Home / Poker News February 2011 / The online poker weekend – FTOPS Main Event shatters record
The online poker weekend – FTOPS Main Event shatters record
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2011-02-22 06:59
Last weekend was a truly exceptional one for online poker railbirds and tournament players alike. There were the usual high buy-in weekend guarantees, topped off by the FTOPS’ Main Event which shattered both attendance and prize-pool records.
Full Tilt Poker had grossly underestimated the player interest that the FTOPS Main Event would generate. They did figure that the $3 million guarantee would be handily covered, but they probably never expected it to be swept off the table by the $8,687,000 prize-pool that resulted after the 14,479 entrants threw their buy-ins into the middle.
Given the amount of money at stake, the starting field was quite pro-heavy too. Several of these pros reached the final table, including Blair Hinkle who would go down in the history of the event as its first ever 7-figure winner. Hinkle struck a 3-handed deal to secure a $1,162,949 prize, even though he didn’t go on to win the event. The winner was GIAMPP, who pocketed $877k for his/her efforts. Hinkle finished second, followed by Mads Amot in 3rd. No fewer than 8 players finished with 6-figure prizes, the last of them being “beerocrat”, who took home $121k.
Other notables to finish high in the event were Nicholas Stowell, Andrash Nemeth and Keith Ferrera.
PokerStars’ Sunday Million attracted a starting field of 9,178 players, which meant a prize-pool of $1,835,600. This
poker tournament was decided by a 3-way deal at the top too. This time, it was the player to end up in 3rd place who took down the largest prize. Brian Horton can thank his negotiating skills for the $224k he took down. The eventual winner, arabella1722, took home $196k. Second place was worth $169k for Glen McCaffrey.
There were no other 6-figure winners in this event. Darryl Fish finished 8th for $20k and Daniel Bokesh ended up in 12th for $9.5k.
