fast and furious, with heads rolling at a comparatively quick rate. As soon as the 4th place finisher, TRAANKKA, got knocked out, the remaining players discussed a deal (because TRAANKKA was the only one that would oppose this). The accepted deal was as follows:

Spoli4tor: $36,500.92
grandslamsal: $30,000.00
gamma21: $28,179.08

$10,000 was left on the table for the winner.

The action continued on a brisk pace. Just 4 hands after the 3rd place finisher got the bad news, HU was already over. This was the hand that ended it all:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 22 Tournament, 800000/1600000 Blinds 200000 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Replayer from Poker Hands Replayer

Spoli4tor (t178785740)

gamma21 (t36024260)

Preflop:

Spoli4tor bets t3200000, gamma21 raises to t35824260 (All-In), Spoli4tor calls t32624260

Flop: (t72048520) A, 5, 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t72048520) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t72048520) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t72048520

Results:

Spoli4tor had Q, Q (one pair, Queens).

gamma21 had 10, 10 (one pair, tens).

Outcome: Spoli4tor won t72048520

And just like that, Spoli4tor rode the heat wave of cards on the final table, and emerged as the last man standing out of a 5-figure field, with a 5-figure payday. Quite a feat in any case, so congrats to all who participated!

M
The medium buy-in event of 2010 SCOOP #20 was a $200+15, which is fairly standard for when it comes to large online tournaments. 8,266 hopefuls showed up for this one. With a prize pool that was guaranteed at $2,000,000, the generated buy-ins fell just short of covering it and therefore this tourney also had excellent overlay.

Among all the hopefuls that got into this tournament lurked many sharks, undoubtedly attracted by the rather large first prize worth $290,000. Among the many talented individuals that participated in this tournament were a host of usual suspects such as FTR’s own busto_soon and a whole array of PokerStars pro’s which included Grayson “Spacegravy” Physioc, Victor Ramdin, USCphildo, Dustin “Leatherass9″ Schmidt and Noah “Exclusive” Boeken. Each and every single one of these guys is an accomplished tourney vet, and they were literally a dime a dozen in this particular tourney, so despite the buy-in not being ultra high you could count on that it would have been a very tough tourney to win.

After VOZNI from Moscow got eliminated in 3rd place, gutshtallin and jakehekejnr discussed a potential deal. It was agreed upon then that gutshtallin would take home $238,884 and jakehekejnr $230,315, despite the stacks being desperately unequal at this point. They would duke it out for the remaining $40,000 from the prize pool.

Oh, and everyone’s favorite high stakes player Barry Greenstein made a cameo appearance in the tourney, and was the final table host. Talk about special!

The final hand went down as follows:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 300000/600000 Blinds 75000 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Replayer from Poker Hands Replayer

jakehekejnr (t70159116)

gutshtallin (t12500884)

Preflop:

jakehekejnr bets t1200000, gutshtallin raises to t12425884 (All-In), jakehekejnr calls t11225884

Flop: (t25001768) 9, A, 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t25001768) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t25001768) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t25001768

Results:

jakehekejnr had K, Q (one pair, fives).

gutshtallin had K, 7 (one pair, fives).

Outcome: jakehekejnr won t25001768

And jakethehekejnr took home the additional $40,000 with this beautiful hand. That’s an additional car for the rest of us, you know? Care to take us for a ride? Oh, and congrats!

H
The highest buy-in event of the 2010 SCOOP #20 clocked in at a hefty $2,100 per seat. Accordingly, fewer people showed up to duke it out for this bracelet. But you know exactly where this is going. If the low buy-in tourney had a tough field, and the medium buy-in tourney had a tougher field, this one had an OMG toughest field the likes of which you just don’t see often. This particular event only drew 1,088 participants, but it should be regarded as a gathering of the who is who in poker today. To get an idea of what we are rambling about, here are 5 names taken from the pool at random: t soprano; zangbezan24; IV. Geoffrey; djk123; and finally, gp333. These are all guys who are widely considered to be at the top of the game, and they were all together, duking it out for this specific bracelet.

Once at the final table, the action was slow and deliberate. It did not help that the blinds were very shallow compared to the stacks, meaning that everyone was playing very deepstacked poker.

These players knew each other and played each other well. All in all, it took upwards of 4 hours for play to conclude at the final table, with close to half of that going to the HU battle alone.

