Home / Poker News February 2009 / FTOPS $5,000+$200 NL Holdem event report
FTOPS $5,000+$200 NL Holdem event report
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2009-02-16 09:44
The $5,000+$200 High Rollers NL Holdem event (#22 of the FTOPS) got underway with a Day1 outing which saw much of the field vanish into the thin air and the money bubble burst. One of the highest buy-in online events, the FTOPS’ High Roller event saw no shortage of registrants. No fewer than 500 players bellied up to the tables at the beginning of the day, and due to the speed of the online proceedings, only 50 were still in contention at the day’s end. One of the few online events spread over several days, the $5,000+$200 High Roller event guaranteed a prize-pool of $2 million, which meant that the winner would bag a handsome $625,000 prize, one of the heftiest in online poker.
Just to make sure that the guarantee was met, registration for the event stayed open even after things got rolling. Steve Zolotow became one of the earliest eliminations of the day, who saw his chances and his $5,200 go up in smoke before the registration was even closed. He got eliminated on the very first orbit, as nobody wasted any time getting their chips into the middle. None of the
Full Tilt professionals with “red” status managed to reach the money. The money bubble burst at 54th place, shortly before the day was called, and of the name pros who made it past the line, Yevgeniy Timoshenko was quick to bust out in 53rd place. He still pocketed $7,500 though, the same as Corey Burbick who busted out right on the bubble in 54th.
Day 1 ended after 17 levels of play, and it was player “makspak” who finished the day with the biggest stack, having garnered 216,993 chips.
Out of the “name” pros still in contention we have to mention James Obst who was almost felted at one point but managed to kick and claw his way back from 400 chips to 27,987, which meant that he finished the day in 39th place.
John Heath finished Day1 in 4th place with 149,000 chips. Still in contention is Jamie Armstrong (in 6th), Alexander Kostritstyn and Adam Levy.
