At the final table, the average chip stack was 497,000 with the blinds at 2,000/4,000 and an ante of 500. LindaJohnson was the first to be knocked out when she called the_snail03’s 15,100 raise from the small blind. The flop was JcTs2c and the action was checked to the_snail03 who bet 30,900. LindaJohnson check-raised to 81,000, and the_snail03 shoved to put LindaJohnson all-in. LindaJohnson called with KsQd for the straight draw. The_snail03 showed TcTd for a set of tens. Neither the 7s turn nor the Jh river helped LindaJohnson and the_snail03 sent LindaJohnson packing. Soon after, chickface’s AsKh would eliminate Shevmouse’s JdJh to eliminate Shevmouse in fifth place. Chickface would increase his chip stack to 950,000 chips with this elimination.

Later into the final table, fergwrx, a shortstack with 300,000 chips, shoved from under the gun and was called out of the big blind by chickface. Fergwrx’s As5s needed help against the TsTh of chickface. Unfortunately, the 6s6c4hQh7d board did not help fergwrx and he was knocked out in fourth place. Chickface extended his chip lead to 1.4 million chips. He increased it to over two million chips after getting it all-in against the_snail03’s Ad3c with his AsQs. A queen hit the flop and the_snail03 was gone in third place. Chickface held a two to one chip lead going into heads-up play.

Heads-up play only lasted eight hands. Chickface raised preflop and Amoney13 called out of position. The flop was 9s8c6d. Amoney13 checked, chickface bet 66,666, and Amoney13 shoved for his 1.2 million chips. Chickface called with Td9h giving him top-pair. Amoney13 help 8d7c for middle pair and a straight draw. Neither the 2d or Jh helped Amoney13 and chickface won the pot, $46,500, and the gold jersey. Amoney was FTOPS XV Event #13’s runner-up taking home $42,000.

The final table went down as follows:

9th: just a few hands after the start of the final table. Standard preflop race, with Supa4Real calling a massive overbet pf allin and sucking out.

GG Rabbit_hunterSA, your rabbit was hunted in 9th place. For you efforts during the tourney you will collect $39,865! Congrats!

Meanwhile, the sole remaining pro Gary Jones doubled up twice with sets vs overpairs on low flops versus Supa4Real, both times 44 vs QQ on 4xx flop.
Gary is now in contention…

8th: preflop shove and call. The best hand preflop prevails for once.

DanOBrien (do I know that name from somewhere?) is sent packing in 8th place, and is also instantly $54,873 richer. Congrats!

7th: another shortie pf allin, flip favors the big stack this time. Gary Jones sure has been lucky on this final table!

Ah, well, Ahvall, you will get your chance at another final table. This time, 7th place for $70,350 will have to do. Congrats!

6th: that flop was a dagger to the heart of TheAlligatorNo1. All-in preflop means you still have some hope, but that flop takes hope out of you like the Grim reaper takes the life out of people.

Timvd20, aided by a lucky flop, make that an extremely lucky flop, knocks poor TheAlligatorNo1 out in 6th. The first 6-figure payday, that $105,525 prize will help him forget all about that flop in no time.

5th: first time since that early hand that I’ve seen Supa4Real win a preflop coinflip. Nice timing though.

the_real_magic could not have imagined that that spade king would hit. Black magic if you ask me. Anyway, 5th for $146,562.50 will have to do this time. Congrats!

4th: another coinflip. Gary Jones openshoves 9BB with a raggedy ace, and gets called by the new big stack, Timvd20, with pocket fours. Best hand preflop holds up, and Gary Jones the eccentric English Pro is out in 4th.

The last remaining pro is knocked out in 4th place, earning himself $193,462.50 for his efforts. Congrats!

The payouts got serious at this point, but still no talk of a [possible deal by the remaining players.
The title looked to be on its way to the Netherlands, with both remaining chipleaders being from that country while the shorty, obiedman, was from the United States. Some questionable plays by Supa4Real though surrendered the chiplead to Timvd20, and he and obiedman were now in a dead heat in stack size.

3rd: and surprise surprise, another preflop allin.

First time that American Airlines showed up though. And Timvd20, once the dominant top chip at this final table, is now out in 3rd with a $252,097.50 prize for his efforts tonight.

