The 15th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) kicked off on Wednesday night with a $216 No Limit Hold’em tournament. The event guaranteed $1 million and attracted a crowd of 5,646 players.
The attendance was a 20% increase over the turnout for the kickoff event of FTOPS XIV, which saw 4,694 players take to the felts. However, the field was smaller than the 5,712 players who turned out for the first event of FTOPS XIII, one of the largest Full Tilt events in history. Coming out on top on Wednesday was SolidGoldman24k, who earned $151,000 for his $216 investment after a heads-up chop. Taking second place was PHHSKid99, who actually made more than the tournament’s champion at $176,000. The top 720 players finished in the money in the mammoth field.
Finishing in third place in the kickoff FTOPS XV event was MiltOnTilt, who banked $96,000. The New York native is a former winner of a $215 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event on PokerStars, a tournament he took down last weekend. In January, MiltOnTilt reached the final table of the high-stakes Full Tilt $1K Monday, earning a solid $26,000. According to his profile on the popular poker forum PocketFives.com, MiltOnTilt is a former champion of the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand.
Fourth place in the $216 No Limit Hold’em kickoff tournament was SoulCollector22, who collected $72,000. Longtime Full Tilt players will remember that SoulCollector22 was the runner-up in Event #16 of August’s FTOPS, earning $35,000 in the $240 buy-in poker tournament. One month later, SoulCollector22 was in the winner’s circle of the Full Tilt Poker $40,000 Guaranteed for $11,000.
Here’s how the final nine of the first tournament of FTOPS XV looked, reflecting the two-way deal:
1. SolidGoldman24k – $151,685
2. PHHSKid99 – $175,783
3. MiltOnTilt – $95,982
4. SoulCollector22 – $72,269
5. TheStein – $54,145
6. uNDeFeaTaBLE1 – $37,264
7. iq278 – $24,278
8. lindleymise – $16,938
9. Zerhyn – $11,857
If you missed out on the action on Wednesday night, there’s no need to panic. The FTOPS XV schedule boasts 27 events offering up a combined $17 million in guaranteed prize money. On Thursday, two more tournaments will unfold to whet your whistle. At 14:00 ET, look for a $216 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better Knockout event with at least $250,000 on the line. Seven hours later, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby will host a $535 No Limit Hold’em 3X Shootout with at least $350,000 up for grabs.
Next weekend, all eyes will be on the $535 FTOPS XV Main Event, which begins at 18:00 ET on Sunday, February 21st and will offer up at least $2.5 million in guaranteed prize money. Last time out, Full Tilt Poker player zhivago2 defeated a field of 5,471 players in the FTOPS XIV Main Event and earned $418,000 as part of a three-way chop with ItsTime2Win (second place for $316,000) and Red Pro Adam Junglen (third place for $290,000). The top 18 players pocketed at least $10,000, or roughly 20 times their buy-in.
Full Tilt happily accepts players from the United States and is the second largest site in the world in terms of ring game traffic, according to PokerScout.com. The online poker room boasts a seven-day running average of 16,600 cash game players, about half of the traffic found at PokerStars, the world’s largest site. Full Tilt’s fleet of sponsored pros includes 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey, Durrrr Challenge front man Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel.
