With FTOPS XIII in full swing, this past Sunday was filled with huge tournaments and enormous prize pools. Online tournaments are on fire lately, with every single major on FullTilt and PokerStars crushing their respective guarantees. For more in depth coverage of FTOPS XIII be sure to check out our news section for write-ups on the majority of the tournaments.
One might think PokerStars could have some trouble competing against FTOPS XIII; however, it seems FullTilt’s series may have bolstered attendance in Stars tourneys yesterday. The day began with the appropriately named Sunday Warm-Up, a tournament whose prize pool has been holding steady at $800,000+ for weeks now. Yesterday was no exception as nearly 4,100 players created a $818,000 prize pool, with over $128,000 going to the eventual winner, “mellowGold11”. This was mellowGold11’s first recorded score over $1,000, quite a crazy feat. Second place went to “hwtd1”, who had much more experience in bigger events than his competitor. This was the second time he has final-tabled a major on Stars, and easily bested his 5th place, $26,250 score in the Sunday500 last January.
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $750k Guaranteed
4,090 Entrants; $818,000 prize pool
1. mellowGold11 $128,426
2. hwtd1 $95,706
3. haneferd $67,485
4. happyfister $47,035
5. Bassduck $34,765
6. Paulmclean23 $26,585
7. powerle $18,405
8. prallimall $10,225
9. dan82mur $6,544
The Sunday Million was not hurt by the bigger FTOPS events either, as it gained over 8,000 entrants for consecutive weeks. For some time now the final table has been producing a large amount of unknowns, and yesterday was more of the same. Taking down the title was “h2oace”, a player who nearly won the million last November, taking third for just under $88,000. This time he had no problem outlasting “jacob126b38” heads-up for the title.
PokerStars Sunday Million $1.5M Guaranteed
8,007 Entrants; $1,601,400 prize pool
1. h2oace $240,210
2. jacob126b38 $176,154
3. FOREVER_RU $120,105
4. th9nip $80,711
5. kurvekat $64,056
6. danger0us $48,042
7. D.K.5 $32,028
8. fetchmeabeer $18,416
9.lordhuttyx $12,411
For a while the Sunday 500 was struggling to reach 900 entrants; however, the past few weeks the tournament has been soaring, and this Sunday it hit a new high of 1,110 players. The $555,000 prize pool left over $94,000 to first place, and eventual winner “OGURI” of Tokyo. One of the bigger names at the final table, “purecash25”, is no stranger to success on FullTilt. While his 7th place finish this week made him a “measly” $16,000. He has a few huge scores including a $262,500 cash for a 3rd place finish in the $5,200 2-day FTOPS Event. Also making an appearance was “Norm427” who nearly won the Second chance in May (taking 2nd) and shipped the $109r last September. “Sumpas”, who took 6th in the WCOOP Main Event for $415,150 last year, took 5th place and just over $27,000. Finally, “utreg”, who shipped the Sunday Brawl on FullTilt in March, finished in 4th place for $37,740. The $94,350 first place check was OGURI’s first recorded 5-figure score on PokerStars.
PokerStars Sunday $500k Guaranteed
1,110 Entrants; $555,000 prize pool
1. OGURI $94,350
2. FULMER08 $69,375
3. kobeshomie $52,670
4. utreg $37,740
5. Sumpas $27,473
6. YaGotBurnt $21,923
7. PureCash25 $16,373
8. Norm427 $10,823
9. Bergmannen $5,994
While the Sunday 500 had a nice final table, the $215r had some of the biggest names in online poker making appearances. James “jcamby33” Campbell, past winner of the Sunday Million nearly won, taking 3rd place and just under $23,000. Scott “icallseat3” Sitron, past winner of the Sunday Warm-Up for $111,250, took 4th for $17,068. Dan “wretchy” Martin, a top-100 ranked professional and winner of the $109r on Stars took 5th place. Rounding out a great final table were “gator93” and “thorladen”, two high-stakes tournament pros with millions of dollars worth of cashes to their names. In the end “x_noriver_x” was able to best a great final table and take home the tile and over $41,000. This was only his 2nd 5-figure score ever recorded on PokerStars, easily besting a $13,000 cash for winning the $11r nearly two years ago.
PokerStars Sunday $215r $150k Guaranteed
296 Entrants; $200,800 prize pool
1. x_noriver_x $41,164
2. MaltLiquor40 $30,120
3. jcamby33 $22,690
4. icallseat3 $17,068
5. Wretchy $11,847.20
6. thedonator $9,036
7. gator93 $7,028
8. Bounatirou $5,020
9. thorladen $3,514
Finishing off a solid day of tournaments at PokerStars was the Sunday Second Chance. This week exactly 1,500 players entered, creating a rather large $300,000 prize pool. A few of the world’s best tournament players made the final table including “THE__D__RY” and “D1rtyR1v3r”, both of whom have had great success in Sunday majors. THE__D__RY shipped the Sunday Million last year and has nearly $2,000,000 in cashes on PokerStars alone. D1rtyR1v3r has nearly $1,500,000 in cashes and has more than 50 $10,000+ scores to his credit. Joining them was “bigredAK”, another solid player with nearly $500,000 in scores including nearly winning this very event a few years ago. This time, bigredAK did not let the title slip through his fingers, as he took down THE__D__RY heads-up and earned just over $54,000.
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $200k Guaranteed
1,500 Entrants; $300,000 prize pool
1. bigredAK $54,120
2. THE__D__RY $39,150
3. PrinceTendee $30,000
4. Pokerdog68 $22,500
5. D1rtyR1v3r $15,750
6. scossett $12,750
7. RasA86 $9,750
8. padjes $6,750
9. Vingtcent $4,200
FTOPS Event #8 took the place of the Sunday Brawl yesterday, as the $240+$16 Knock-Out event attracted 4,644 entrants. The major change was this event was 6-handed, much different than the standard 9-max tournaments. One of the biggest and best names in online poker made the final table, Isaac “Menlo” Baron. Baron is widely considered one of, if not the best online tournament player of all-time. Unfortunately he was the first to bust at the final table, taking 6th place for just under $28,000. Baron was one of 40 FullTilt sponsored professionals playing in event #8 including Andy Bloch, Eli Elezra, Allen Cunningham, Erick Lindgren, Ryan Daut, Scott Fischman, and Taylor Caby, just to name a few. Taking down the title was “mikeG16”, also known as “Gordo”, a high-stakes PLO expert.
FTOPS Event #8 $750k Guaranteed
4,644 Entrants; $928,800 prize pool
1. mikeyG16 $177,419
2. Capax Infiniti $108,670
3. animalcraka $75,419
4. bob2bob $55,728
5. pokermatt01 $40,867
6. Isaac Baron $27,864
The biggest event this Sunday was FTOPS #10, a $300+$22 buy-in, $1,500,000 Guaranteed Event. The 5,660 entrants created a huge $1,698,000 prize pool, barely besting the Sunday Million on PokerStars. More than 40 FullTilt “Red Pros” played in the tournament, and Andy Bloch, former WSOP HORSE Runner-Up, made the deepest run, finishing in 42nd place. The pay outs below reflect a 4-way deal, which left 2nd-place finisher conslice earning the most money.
FTOPS Event #10 $1.5M Guaranteed
5,660 Entrants; $1,698,000 prize pool
1. t1ger heat $189,318.58
2. conslice $219,772.04
3. POSITIV_NEGITIV $160,330.60
4. BacoPride $176,000.78
5. tiltslowplayer $81,419.10
6. mrob00 $56,034
7. CWTREFEREE04 $36,507
8. Mike Daciuk $25,470
9. HevvyDevvy $17,829
FullTilt still ran their Sunday Mulligan alongside FTOPS XIII events, and the tournament saw a nice boost in entries, with over 1,400 players creating a $281,800 prize pool. One of the best tournament players in the world, Chris “Moorman1” Moorman nearly took the title, finishing in 3rd place for just under $29,000. This was just one of many huge scores on his impressive resume, which includes 3 wins in the $109r and 50+ $10,000+ scores.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1,409 Entrants; $281,800 prize pool
1. dmhjr $61,996
2. cashryders22 $39,452
3. Moorman1 $28,532
4. nowa1 $22,896
5. ITSMETHELUKY1 $17,274
6. River_Vlad $12,681
7. wmmcl $8,172
8. Fbonacci $5,918
9. deceptive $4,227