FTOPS VII Main Event: 'Reverse' Tops Wahlroos

February 18, 2008

Haley Hintze

FTOPS VII Main Event: 'Reverse' Tops Wahlroos 0001

A $2 million guarantee was announced, but the total purse in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series [FTOPS] VII Main Event climbed much higher once all the entrants had been tallied. 5,291 players paid $500+35 each for the right to vie for a winner's payday of $456,401.66, at the top of a payout list totaling $2,645,500. 738 players made the cash, with the top five guaranteed at least $100,000 each and the five-digit paydays stretching all the way down to 18th spot. When all was done, Reverse walked away with the honors and the best part of a half million in winnings.

Fishforfight led the way to the final nine in this one, narrowly ahead of Thomas Wahlroos, who topped the many Full Tilt-affiliated players in the weekend finale. Ram Vaswani, fresh off a final table in Event #17, ran as high as third here before crashing out just shy of the final table, in 14th spot, for $18,386.23. Other notable deep runners were Marco Liesy (29th), Chris "brsavage" Savage (67th), and Michael Gracz (80th).

DeuceBuster nursed a short stack through to the final but was first to depart, bowing out when his 7♦6♦ went nowhere against fishforfight's A♥6♣ on a board of 3♠8♠4♦K♥6♥. Losebigpots lost his last one of the night just seven hands later, moving in preflop with Q♠9♠ and getting the call from Wahlroos, who showed 10♦10♥. Losebigpots had big hopes when the flop came 2♠9♠, but the needed spade didn't show, the turn and river being 7♥ and 7♦. Wahlroos picked up more chips when his K♦K♥ held up over Brundaddy's A♠K♣, the board on that hand running out 3♣2♠2♣5♣3♦.

While fishforfight had the best of it early, momentum turned, and he was the next player to bust, in sixth. A lot of his chips disappeared in a hand where he ran into mosespoker's flopped quad queens, and the last of his chips went in behind a modest 4♥3♥, which had no chance against Reverse's K♠J♦ when the board arrived A♠7♠J♠8♣9♣. Fifth place went to NICOFAB, who correctly but unfortunately sniffed out a steal attempt by Reverse, first making the call and then making his exit. Reverse made the move with Q♦4♣, and NICOFAB called time before making the call with K♠9♥. The great call went awry, though, when the board brought Q♥Q♠6♣8♠7♠.

Wahlroos picked up another scalp when he sent aconsuma to the virtual rail in fourth. That hand saw Wahlroos make an opening raise with 10♣10♠, aconsuma re-raise for over half his stack with A♣10♥, and Wahlroos push all in, with aconsuma making the call. The board ran out 9♥5♦Q♠K♦6♦, trimming the field to three.

Soon after this the final was delayed for minutes as Full Tilt's servers disconnected from the Internet for online reasons. Once the players (and audience) were reconnected, Full Tilt then paused the event, with the chip counts as follows:

Reverse — 11,515,240

Thomas Wahlroos — 9,021,004

mosespoker — 5,918,756

Mike Matusow, observing the event, served as a conduit between the players and Full Tilt support during the downtime, and reported back to the players when play was about to resume. In response to a comment about Matusow jumping in to help, he then jokingly responded with, "I do everything but win pots at this site."

Play then resumed, it took only a few hands for mosespoker to bust in third. mosespoker moved in on a bluff from the small blind with 5♠3♣, and Reverse called from the big blind with J♣J♥. The board rolled out 5♦6♦K♦J♦8♥, setting up heads-up play for the title.

Reverse began heads-up action with roughly a 2:1 margin over Wahlroos. Wahlroos chipped away in the roughly three dozen hands of the duel but was worn back down by Reverse's play. The final hand saw Wahlroos push preflop with K♦9♦, and Reverse make the call with A♣5♣. The board came 5♥10♦2♣6♠2♦, and Reverse's win in the FTOPS VII Main event was in the books.