FTOPS VIII Main Event; Online Poker Tourney Ends, Paying Over $15mil

The long-anticipated Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS VIII) has finally come to an end at Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker room. When all was said and done, FTOPS VIII – originally guaranteeing $10 million throughout the 24-tournament series – paid out a whopping grand total of $15,378,400 to its combined winners.

Yesterday, the FTOPS VIII Main Event was played out, bringing about the end of Full Tilt Poker’s most lucrative online poker event. But before we get into the details of the big finale, let’s take a brief glimpse into the results of Sunday’s first tournament, Event #23.

FTOPS VIII – Event #23
The afternoon began with a $240 + $16 NL Hold’em Knockout, with 6-max re-buys and a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000, hosted by Full Tilt Pro Roland de Wolfe. The turn-out became a massive field of 3,149 players, the third largest throughout FTOPS VIII thus far, raising the guaranteed value to $629,800.

Only one of Full Tilt Poker red-tagged players finished in the enormous bubble that paid the top 348 positions. David Pham snagged a 235th place finish, collecting $346.39; enough to cover the buy-in fee and purchase a nice dinner for two – maybe even take in a movie.

The final table came down to heads-up play between “elheroe” and “Panamatony”. In the end, it was “elheroe” taking the 1st place prize of $124,020.22, along with his brand new FTOPS VIII jacket and custom gold avatar. “Panamatony” earned $78,221.16 for the second place finish.

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FTOPS VIII – Main Event #24
With a proper drum roll and imagined gasps of anticipation, I proudly announce the conclusion of FTOPS VIII Main Event #24, a $500 + $35 NL Hold’em tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $2,000,000. Hosted by the exquisite Full Tilt Pro Jennifer Harman herself, 4,750 participants took their seats at the finale of Full Tilt Poker’s most prestigious series of online poker tournaments; enough to extend the GP by another $375,000.The top 648 finishers in the FTOPS Main Event would see a piece of the prize, four of which were Full Tilt Poker’s red-tagged players. “HuckleberrySeed” was the last red-tag player eliminated, earning $1,163.75 for a 282dn place finish. Stuart Patterson gained honorable mention for coming in 354th with $950. Andy Bloch finished 429th, worth $855, followed by Robert Mizrachi in 578th position for $736.25.As the final table was slowly reduced, heads-up action began between the notable skills of online poker players “cheesemonster” and “MarMoss”. The battle to finish continued until one final participant remained standing – er, seated. When the smoke cleared, it was “cheesemonster” who was proclaimed 1st place victor of the FTOPS Main Event.“cheesemonster” received the FTOPS VIII championship title, an FTOPS VIII jacket and the coveted gold FTOPS avatar. Oh yes, and let’s not forget an imposing reward of $410,780! “MarMoss” proudly walked away with the 2nd place prize $249,375.