The final hand was as follows:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2100 Tournament, 40000/80000 Blinds 10000 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Replayer from Poker Hands Replayer

sms9231 (t9141513)

JotaGran49 (t1738487)

Preflop:

sms9231 bets t160000, JotaGran49 calls t80000

Flop: (t340000) J, 6, 10 (2 players)

JotaGran49 checks, sms9231 checks

Turn: (t340000) K (2 players)

JotaGran49 checks, sms9231 bets t200000, JotaGran49 raises to t1568487 (All-In), sms9231 calls t1368487

River: (t3476974) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t3476974

Results:

sms9231 had 5, K (two pair, Kings and fives).

JotaGran49 had K, 7 (one pair, Kings).

Outcome: sms9231 won t3476974

Like true gladiators they fought leaving it all on the field. It’s almost saddening that someone had to lose, but alas, that is the way it goes. sms9231 knew how to exploit the opposition, and took down one of the most prestigious tournaments that will run during this whole year in the process despite not being the chipleader during the whole HU match. Congrats!

A big round of applause to everybody who participated, and keep this in mind: if you did not win, or even cash, today, there is always tomorrow and the day after that. Keep trying, because one of these days Victory will be yours to savor!

Final Tables Cash List, SCOOP 2010 Event #20

NL Hold’em Freeze Out (2-Day)

$20 + $2 buy-in L

1st) Spoli4tor $46,500.92*
2nd) grandslamsal $30,000.00*
3rd) gamma21 $28,179.08*
4th) TRAANKKA $18,000
5th) PLZDUNCALL $13,500
6th) mr.dex $9,000
7th) PRODIGYNEEBR $6,250
8th) 88diamond88 $4,250
9th) Chapalette $2,500
*= after deal
$200 + $15 buy-in M
1st) jakehekejnr $270,315*
2nd) gutshtallin $238,884
3rd) VOZNI $150,000
4th) joaobarb $100,000
5th) brianm15 $80,000
6th) roypappie $60,000
7th) pokerjones66 $40,000
8th) m4ttyd $22,000
9th) Tehp $15,500
*= after deal
$2,000 + $100 H
1st) sms9231 $380,354.80
2nd) JotaGran49 $276,352
3rd) jackellwood $206,720
4th) poker1O1 $154,496
5th) Noctus $108,800
6th) Danneville $87,040
7th) Tagir $65,280
8th) IAmSoSo $43,520
9th) wowspaceaex $25,024

As we know, each SCOOP event is broken down into 3 tourneys, with each one catering to a different audience in terms of buy-in. Today’s events had the following buy-ins: $5.50 for the Low Buy-in tournament, $55 for the Medium Buy-in tournament, and $530 for the Highest Buy-n tournament. The game in question today was 6-Max NL Hold’em R/A.

L
Let us begin with the Low Buy-in tournament. At just $5.50, it was a lock to attract a huge tournament field. That is just what it did, when the tournament attracted 24,162 participants. And because of this (and the fact that it was a rebuy event), the prize pool ballooned to a staggering $403,885, which is probably a record setting amount for a $5.50+R tournament. This field was as wide and varied as possible, including poker players with all sorts of distinctions. Several PokerStars Pros were also in this tournament, including Anh Van Nguyen, Emad Tahtouh, Thierry van den Berg, Chad Brown, Sebastian Ruthenberg and the always intense Hevad Kahn.

Because of the size of the field, the amount of players who cashed was equally amazing: a total of 4,200 players made the money in SCOOP 2010 E3-L, which is a lot more than 99% of “large field” tournaments get in number of entrants!

The final table of this tournament was comprised entirely of unknowns, each with their eye on the incredible prize worth $45.026.72, and not to mention the endless bragging rights that come for having defeated such a large field and conquer a SCOOP title.

At the end of the day, it was DJ_PissedOFF from Moscow, Russia, that took down the top prize. He participated in an excruciating heads-up battle with Jundawomg whom in turn put all his or her efforts into it, but fell just short despite having entered the final table with the dominant chip lead.

