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Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008

Traffic Report: Full Tilt hits high note

Traffic on Full Tilt Poker hit a 2008 high Tuesday - perhaps in anticipation of the FTOPS X Event 1 Mike Matusow will host today.

By Sarah Polson

If Full Tilt Poker was a freeway in Chicago, it would have been bumper-to-bumper traffic like that streaming to and from the Barack Obama election-night headquarters Tuesday.

On the same day that Obama claimed the U.S. presidency win, the PokerListings Online Poker Traffic Report recorded an average of 9,704 poker players per hour hitting Full Tilt Poker for its highest day of traffic so far this year.

At its lowest for the year back in August, Full Tilt Poker saw a day with an average of only 5,104 players per hour, but its traffic has been steadily climbing ever since.

The daily traffic breakdown is an average of player volume by hour over a 24-hour period.

So what could account for the sudden upswing on Tuesday to hit a new high? It's possible players were looking for last-minute opportunities to qualify for events of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series X which begins today.

Full Tilt Poker is making the latest edition of its series pretty sweet for players with $15 million in guaranteed prize pools spread over 25 events. The biggest payday will come in the $2.5 million guaranteed main event at the end of the series.

The FTOPS X kicks off today at 9 p.m. ET with a $200+$16 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max event hosted by Mike Matusow. It has a $1 million guarantee, and you can bet there's going to be a pretty big turnout for the event, including some Full Tilt Poker's sponsored pros.

Who knows; participants may even find themselves seated at the same table as someone like Phil Ivey or Patrik Antonius. Antonius has started November off with great success in the cash games on Full Tilt Poker, and he may be looking to translate that hot streak into a tournament win as well.

His hot streak includes taking down a huge $606,177 pot on Monday evening, which could be another reason why players headed to Full Tilt Poker on Tuesday. They may have been hoping to catch a glimpse of Antonius continuing his hot streak from the weekend.

Antonius had a big weekend to start his month off right, rocketing him to the top of the PokerListings Top Online Money Makers list for the month, and he continued that streak on Monday, taking the $606,177 pot off of LarsLuzak.

At the RailHeaven table on Full Tilt Poker that also included Phil Ivey, LarsLuzak got in deep in a hand with Antonius and ended up losing his stack.

You can watch the big pot in the PokerListings Hand Replayer here or see the text version below, as tracked by the PokerListings MarketPulse software.

Game: $500/$1,000 - Hold'em Table: RailHeaven (six-max) Date: Nov. 3, 2008 5:45 p.m. ET Hand ID: 8796544547

Table Setup

Patrik Antonius : Seat 3 - Stack Size : $317,934. LarsLuzak : Seat 4 - Stack Size : $303,089. Phil Ivey : Seat 6 - Stack Size : $0. Patrik Antonius posts small blind of $500. LarsLuzak posts big blind of $1,000.

Pre-Flop

Dealing down cards. Patrik Antonius raises $2,500. LarsLuzak raises $10,000. Patrik Antonius calls $8,000.

Flop [3 5 8]

LarsLuzak bets $16,000. Patrik Antonius calls $16,000.

Turn 3 5 8 [A]

LarsLuzak bets $32,000. Patrik Antonius calls $32,000.

River 3 5 8 A [8]

LarsLuzak bets $68,000. Patrik Antonius raises $258,934. LarsLuzak calls $176,089. Uncalled bet of $14,846 returned to Patrik Antonius. Patrik Antonius shows 8 8. LarsLuzak mucks. Patrik Antonius wins $606,177.