The Full Tilt Online Poker Series wrapped up over the weekend. It was the center of the online poker world for many of the industry’s top stars along with many up-and-comers. The Main Event of FTOPS IX lived up to the hype. Despite the hefty $535 buy-in, 4,880 entrants stormed onto the online poker site in search of their share of the $2.5 million guaranteed prize pool. In the end, dubbeemin made the most of his buy-in, taking down the FTOPS’ final tournament and banking a rock-solid $432,400. It’s double the first place prize of other major weekly tournaments on sites such as PokerStars. Let’s take a look at the highlights from the FTOPS Main Event along with the 24 other tournaments which made up the series. Needless to say, this week will be a comparatively quiet one in the online poker world.
It’s hard to fathom winning $432,400 online. Many people make one-tenth or less of that amount every single year for an income. To bank it in one night seems preposterous. However, that’s exactly what dubbeemin did last night. He bought in for $535 and walked away with 800 times that amount. Let that sink in for a minute. Others at the final table of the FTOPS Main Event were valleyho (second for $262,500), TheTotalPkg (third for $170,000), Pokerguru19 (fourth for $132,500), sckilla (fifth for $100,000), hemlock1313 (sixth for $75,000), tvcsa (seven for $57,500), aaaFRANCESCOzzz (eighth for $43,750), and TiltinShoes (ninth for $32,500). The top 648 spots paid out, making the event a very profitable night for many members of Full Tilt Poker.
Also wrapping up on the online poker site on Sunday night was the $2,620 buy-in two day tournament, which actually broke its $2 million guarantee. There were 942 entrants, which meant that the prize pool totaled over $2.3 million. When you see the amount of money that the top finishers of this tournament cashed for, it will blow your mind. The winner was hAAydon, who pocketed a ridiculous $541,650 for first place. That’s over half a million dollars and is larger than many of the winners’ paychecks at established live tournaments like the World Series of Poker. The rest of the final table also grabbed an inordinately large amount of cash: triathlon4 (second for $341,475), knickadam55 (third for $253,163), sebbau (fourth for $194,288), BootySmooth (fifth for $147,188), Tony G (sixth for $105,975), theMightyZep (seventh for $70,650), Yeshaya (eighth for $55,107), and ClockWyze (ninth for $40,035). It’s always a good sign in a tournament when the ninth place finisher still cashes for more than $40,000.
The Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan also took place this weekend, as usual. If you’ve never heard of the Mulligan, it is a $150K Guaranteed, $216 buy-in tournament which takes place just after the start of the site’s marquee event, the $750K Guaranteed. As the name implies, it’s an opportunity for players who have busted in the $750K Guaranteed to make back some of their hard-earned money back. The tournament garnered a healthy field of 1,231 entrants, which generated a prize pool of $246,200. I’m sure that many people were happy to see vegan213 emerge victorious, winning the $54,164 first place prize. The top 117 spots paid out and the top six pocketed five-figures.
Although many Full Tilt Poker regulars will be saddened by the fact that the FTOPS is over, the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker kicks off on September 5th. Its Main Event carries a balmy $10 million guarantee. Both sites offer fully-downloadable versions for Mac players, meaning you can take full advantage of all of the features that your competitors on Windows machines have.