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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

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FTOPS XVI Event #17 kicked off Wednesday with a $216 Cashout NL Holdem tournament. 1491 players took part in the event with only 72 players finishing in the money. The reason behind the small number of money finishers is due to the cashout nature of the event. There were two prize pools. The first was a cashout prize pool of $149,100 and the other was the standard prize pool of $150,000. Players that chose to cashout of the event received $10 for each 500 in their stack.

The contingent of Full Tilt Poker red poker pros was somewhat light for this event with only 14 pros playing in the event. Unfortunately, none of the red pros managed a standard cash in this event, but Jon Turner finished highest in 90th place. (Final standings do not reflect whether a player chooses to cash out or not.)

Danny “THE__D__RY” Ryan and JC “PrtyPsux” Alvarado both made the final table of this event. The other players included crazylarry1, dUT73, 1NEVAK6, Lee Chang, PokerBabe31, KvicKiller, and Marinersheep.

We missed the early action of the final table, but crazylarry1 finished in 9th for $2,700. A while later, it was Danny Ryan that hit the rail in 7th place. Ryan raised to 50,500 in the small blind and JC Alvarado re-raised to 150,000. Ryan then decided to ship his stack all-in for just over 1 Million chips. Alvarado made the call and had Ryan covered by 73k. Ryan found himself dominated with A-J vs. A-K. The board fell ace high, but failed to drop a jack for Ryan. As such, he found himself eliminated in 8th place.

The very next hand, Marinersheep moved all-in from the hi-jack for 451,594. PokerBabe31 was in the cutoff and called. She actually only had 354,284 and was the one now at risk. Everyone else folded and it was a straight race with Marinersheep holding pocket fours against the A-K of PokerBabe31. The flop brought her a straight draw, but the board bricked out and PokerBabe31 was out in 7th.

Four hands later, Lee Chang decided to ship his last 418,680 from the button with pocket fours. This time, Marinersheep woke up with queens and called. The flop missed both, but a queen on the river left Chang drawing dead and out in 6th.

Two hands later, KvicKiller moved all-in from the button for 348,820 with A-9. 1NEVAK6 called from the big blind with Kd-10d. The flop fell K-Q-J, giving 1NEVAK6 the lead and both a broadway draw. The turn and river fell blanks and we were down to just four.

At this point, dUT73 and 1NEVAK6 both wanted to talk deal but chip leader JC Alvarado wouldn’t entertain even looking at the numbers. As such, play continued. Play went 18 more hands before loosing dUT73 in 4th. He raised pre-flop to 157k and 1NEVAK6 saw the flop of 9c-6s-Jd with him. DUT73 bet out 245,555 and was called. The turn fell the 6h and dUT73 moved all-in for 429,029. 1NEVAK6 made the call and turned over pocket tens. DUT73 held only pocket fives and was drawing to two outs. The river fell the 7d and we were down to three.

At this point 1NEVAK6 held the chip lead and again asked if Alvarado wanted to deal. He again said no. You have to admire someone that will stick to their guns regardless of chip stack. Three handed play between Alvarado, Marinersheep and 1NEVAK6 went on for quite a while. JC Alvarado slowly took over the chip lead and took a stranglehold on the lead when he knocked out 1NEVAK6 in 3rd. Alvarado raised from the button to 68k and 1NEVAK6 re-raised to 190k. Alvarado then shoved for 2.8 Million and 1NEVAK6 called for 1.3 Million total. The two were racing as 1NEVA6 held jacks against the A-K of Alvarado. The flop quickly put Alvarado in the lead when it fell Kc-7c-6c. Neither held a club and Alvarado was in the lead. A king on the turn left 1NEVAK6 needing a jack to survive and double up. The river fell the 10c and we were heads-up.

