The Mini Full Tilt Online Poker Series (MiniFTOPS) XVIII is in full gear, as four of the 34 events on the slate are already in the books. More than 25,000 players participated in the first four tournaments, including 15,328 in Event #1, a $20 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament hosted by Full Tilt pro Andy Bloch on Wednesday night.
The first event of the series saw a couple of online poker’s top players make deep runs, but fall just short of the final table. Zachary “HusterGrune” Gruneberg, ranked 14th in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, took 10th place for $2,054, while Andrew “ALLOFIT29” Youngblood placed 12th for the same payout. The tournament was eventually won by “mulls24,” who defeated “PPARRISH” for the MiniFTOPS jersey and $46,793. “PPARRISH” collected a still comforting $31,422, while brunoricelli ($22,225), 1beebers1 ($15,941), and SmnLikDat ($11,342) rounded out the top five.
Thursday’s MiniFTOPS lineup had three events, the first being a $24 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout (#2). The tournament drew 4,464 entrants and was won by “YuOnlyBeatMeBad,” who took home $15,051 after a two-way chop with runner-up “Posemuckel69” ($12,000). Feared online grinder “kennl” finished just short of the final table, placing 11th for $670.
Event #3 kicked off Thursday and the $30 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Shootout generated a massive prize pool of $126,810. The last four players standing decided to make a deal, with each locking up at least $7,600. “Chilenogjr” went on to win the tournament and his first MiniFTOPS jersey as well as $16,001 after defeating “Tamerlan9” heads-up. “Tamerlan9” collected $7,891.52 in prize money, while third-place finisher “OWN_U2” took home the second largest prize of $12,250 following the four-way deal.
Finally, Event #4 got started Thursday night. The first-ever Rush HORSE event saw 2,861 players pony up the $20 buy-in, but the $75,000 guaranteed contest still had an overlay of nearly $18,000. The tournament also had a deal at the final table, this time a heads-up chop between “ugadebugadeuga” and “lincolini.” Despite finishing second, “ugadebugadeuga” walked away with the most money ($11,011), while “lincolini” earned the jersey and $10,288.
The attendance numbers thus far have bested the previous MiniFTOPS, which was held in September. That series saw 14,938 players participate in Event #1, the same $20 No Limit Hold’em tournament. March’s MiniFTOPS XV holds the record for most entrants in a kickoff event with 18,875.
The MiniFTOPS schedule features the same events as the regular FTOPS that concluded last month, but each buy-in is one-tenth of the price. The 11-day series still has $6 million in guaranteed prize money, including a $1 million guaranteed prize pool for the $70 buy-in Main Event on Sunday, December 19th. There is also a Two-Day $200 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament starting on Saturday, December 18th. That event, hosted by Erick Lindgren, has a $600,000 guaranteed prize pool.
MiniFTOPS resumes at 1:00pm ET today with Event #6, a $20 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament with one rebuy and one add-on. Event #7, which gets underway at 5:00pm ET, is a $31 No Limit Hold’em Super Turbo. That will be followed by a $20 Seven-Card Stud High/Low contest (Event #8) at 9:00pm.
