Another day gone by, and another FTOPS Event in the books! Today we had the pleasure of witnessing the action of FTOPS XIII, Event #22: $2,500 NLHE 6-MAX Deep. Tonight’s event was introduced by one of the three players in the entire Poker World who actually needs no introduction, namely the Flying Finn Patrik Antonius himself.
Tonight’s event had everything to be legendary: an awesome structure making this a two-day event, 2 Mizzles+ in the prize pool with over $400K to the winner, a legendary host, tons of red pro’s showing up, and last but not least, some truly fine poker play. Notables who showed up to play in this tournament were, among many, Allen Cunningham, Andrew Black, Eli Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Huck Seed, Brian Hastings, Jeff Madsen, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Michael Craig, Josh Arieh, Ryan Daut, Scott Fischman, Trond Eindsvig and Toto Leonidas.
We even had Taylor Caby and Durrrr on the rail tonight!
Now on to what took place!
Born2Winn was severely shortstacked for this tournament, having only 10BB left to play with. He chose a spot on his button and openshoved K6o. Too bad that for that same hand debbiedds, while enjoying a huge chip advantage, also picked up a beautiful hand which is the Ah9h. debbiedds flopped the Ace sending Born2Winn home in 7th place, with $45,687.50 to show for his efforts these past two days. Congrats!
The action continued on a fast and furious pace. bob2bob had been nursing a short stack for a very long time now, and 6 hands into the final table, he decided he would not be pushed around. But psutennis11 had been running hot all day today, picking big pocket pair after big pocket pair. This time he showed up to the party with a massive stack and AKo preflop. The story went in a way which is familiar to many tourney players: flop brings ace, turn and river bricks, and shorter stack is sent home. bob2bob did pocket an awesome $73,312.50 for his play, though, so congrats! The 5 remaining were guaranteed over 6 figures.
After the last elimination, many uneventful raise-and-takem’s happened. In fact, more than an hour went by without a single elimination. The only thing that happened during all that time that was of note was that debbiedds lost some of her chips, and psutennis11’s chiplead kept growing. The others remained with more or less the same stacks. But then:
All-in pre of course. Lesson learned: Don’t race with the pro. CrazyIvan24 left in 5th place $114,750 richer! Congrats!
The next elimination was (finally) not a race. With blinds at 8K/16/2Kante, psutennis11 made a preflop race to 40K and got called by debbiedds. The flop came 983 rainbow, with the current pot being 96,000 chips in size. With debbiedds checking while first to act, psutennis11 made a continuation bet of about 51K chips. debbiedds called. Both players checked a diamond 8 turn. When the river was the 3 of spades, with the board reading 9h3d8c8d3s, debbiedds bet 112K into the now 198,800 chip pot. psutennis instashoved over while covering for a ton of chips, and debbiedds called. psutennis11 showed an 8 for a full house, and debbiedds mucked her hand, taking home $161,500 for her 4th place finish. Congrats!
GreatDANbino somehow avoided a ton of pitfalls and simply shorted his way through the entire final table, watching much bigger stacks than his own fall along the way. His luck eventually ran out though, thanks to a devastating river card in a preflop all-in versus overwhelming chipleader psutennis11.
GreatDANbino took home a nice score of $212,500 for his performance in this tournament. Congrats dude, don’t spend it all in one place!
At the start of HU, psutennis asked Brian Hastings if he wanted to look at some numbers, query to which Brian Hastings courteously responded “No, TY.” So it was play on time, no deals no BS. psutennis11 meanwhile was enjoying a comfortable lead, up until this hand: Brian Hastings minraised his button to 40K, psutennis11 re-raised to 140K, and Brian Hastings then called the additional 100K bet. psutennis11 then made a continuation bet on the JK5 rainbow flop, and Brian Hastings then called quickly. psutennis11 then bet about 326K on a 7d turn, and Brian Hastings called once again. The river was a Heart King, and the board now read JdKc5h7dKh. The pot was near 1,240,000 chips in size, effective stacks left about 1,500,000. psutennis11 then checked the river, to which Brian Hastings insta-fired a 477K chip bet, and psutennis11 then quickly folded.The tides had been turned, and the sole remaining red Brian Hastings became our new chip leader for the first time in the whole tourney!
A few hands later, things were starting to look desperate for psutennis11. He was getting backed into a corner, with Brian Hastings amassing an almost 3:1 chip lead. psutennis11 decided to take a stand with a pair of 7’s, 5betting all-in preflop. Lo and behold, his prayers were heard in the heavens, because Brian Hastings flipped well all night but couldn’t outflip the flopped set of 7’s with his own AQ. The stacks became even.
For a final table, there sure was some lighthearted chatter going on. Wonder at this rail:
psutennis11, following his double-up to even, got some steam and some wind in the sail. He started to trample all over Brian Hastings, and reversed the roles again to now hold the 3:1 chip advantage. Another key hand was the following:
The pressure made Brian Hastings use up a lot of his timebank and then proceed to fold on this very drawy board. What may psutennis11 have had in this hand? We’ll probably never know, but nh nonetheless.
The final hand of the night turned out to be another race, but not in the classical sense:
And after a grueling heads-up match that took a very very long time and a final table that in total took just a little over 300 hands, we finally had a winner. Brian Hastings represented the Reds in a fine manner, taking home about $297,500 for his performance tonight. But all of the spotlight will have to fall upon psutennis11, who milked his run-good to the fullest towards a $453,687.50 first prize, a yellow FTOPS-jersey wearing avatar, and perpetual bragging rights for having won an FTOPS event.
Of course, congratulations to all who participated, and remember, if you did not place or win, there’s always next time!
FTOPS XIII Event #22
Start Aug 15 14:02
End Aug 16 21:40
Hosted by Patrik Antonius
Prizepool: $2,125,000
Places Paid: 102
Final table payouts:
1) $453,687.50 psutennis11
2) $297,500 Brian Hastings
3) $212,500 GreatDANbino
4) $161,500 debbiedds
5) $114,750 CrazyIvan24
6) $73,687,50 bob2bob