Heads-up play started with JC Alvarado holding a 4.24 Million to 1.85 Million chip lead. Heads-up play lasted 104 hands and both players held the chip lead at one point or another. However, Alvarado held the chip lead most of the match. The final hand of the event was an explosive one. Alvarado was in the lead 3.7 Million to 2.3 Million at the start. Marinersheep raised to 100k fro the button and Alvarado then re-raised to 289,999. Marinersheep then decided to move all-in for his entire 2.3 Million and Alvarado called! Again we had a race with Marinersheep in the lead with pocket tens against the A-J of JC Alvarado. A jack on the flop put Alvarado in the lead. The turn fell the 5s and was one of the worst cards Marinersheep could have hoped for. Three spades were on board and Alvarado held the As. Only the 10h could double-up Marinersheep at this point. He was 45 to 1 against hitting his hand. A miracle did not occur for Marinersheep as the river fell the 2s to complete Alvarado’s flush and JC Alvarado is FTOPS Event #17 Champion.

JC Alvarado took down $36,000 for this victory. More importantly, he wins the FTOPS gold jersey for winning the event. Alvarado proved in the end that he didn’t need to chop the prize pool. Congratulations to JC Alvarado, FTOPS Event #17 Champion.

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Event #5 of FTOPS XIV, Stud 8 or Better, kicked off Friday Night. Jennifer Harman was the host, and the event drew 555 players, creating a prize pool of $111,000. This met the guarantee by $11,000. First place was scheduled to win $26,307.

A host of Full Tilt Poker red pros turned out including Cyndy Violette, Huck Seed, John Cernuto, Berry Johnston, and of course host Harman. However, it was old school poker pro and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Artie Cobb that was the lone red pro to cash, finishing in 44th.

Event #5 FTOPS XIV final table photo

The final table was headlined by three former FTOPS winners. Steven Burkholder “UFman2″, Yuval Bronstein “yuvee04″, and Deception pt all made the final table. Burkholder started the final table as chip leader. This is how the final eight started final table play:

kobeallst 297,304

Yuval “yuvee” Bronstein 252,167

WB123456789 212,058

pinishe45 131,937

Deception Pt 283,346

dannymien 289,934

Shawn Grant “Shawnzjones” 354,578

Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder 398,676
Pinishe5 was the first player eliminated from the final table. On sixth street, Pinishe45 was showing a pair of queen on board and Grant was showing 5-10-2-7. Betting between the two players was capped, leaving pinishe45 just 1,437, which went in on the river. After making the call, grant showed 9-8-6 in the hole for a ten high straight and a low. Pinishe45 had A-A-4 in the hole for aces up. Whether or not Grant was freerolling with a low and back into a straight didn’t matter. Pinishe45 finished in 8th and won $1,665.

Yuval Bronstein was the next player to hit the rail. His stack was knocked down to just 55,667 and he decided to run with three diamonds. On fourth, he caught an open pair and Steven Burkholder caught an open pair of eights. On fifth, Brohnstein caught a fourth diamond and bet out. Burkholder caught an ace on fifth and raised, which put Brohnstein all-in. Bronhstein made the call to reveal his four flush and pair. Burkholder turned over 8-5 in the hole for trip eights. Sixth street left Brohnstein drawing dead when Burkholder caught an ace to make a full house and Bronstein caught a three. Yuval Bronstein finished this event in 7th place and won $2,442.

Shawn Grant was down to his last 132,515 and was dealt buried aces. He pushed the action until sixth street, when Deception Pt raised to put Grant all-in. Grant had only the aces he started with and to his dismay, Deception Pt was holding a six-high straight. Grant was drawing dead and finished in 6th place. Grant took $3,219 for his strong finish.
Dannymien got what every player hopes for being short stack, a rolled-up hand.

Dannymien was rolled up with four and got the last of his 230,736 stack in on sixth street. WB123456789 started with split deuces and caught a third on fourth and his trip deuces were still behind on sixth when he put dannymien at risk. In stud 8, a rolled up hand usually is not safe unless it fills up, and this happened to be the case. WB123456789 filled up on the river with deuces full and dannymien failed to fill up. As a result, he finishes in 5th place. $4,662 was his prize for his deep run but he clearly wishes his rolled-up fours would have held.
A deal was discussed four handed, but Steven Burkholder would not come off of his 21,000 figure that he wanted, and play continued. Things went downhill from there.