The final hand of this epic tournament went down as follows:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 5.5 Tournament, 1000000/2000000 Blinds 250000 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Replayer from Poker Hands Replayer

Jundawomg (t133605176)

DJ_PissedOFF (t141397824)

Preflop:

DJ_PissedOFF bets t10000000, Jundawomg calls t8000000

Flop: (t20500000) K, 8, J (2 players)

Jundawomg checks, DJ_PissedOFF bets t10000000, Jundawomg raises to t38000000, DJ_PissedOFF raises to t70000000, Jundawomg raises to t123355176 (All-In), DJ_PissedOFF calls t53355176

Turn: (t267210352) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t267210352) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t267210352

Results:

DJ_PissedOFF had K, Q (two pair, Kings and Jacks).

Jundawomg had 8, K (two pair, Kings and Jacks).

Outcome: DJ_PissedOFF won t267210352
A totally routine but disheartening bad beat sent Jundawomg home in second place with $32,310.80, which is definitely not bad at all for a $5.50 tourney no matter how you look at it. DJ_PissedOFF we suspect is not as pissed off anymore as he collected $45,026.72 in cold hard cash for his efforts that night. Congratulations!

A big round of applause to everybody who participated, and we wish you the best of luck for the next time.

M
The medium buy-in tournament highlights what we mentioned about the size of the SCOOP 2010 #3-L tournament. There were exactly 4444 (a nice number for the superstitious among you) hopefuls who put their money where their collective mouths were to participate in SCOOP 2010 #3-M. This is of course a very impressive turnout on its own accord, but was just 244 more players than the amount who cashed in the lower buy-in tourney.

The medium buy-in event attracted a rather tough crowd. Skilled tournament and SNG players, HU players, cash game players, and players with even more varied backgrounds and skills, populated the tournament and could be found on each and every table all the way to the final table.

heavenwalker was the first to exit the final table, earning $10,716.80 in the process. Sometime after his exit, the players started discussing a potential deal. An agreement was struck, with 4 of the remaining 5 players to get exactly $50K, and with Renaud (who was the overwhelming chipleader at the time) to receive $58K. There was $25K left to fight for after this deal.

Norris9911, Renaud (aren’t you glad you made that deal) and jigga_wigga1 were next to go in order. The final battle was between Mokers and Norm427, and this lasted a very short amount of time compared with the rest of the final table, taking just 10 hands total to finish.

The final hand went down as follows:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 55 Tournament, 200000/400000 Blinds 50000 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Replayer from Poker Hands Replayer

Norm427 (t33141026)

Mokers (t13298974)

Preflop:

Norm427 bets t900000, Mokers calls t500000

Flop: (t1900000) 8, A, 5 (2 players)

Mokers checks, Norm427 bets t1200000, Mokers raises to t2905002, Norm427 raises to t6800000, Mokers raises to t12348974 (All-In), Norm427 calls t5548974

Turn: (t26597948) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t26597948) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t26597948

Results:

Norm427 had 3, 7 (flush, eight high).

Mokers had 9, 8 (one pair, eights).

Outcome: Norm427 won t26597948

Mokers’ hand could not hold up one more time, sending him home in 2nd with his guaranteed $50K. Norm427 took home the endless bragging rights that come with taking down a SCOOP event, the $50,000 from the agreed upon deal, and the $25,000 that was left as prize for the win, for a grand total of $75,000, which is definitely an awesome amount for a $50 buy-in event.

Congratulations!

A big round of applause to everybody who participated, and we wish you best of luck for the next time.

H
And then there was the SCOOP 2010 #3-H event, which featured a $530 buy-in plus rebuys. This event attracted a selection of the best of the best in online poker. Plenty of big names were present in this one, including notable PokerStars Pros Barry Greenstein, George Lind III, J.C. Alvarado, Dennis Phillips, Marcel Luske, Victor Ramdin and Vicky Coren and Nacho Barbero. In total, only 703 players showed up, each one as accomplished as the next, all vying the $183,060 top prize and prestige that comes with winning it all.

The final table of this event was one of the most star studded ones we have seen for this series, and included Micheal “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan and Jason “JP OSU” Potter. Each and every one of these guys has either big wins or significant deep finishes under their respective belts.

The final table of this event, that is just the last 6 players, lasted 3 minutes short of 4 WHOLE HOURS. To say that this was a tough table is a huge understatement.

