FTOPS VIII Weekend Tournament Recap

Poker News - August 17th, 2009 - Written by Bruce

Full Tilt Poker's FTOPS VIII tournament series is almost over. This weekend featured some exciting tournaments with some huge prize pools. One of the most talked about tournaments of this year's FTOPS VIII was Saturday's Ante up for Africa event. This was a charity poker tournament with a $120 entry fee hosted by actor and avid poker player Don Cheadle. Twenty dollars of each player's entry fee was donated to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. There were 2,367 players who entered the Ante up for Africa event, creating a massive prize pool of $236,700 for the players to fight after. More importantly, there was an awesome $47,340 raised for the charity. Many of the top poker players and celebrities took part in the tournament. One player of note was actor Matt Damon, who's role in the movie "Rounders" played a big part in the poker boom over the last decade. Damon showed his support for the good cause, but ended up busting out 1,637th place. After many hours of play, warren_ace1 emerged victories winning $48,274.97 for his efforts.

Event #23 was a $100 +9 buy in Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys event. Full Tilt poker pro Lee Watkinson hosted Saturday's event which attracted 1,107 players. When the tournament's rebuy period was complete, there were 2,513 rebuys and 635 add ons. This created a healthy prize pool of $425,500 for the players to go after. When the field was narrowed down to the final two players, they agreed to split up the remaining prize money almost evenly. After the two settled on the deal, wizfromoz was the last player standing. For his efforts he took home $78,900.76, and the title of FTOPS Champion. The second place finisher was Porlin, who won $77,470.49 for a remarkable finish. The biggest name at the final table, was the well known online pro Jeff "YellowSub86" Williams. He finished the tournament in seventh place, taking home $12,765 for his final table performance.

On Sunday, Event #24 hosted by Full Tilt pro Erica Schoenberg took place. The tournament was a $120+9 buy in No Limit Hold'em Knockout event. Over 8,400 players turned out for the event creating a huge prize pool. The massive field actually had almost 2,000 players more than this year's WSOP Main Event. There were over 1,000 players who made the money in Event #24, and the tournament took over 13 hours to complete. When the field was down to three players, a deal was struck to split up the remaining prize money. The eventual winner was a player known as gruselspot, who took home $96,967.72 for a great showing. The second place finisher, Yaluht, actually took home more money by virtue of the chop, earning $102,465 for a great performance. Rounding out the top three was Julaan Nikolay who won $95,009.95 for his efforts.

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