HU:
Supa4Real enters heads-up play as the chipleader. But once the HU began, he started running unbelievably bad.

This hand was simply one in a series of hands in which obiedman would show up with the ubernuts and vbet poor Supa4Real who every time held a good payoff hand.

And then we have the final hand. Unsurprisingly, Supa4Real was dominated. The money went in on the flop.

And Supa4Real took home a none too shabby prize of $340,025 for his efforts tonight. The yellow shirt, however, went to obiedman, who ran like a Kenyan heads up on his way to a prize of $539,350, and endless bragging rights.

Congratulations to all who played, and remember that if today wasn’t your lucky day, there will always be better days down the road.

With FTOPS XIV winding down, 9,832 players took part in $120+$9 No Limit Hold ‘Em Knockout event.  Hosted by the 2009 World Series of Poker sixth-place finisher, Steven Begleiter, the tournament had a prize pool of $983,200 with its first-place finisher winning over $100,000.

The final table was as follows:

Seat 1 – Dinhjo (6,220,000)

Seat 2 – BikStik8585 (7,276,474)

Seat 3 – SNG Ninja (8,201,863)

Seat 4 – Al-Extrem1 (1,458,822)

Seat 5 – boltsva (1,401,536)

Seat 6 – Alcatrez27278 (5,388,636)

Seat 7 – little chief17 (12,996,445)

Seat 8 – bethwolf22 (2,402,830)

Seat 9 – cristinalindley (3,813,394)

With the blinds at 100,000/200,000 and an ante of 25,000, Al-Extrem1 only had six big blinds left.  Facing a raise from little chief17, Al-Extrem1 reraised all-in with pocket aces.  Little chief17 made the call with KdJs.  The QdQcJc gave little chief17’s a pair of jacks with the Jh coming on a later street to complete little chief17’s suckout and knock Al-Extrem1 out of the tournament in ninth place.

Boltsva was next to be knocked out by little chief17.  From early position, little chief17 raised and was called by boltsva in the big blind.  The flop came out a 9h4s2c.  Boltsva check-raised all-in and little chief17 called.  Boltsva held 6h6s but little chief was ahead with Ac9s for top pair, top kicker.  Neither the turn nor the river helped boltsva and he was gone in eighth place.  In the very next hand, BikStik8585’s Ad7s was beaten by Alcatraz2278’s 5h5s on a 7d5c3dJc3c board and was sent home in seventh place.

Tournament play continued quite normally until it was down to the final three.  SNG Ninja, cristinalindley, and little chief17 made a deal that granted a little more than $100,000 to little chief17 and cristinalindley with a bit over $95,000 going to SNG Ninja.  Soon after, the chips went in preflop in a hand between SNG Ninja and little chief17.  SNG Ninja’s Kh8s was drawing thin against little chief17’s pocket queens.  The board was no help to SNG Ninja and he was knocked out in third place.

Heads-up play began with little chief17 having more than a 2-1 chip advantage over cristinalindley.  This lead steadily increased to 5-1 as play continued.  With 7 million chips left, cristinalindley called little chief17’s reraise all-in with KsJs.  Unfortunately, little chief17 had her dominated with AsJc.  The board ran out Ts8d2dTc5c and little chief17’s ace kicker won him a gold jersey and a prize of $125,959.96  Cristinalindley won $106,460.01 for her impressive effort.

The results were as follows:

1^st – little chief17 – $125.959.96

2^nd – cristinalindley – $106,460.01

3^rd – SNG Ninja – $95,968.83

4^th – Dinjho – $52,306.24

5^th – Alcatraz27278 – $38,344.80

6^th – bethwolf22 – $27,529.60

7^th – BikStik8585 – $19,664.00

8^th – boltsva – $14,059.76

9^th – Al-Extrem1 – $9,940.15

The tournament was hosted by FullTilt’s newest professional, Tom “durrrr” Dwan. For those living under a rock the past few years, Dwan is a high-stakes cash game professional who competes against the likes of Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Doyle Brunson on a daily basis. Durrrr came into the national spotlight when he created the “Durrrr Challenge”, a 50,000-hand heads-up battle with a $1,500,000 side bet. The first to take him up was Antonius, and the two have completed nearly half the necessary hands, with Dwan taking a nice lead. Dwan has also been featured on GSN’s High Stakes Poker TV show, where he battled with Barry Greenstein in playing two of the biggest pots ever recorded on television. Although he is known more for his cash game prowess, Dwan did final table the WPT Championship, taking home 4th place and over $320,000.

