On May 18, 2008, the Main Event of the eighth Full Tilt Online Poker Series kicked off. All eyes were turned towards one of the premiere (and most Mac-friendly) sites available and 4,750 players coughed up $535 each to play. The tournament shattered its $2 million guarantee, an amount previously unheard of in online poker, shelling out $2.3 million. In the end, cheesemonster was the talk of the town, capturing the gold Full Tilt jersey and pocketing $410,780 for his Main Event win. A handful of top online poker pros made the top 20, including strassa2 and Gator93. The top four players took home at least six figures. They included MarMoss (second place for $249,375), SLmelonman (third place for $161,500), and frostey (fourth place for $121,875). Eighteen players took home more than $10,000, meaning life-changing money was doled out to quite a few people.
The 4,750 entrants who played in the Main Event made up an enormous field, but Event #9, a $322 no limit tournament, attracted 5,090. In the end, _FlaXmarZ_ emerged from the pack $263,438.04 richer, edging out MK376 heads up. The prize for second place was a healthy $159,571.50. Landing in third place was xqsays, who cashed for $102,614.40. In fourth place was nfa1080, who took home $80,167.50. Rounding out the top five was jbs07, who found himself $60,136.50 richer. Not a bad payday for anyone involved! Fifteen Full Tilt Poker players cashed for over $10,000 and 738 took home money in total. Although the pride of Full Tilt Poker is its esteemed lineup of poker pros, the highest pro to cash was Keith Sexton, who finished in 257th. If you’re not familiar with him, Sexton finished second in a seven card stud event in the 2005 WSOP and had a fifth place finish in the 2007 World Series.
The very first event of every FTOPS always attracts a big crowd and Event #1 of FTOPS VIII did not disappoint. This $216 buy-in tournament attracted 4,158 players from around the world. At its conclusion, the guru 11 emerged a winner, taking home $158,852.23. Full Tilt Poker pro Scott Fischman finished 18th in this event, a strong showing given the enormous field. Fischman won back to back bracelets at the 2004 WSOP and hasn’t looked back since. He’s feared in the both the live and online poker arenas. Ten players took home over $10,000 and 492 cashed in total.
The person who really made a buzz during the eighth Full Tilt Online Poker series was Halfrek, who won not one, but two FTOPS events. He bested a field of 1,593 players in Event #11, a $1,060 buy-in no limit event, banking $349,495. He followed that up with another win, this time in Event #21, the $2,620 two day event. He cashed for $516,925, bringing his take to over $850,000. He walked away with victories in the two largest buy-in FTOPS events, quite a feat overall.