Online Poker: Cheesemonster Wins FTOPS Main Event

FTOPS VIII Event No. 24: No-Limit Hold’em Main Event

Unsurprisingly, the behemoth of the weekend was the Full Tilt Online Poker Series VIII (FTOPS) main event. The tournament, which featured a $500 buy-in, lured 4,750 entrants to build a prize pool of $2,375,000, well above the $2 million guarantee.

Plenty of red-named, Full Tilt-sponsored pros made it into the 648 paid places in the event, including Huck Seed (282nd), Stuart Paterson (354th), Andy Bloch (429th), Maciek “Michael” Gracz (455th), Marco Liesy (457th), Roland de Wolfe (510th), and Robert Mizrachi (578th). Martin Klaeser was the deepest-finishing red-named player, finishing in 62nd. Team Full Tilt member Phil Ivey was the bubble boy in the tournament, busting in 649th. Some other notables to finish deep, among many, included Jason “strassa2” Strasser (ninth, pictured at right), Frank “Gator93” Hernandez (15th), Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins (25th, currently in third in the Online Player of the Year (OPOY) race), and David “GhettoFabolous” Randall (28th, currently sixth in the OPOY race).

Both cheesemonster (aka delegator) and MarMoss outlasted 4,748 other players in the event, and each was guaranteed at least $249,000. The difference between that and the first-place prize, however, was a whopping $161,000, and, since Full Tilt doesn’t officiate dealmaking, the full amount was on the line. Ultimately, cheesemonster came out on top to snag the more than $410,000 payday.

The final results were:

1. cheesemonster — $410,780
2. MarMoss — $249,375
3. SLmelonman — $161,500
4. frostey — $125,875
5. Dwarf — $95,000
6. R3dL0bster — $71,250
7. kiwid10 — $54,625
8. awriver — $41,563
9. Jason “strassa2” Strasser — $30,875

PokerStars Sunday Million

The PokerStars Sunday Million had 7,112 entrants last night, a slight bump of 256 entrants more than last week. The prize pool came to $1,422,400, which left more than $200,000 for the first-place prize, barring a final-table deal.

By the time play got down to heads up, no deal had been made. It was kared69 versus etushekki, and nearly $100,000 was on the line as the difference in paydays. Kared69 became the happy recipient of that extra $100K when he scooped the final pot to win the event.

The final results were:

1. kared69 — $200,558
2. etushekki — $100,990
3. bestbuy82 — $71,120
4. Stefano/Zio — $56,896
5. KILLER ACE — $42,672
6. draqq — $31,293
7. traction1 — $22,047
8. Genius005ca — $12,802
9. perezj234 — $8,392

FTOPS VIII Event No. 23: Shorthanded No-Limit Hold’em Knockout

The third FTOPS event to be held on Sunday (aside from the main event and day 2 of the $2,500 buy-in event, which started on Saturday and concluded last night; recapped in a previous article) easily beat out its guaranteed prize pool. The tournament, a $500,000-guaranteed sixhanded no-limit hold’em knockout (bounty) event, attracted 3,149 entrants at $240 apiece. Of that buy-in, $200 went to the prize pool and $40 went on each player’s head, to be won by the player who knocked him out. With that attendance number, the prize pool came to $629,800.

Of all of the red-named Full Tilt pros in the event, only one finished in the money: David Pham (235th), the reigning Card Player Player of the Year.

It was Panamatony and elheroe going head to head in the end for hte $124,000 first-place prize. Panamatony was sent up the canal as runner-up when elheroe won the final hand of the event, taking down the top prize and earning an exclusive FTOPS jersey and jersey avatar.

The final results were:

1. elheroe — $124,020
2. Panamatony — $78,221
3. MrGreaseFire — $53,659
4. I R Teh Donk — $40,937
5. TheAdam8 — $28,971
6. Alex “princetendee” Smith — $19,524

UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee

The UltimateBet $200,000-guaranteed tournament had 856 entrants last night, a three-week high for the event. UltimateBet put down $28,800 to match its guarantee for the tournament.

ENIGMA4U4ME and theinductive wound up duking it out for the biggest payday in the event, and ENIGMA4U4ME was ultimately victorious, snagging the $45,000 first-place prize.

The final results were:

1. ENIGMA4U4ME — $45,000
2. theinductive — $27,000
3. xXTILTXx — $18,500
4. carmilla — $13,000
5. Rey “downer_” Cardenas — $11,000
6. jrshifty — $9,000
7. smtsxycool007 — $7,000
8. dbaum12 — $5,000
9. balla7777 — $3,500
10. krumster — $2,000

Bodog $100,000 Guarantee

Bodog’s $100,000-guaranteed tournament had a low turnout again last night when 708 entrants bought in, but that attendance number was still higher than last week, when the tournament had only 646 entrants.

The heads-up match this week was Panicked versus frequent Bodog $100K final-tablist JohnnyGstaks. JohnnyGstaks failed to make his second win in this event, and had to settle for his second runner-up finish, when Panicked calmly eliminated his final foe. Panicked pocketed nearly $24,000 for his win.

The final results were:

1. Panicked — $23,600
2. JohnnyGstaks — $13,600
3. cbayly12 — $9,100
4. toddc — $7,000
5. evanholdswor — $5,700
6. Padfoot — $4,500
7. AlfRoberts — $3,300
8. nash07 — $2,200
9. zdepew2000 — $1,300

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