Joining Dwan was a strong field, including nearly 70 FullTilt Sponsored Professionals. Amongst the “pros” were former WSOP Main Event Huck Seed, multiple WSOP bracelet-holder Greg “FBT” Mueller, Isaac “Menlo” Baaron, and five-time WSOP bracelet-holder Allen Cunningham. Only five professionals made the money, with Dave Colclough’s 250th place finish being the best of the bunch. Ivy-league educated Brandon Adams finished in 356th place while rapping Jeff Madsen also made a small cash.

A bit of air was let out of the final table’s tires when the last three players decided to chop the remaining prize pool. Third place finisher Adam Junglen is no stranger to success in big poker tournaments. Heading into this final table he already had more than $500,000 in both live and online cashes, including a 6th place finish at EPT Barcelona for over $257,000 and a win in the Sunday Million back in 2007.

Congratulations goes to all 720 players who made the money in the FTOPS Main Event!

FullTilt FTOPS Main Event $2.5M Guaranteed
5,471 Entrants; $2,735,500 prize pool

1. zhivago2 $418,839.16
2. ItsTime2Win $316,554.40
3. Adam Junglen $290,418.94
4. dfunks222 $175,072
5. kinheim $131,167.23
6. bankrollme87 $90,271.50
7. nuts7878 $58,813.25
8. Valuechecking $41,032.50
9. Dr Fill Good $28,722.75

Bloch is a very accomplished poker player, however, many will know him as one of the members of the famed MIT blackjack team.  He used his winnings to pay for his Harvard law education and to begin his poker career.  Andy Bloch has over $4.1 million in tournament winnings and has authored “The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Poker Tells.”

He was joined by over 20 other Full Tilt Pros and Friends of Full Tilt, distinguished by their names appearing in red instead of the standard black.  Among the pros were many of the usual suspects, such as Jon Turner (PearlJammed), Vitaly Lunkin, Scott Fischman, Lee Watkinson and Huck Seed.   Johan Brolenius, a Friend of Full Tilt and member of the Swedish National Ski Team, was the last red name standing as he finished in 45th place, winning $1,289.38.  The only other Full Tilt Pro to make the money was Aaron Bartley, going out in 241st place and taking in $420.45 for the effort.

It took about 9 hours to get down to the final table of 9 players.  When it did, it was very apparent this would be no easy win for any one of them.  There were truly some tough tournament players left to battle it out for the top prize of $113,801.80.  Among the players left were muckducks, who has a recent win in the  $33k guarantee on Full Tilt and also won  FTOPS XI Event #1 earlier this year.  Also alive at the final table was S_Dot111, who has several 1st place finishes this year including in the $85k guarantee re-buy and the $40k guarantee re-buy on Full Tilt, as well as LuckyLukeKK, who claimed 2nd in the PokerStars Sunday Million and 2nd in the Full Tilt Fifty-Fifty in recent months.

But in the end it came down to two other tournament veterans, SaulGood and UFman2.  SaulGood has several nice finishes this year and countless final tables, making him a very feared tournament player and always a threat to take it down.  However, the battle saw UFman2 come out on top of this one.  UFman2, who goes by PiKappRaider on Stars, is no stranger to the final table of big tournaments.  He can claim wins in the $1M guarantee on Full Tilt (late last year), the $100k guarantee on Ultimate Bet, the $109 tournament on Stars, and also a FTOPS win earlier this year in event #17 of FTOPS XI.  The two struck a deal before play concluded that would see the winner taking $102,240.40 and the runner up taking $85,000.

1st – UFman2 – $113,801.80 ($102,240.40 after deal)
2nd – SaulGood – $73,438.60 ($85,000 after deal)
3rd – SmokeChoke – $54,378.20
4th – TIGR778 – $40,923.80
5th – muckducks – $28,590.60
6th – LuckyLukeKK – $19,060.40
7th – 007-2053 – $12,893.80
8th – S_Dot111 – $8,969.60
9th – Tarsis – $6,727.20

At any point during the action, players in the the Cashout event were able to pick up their chips and leave table. They wouldn’t depart empty handed, however. Depending on their chip-stack, they would receive a portion of a special prize pool. In a Cashout Tournament, half of the buy-in forms the regular prize pool, while the rest goes into a special Cashout pool. In Event #18, each player contributed $100 to each pool – for a total of $200 + $26. Any time before the final table, a player can click the Cashout button and leave the tournament. He or she will then receive chips relative to their current stack, with the starting amount worth $100. The Cashout payout increases in 10% increments, so in this tournament, cashing out twice the chips you began with would net you $200.

When a player cashes out, the money is removed from the special prize pool and their chips are removed from play. If they withdraw from the tournament inside the money bubble, they will also receive the standard payout for that spot. Players do not have to withdraw all their chips at once. They are free to pull out any amount, in 10% increments of the starting stack. Once play reaches the final table, no more Cashouts are permitted and the remaining Cashout pool is transferred into the standard kitty.

This experimental Hold ‘em event attracted 1,844 entrants. Clearly the strong turn-out surprised Full Tilt, as the $184,400 prize pool easily surpassed the $150,000 guarantee. There were 189 money spots, but any player could walk away with cash at any time. Holding on until the end was m_hawk_1, who picked up $37,986.40 for his perseverance. The internet pro, otherwise known as Michael Hawkins, now has online tournament winnings of over $300,000. In second was bd3109, another accomplished online expert, who adds $25,078.40 to the $400k he has already accumulated in online MTT winnings. In third place for $18,624.40 was MagicGog, real name Igor Bakay.

Hosting the event was Full Tilt veteran and game theory maestro Chris Ferguson. “Jesus” has spend the last 15 years establishing himself as one of the top tournament professionals in the world. His success is built on a strong academic background, having spent 18 years at UCLA working towards a Ph.D in computer science. He was also an early champion of online poker, playing on the stone-age IRC servers that spawned the current flashy online clients. The highlight of his career came in 2000, when he became the first WSOP Main Event champion of the new millennium. Also on his résumé are 5 WSOP bracelets, 3 WSOP-C rings, the 2008 NBC Heads Up Championship, 25 WSOP final tables, and 42 WSOP cashes.

All this expertise didn’t help him cash in FTOPS XIV Event #18. He finished in a disappointingly low 1464th place. In fact, none of the Red Pros who bought in for the event managed to beat the bubble. However, any number of them may have taken advantage of the unique format and cashed out early. The tournament stats don’t indicate who cashed out and who was knocked out, so we can only speculate. Among the other Team Full Tilt pros who failed to finish in the money where: Aaron Bartley, Allen Cunningham, Andrew Black, David Pham, Eric Shoenberg, Huck Seed, Ram Vaswani, and Scott Fischman.

Joining Baron were 27 other FullTilt sponsored professionals. Some of the more notable pros playing were 5-time WSOP bracelet holder Allen Cunningham, Ivy-league educated high-stakes cash game player Brandon Adams, and former WSOP Main Event winner Huck Seed. Baron finished inside the money, in 64th place, earning $2,518. He was joined in the top-100 by fellow Red Pro Martin Klaeser who finished in 71st place, earning $2,190. Besides FullTilt’s professionals, there were plenty of notable players who fell just short of reaching the final table.

Scott “mastrblastr” Seiver who owns high stakes cash games and tournament both live and online, busted in 19th place. Seiver is well known for battling FullTilt pros online and winning Event #21 of the 2008 WSOP for over $755,000. Joining him in the top-20 was Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, who in the past was a top-10 ranked tournament professional. Kamberis has a ton of big scores to his name, including a $941,735 cash for finishing 3rd in the WCOOP Main Event last year. Finishing in 14th place was high-stakes cash game professional “jcmoussasux” who is much more well known for playing nosebleed cash games than tournaments. Finishing one spot ahead of jc was “govshark2″, another top-10 ranked tournament professional who nearly won the $750k on FullTilt last year, taking 2nd for $86,739. His biggest score was a win in the PokerStars Sunday $500k for $100,470 in August.

