Online Poker -- The $1K Roundup, Week of Feb. 8Zugwat, CHI01 and Mavfish Win Big |
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Thanks to an extremely successful Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS), the three $1,000 buy-in tournaments this week yielded huge fields and awarded over six figures to four different players.
Read the recaps for the $1K events on Full Tilt, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker below.
Full Tilt -- FTOPS Event No. 12
The largest $1,000 buy-in tournament of the week belonged to Full Tilt, which is in the midst of yet another thriving FTOPS. Event No. 12 was replacing the normal $1K Monday, but it awarded by far the most money on the week. A total of 1,630 entrants satellited or bought in, making the $1,630,000 prize pool rival to that of the Sunday Million. Because it was a second-chance tournament, each player was given one free rebuy opportunity if they busted out in the first two hours of play.
The tournament, which was hosted by Nick Schulman, paid out 162 spots. Among the Full Tilt pros to cash were Matt Hawrilenko (139th), Ryan Daut (117th), Huck Seed (105th), and Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby (100th).
Joining those names in red in the money were notables Keith "DaMurdera3" Ferrera (156th), Kevin "GetPWN3D" Saul (155th), Justin "WPThero" Rollo (144th), Jared "RedSoxFan83" Mahoney (132nd), Joe "hoodini10" Udine (125th), Ryan "ryanbluf" Karp (101st), Kory "s00tedj0kers89" Kilpatrick (97th), Jason "BUBBLESftt" Gray (84th), Chad "jse81" Batista (76th), Jason "icudonk" Smith (74th), Brian "dubbeemin" Mintz (70th), Gary "GB2005" Bogdanski (64th), urCHEKRAISE (55th), Josh "pbdrunks" Van Duyn (53rd), and two-time FTOPS winner Halfrek (10th).
The final table featured three superstars of online poker in Chris "TheUniverse112" Leveroni (fourth), Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers (second, pictured left), and Steven "Zugwat" Silverman (first, pictured above right).
Just two days earlier, Leveroni had taken down event No. 7, a no-limit hold'em tournament with rebuys, for his first gold jersey avatar and over $140,000. Here, he fell just short and finished in fourth place for $130,400.
The final heads-up match came down to Sowers and Silverman, who both scored enough points to crack the top 10 of Card Player's Online Player of the Year race. Going into heads up play, Sowers held a 2-1 chip lead, but a miracle double-up on the river gave Silverman the advantage. Finally, after almost 13 hours of play, both players got it all in on a race, and Silverman's pocket fours held against Sowers' A
J to win the tournament and $350,450.
Here were the final table results:
PokerStars -- Super Tuesday
The $1,000 tournament on PokerStars jumped up from 416 entrants last week to 467 this week. The $467,000 prize pool is the largest of the year for the tournament and paid out 54 places.
Among the notables to cash were Greg "gregior" Howard (53rd), Jeremiah "Believer82" Vinsant (52nd), Chris "cdbr3799" Dombrowski (48th), Shawn "slimshaggy" Luman (42nd), Prahlad "profontaine" Friedman (41st), Christian "C.K." Kruel (40th), mrvogt (31st), Chris "herdgolf96" Tipper (29th), Nick "agriffrod" Mitchell (25th), Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis (24th), Steve "thorladen" Weinstein (23rd), Anthony "holdplz" Spinella (21st), Geoff "GeoffRas22" Rasmussen (17th), Justin "roothlus2" Levy (16th), Nik "Reraiseallin" Persaud (15th), Steve "mcnallyville" McNally, and last week's Absolute Poker $100,000-guaranteed winner Michael "mman_status" Meredith (10th).
The final table featured Ty "puffinmypurp" Reiman (third, pictured above right) and Mike "CHI01" Chiappetta (first). Chiappetta famously cashed in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event without even playing his final day. Due to a illness in the family, Chiappetta had to skip day three. Luckily, he accumulated so many chips the day before that he was able to safely blind out into the money.
When he got heads up, Chiappetta had over a 2-1 chip lead. On the final hand, thewh00sel moved all in with K
Q
and was behind to Chiappetta's A 10
. The board ran out 10 6 6 Q 10, and Chiappetta pocketed $89,898 for the win.
Here were the final table results:
Absolute Poker -- $100,000 Guarantee
Absolute Poker dropped from 216 entrants last week to this week's number of 206. The $206,000 prize pool paid out 27 places and reserved $53,560 for the eventual winner.
Just missing out on a cash was bubble boy Josh "BBBBB33" Weizer (28th). Those who did make the money included Greg "Gregoir" Howard (27th), Michael "Dermsperm" Michnak (25th), Eric "SheetsWorld" Haber (21st), Chris "BRSavage" Savage (19th), Tyler "Brainwasher" Cornell (17th), Jonathan "Shipaholic" Delong (16th), Shaun "TedsFishFry" Deeb (13th), and Gary "Debo34" Debernardi (12th).
The final table featured Jagz7 (seventh), Bastet2004 (fifth), Corey "CMB8757" Burbick (fourth), Scott "ScottyDog25" Hall (third), Matt "NoBadBeatsPlz" Kay (second, pictured right), and J.P. "Mavfish" Kelly (first, pictured above left). Bastet2004 at one point held a massive chip lead but ended up giving most of it to Kay. Hall got it in with two pair on the flop, only to see Kelly's gutshot with an overcard get there on the turn and send him to the rail.
Once Kay and Kelly got heads up, it looked as if it would be a quick match, but a lucky chop on the river gave Kay a second life. He doubled up shortly after, but it was Kelly who was finally able to close it out.
Here were the final table results:
