Unknown Aussie Player Scores Huge FTOP’s IX Win

August 12, 2008 by ozpoker
Filed under FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series)

Unknown Aussie online player, “Harlindo” has scored a huge $259,400 win in the FTOPS (Full Tilt online poker Series) IX Event #10, the $1.5M Guaranteed $300+22 NL Holdem tournament.

The tournament which saw 4,985 entrants ant up the $322 buy-in, is one of the biggest on the FTOPS schedule and saw some of online poker ’s best and brightest in the starting line up.

Notable online MTT specialists, Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier and Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis each cashed in the top 60, and new Full Tilt pro Josh Arieh nearly went the distance with a 25th-place finish.

In the end though, Harlindo bested James “P0KERPR0” Campbell, also known online as “jcamby33″; heads up to win his first FTOPS title and, more importantly, take home over a quarter of a million dollars.

The win is all the more notable as the online identity “Harlindo” has only ever played in 35 tournaments in total on PokerStars and Full Tilt; and only ever cashed once prior for a $270 collect in $26 buy-in NL Holden tournament of only 45 players.

The chip counts looked like this as the final table began:

Seat 1: P0KERPR0 (1,795,000)
Seat 2: paigowpro (3,204,604)
Seat 3: SKILLAN (1,559,227)
Seat 4: Tazmaniapwnsyou (1,055,340)
Seat 5: Mr Mack Bust (911,319)
Seat 6: Harlindo (2,707,655)
Seat 7: Kasy1 (587,860)
Seat 8: IwanaClay (1,814,826)
Seat 9: doubledave22 (1,319,169)

“Harlindo” got involved early in a big pot when they raised form the button with A♣K♦ and “IwanaClay” reraised all-in to 728,497. “Harlindo” insta-called and “IwanaClay” showed a dominated A♥Q♦.

The flop favoured “Harlindo”, coming 8♥6♦K♣. A Q♥ on the turn gave “Iwanaclay” a few outs, but the 4♣ brick on the river sent “Iwanaclay” to the rail and nicely increased “Harlindo”’s stack.

“POKERPRO” carved his way through remainder of the field, claiming all bar one scalp on the way to heads up play, and when heads-up play began “P0KERPR0″ had nearly 66% of the chips thanks to his elimination of five of the previous seven players.

“Harlindo” wasn’t fazed though and found himself with a 4-3 chip lead before the final hand of the night which came down like this:

“Harlindo” called from the small blind and “P0KERPR0″ raised to 480,000. “Harlindo” came back over the top with an all-in raise and “P0KERPR0″ called off the rest of his 5.7 million.

“Harlindo” showed A♦K♣ and “POKERPRO” tabled Q♦T♦.

The flop came 9♣2♣5♦, followed by 3♦, and a 4♥ river.

Big slick was good enough for Harlindo to win the final hand of the night and capture the FTOPS title and the $259,440 first place prize money.

FTOPS IX Event #10 $300 NL Holdem Results :