If you’re a serious Mac poker player, there is no reason that you shouldn’t be flocking to Full Tilt Poker to take advantage of what’s left of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series. After all, the online poker room offers a fully-downloadable version of its software for Mac users, making it one of the most popular places to play anywhere today. If that wasn’t enough, Full Tilt is also offering millions of dollars in guarantees as part of FTOPS IX. I still am in shock that we’re already up to FTOPS IX. It seems like just yesterday, and was really only a few years ago, that the first tournament series kicked off.
The talk of FTOPS IX so far has been yuvee04, who won two events in the same night. He took down a $535 HORSE event and a $216 turbo no limit tournament, marking one of the top online poker accomplishments of all time. In the HORSE tournament, he barreled through a field of 655 entrants en route to a $70,000 payday. Also at the final table were spadez67, HTBJabroni64, NiceJB, and MoormanI. The tournament had a prize pool of $327,500 and the top 80 spots paid out. The top five players (who I just mentioned) each took home a five-figure payday. Steve Zolotow and John D’Agostino were the top Full Tilt Poker pros who cashed.
In the $216 turbo no limit tournament, 3,472 players entered. The tournament fell short of its $500,000 guarantee, but you won’t hear any complaints from yuvee04, who logged his second win of the night, this time for $101,975. Others at the final table included ANIMAL5050, DHM0219, and xRIPCURLx. The top 234 finishers cashed and the top seven took home at least $10,000. At the end of the day, yuvee04 was $170,000 richer, having barreled through over 4,000 people total.
Online poker forums such as TwoPlusTwo and PocketFives have been buzzing about yuvee04’s accomplishment. Winning an FTOPS event requires that a person defeat some of the top online poker players in the world along with a host of amateurs looking to make a quick buck. It’s up there in difficulty with taking down the Sunday Million on PokerStars or winning the Full Tilt Poker $750K Guaranteed. It happens to an average online poker player perhaps once in their lifetime. It happened to yuvee04 twice… on the same night.
In the $1 million guaranteed, $322 rebuy six-max tournament, MishkaT emerged victorious from a pack of 1,059 players, taking home a rousing $251,000 first place payday. It was one of the largest prizes ever awarded in online poker. The top three players turned their buy-in plus any rebuys into more than $100,000. The top 120 places paid out and the smallest cash was for $1,800.
The Main Event of FTOPS IX kicks off on Sunday in what will be one of the largest online poker tournaments of 2008. The $535 buy-in Main Event has a $2.5 million guaranteed prize pool and will likely crush that figure. Full Tilt has been running satellites constantly for the tournament, meaning there will be no shortage of entrants. Here is a look at the remaining schedule after tonight’s events conclude on Full Tilt Poker:
Event #20: Friday, August 15th
14:00 ET
$200 + $16 NL Hold ‘em 6-Max
$400,000 Guaranteed
Event #21: Friday, August 15th
21:00 ET
$300 + $22 Razz
$150,000 Guaranteed
Event #22: Saturday, August 16th
14:00 ET
$2,500 + $120 NL Hold ‘em Two Day Event
$2,000,000 Guaranteed
Event #23: Saturday, August 16th
16:30 ET
$100 + $9 PL Omaha Rebuy
$350,000 Guaranteed
Event #24: Sunday, August 17th
14:00 ET
$120 + $9 NL Hold ‘em Knockout
$400,000 Guaranteed
Main Event: Sunday, August 17th
18:00 ET
$500 + $35 NL Hold ‘em
$2,500,000 Guaranteed