After 11 days of exciting tournament action, it all boiled down to the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event this past Saturday. With a $500+$35 buy-in, the prize pool zoomed past the $2.5 million guarantee to $2.65 million, with 5,306 players registering in time for the start of the festivities. Most of the Full Tilt Poker sponsored pros were in the field, but in the end it was “Poligraph” taking home a staggering $453,663 for first place.
The event started at 18:00 ET with Gus Hansen as its official host. The final table played well into the wee hours of the morning. With eight players remaining, a critical hand came up:
All players post a 10,000 ante
TheFatFISH posts the small blind of 50,000
Inoriisss posts the big blind of 100,000
Slick Nittany raises to 225,777
highrollr19 folds
Kamdini folds
Poligraph calls 225,777
pagoda 1 folds
InsomniacSloth folds
TheFatFISH raises to 977,977
Inoriisss folds
Slick Nittany raises to 6,029,929, and is all in
Poligraph folds
TheFatFISH calls 5,051,952
Slick Nittany shows [Qh Qs]
TheFatFISH shows [Ac Kh]
Dealer: The flop is [Ah 5h Jc]
Dealer: The turn is [3s]
Dealer: The river is [7c]
Dealer: Slick Nittany shows a pair of Queens
Dealer: TheFatFISH shows a pair of Aces
Dealer: TheFatFISH wins the pot (12,465,635) with a pair of Aces
With blinds at 50,000/100,000 and antes at 10,000, we saw a classic coin flip for survival. “Slick Nittany” had about 6.3 million in chips remaining, so he was hardly short-stacked, but with a hand like Q-Q pre-flop, there was no getting away. With about 6.8 million, James “TheFatFISH” Obst called the shove with A-K offsuit. In the end, the queens didn’t hold up, giving Obst a very impressive 12 million chip stack.
Lauren “locoenlacabeza” Kling finished in ninth place for $27,856.50. “Slick Nittany” didn’t last long either and finished in eighth place for a $39,795 payday. Only two orbits after that hand, two more players hit the felt, as action was furious to see who could chip up at the final table:
All Players Post a 15,000 Ante
Inoriisss posts the small blind of 60,000
Kamdini posts the big blind of 120,000
Poligraph raises to 256,123
InsomniacSloth folds
TheFatFISH raises to 772,550
Inoriisss folds
Kamdini folds
Poligraph calls 516,427
The flop is [3c Th 7d]
Poligraph checks
TheFatFISH bets 1,188,250
Poligraph raises to 2,520,000
TheFatFISH raises to 9,384,791, and is all in
Poligraph has 15 seconds left to act
Poligraph calls 6,864,791
TheFatFISH shows [Qs Ad]
Poligraph shows [Js Ts]
The turn is [4c]
The river is [9h]
TheFatFISH shows Ace Queen high
Poligraph shows a pair of Tens
Poligraph wins the pot (20,569,682) with a pair of Tens
With position, we see Obst 3bet with what we now know to be A-Q offsuit, a powerful hand in late position in a six-handed game. Surprisingly, “Poligraph” flat calls out of position with J-T suited. With the flop, we see uber-aggression, with Obst 3bet shoving with overcards and “Poligraph” calling with just top pair and a jack kicker. When the chips went into the middle, “Poligraph” was a dominant 76% to 24% favorite and held up. Although we don’t know the meta-game occurring between these two, it’s apparent that Obst’s aggressive post-flop reputation made this decision easy for “Poligraph,” who didn’t give credit for an overpair.
When down to the final four, the good run continued for “Poligraph,” who had the heater of his life at the right time. The hand that eliminated “InsomniacSloth” is given below:
All Players Ante 15,000
Poligraph posts the small blind of 60,000
InsomniacSloth posts the big blind of 120,000
Inoriisss folds
Kamdini raises to 300,000
Poligraph raises to 834,123
InsomniacSloth raises to 3,186,343, and is all in
Kamdini folds
Poligraph calls 2,352,220
InsomniacSloth shows [8c Ac]
Poligraph shows [As Ah]
The flop is [Th 3h 7h]
The turn is [Qc]
The river is [Jh]
InsomniacSloth shows Ace Queen high
Poligraph shows a flush, Ace high
Poligraph wins the pot (6,732,686) with a flush, Ace high
InsomniacSloth finishes in 4th place and wins: $169,792
Unfortunately, “InsomniacSloth” made a move for the pot at the wrong time. Apparently, he felt that “Poligraph” was 3betting light and decided to 4bet jam with A-8 suited. Poligraph was all too happy to insta-call with pocket aces, which improved to the nut flush by the river. “InsomniacSloth,” who goes by the name “ExaMeter” on the TwoPlusTwo forums, posted that “Poligraph’s” SB 3bet figure was 20%, meaning that his range was wide. Although the theory might have been right, in the end, the move proved to be fatal for his tournament life.
With three players remaining, the action continued to go the right way for “Poligraph.”
All Players Post Ante of 20,000
Dealer: Poligraph posts the small blind of 80,000
Dealer: Inoriisss posts the big blind of 160,000
Dealer: Kamdini raises to 380,000
Dealer: Poligraph raises to 1,120,000
Dealer: Inoriisss folds
Dealer: Kamdini raises to 4,135,801, and is all in
Dealer: Poligraph calls 3,015,801
Dealer: Kamdini shows [Ah 8h]
Dealer: Poligraph shows [Js Jd]
Dealer: The flop is [Ac Td Jh]
Dealer: The turn is [Ks]
Dealer: The river is [3s]
Dealer: Kamdini shows a pair of Aces
Dealer: Poligraph shows three of a kind, Jacks
Dealer: Poligraph wins the pot (8,491,602) with three of a kind, Jacks
Dealer: Kamdini stands up
Dealer: Kamdini finishes in 3rd place and wins: $225,505
Once again, we saw someone 4bet jam light with A-8 suited and run into “Poligraph’s” big pocket pair, this time J-J. At the point where both players went all-in, “Poligraph” was the solid 67% to 32% favorite. The flop hit top pair for “Kamdini,” but also gave “Poligraph” the winning set.
In the end, “Poligraph” won the FTOPS XIII Main Event and its nearly half-million dollar first place prize. For Full Tilt Poker players, FTOPS XIII was filled with amazing events and over $19 million in guaranteed prize money. The next big tournament series on the site is the MiniFTOPS XIII, which takes place from September 9th to 20th and will have the same tournament schedule at 10% of the buy-in.
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