Grndhg25 Wins FTOPS V Event #12 & $390,000
On-line poker specialists Full Tilt Poker recently held a one-of-a-kind on-line No Limt Texas Hold’em tournament, which featured a two-day format. For a buy-in of $2,500 (+$120), this on-line tournament hosted by Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey was the biggest buy-in tournament ever held on the Full Tilt Poker site. Not only that, it’s two-day format gives this on-line experience a little touch of the World Series of Poker live tournaments, which can last for days.
In any case, 648 hopefuls were able to sign up and go all-in for a $1,620,000 total prize pool. With a starting stack of 5,000 chips — 250 times the initial big blind —- and with 30-minute blind levels, the format was friendly enough to give everyone’s poker play enough room to shine. It was a grueling day one for poker action for the FTOPS V Event#12. After eight hours of play, the field was trimmed down to 78 players who would play again the next day. Three Full Tilt Poker pros made the cut into day two — Max Pescatori, David Chiu and Eddy Scharf. Tournament host Phil Ivey played deep into day one, but got knocked out when his set of 7s ran into a set of 10s.
Day two competition was tight with 63 places being paid, and no one eager to burst on the bubble. It took almost two hours to eliminate the 15 players needed to reach the money. After that, it took another three hours before a final table of 9 could be formed. Grndhg25 was chipleader entering into the final table with 739,544, followed behind by Viktor with 472,617. Eventually, it would be these two chipleaders who would outlast the other final table players and compete heads up for the FTOPS V #12 Event title.
At the end, an exciting flop of 8-A-8 had Viktor push all-in holding 7-8. But just when he thought he had the nuts, Grndhg25 showed an 8-Q, dominating Viktor’s kicker. An Ace, King or Seven would’ve helped Viktor improve or at least split the pot, but it didn’t happen. Grndhg25 wins $396,000 for his two days of work along with the coveted gold jersey avatar and the distinction of being named FTOPS Champion.
The best performance for a Full Tilt Poker Pro was a 54th place finish by 2-time WSOP bracelet holder Eddy Scharf and David Chiu at 55th, and Max Pescatori at 58th.
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