FTOPS XVII coverage

August 14th, 2010

This year’s Full Tilt Online Poker Series began August 3, 2010 and has been progressing electrically since. This year’s tournament is the 17th such tournament by the folks at Full Tilt, with the first FTOPS taking place in August 2006, with just eight events and a combined guaranteed prize pool of a little more than one million dollars. The preceding tournament, FTOPS XVI, awarded over $18 million in thirty events that ended in April, 2010. The current event, FTOPS XVII tops all previous tournaments and includes thirty-four events for a combined $19 million in prize money to be awarded.
FTOPS XVII includes a variety of tournament styles, including knockout, turbo and super turbo, and shootout events. Games included are Hold ‘Em, Stud, Omaha, 7-Game, PLO, Rush, and Stud. These games feature different style options at each event, with limit or no-limit games, combining to make a wide swath of specialized events in this year’s tournament. Players also can win seats through satellite tournaments, which allow winnings to be accrued toward buy-ins for the FTOPS XVII events.
The FTOPS XVII will conclude with the Two-Day Event (beginning on Saturday, August 14th) with a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million and the Main Event (Sunday August 15), for a guaranteed pool of $3 million. Additional prizes include FTOPS jackets, gold jerseys, and gold jersey avatars for their online appearances on Full Tilt. The first place finisher on the FTOPS XVII Leaderboard will win a custom Full Tilt avatar and entry to every event of the next tournament, FTOPS XVIII (worth about ten grand in entries).
Players are excited about FTOPS XVII’s six Rush Poker tournament events, including two yet to come- Event 27 with a $200 +$16 Limit Hold ‘em Rush, guaranteed at $150,000 and Event 33 with a $150 + $13 NLH Rush Rebuy game with $750,000 guarantee.
The FTOPS XVII overall chip leader currently is Mike “chapmoney” Chappus with 418 chips and a combined $117, 537.90 from his two wins. In Event 3 (the $300 Six-Handed Turbo No Limit Hold’em Shootout) and Event 24 (). Chappus is followed in second place by THAY3R with 359 points, followed closely by jdpc27 in third place with 358, bruc-lee with 357. Aguskb rounds out the top five of the leaderboard with 334 points.
Among the more recognized players in the FTOPS XVII are Brandon Adams, (chip leader) Mike Chappus “chapmoney” , Aaron Gustavson “Aguskb”, Geoff Rasmussen “GeoffRas22″, RPM Poker pro Brent Roberts “Broberts85″ (who won the FTOPS I), and Jason Wheeler “jdpc27″. Although many Full Tilt Poker Red Pros have played in FTOPS XVII, Jeff Madsen is the only Full Tilt pro to make his way to a final table, where Madsen took third place in Thursday, August 5th’s $300 Six-Handed Turbo No Limit Hold’em Shootout for $28,460.
Sixth place in that event was a cause for controversy, won by a player with the screen name FTOPS XVII HERO. This player’s name and in-game chatting lead to speculation on 2+21 and Pocketfives2 that the player might be multi-accounting or could be a known player using an assumed name to throw off those familiar with his play.

The biggest prizes won so far are:
Event 16: yahoo33 – $301,400
Event 13: andinista – $209,606.83
Event 1: Brent “Broberts85″ Roberts – $164,357.80
Event 22: Kyle “KJulius10″ Julius – $159,243.21
Event 9: Andrew “SkillVille” Weisner – $110,669.03

The results so far in this year’s tournament:
Event 1: Brent “Broberts85″ Roberts – $164,357.80
Event 2: nolez7 – $50,850
Event 3: Mike “chapmoney” Chappus – $68,040
Event 4: BacoPride – $41,931.59
Event 5: FlopeDeNuts – $131,308.64
Event 6: Geoff “GeoffRas22″ Rasmussen – $94,776.40
Event 7: EasyPots – $23,085.19
Event 8: Jason “jdpc27″ Wheeler – $85,613.50
Event 9: Andrew “SkillVille” Weisner – $110,669.03
Event 10: Aaron “Aguskb” Gustavson – $81,205.20
Event 11: FM2T – $141,776
Event 12: Mark “xqsays” Radoja – $89,088
Event 13: andinista – $209,606.83
Event 14: Brandon Adams – $39,790
Event 15: chessaszhole1 – $60,375
Event 16: yahoo33 – $301,400

Event 17: KILOHAILI – $46,120.20
Event 18: Getty “gettym” Mattingsley – $94,999.91
Event 19: Jeremy “JBurleson” Burleson – $76,545
Event 20: crazyjjm – $33,295.80
Event 21: Dk4884 – $75,988.04
Event 22: Kyle “KJulius10″ Julius – $159.243.21
Event 23: DE KID – $40,000.00
Event 24: Mike “chapmoney” Chappus – $49,497.90
Event 25: bugstud – $23,700.00

For more information and up to the minute results, please visit Full Tilt’s FTOPS XVII site:
FTOPS XVII