Burkholder had a sizable chip lead, but his opponents steadily chopped him down until he was the short stack. With just 211,509 left at the 30k-60k betting round, he got the rest of his stack in on fifth street with just a seven-low draw. Deception Pt held a pair of kings and the lead. Burkholder only improved to a pair of deuces and failed to make a low. Steven Burkholder became our 4th place finisher, taking in $7,548. Interestingly enough, players were only asking that he come off of $3,000, which would have left him $19,000 if the deal went through. In this case $3k cost him 12.

A deal was struck up between the final three players with the money pretty much evenly divided up. $2,000 would go to the winner as well as the gold jersey.

Kobeallst finished in 3rd place after going all-in on fifth street with a pair of aces and straight draw. He ran into a flush from Deception Pt and headed out in 3rd place.

Heads-up play say Deception Pt start with a dominating 1.925 Million to 294,528 lead over WB123456789. He was in good shape to win his 2nd FTOPS event. Heads-up play did not last long. A few hands into play, WB123456789 was all-in on sixth street with only a pair of sevens. Deception Pt held a six low and needed a four or ace for the scoop. The river fell gave Deception Pt a four, the scoop, and his 2nd FTOPS title.

Deception Pt officially takes home $20,625.55 and his 2nd FTOPS gold jersey. He entered the final table about middle of the pack and hung tough until he was able to make a move with four players left. In the end, he just had too big of a stack to overcome. Congratulations to Deception Pt, FTOPS Event #5 champion.

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Full Tilt Poker FTOPS XIII Event #22 kicked off on Saturday with a $2,620 6-handed NL Holdem event. 850 players turned out for the two day event to make a prize pool of $2,125,000. First place for the event received $453,687.50.

The heavy hitters turned out in force to take their shot at this title. Among the Full Tilt red pros in attendance were Allen Cunningham, Eli Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Huck Seed, Scott Clements, and November Nine member Phil Ivey. The host of the event, Patrik Antonius, did not last long in the event. He was the 8th player knocked, finishing 828th.

102 players made the money in this event. Scott Montgomery just squeaked in the money in 101st. Shaun Deeb aka tedsfishfry finished in 81st. Play concluded at the end of Day 1 with 66 players remaining. They returned Sunday to make their march to the final table.

Five Full Tilt red pros made Day 2, but only one would make the final table. Brian Hastings made the final table with well over a Million in chips. Joining him were GreatDANbino, debbiedds, bob2bob, CrazyIvan24, and psutennis11.

Bob2bob was the first eliminated from the final table. He moved all-in pre-flop with pocket deuces and received a call from psutennis11 holding Ad-Ks. The flop nearly sealed bob2bob’s fate when an ace hit. A two did not hit the turn or river and bob2bob went home in 6th and $73,312.50.

CrazyIvan24 was the next eliminated. He was all-in pre-flop with As-Qh and called by the pocket sevens of Brian Hastings. The flop fell with a queen to put CrazyIvan24 in the lead. However, the turn fell the 7d to give Hastings a set and the winning hand. CrazyIvan24 finished in 5th and received $114,750.

Debbiedds led out with a bet at the river on a board of 9h-3d-8c-8d-3s. Psutennis11 then moved all-in and debbiedds made the call. Psutennis11 showed As-8s for eights-full and debbiedds mucked. Debbiedds finished in 4th and $161.500 was her prize.

The GreatDANbino decided to shove his stack with pocket deuces and found himself in a race against the As-Jh of psutennis11. The flop and turn missed both players, but the river fell the Ac to send GreatDANbino out in 3rd. GreatDANbino received $212,500 for his strong finish.

Heads-up play was back and forth. Psutennis11 held the chip lead to start but then lost the lead to Hastings. He was then able to pull back to even when his pocket sevens flopped a set and turned a boat. He then retook the lead before the final hand that saw Hastings move all-in with pocket sixes and psutennis11 call with two over cards in Jc-8c. The flop gave psutennis11 a straight draw and the turn gave psutennis11 a pair of jacks. Only a six on the river would save Hastings. The river fell the Ks and Brian Hastings finished in 2nd place. Brian Hastings took home $297,500 for his fine effort.

Jake Toole Photo

Jake Toole aka Psutennis11 is the FTOPS Event #22 Champion. In addition to the $453,687.50 top prize, he will receive the FTOPS championship jersey. Congratulations.

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