The latest edition of Full Tilt’s renowned poker series, FTOPS XVII has proved to be one of the most lucrative in recent memory. Nowhere was this more evident than in Event #9, a $100+$9 NLHE contest, with $600,000 guaranteed, plus rebuys and add-ons allowed. After nearly 12 hours and 42 levels of blinds and antes, it was SkillVille who captured the first place crown.
While the tournament may have failed to surpass the attendance quota, Full Tilt stayed true to their aforementioned guarantee. A total of 1,827 players anted up for the $100+$9 buy-in, with a total of 2,789 rebuys ($100 for 1,500 chips) and 1,303 add-on’s (2,000 chips for $100).

In the end, it was SkillVille who came out on top, earning $123,600 for their effort. Here’s how the rest of the top ten shook out:

1: SkillVille ($123,600)
2: V3kk3d ($81,600)
3: endlessj83 ($60,600)
4: Liam Crawford ($47,400)
5: coffmeister ($35,400)
6: WiLDmAn75 ($24,600)
7: citizenmax ($15,00)
8: 43fotry ($10,200)
9: losebigpots ($7,200)

There was an after deal payout between the first and second place finishers, with SkillVille receiving $110,669.03 and V3kk3d earning ($94,530.97). Other notable finishers included several well known faces:

42nd : Jeff Madsen ($1,410)
57th: Carlos Mortenson ($1,110)
85th: Nordberg ($900)
90th: Hans Vogl ($900)

The host, Bill Gazes, finished just out of the money in 215th place. All told, 189 players were paid, with the minimum payout set at $660. That’s quite the impressive figure, considering it’s more than a 600% return on a $109 investment for the top 10% of the players involved.