Friday, May 16, 2008

• Email
• Print

Golser, Traniello highlight FTOPS VIII

By Arthur Crowson

The crowds continue to make their way to Full Tilt Poker for FTOPS VIII.

Nearly 2,000 players came out to get involved in some virtual poker during Events 17 and 18 of the online series. With just six events left the race for the tournament leaderboard is on and everybody is starting to think about $2 million guaranteed main event which will be hosted by Jennifer Harman this Sunday.

Here's a closer look at the events that played out on Thursday:

FTOPS VIII Event 17 $200+$16 No-Limit Hold'em 4 x Shootout 6-Max

The 1,294 players that bought into Event 17 combined to create a prize pool of $258,000 which easily smashed Full Tilt's guarantee of $200,000 for the event. Markus Golser was the host and he did, indeed, make it into the money, albeit just barely.

Golser, who is primarily a cash game specialist, made it into 143rd place for a modest gain of $414.08. The money started at 144th place so he couldn't have been much closer to the bubble. It was likely unimportant cash for Golser, who has cashed for more than $200,000 in high stakes tournaments, but it is fairly rare for Full Tilt pro to cash in the event they host.

Mike Matusow was one of the few players to do it when he came in 47th during Event 10. To this day no one has beat Erick Lindgren's record of winning his own FTOPS event during the VII edition.

There were a couple more Full Tilt pros that made it into the money of Event 17 including Jonathan "PearlJammed" Turner who came 90th and Lee Watkinson who finished 35th for $1,164.

The real winner, however, was OUSOONERS24 who beat rtkoss heads-up to take first place and $45,290.

Here's a look at the rest of the final table finishers:

1. OUSOONERS24	$45,290
2. rtkoss	$28,468
3. Capt_Klonk	$18,944
4. poker4me123	$12,940
5. Bot0FallBOTS	$9,058
6. edub707	$6,211

FTOPS VIII Event 18 $300+$22 Razz

FTOPS VIII Event 18 was hosted by Full Tilt pro Berry Johnston, who has been on a bit of a heater at FTOPS VIII. Going into the event Johnston was 10th on the FTOPS leaderboard, which was higher than any other Full Tilt pro.

Because of his recent hot streak it was almost a surprise that Johnston didn't win it all at his own event. In actuality he didn't event make the money and dropped down to 14th on the leaderboard after the event was completed.

It's not all bad for Johnston, however, as he still leads all Full Tilt pros with 230 points although Scott Fischman is right behind him with 224.

Getting back to Event 18 there were 545 runners who created a prize pool of $163,000, which is fairly decent considering it was Razz they were playing.

Online player eagle1829 got the biggest portion of the prize pool by beating Tridynamo in heads-up play to take down $38,749. Tridynamo had to settle for $25,669 but, thanks to his efforts in previous events, moved to the top of the tournament leaderboard with 339 points.

Here are the rest of the final table finishers from Event 18:

1. eagle1829	$38,749
2. Tridynamo	$26,669
3. hulyefussz	$17,985
4. mischiefofmagic	$11,118
5. SCOOBY DOO 21	$6,867
6. UpTheMariners	$4,741
7. Marco Traniello	$3,597
8. Jens Voertmann	$2,452

Related Articles:

• Berry Johnston cashes again at FTOPS VIII
• Halfrek and lilkimmer77 shine at FTOPS VIII
• FTOPS VIII Events 8 and 9 draw thousands
• FTOPS Continues, Full Tilt to offer $25k heads-up
• Isaac Baron wins FTOPS VII Event 1
• FTOPS VIII begins today

 

More News

• The amazing, fantastic, durrrr
• UB pledges $10 million for WSOP champion
• durrrr Challenge: Dwan crushes in epic session
• PokerStars 'leaks' WCOOP 2009 first look
• Four more shots at WSOP Main Event packages
• durrrr Challenge: Dwan surges back near even
• Bodog reclaims original Bodog.com domain
• durrrr Challenge: The pseudo session