Online Poker Weekend – Debut of Full Tilt FTOPS Brings Out The Stars
With many top players on a WSOP 'hangover' of sorts, the online poker world was looking for something to add some zip to the big tournies of this past weekend. The debut of Full Tilt's 'Online Poker Series' was just what the doctor ordered, as Full Tilt top dog Howard Lederer, and WPT Paris winner and friend of Full Tilt Roland De Wolfe both made the final table. The two came within a card or two of facing off heads up for the big money in Full Tilt's $250k guaranteed.
Enjoy the recap, see you next week.
Full Tilt Poker $250,000 Guaranteed
Full Tilt Poker upped the guarantee on it's Sunday $200+$15 tournament as it kicked off the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). Since the WSOP, it seems Full Tilt has been making their pros work hard at the tables, and today Clonie Gowen, Andy Bloch, and John Juanda were amongst those who lined up. However the railbirds went crazy when Howard Lederer himself ended up making the final table, along with friend of Full Tilt Roland De Wolfe. Roland went into the final table as chip leader with 1.2M, while Howard trailed in third place with just under 700k.
The final table action started as Roland sent P0KERPR0 home in ninth place. Roland called P0KERPR0's all in with KQ and was dominated by AQ but spiked a king on the turn to increase his lead to 1.9M. Howard Lederer took an early hit and dropped to under 250,000, and looked on shaky ground as he pushed all-in and was called by short stack raisenu and hoodini10, who had both players covered. However Lederer flipped over pocket kings, raisenu queens, hoodini10 nines, and the board blanked out to help Lederer triple up to over 700,000 as the railbirds went nuts. After Roland scooped a 3.6M pot and crippled CreekBottom1 by flopping a set of nines against CreekBottom's overpair, the railbirds were crying foul, even more so after he eliminated Thanks, LLPC and LUVEMnLEAVUM.
Things certainly got weird as the two pros tangled with each other. Howard pushed all in for just under 500k and was called by Roland. Howard flipped over K7 and was well behind Roland with 77 until a king peeled off on the flop. Two hands later in an exact reversal, Howard pushed all-in with 55 and was called by Roland with A5. The pocket pair held up to give Lederer almost 2M in chips. Roland got the upper hand as he pushed all-in over the top of Lederer's bet of 600,000 on a flop of K-9-K to take a 2M pot, and then he miraculously eliminated Howard with A5 versus A6 by hitting a five on the turn. Roland had a 5-to-1 chip lead over hoodini10, but decided to cut a deal – apparently the first in Full Tilt history – as the railbirds berated him in the background. Roland claimed the gold jersey, but hoodini10 won the empty all-in fest that followed post-deal so they both walked away winners.
Full Tilt Poker $250,000 Guaranteed – final results
Roland De Wolfe $77,000
hoodini10 $65,000
Howard Lederer $40,500
LUVEMnLEAVUM $32,500
LLPC $24,520
thanks $18,000
CreekBottom1 $11,600
raisenu $8,400
P0KERPR0 $5,948
PokerStars 1 Million Guaranteed
With the WSOP over and the World Championship of Online Poker approaching, it was no surprise that PokerStars Sunday tourney reached a near record-equalling 5893 entrants. What was surprising was how fast the field collapsed – the final table was decided in just under eight hours of play. Jonath24 (4M) and DeuxExMachin (3.8M) were the runaway leaders at the start, with over 50% of the chips in play between them. Isac departed first, followed by AA big loser, and blackeleven. Play continued five-handed for a short while until the stacks were roughly even and players starting talking about a deal. Surprisingly, the amounts based on chip counts seemed to suit everyone, with most players getting roughly around $75,000.
Play continued for the remaining $20,000, and Stevlask was out in fifth, after agonizing over an all-in call which proved to be costly when he found himself with AJ up against DeusExMachin with AQ. Deus then knocked out jonath34 with pocket tens vs A8 and now had about 70% of the chips on the table. Kraven23 got an extra boost by doubling up through jmega as his top pair held up against jmega's draws but still went to heads up play as a 2-to-1 underdog. The battle didn't last long, as Kraven23 pushed all in with K7s preflop and was insta-called by DeusExMachin with AQ. The board blanked out and Deus collected the extra $20,000.
PokerStars 1 Million – final results
DeusExMachin (Jersey City, NJ) $98,360
Kraven23 (Humboldt, IA) $76,112
jmega (Richmond Hill, ON, Canada) $74,609
jonath34 (Brooklyn, NY) $89,940
Stelvask (Redondo Beach, CA) $70,660
porpe (Petitie Ile, Reunion) $29,465
blackeleven (San Diego, CA) $22,982
AA big loser (Beavercreek, OH) $17,089
isac (Stockholm, Sweden) $10,607
Party Poker Sunday Million Guaranteed
Party Poker.com's Sunday Million Guaranteed tournament also attracted a huge field, with 5535 entrants vying for a $171,000 first prize. What was surprising at first was the disappearance of the Party Poker deal-making software. Players' inability and unwillingness to navigate the software had proved a point of humor in the past but it was sadly amiss. GARFIELD__25 started with just under 6M in chips, and the rest of the players had a lot of catching up to do.
Shortstack Maya0 was eliminated first, followed by an unlucky sloNik who went all-in for less than the big blind with AJ, and had to watch as mikeyKay checked it with 23 and won. Murilo906 was also unlucky to depart with KK versus AQ, as was Killar_T, whose set of sixes ran into SHIPPEDtPOT1's set of queens. Texas_great departed just before the break with top pair versus wwwsop's flopped flush, and it was down to five. MikeyKay made it four when he rivered a straight with 88 against GARFIELD__25 with AT after an ace had flopped, and Mikey did it again with 22 against thePokerJoe9 – catching a 2 on the river for a set. Once Mikey sent wwwsop home as well, the heads up battle began. SHIPPEDtPOT1 started with a 2-to-1 chip lead but mikeyKay soon caught up and was just as quickly back where he started. It was all over in unexpected fashion when with blinds at 75,000/150,000 (4,000 ante) mikeyKay raised to 400,000, SHIPPEDtPOT1 pushed all in for 19M and mikeyKay called for about 8M. Mikey was in great shape with KQ versus K7 but a 7 on the flop ended the tournament in somewhat abrupt fashion.
Party Poker Sunday Million Guaranteed – Final Results
SHIPPEDtPOT1 $171,585
mikeyKay $93,652
wwwsop $58,117
thePokerJoe9 $47,047
GARFIELD__25 $38,745
texas great $30,442
Killar_T $22,140
Murilo906 $16,605
sloNik68 $11,070
maya0 $5,535