When all was said and done however, only one remained. The heads up match came down between Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan and Corey “Comandr_Cool” Burbick, and on its own lasted almost two hours. After this grueling session, this hand decided it all:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 17500/35000 Blinds 4375 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Replayer from Poker Hands Replayer

Comandr_Cool (t4049138)

buck21 (t3106862)

Preflop:

buck21 bets t77000, Comandr_Cool calls t42000

Flop: (t162750) 10, 8, 3 (2 players)

Comandr_Cool bets t105000, buck21 calls t105000

Turn: (t372750) J (2 players)

Comandr_Cool bets t245000, buck21 calls t245000

River: (t862750) 5 (2 players)

Comandr_Cool bets t630000, buck21 raises to t2675487 (All-In), Comandr_Cool calls t2045487

Total pot: t6213724

Results:

buck21 had A, K (high card, Ace).

Comandr_Cool had 9, 7 (straight, Jack high).

Outcome: Comandr_Cool won t6213724

Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan fought like a hero. But unfortunately, he fell a bit short and had to settle with a 2nd place finish good for $137,295. Corey “Comandr_Cool” Burbick kept his cool for the whole tournament en route to victory, which encompasses a $183,060 payday and the endless bragging rights of having taken down a very prestigious scoop event. Congratulations!

A big round of applause to everybody who participated, and keep this in mind: if you did not win, or even cash, today, there is always tomorrow and the day after that. Keep trying, because one of these days Victory will be yours to savor!

Final Tables Cash List, SCOOP 2010 Event #3

6-Max NL Hold’em w/ Rebuys

$5.50+R buy-in L
1st) DJ_PissedOFF $45,026.72
2nd) Jundawomg $32,310.80
3rd) RukiCBC $20,194.25
4th) N1GhtFoX $9,087.41
5th) jojobegood $5,453.44
6th) fres gish $3,130.10

$55+R buy-in M
1st) Norm427 $75,000*
2nd) Mokers $50,000*
3rd) jigga_wigga1 $50,000*
4th) Renaud $58,000*
5th) Norris9911 $50,000*
6th) heavenwalker $10,716.80
*= after deal

$530+R buy-in H
1st) Comandr_Cool $183,060
2nd) buck21 $137,295
3rd) e1mdopp $101,700
4th) The Grinder $71,190
5th) JP OSU $50,850
6th) jvans $30,510

Today’s coverage is for the FTOPS XVI event #17, which is a cash out tournament. This is a unique tournament format, currently exclusive to Full Tilt, which allows players to cah out some or all of their chips prior to the conclusion of the event. If, for instance, there is a fire in your house and you have to run away to avoid getting killed, you can simply cash out your chips and receive cash for it, without having to sit out or whatever else you would have normally done.

FTOPS XVI Event #17 was hosted by Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby. TheWacoKidd is a feared online tournament player, with over $1 million in career winnings under his belt.

Other pros that took part in today’s event were, among many, Marco Liesy, Gary Jones, Andrew Feldman, Daniele Mazzia, Micheal Craig and Ram Vaswani.
This event had a $200 + $16 buyin, of which $100 went into the prize pool and $100 went into the cash out pool. The prize pool was $150,000 guaranteed. Since every player started with 5000 chips, every 5000 chips were worth $100 of the cash out pool. Of course, you can only cash out until you reach the promised land: the final table.

Speaking of the final table, here are the results of the finishes 9th through 4th:

9th: crazylarry1 $2,800
8th: THE__D__RY $3,600
7th: PokerBabe31 $4,650
6th: Lee Chang $6,750
5th: KvicKiller $9,750
4th: dUT73 $12,750

And then there was 3rd. PrtyPSux and 1NEVAK6 get the money in the middle preflop. It’s the proverbial coinflip, with PrtyPSux having close to double the amount of chips of PrtyPSux, and the blinds still ridiculously low. The results?

And 1NEVAK6 finishes in 3rd place, taking home $16,875 for his efforts for the duration of the tournament. GG WP!

HU was a long and relatively boring afair. These had plenty of history together, and played a very trappy game. At the start of HU between PrtyPSux and Marinersheep, both very accomplished tourney vets, the smallest stack (Marinersheep) had about 1.8 Mil chips. The Blinds were 17K/34K/4KA, which means that we were very, very deep. Bigstack PrtyPSux had twice that, easily.

