Online Poker -- FTOPS X Wraps Up With Big Sunday Tournament

The biggest day of the week for online poker got a boost on Sunday with the conclusion of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series X (FTOPS) and with its main event. Over at PokerStars, Lee "Bill Ivey" Gaines had a night of near misses as he finished ninth in the Sunday Warmup and 15th in the Sunday Million. While his deep finishes were impressive enough to get an honorable mention from the online tournament director, his $12,300 in earnings paled in comparison to the $297,000 he left on the table.

Other notables to take down big scores for tournaments not recapped in this article included Ryan "toetagU" Fair (pictured at right), Halfrek, and Amit "amak316" Makhija. Fair pocketed nearly six-figures when he took down the PokerStars Sunday 500. Halfrek picked up much-needed OPOY points by besting a stacked field in the PokerStars $200 rebuy. Makhija took home the biggest prize of the weekend, however, when he won FTOPS event No. 22, the two-day $5,000 no-limit hold'em tournament, for $550,000. (You can read more about that event in a separate story on CardPlayer.com)

Read the recaps for Sunday’s flagship events on Full Tilt, PokerStars, UltimateBet, and Bodog below:

Full Tilt Online Poker Series X: Main Event

The second-largest payout of the weekend (the first-place prize in two-day $5K FTOPS event was the largest) came with the conclusion of the FTOPS X Main Event. The tournament sported a $500+$35 buy in and attracted a large field of 5,225. The total prize pool amounted to $2,612,500, almost one-sixth of that reserved for the champion.

November Nine member Scott Montgomery (pictured at left) hosted the event but was unable to make the money, busting early in the tournament. Several Full Tilt red pros were able to cash, however, including Fabrice Soulier, Josh Arieh, Eddy Scharf, Leandro Brasa, Jon "PearlJammed" Turner, Dag "dmmikkel" Martin Mikkelsen, Sandra Naujoks, Steve Zolotow, Huck Seed, Michael Craig, and Peter "Nordberg" Feldman. Feldman came the closest to a major score when he busted in 17th place, earning $12,801.

Notables to make a major run in the tournament included Joe "hoodini10" Udine, Michael "5iveofaKind" Hong, James "Mig_com" Mackey, Chris "hattrick8810" Odle and John "SkewpTroop" Clancy.

At the final table, Va Shon "Julian Verse" Watkins took out sckilla for to claim the championship.

Here were the final results:

1. Va Shon "Julian Verse" Watkins -- $450,709
2. sckilla -- $273,006
3. Hummelhintern -- $175,560
4. ilovepoka -- $137,156
5. bazeman -- $103,194
6. Kraag -- $77,069
7. sinrake -- $60,088
8. RollinHand1 -- $45,719
9. sd bum -- $33,963

PokerStars Sunday Million

The action over at the FTOPS X series may have boosted the numbers at the Sunday Million, which saw 7,999 players pony up the $200+$15 buy-in to create a total prize pool of $1,599,800. The increase over last week's field meant that $195,976 was earmarked for the eventual winner, the third-largest prize awarded over the weekend.

Among the PokerStars pros to cash were Barry Greenstein, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Maria Eduarda "Maridu" Mayrinck, and Daniel Negreanu.

Notable online pro Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy briefly held the chip lead five-handed, but after shipping most of his chips across the table, his A 9 ran into kesher79's pocket aces to end his tournament in fifth place, good for $56,792.

Though the possiblity of a chop was brought up three-handed, rS.Wisdom quickly put that notion aside and the tournament concluded without any change to the payouts. After mjluth faltered on the short stack, kesher79 bested rS.Wisdom heads up for the top prize of nearly $200,000.

Here were the final results:

1. kesher79 -- $195,976
2. rS.Wisdom -- $132,143
3. mjluth -- $89,589
4. maverick8487 -- $72,791
5. Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy -- $56,793
6. orkim -- $40,795
7. RiverCardRob -- $27,997
8. jarocho123 -- $18,398
9. LEstradioto -- $11,199

 
UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee

There was a bit of an overlay in Sunday's UltimateBet $200,000-guaranteed tournament. The 952 entrants put up the $200+$15 buy-in, meaning that the site was on the hook for the extra $9,600. As usual, the first place prize was set at $45,000.

Online pro Scott "yaboystu" Stewart was looking for the biggest score of his career, but ultimately fell short with a fifth-place finish. When all was said and done, T8110 outshined his heads-up opponent OreO_101 to claim victory. Interestingly enough, this is OreO_101's fourth final table in this tournament this year. In his four final-table appearances, he has finished runner-up twice and seventh twice.

Here were the final results:

1. T8110 -- $45,000
2. OreO_101 -- $26,500
3. northkato -- $18,000
4. ErikTheKing7 - $13,100
5. Scott "yaboystu" Stewart -- $10,500
6. wstaufe_ub -- $8,500
7. dickholdem -- $6,500
8. Russell515 -- $4,500
9. MoneyMikeNY -- $3,400
10. johne147 -- $2,000

Bodog $100,000 Guarantee

The biggest tournament on Bodog had another overlay this week when 765 players put up the $100+$9 buy-in. The $100,000 guarantee meant that Bodog was on the hook for $23,500.

Online player tyrel66 took advantage of the extra cash and pocketed $23,600 after taking down the tournament.

Here were the final results:

1. tyrel66 -- $23,600
2. YyYyYyYyYyYyYy -- $13,600
3. bonz44 -- $9,100
4. chistate -- $7,000
5. pugmeister -- $5,700
6. Rockogrul -- $4,500
7. bryanjames27 -- $3,300
8. Birdie34 -- $2,200
9. lioka -- $1,300

Also, Card Player readers should be sure to check out the Card Player-exclusive Pro Bowl in Paradise promotion on Bodog, which will send one lucky player and a friend to watch football’s Pro Bowl live in Hawaii.


Card Player is working with several sites that continue to serve U.S. players to provide deposit bonuses to our readers. Click on the following names to receive bonuses: UltimateBet, Bodog, Absolute, and Full Tilt Poker.

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