06 Nov 10

FTOPS #1: mTw-DaviN Wins $195,000

Last night, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series X kicked off – and with a big success for a PokerStrategist: German BlackMember mTw-DaviN received almost $200,000 for his win in the NL Short-handed event!

In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) started into its tenth edition (see news) so far. 25 tournaments and more than $15 million in guaranteed prize monies are at stake for the players.

Event #1: $216 NL SH - $195,757 for mTw-DaviN
DaviN (middle) with XeroX (left) and steven-dev
at the BM party in Berlin

From PokerStrategy's point of view, the Series immediately started with an unexpected success:

Our German BlackMember mTw-Davin (see on the right) won the tourney and prevailed over 5,123 players. However, the win was not only unexpected due to the high number of participants. Actually, DaviN is a Fixed Limit cash game player. Furthermore, he didn't even have any money on Full Tilt Poker.

DaviN told us more about this in a short comment about his win:

It started when I played some 4on4 WC3 with tmy, steven-dev and Nazgul, and someone said on Skype: "Hey, the FTOPS starts at 2:00 AM, let's play in it."

As I am currently in a downswing with my low-skill poker, I didn't want to waste $216, especially as I had to go to the university in the morning at 8:00 AM. Well, then came the peer pressure, and 15 minutes before the tournament started, Nazgul transferred the money for the buy-in to me as I didn't have any money on FTP - only 2 minutes before the start, it arrived. After everybody else had busted then, it was mainly steven who kept me awake through the tourney, with Nazgul and Thorsten cheering me on as I reached the Top 20. That it was enough for the first place is great, and the cash is of course huge.

Usually I play $5/$10 and $10/$20, but currently also 2-3 tournaments each day (Buy-ins of $20 up to a max of $100) - so far without a big cash and probably with a very negative ROI.

It's a bit like a small Cinderella story, no kidding, as I am 1) not a good tournament player, and 2) didn't want to play in it.

A major part of the winnings will be invested, however I will also treat myself to an offline event as a reward.

FtOPS X - Event #1

Date:
5.11. 09:02 PT ET until 6.11. 06:37 AM ET

Variant:
No-Limit Hold'em Shorthanded

Buy-in:
€200 + 16

Participants:
5,124

Prize pool:
$1,024,800

Paid places:
492

Winner:
mTw-Davin - $195,757.30

Congratulations for this fantastic entrance into the tournament business!

To round it off, here the hand with which DaviN was able to win the heads-up:

Full Tilt Poker Game #8836140683: FTOPS Event #1 (62633143), Table 125 - 120K/240K Ante 30K - No Limit Hold'em - 6:36:32 ET - 2008/11/06
Seat 4: Bog25 (5,680,490)
Seat 6: davin77 (19,939,510)
Bog25 antes 30,000
davin77 antes 30,000
Bog25 posts the small blind of 120,000
davin77 posts the big blind of 240,000
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***

Bog25 raises to 780,000
davin77 has 15 seconds left to act
davin77 raises to 19,909,510, and is all in
Bog25 calls 4,870,490, and is all in
davin77 shows [ ]
Bog25 shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of 14,259,020 returned to davin77

*** FLOP *** [ ]

*** TURN *** [ ] []

*** RIVER *** [ ] []

davin77 shows two pair, Jacks and Sevens
Bog25 shows a pair of Jacks
davin77 wins the pot (11,360,980) with two pair, Jacks and Sevens
Bog25 stands up
davin77 stands up

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11,360,980 | Rake 0
Board: [ ]
Seat 4: Bog25 (small blind) showed [ ] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 6: davin77 (big blind) showed [ ] and won (11,360,980) with two pair, Jacks and Sevens