It took almost a half an hour of very trappy play, small ebbs and flows, and small ball poker for a winner to emerge:

After all the small ball poker, it was a longball move that ended everything. Marinersheep did his best, and secured a 2nd place finish and $22,500 for his efforts on the night, which is very decent considering the buy-in was of only $216. PrtyPSux, on the other hand, dominated the field, and was the last man standing with the 1st prize, the yellow FTOPS jersey avatar and $36,000 in cold hard cash, and that is even without mentioning the endless bragging rights that come with taking down an FTOPS event.

Congratulations to all who played, and remember, if you did not place or win, there’s always next time!

Needless to say, it was a very fun shovefest. This event, despite having attracted 1,436 hopefuls and generating a $445,160 prize pool in the process, only lasted exactly 140 minutes, which is 2:20 in hours. Talk about some quick cash!

With this being Full Tilt Poker, a ton of the usual suspects turned up for this event, including, among many, Gary Jones, Eric Froehlich, Caio Pimenta, Allen Cunningham, David “The Dragon” Pham, Jeff Madsen, Steve Zolotow, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby and Jon “Pearljammer” Turner.

Tonight’s event was hosted by Michael Tureniec. His name might not be familiar to the whole lot of you, but that does not mean that he is just some random donkey that has been given red pro status. Tureniec is a petty accomplished Swedish pro with numerous live cashes totaling almost $1,200,000. His best finish was in the 2008 EPT ME in London, 2nd for about $960K.

Let’s move on to the games in question. Since the nature of this game was pretty chip deprived, this basically means that it’s the purest push-fold poker you could ever find in a tourney game. This is of course in contrast to deeper stacked tourneys.

FT Bubble
Coverage starts right at the final table bubble. POKERBOLIZIEI made an UTG raise to 2xBB. December 22 seemingly liked his hand and went all-in. POKERBOLIZEI liked his hand too, and went along for the ride. He had a slight chip advantage over December 22, and …

The best hand preflop held, sending December 22 home early in 6th place, along with a $9,125.78 reward for having made it this far. Congratulations!

6th
Action begins at the final table with few truly massive stacks.

But it would not last long before we had a casualty. AAeverhand and Mr Perfekt raced preflop to see who ran the fastest, and…

… the pocket pair prevailed, sending AAeveryhand home in 6th place, along with $14,690.28 for his efforts during this event. AAeveryhand, you should have picked up AA this hand as well, but still, not bad at all!

5th
Action continued, and again, not many hands went by before we had another all-in and call. This time, it was between scout315 and POKERBOLIZEI. scout315 arrived with a slightly bigger stack at the final table, and had been using it to make some truly crafty steals, at least from this observer’s perspective. POKERBOLIZEI no doubt was thinking this exact same thing too, because he called a massive all-in of over 10M with AJo. scout315, though, was fist pumping at this occurrence.

And once again the best hand preflop prevailed when all the cards were dealt. POKERBOLIZEI got sent home in 5th place, along with $21,590.26 as a nice consolation prize. Congrats!

4th
And scout315 kept applying the hammer. Hand after hand he kept pushing, and daman139 saw suited cards in his hand and thought that he finally caught scout315 with the hand in the cookie jar. Well, scout315 delivered another surprise, by showing us he can run quite quickly as well.

Just like that, daman139 was not The Man anymore, and got sent home in 4th prize, bagging $31,161.20 in prize money. Congrats!

3rd
By now, scout315 had borrowed Hevad Kahn’s BULLDOOOZEEERRRR and had been rolling over the table. Three-handed and first to act, he once again shoved. Mr Perfect saw face cards and saw this as an excellent opportunity:

Too bad the opportunity did not crystallize, as the best hand preflop won once again. We might have had a record on our hands in that regard, folks. Mr Perfekt got perfectly sent home in 3rd, pocketing $41,043.75 in the process. Nice!

HU
1,463 showed up, and now there were only two remaining. scout315 had the dominant chip lead over THE_RAZER_82, and discussing a deal was out of the question.

But THE_RAZER_82 put up a magnificent fight. First he went all-in:

With that hand, THE_RAZER_82 got some room to breathe. But he was not done. 2nd all-in:

scout315, who dominated this tourney since we got to the last dozen players or so, now had his back against the ropes and a charging bull in the form of THE_RAZER_82 staring him down, ready to pounce. But then Lady Luck finally showed up, and her effects were felt immediately:

Yup, that’s her alright. After this breath of fresh air, scout315 was re-energized, and started to steamroll again. He stole a heck of a lot of pots after this situation, and then there was the final preflop push and call.

