The FTOPS 8 continued with event 9 and it was a big one 꽁머니 , $322 no-limit hold’em. This took place of their usual Sunday $750k and had a guaranteed prize pool of $1,500,000; making it at least double the standard. It was hosted by Gus Hansen, who is one of the most well known pro poker players today. This is largely due to his loose aggressive style made famous by the WPT. Say what you want about him, but he has over $5.6 million in tournament winnings and multiple large scale tournament victories!
Gus and 37 other Full Tilt pros competed with a total of 5,090 entrants making the prize pool a massive $1,527,000! Unfortunately for the red pros, none of them made a run or went deep at all. 7 cashed, with the best being Keith Sexton in 257th for $794. Speaking of cashing, this tournament paid a huge 738 places! If you made the money you were guaranteed at least $397.02, and a seat at the final table would be worth no less than $19,851! The eventual winner would earn over a quarter million dollars, $263,438 to be exact!
Coming into the final table, it was clear who the favorite was, and who needed some help fast. As we began play, here were the chip counts:
_FlaXmarZ_ 5,540,875
xqsays 2,435,784
MK376 2,204,167
lonolin 1,272,596
nfa1080 1,256,606
jbs07 1,060,304
papychulo777 699,556
highbury90 368,753
POCKET FIVE 363,859
Of these, probably the best player at the table was xqsays aka “AceSpades” who is a high stakes online MTT pro. He had certainly been in the position of having a large stack going into a final table like this before, so was the most experienced. But all eyes were on _FlaXmarZ_ who had almost twice as many chips as xqsays.
When play began the blinds were at 30k/60k/7.5k, so the short stacks were in big trouble. They needed to do something quickly and hope for the best. This is exactly what POCKET FIVE did as it folded to him and he shoved his small stack in the middle. It folded to MK376 who made the call on the button. POCKET FIVE showed A9 and MK376 turned up 76 for a pretty surprising call. Luckily for POCKET FIVE his A9 would hold up and he would get a much needed double up.
The very next hand it folded around to nfa1080 on the button who made a raise to 155k, highbury would reshove with his stack at just over 410k and nfa1080 snap called showing AQo, which dominated higbury90′s ATo. The board came out K65AK and higbury90 would finish in 9th place, earning $19,851. It’s never a good feeling to be the first eliminated from the final table, but highbury didn’t have much to work with coming in short stacked. It wasn’t over for nfa1080 quite yet. A few hands later he was UTG and raised to 155k again and when it folded to papychulo777 in the sb, he reshipped his 450k stack. MK376 in the bb would fold and nfa would call, again having his opponent dominated holding AK to papychulo’s AQ. The board brought no help to either, and nfa1080 would send another person out; papychulo777 in 8th place winning $26,722.
Everything was looking great for nfa1080 now as he had over 2.2 million and a clear shot to win. The top 3 in chips when the final table started were very quiet and hadn’t done much except for some blind stealing. After the blinds went up to 40k/80k/10k, finally the chip leader _FlaXmarZ_ would raise UTG to 240k. It folded to lonolin in the sb with a 575k stack and went all-in. FlaX called and was in trouble with his 88 against lonolin’s QQ. The flop was a nightmare for lonolin, 984 giving FlaX a set of 8s. He was now a huge underdog and was set to be the next one out. However, the turn was a T and river a J giving lonolin a straight with the re-suck on the river! He doubled up to over 1.3 million in chips and it was just a dent in FlaX’s stack.
Action continued and more players began to drop with the shallow stacks. POCKET FIVE would finish in 7th place for $35,121 when his KJ ran into the AK of xqsays, lonolin in 6th place for $45,046 when his KT couldn’t outdraw nfa1080′s QQ, jbs07 in 5th place for $60,316 with 77 which couldn’t beat MK376′s JJ, and nfa1080 in 4th place for $80,167 reshipping all-in against the chip leader with 44 who held A5. A 5 on the flop would do enough damage to eliminate nfa.
Down to 3 way action we were left with the 3 players who came to the final table as the top 3 chip leaders, and here is how it looked now:
_FlaXmarZ_ 8,838,082
MK376 3,474,939
xqsays 2,956,982
FlaX was still the clear favorite but with blinds at 60k/120k/15k it was still anyones game. All three of these players were very aggressive and now that they were in the 6 figure range, were only looking for the win. However, don’t think the money would slow the action down! MK376 raised from the button, and xqsays from the sb went all-in. FlaX folded and MK376 called showing A6 which was slightly ahead of xqsays with KQ. The flop came 58T and the ace high was still good, the 9 on the turn gave xqsays a few more outs, but the 8 on the river did nothing and xqsays was eliminated in 3rd place for $102,614.
Going into heads up play FlaX was still the chip leader, as he was for the entire final table, but not by much:
_FlaXmarZ_ 9,678,104
MK376 5,591,896
Just a few big pots or a double up and MK376 could easily take over the lead. At the point the blinds increased to 80k/160k/20k so there was room for making moves. A few hands into the match, FlaX raised on the button to 400k, and MK376 re-raised to 1.1 million. After a few second FlaX shoved all-in and MK called. Flax turned up Ac9c which was a huge favorite against MK376′s Ks9s. The flop would come down 6dJsQh giving MK 6 outs with a backdoor flush draw. The turn came the 8h, and the river fell the 7h and _FlaXmarZ_ became the FTOPS Event 9 champion with Ace high! MK376 earned $159,571 for his runner up finish, and _FlaXmarZ_ walked away with the yellow jersey, and $263,438 cash!