Even with all of the bubble bust-outs, the final table still had plenty of talent to go around. Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania, a top-100 ranked tournament professional, busted in 5th place. The $58,000 cash was the biggest of his career, besting $40,000+ scores for 3rd place finishes in both the Super Tuesday on PokerStars and the Sunday Brawl on FullTilt. 4th place finisher, “MicahJ”, is another high-stakes cash game pro who was taking a shot at the deeper stack rebuy event. More known for his Pot-Limit Omaha prowess, MicahJ had little problem reaching the final table and banking over $81,000.

When heads-up play began, “gametime1111″ and “ambiguosity” decided upon a chop, virtually splitting the remaining $380,000 left in the prize pool. Congrats goes to the final six and all 120 players making the money in FTOPS Event #17!

FullTilt FTOPS Event #17 $1M Guaranteed
1,080 Entrants; $1,095,000 prize pool

1. gametime1111 $191,031
2. ambiguosity $189,211.50
3. driverseati $108,405
4. MicahJ $81,030
5. chicagocards1 $58,035
6. rumprammer $37,230

Turbo tourneys are always action-packed with many preflop shoves and chip leads changing regularly.  FTOPS XIV Event #15 was no exception.  It was a $200+$16 buy-in tournament that ran on a turbo schedule.  With more than 2,800 players, the prize pool ran up to $564,800.  The tournament went from beginning to crowning its winner in just three hours and 25 minutes.

The final table was seated as follows:

Seat 1 – overbe777 (301,265)

Seat 2 – brin1285 (1,186,754)

Seat 3 – DE KID (322,678)

Seat 4 – skinjiimi (457,592)

Seat 5 – bobboufl11 (947,955)

Seat 6 – FresnoDull (1,443,115)

Seat 7 – charder30fanobv (117,380)

Seat 8 – Big Bear Hills (111,106)

Seat 9 – fan4mizzou (751,155)

With the blinds at 20,000/40,000, the largest stack at the table had only 23 big blinds.  This provided enthralling final table play with the preflop shoves coming repeatedly and little postflop action to be seen.

Overbe777 was the first to go when he was busted out holding KcQc and ran into bobboufl11’s AsKs.  A three-way pot saw DE KID’s AhQc go against Big Bear Hills’ 4h6h against fan4mizzou’s 4h6d.  The best hand held and DE KID tripled up while Big Bears Hills was sent to the rail in eighth place.  FresnoDull would fall victim to fan4mizzou after his Jd7s was unable to best fan4mizzou’s AcTc.  FresnoDull left in seventh place.  DE KID would be the next to go (in sixth place) when his Kh8h lost to bobboufl11’s Ac8s.

Brin1285 hit a patch of bad luck when his aces were cracked by fan4mizzou’s Qh9d.  In the subsequent hand, his Kc3d ran into fan4mizzou’s pocket queens and he was sent to the rail in fifth place.  Fan4mizzou was out in fourth place after his Kh5h hit top pair on the flop to have skinjiimi’s Ad6d hit an ace on the river.  Charder30fanobv would claim his place for heads-up play when his Ac8h beat bobboufl11’s Ks2h for all of his chips.  Only 86 hands after beginning the final table, bobboufl11 was out in third place and heads-up play was set to start.

Five hands later, the short-stacked skinjiimi shoved 8c9h to be called by charder30fanobv’s AcJd.  In rather anti-climactic fashion, the Qc3s2h7sKc board hit neither player and charder30fanobv won the tournament and the $114,654.40 prize with ace-high.

The tournament results for FTOPS XIV Event #15 are as follows:

1^st – charder30fanobv ($114,654.40)

2^nd – skinjiimi ($73,988.80)

3^rd – bobboufl11 ($54,785.60)

4^th – fan4mizzou ($41,230.40)

5^th – brin1285 (28,804.80)

6^th – DE KID ($19,203.20)

7^th – FresnoDull ($14,990.40)

8^th – Big Bear Hills (9,036.80)

9^th – overbe777 (6777.60)

This tournament drew 1,009 hopefuls of which only 108 would get a payday. The total prize pool was in excess of $302,000, and took just about 7 hours from start to conclusion.

