The 12th event of Full Tilt Online Poker Series XVIII saw players clash one-on-one in the first heads up tournament of the series. The tournament, a $500+35 NL Hold’em Heads Up Shootout, had a guaranteed prize pool of an astonishing $500,000! With 1024 players willing to shell out $500 to be king of the mountain, though, the actual prize pool reached $512,000.
FTOPS Event #12 was hosted by Filippo Candio. Candio has definitely begun making his mark on the poker world. A native of Italy, Candio attended college, earning a degree in classic literature. His intention was to become an attorney, like his father, but that was sidetracked when Candio discovered poker. After making a name for himself on the Italian circuit by winning the Italian Poker Tour San Remo Main Event, Candio traveled to America to compete in the 2010 World Series of Poker. There, Candio would make his biggest splash to date, finishing fourth in the Main Event and winning $3,092,545.
Many well known Full Tilt Red Pros competed in the event, such at Andrew Feldman, Annette “Annette_15” Obrestrad, David Pham and Erica Schoenberg amongst others. Unfortunately for the pros, the only one who reached the cash was tournament host Filippo Candio, who squeaked into the money in 119th place. This earned Candio $1024, a small addition to his enormous cash at the WSOP.
The event, which started at 4:00 PM EST on Monday, did not see the final match-up until the early morning hours of Tuesday. This crowning battle would feature Grazza No1 and Kopek3. Grazza No1 seemed to have Kopek3 on the ropes for most of the match, even calling two all ins from Kopek3 for Kopek3’s tournament life. Luck seemed to be on Kopek3’s side, though. After shoving all in with 86s and getting called by Grazza No1’s AA, Kopek made 2 pair on the turn to stay alive. Later, Kopek3’s KT was called by 66. A T on the turn would save Kopek3 and give him a slight chip lead. The final hand occurred when the two players got all the chips in preflop, with Kopek3 covering Grazza No1 by 300 chips. Grazza No1 looked to be in great shape to have an overwhelming chip lead when he saw his AQ was up against Kopek3’s AJ. It looked even more likely after a 2-7-5 flop and a K turn, but a J river stunned Grazza No1 and gave the tournament to Kopek3. This earned the Swede his biggest biggest cash to date, $89,088. For Grazza No1’s efforts, he took home $53,248.
Congratulations to all those who cashed! Here are the results from the Top 10 finishers FTOPS XVIII Event #12:
1. Kopek3 – $89,088.00
2. Grazza No1 – $53,248.00
3. ScarJo – $27,136.00
4. asudetrefla – $27,136.00
5. RealFaithTV – $14,336.00
6. philbort – $14,336.00
7. phatchoy888 – $14,336.00
8. Foozole – $14,336.00
9. culoi – $7,680.00
10. JoeSewok – $7,680.00