THE_RAZER_82 tried his best to take home the yellow jersey and the first prize, but fell just short. He will have to settle with 2nd place and $58,791 instead. A big round of applause goes to scout315, who basically got rid of the entire final table by himself, and in the face of adversity remained calm and collected and earned himself the 1st prize, the yellow FTOPS jersey avatar, $89,031 in money to spend immediately, and the endless bragging rights that come with taking down an FTOPS event.

Congratulations to all who played, and remember, if you did not place or win, there’s always next time!

FTOPS XVI Event #2
Start Apr 23 18:02
End Apr 23 20:22
Hosted by Michael Tureniec
Prizepool: $445,160
Places Paid: 174

Final table payouts:
1) $89,031 scout315
2) $58,791 THE_RAZER_82
3) $41,043.75 Mr Perfekt
4) $31,161.20 daman139
5) $21,590.26 POKERBOLIZEI
6) $14,690.28 AAeveryhand

If he can put gas into this thing, $5M is peanuts!!!

Reports indicate that the Boogeyman of the world of Poker, none other than Phil Ivey himself, has made a sidebet of epic proportions with Howard Lederer.

The details of this bet: Phil Ivey wagers the modical sum of 5 MILLION DOLLARS versus the same amount of Howard Lederer’s, and has to win 2 bracelets within the next three years to claim it all. One would think it’s crazy for Phil Ivey to even make this bet at even money, since the odds are definitely stacked against the average player in any bracelet event. But hey, he’s no average player, he’s Phil **** Ivey, and therefore he can definitely take this down.

This bet is a brilliant move by Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey and even Full Tilt as a whole for at the very least two reasons. First up is that it will attract even more new blood than usual to Full Tilt, as it will offer excellent publicity for the site (such as this post). Since rumor has it that Phil Ivey has stake in Full Tilt as well, if it goes well with the company as a whole it definitely goes well for him.

Also this bet will offer motivation for Phil Ivey, since he really needs motivation in order to go through the very long grind of playing bracelet events. Rumor has it that he will be playing in around 80 total events for the next two WSOPs, and he is always a favorite to make some money in them as well.

This is truly a first in both size and scope. One has to give it to these guys who always find a way to take prop betting to the next level. Let’s hope Phil knows what he’s doing. Nothing personal Howard, but goooooooooooooo Phil, we are rooting for ya!

In particular, Section 36(v) of the Massachusetts Casino Bill would include gems such as “Any person who knowingly transmits or receives a wager of any type by any telecommunication device, including telephone, cellular phone, internet, [or] local area network… or knowingly installs or maintains said device or equipment for the transmission or receipt of wagering information shall be punished” and also “any person who, from within the Commonwealth, transmits a wager to, or receives a wager from, another person or gaming establishment within or outside of the Commonwealth”. Punishments, as detailed earlier, would include suffering in prison and up to 25,000 in fines. Exception to the rule would only have been applied to Massachusetts authorities who are playing at the online poker sites because they are investigating the sites in question, looking to throw a wrench in the sites’ business machine.

Imagine if a senior decided to play some online poker for a little bit of fun? BOOM! Prison time. And one is left to wonder as to why the prisons are overcrowded.

Of course, this is somehow justified with the usual “it will create jobs” and “it should jump start the struggling economy (of the state)”. The bill would have called for the granting and issuing of two Massachusetts Casino Licenses for $100 Million each, and also for the issuing and granting of four slot machine licenses for $15 Million each. Revenue that the bill would generate would then be directed towards all the areas that would need money, such as schooling, tourism, community colleges etc.

Thankfully, the Poker Players Alliance would not let any fast balls get through and got on the case quickly. In a so-called call to arms, they bombarded the state department with a bazillion of phone calls and email, and lo and behold, got them to see reason. The now infamous section 36(v) will be stricken from the Massachusetts casino Bill. You would have to keep in mind though, while online poker is going to be left alone, actual online casino gambling will suffer a very different fate as it will remain criminalized. The “Poker is a Skill Game” debate is one that is as old as the sun itself, but for now it is universally recognized as a skill game, and this is the reason that it will be exempted from the bill.

Score 1 for the Poker Players Alliance and 0 for the Nutso Politicians on this one. Keep up the good fight guys!