There was a strong showing by the Full Tilt Red’s in tonight’s event. Among many, we were graced by the presences of Trond Eidsvig, Erica Schoenberg, Huckleberry Seed (who just recently moved to Portugal), Christian Kruel, Gary Jones (celebrated English pro who boycotts the American based WSOP events), Julian Gardner, Marco Liesy, Roy Winston, Scott Fischman, Stuart Paterson, Steve Zolotow, Nordberg, WSOP 2008 Main Event Final Tablist Scott Montgomery, and Stuart Paterson. Steve Zolotow and Ram Vaswani had very strong showings among the pro’s with a runner-up and a 38th place finish respectively.

The final table payouts looked as follows:
1st AbdullahOchalan ($54,486)
2nd Steve Zolotow ($34,810.50)
3rd endzeit ($22,702.50)
4th MSUsWorst ($15,740.40)
5th CTAPblU KA3EJI (10,594.50)
6th aiMfoRthEheAd (7,264.80)

Bubbling the final table was HappyHasselhoff for a $4,994.55 prize.

Congratulations to all who played tonight, and two thumbs up if you cashed. Steve Z showed us that the old guard still has a lot of play in them by having such a strong finish. Remember if today wasn’t your lucky day, there will always be better days down the road.

As is pretty standard in 6-max games the action was aplenty, despite the large buy-in.  Everyone was vying for the nice even $300,000 first place prize and of course the title of FTOPS Champion.  The Full Tilt Pros turned out in force, led by host Erick Lindgren. Erick is one of the more well-known “Red Pros” playing at Full Tilt.  He has one a World Series of Poker bracelet, 2 World Poker Tour Championships and has over $7 million in career tournament winnings.  He was joined by some other familiar faces, including Allen Cunningham, Bruce Buffer, David Pham, Huck Seed, Erica Shoenberg, Josh Arieh, and Jon Turner, a.k.a. PearlJammed, among others.

One of Full Tilt’s finest was able to make it very deep indeed in this tournament as Peter Feldman, a.k.a. Nordberg, made the final 2 tables, eventually going out in 9th place.  Feldman has won more than $1.1 million playing tournaments in his career, including cashing in the WSOP Main Event in 2006 and 2007.   He took down $20,250 for his time in Event #12, a very solid day.  The next best finish by one of Tilt’s Pros was Thomas Bihl, finishing 101st, who was just preceded by Josh Arieh, busting out in 103rd.

The final table was made up of some very tough customers.  Finishing in 6th place was hikkespett, a Norwegian player with some nice cashes to his name, but without the signature win to launch him in amongst the best players.

Fifth place went to Wretchy, real name Dan Martin.  Wretchy is one of the young, up and coming tournament players looking to break through with a big win.  He has a lot of very solid finishes and has taken down some great tournaments on both PokerStars and Full Tilt, but has yet to land the big fish so to speak.  He always seems to be around the final table though and it’s just a matter of time before his name sits atop a huge tournament payout list.

Finishing 4th was another big name in the tournament circuit, Shannon Shorr, who plays as BLUFFforRENT.  Shannon has over $3.2 million in tournament winnings, according to his blog at ShannonShorr.com.  He’s more well-known perhaps as a live tournament player than an online player, but one to be feared none the less.

Amak316 finished this tournament in 3rd place.  He is another solid tournament player with some serious wins and finishes, but without the huge score to propel him up the winnings leaderboards.

In second place was another young rising star in the tournament world.  Neverbluff67 is a solid tournament and lower stakes cash game player.  This second place finish and the prize money that comes along with it, will likely allow him to play some bigger games with a solid bankroll.  With that in mind there’s little doubt that we’ve heard the last from neverbluff67.

Finally, taking down 1st place was another very solid, if somewhat unknown player.  OmadJoped is a good heads-up and short-handed cash player and a solid tournament player.  This is his first really big score so it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

1st – OmadJoped -$300,000

2nd – neverbluff67 – $198,000

3rd – amak316 – $138,300

4th – BLUFFforRENT – $105,000

5th – Wretchy – $72,750

6th – hikkespett – $49,500