Poligraph wins FTOPS XIII Main Event

August 18th, 2009

The Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event saw 5,306 players put up $535 to take their shot at the $2.653 Million prize pool. This event is one of the major online titles so the pros were out in force today. Among those in attendance were Allen Cunningham, Andy Bloch, Berry Johnston, Eli Elezra, Erica Schoenberg, Huck Seed, Jon Turner, James Akenhead, Scott Clements, and WSOP $40,000 Event winner Vitaly Lunkin.

720 players finished in the money for this event. Several red pros made a deep run in this event. November Nine member James Akenhead finished in 96th. He has made several deep runs in this FTOPS series. Dag Mikkelsen finished in 80th. Martin Klaeser finished in 68th and Diego Cordovez was the high man of the red pros, finishing in 44th place.

Kamdini headed into the final table of this Main Event as chip leader with 9.9 Million. James Obst aka “TheFatFISH” also made the final table. This is how the final nine players stacked up:

Kamdini 9,906,412

Poligraph 3,821,015

pagoda 1 748,671

InsomniacSloth 2,610,110

TheFatFISH 4,424,208

Iocoenlacabeza 2,031,550

Inoriisss 3,706,347

Slick Nittany 8,754,213

highrollr19 3,792,474

Iocoenlacabeza was the first player eliminated from the final table. TheFatFISH raised to 225,250 from the cutoff and Iocoenlacabeza moved all-in for 2.02 Million. Action folded to TheFatFISH, who made the call. It was Ah-6d against the fish’s pocket queen. A six came on the turn, but The FatFish’s pocket queens held to send Iocoenlacabeza out in 9th. He received $27.856.50 for his strong finish.

Slick Nittany was next to fall. He raised under-the-gun for 225,777 and Poligraph made the call. TheFatFish then re-raised to 977,977 and Slick Nittany moved all-in for 6.02 Million. Poligraph got out of the way and TheFatFish called. Slick Nittany was in the lead with pocket queens against Ac-Kh. The flop was a disaster as it fell with an ace. The turn and river failed to produce a queen and Slick Nittany finished in 8th place, good for $39,795.

Pagoda1 made a bit of a move that pre-flop looked good, but as we all know, the board cards change everything. Pagoda 1 was all-in pre-flop with Ac-6s against the Qd-Js of Poligraph. A queen on the flop put Poligraph in the lead. The turn and river didn’t bring an ace and pagoda 1 was eliminated in 7th place. He received $57,039.50 for his effort.

Highrollr19 and Kamdini got into a bit of a raising war pre-flop and when the smoke cleared, highrollr19 was all-in for 3.89 Milion with pocket jacks. Kamdini made the call with pocket sevens. The flop gave Kamdini the lead but gave highrollr19 a mega-draw. The flop was 9c-8c-7c to give Kamdini a set, but highrollr19 held the Jc for a gutshot straight flush draw. The turn fell the As and river the 9d to give Kamdini a full house and an 8 Million chip pot. Highrollr19 had to settle for 6th place and $87,549.

At this point, Poligraph was 2nd in chips with 10.41 Million and TheFatFISH held 10.17 Million. One pot would change the course of this final table. Poligraph raised to 256,123 under-the-gun and then TheFatFISH re-raised to 772,550. Poligraph made the call and the flop fell 10h-7d-3c. Poligraph checked and TheFatFISH bet 1.18 Million. Poligraph then popped it to 2.52 Million and TheFatFISH shoved for 9.38 Million. Poligaph made the call and revealed Js-10s for top pair and TheFatFISH revealed Ad-Qs for….air. The turn and river 4c-9h respectively and TheFatFISH was gutted in 5th place. His critical misstep left him heading to the rail with only $127,211.35 when he should have received a lot more.

InsomniacSloth picked a bad time to make a move. Kamdini raised to 300,000 from the button and Poligraph then raised to 834,123 from the small blind. InsomniacSloth moved all-in for 3.18 Million total and Kamdini bowed out. Poligraph made the call. InsomniacSloth revealed Ac-8c and was drawing slim to the pocket aces of Poligraph. The board fell all hearts, making the situation worse for InsomniacSloth as Poligraph held the Ah. The turn fell the Qc and river the Jh to give Poligraph the nut flush and sending InsomniacSloth home in 4th. He received 169,792 for his finish.

Poligraph doubled up Kamdini to give him the chip lead. At the river, Kamdini bet 2.4 Milion on a board of 3h-Ad-7d-2d-4d. Poligraph then moved all-in for 21.92 Million and was snap-called. Kamdini showed Ks-Kd for the nut flush and Poligraph showed 9c-8c for air. His mistimed bluff dropped him to 13 Million and gave Kamdini the lead with 23.79 Million.

Poligraph would get those chips back and more later in a big pot with Kamdini. On the turn, the board read 9d-3c-6c-4h and Kamdini bet out 5.58 Million. Poligraph moved all-in for 12.22 Million and was called. This time, Poligraph had the right read as his Qd-6h was indeed ahead of the Kc-Qc of Kamdini. Kamdini did hold a flush draw. The river fell the Qh to give Poligraph the 31 Million chip pot and Kamdini was then the short stack at just 2.55 Million.

Kamdini managed to move up to around 4 Million in chips, but those all went in pre-flop against Poligraph. This time, Kamdini was behind with Ah-8h against the pocket jacks of Poligraph. Kamdini hit and ace on the flop, but Poligraph also flopped a set of jacks. only running aces or flush cards would give Kamdini the win. The turn Ks gave him some chop outs but the river fell the 3s to send Kamdini home in 3rd place for $225,505.

Heads-up play started with Poligraph holding over a 5 to 1 chip lead against Inoriisss. He held 33.616 Million to only 6.17 Million of Inoriisss. Inoriisss doubled up early on against Poligraph with pocket aces. All of his money got in on a king high flop as Poligraph flopped two pair. He was in good shape to win the tournament, but an ace on the turn gave Inoriisss a set of aces and doubled him up to 11 Million.

A deal was looked at by both players twice, but Inoriisss did not like the terms. To be honest, it seemed a little strange that he did as Poligraph offered to take only $404,000 and play for only $2,000. This would have given Inoriisss $363,370, or almost $50,000 in extra prize money. Instead, he chose to play it out.

Inoriisss proceeded to slowly bleed chips and was eventually all in pre-flop for his last 6 Million. He was ahead with Ac-6d against the Qd-Jc of Poligraph. The flop fell As-2h-3h to give Inoriisss a pair of aces and a solid lead. Only running jacks, queens, or straight cards would help Poligraph. The turn then fell the Kd, leaving Poligraph four outs to broadway and the win. The river then fell the 10d, giving Poligraph broadway and the Main Event title. Inoriisss finished as the runner-up in the event, taking home $315,707. He is likely kicking himself for not taking the deal.

Poligraph is the winner of the FTOPS Main Event. He started the day around middle of the pack and stayed there until a huge hand with TheFatFISH gave him the chip lead. While he lost the lead briefly, he made a brilliant read with just a pair of sixes to retake the lead and was never threatened after that point. Poligraph took $453,663 and the FTOPS champions jersey.

Congratulations to Poligraph, FTOPS Main Event Champion.