Yesterday’s $750,000 Guarantee attracted a nice field of 4,057 players and had a prize pool of more than $800K. A hearty round of congrats are in order for all of the players who took part in this enormous donkament (go ahead, pat yourselves on the back), but especially our winner syzygy-1-1-1-1, who can now afford to go on a nice little shopping spree with his newfound $143,285.13.

But the big story of the day had to be David Benyamine’s better half (much, much better), Erica “The Poker Babe” Schoenberg, making a deep run in the $750K Guarantee all the way to the final table. Unfortunately, Erica didn’t quite complete her mission and wound up being the first player eliminated from the final table. Don’t feel too bad for Ms. Schoenberg though, she took home more than $10K for her efforts – not a horrible return for a $200 investment. Brains, beauty, and poker skills to boot – she really is the complete package boys.

Meanwhile, there was some seriously sick action going down at the PLO ring-game tables yesterday. Team Full Tilt’s Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen and John Juanda were joined at a $200/$400 PLO table by high-stakes regulars SteveSung, Pr1nnyraid and LoLiNa for some $20K flips. This was degeneracy at its finest folks – please do not try this at home.

JJ was the big winner for the session, taking home around $280K – a nice payday for one of the nicest guys in poker. LoLiNa also had a very nice session, ending the day up about $90K. I look forward to the day I can afford to take $20K flips, seems like it would be fun. Then again, I look forward to the day when I actually make at least $20K a year (target date: 2052).

The Madness strikes back as we wait for the return of the FTOPS…

Just a heads up for all the Tilters out there in Pokerland – as promised, we’re running another round of Sit & Go Madness this weekend. The fun kicks off on Friday, August 1^st at 14:00 ET and goes all the way through to Sunday, August 3^rd at 14:00. There’s more than $75K in cash and prizes up for grabs, so if you’re a SNG player or just like winning cash and prizes, this one’s for you.

We’re also rapidly approaching zero hour for FTOPS IX (or 9, for those of you not fluent in Roman numerals). The action gets going on Wednesday, August 6^th with Event #1, a $1 million guarantee NLHE donkament, and runs through Sunday, August 17^th when the $2.5 million guaranteed Main Event takes place. There’s more than $15 million guaranteed over the 25 events of this mammoth series, so please don’t miss out on a second of the best donkament action around.

That’s all for now folks. If you’re hankering for more of The Rail we’ll have some new Bond18 action up for you in a bit, and AlCantHang will return soon with another round of Bloggers On The Rail – make sure to check them both out. Have a good one…

While we’re talking about online play, I thought it would be good to revisit a little feature we’ve dropped over the past few weeks: the big stakes games. Thanks to our friends over at the High Stakes Database, we can tell you that since July 1^st, the biggest overall winner on the site has been OnTheRize, who’s banked more than $851K so far. He’s followed closely by Team Full Tilt’s Gus Hansen who’s picked up more than $822K, and CHUFTY, who’s raked in nearly $760,000. The full list of the top 10 is shown below:

• OnTheRize - $851.316,00
• Gus Hansen - $822.244,55
• CHUFTY - $758.302,00
• Urindanger - $588.364,75
• David Oppenheim - $509.842,30
• Aeron73 - $509.703,65
• pr1nnyraid - $508.134,25
• La Key U - $505.299,95
• Nizot Skizared - $462.186,25
• Rob Hollink - $434.431,55

When it comes to specific games, pr1nnyraid is leading the No-Limit Hold ‘em money lead with more than $306K in winnings since July 1^st, while OnTheRize has made all of his money at the PLO tables. Gus Hansen is the big, big winner in this month’s PLO Hi/Lo games, with more that $1.4 million in profit, though he’s given about $600K of that back to the poker community in other games. Who says the pros don’t know how to share?

Return of the Monthly Million

After a two month hiatus for FTOPS VIII and our 150 Main Event Guarantee, the Monthly Million returned to the schedule last weekend, much to the delight of GulahPapyrus who took down the tournament and more than $219K in first-place prize money.

Overall, 2,396 ponied up for Sunday’s big tourney, generating a prize pool worth $1,198,000, which was good enough to pay out the top 351 finishers. Some of the notable names who padded their bankrolls on Sunday include Michael Craig, Roy Winston, Matt Sexton, and our newest Full Tilt Poker pro, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh.

Welcome to the Family

While we’re talking about new FTP pros like Josh, we’d be remiss to mention a few other red names you’ll be seeing around the site. First off is notable high-stakes player and the always entertaining, Eli Elezra who brings with him one WSOP bracelet and a whole lot of “gamble”.

Another bracelet winner joining the pro ranks is Nikolay Evdakov, who along with Vitaly Lunkin and Svetlana Gromakova, make up our new Russian team. Speaking of teams, our buddies over at CardRunners have expanded their lineup as well, adding some familiar online names to our roster. Look for Isaac Baron, David Benefield, and Ryan Daut playing under their own names in our ring games and on our educational tables.

Personally, I’m lobbying to head up our newest effort, Team St. Bart’s, but it’s going to be a tough fight against The Captain. Wish me luck.

Until next time…

Team Full Tilt’s Mike Matusow had the honor of being the last big name left in the 6,844 player field, and he bowed out in 30^th place after taking after his A-Q lost to a full house of Aces and 9s. We’re sure Mikey is hugely disappointed with his finish, especially since he’s been playing some insanely great poker over the past six weeks. Hopefully, the $193,000 he banked for his Main Event performance will help ease his pain.

Unlike most other tourneys at this year’s WSOP, the pros just didn’t perform as well as the amateurs in this year’s Main Event. Of course, with more than 6,800 players in a single tourney, even reaching the money in this kind of donk-fest is a pretty impressive feat. With that in mind, here are some of the other FTP pros who earned back their $10K entrance fee and a little bit more:

• The recently signed David Benefield - $77,200 for 73^rd place
• Mark Vos - $77,200 for 80^th place
• Jeff Madsen - $41,816 for 112^th place
• Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, and Chip Jett - $41,818 each for 117^th, 160, and 161^st place
• Ben Roberts - $38,600 for 178^th place

• Total amount won by the FTP pros during the 2008 WSOP: $12,213,376
• Number of bracelets won: 10
• Number of final tables reached: 46
• Number of pros who cashed: 80
• Number of pros who cashed for $1M or more: 1
• Number of pros who cashed for $500K or more: 8
• Number of other useless categories I can keep creating: 236

While the poker world was focusing on the action in the Rio’s Amazon Room over the past two weeks, there was another series of tourneys in Vegas that drew some big fields and big names; the Bellagio Cup.

Why do we care? Because one of the big names – and big winners – was Team Full Tilt’s Clonie Gowen. Yup, after cashing four times during the WSOP, Clonie found time in her busy schedule to take down the biggest event of her career, the $5K No-Limit event worth more nearly $438K.

With that win, Clonie has now officially earned more than $1.2 million in tournament winnings, a mere $1,199,995 more than yours truly.

In case you’ve fallen behind on the action, here’s a quick recap:

• All four Day 1s are now complete and the survivors have a small breather until Day 2A begins on Tuesday
• 6,844 players coughed up $10K for their seats, beating last year’s number by more than 400, and generating a prize pool worth more than $68 million
• 666 players will cash and the overall winner will take home more than $9.1 million in prize money – along with untold millions in extra sponsorship money

Think poker is dead yet? Yeah, neither do I. Speaking of the dead, however, there are plenty of big names who got run over by the thundering herd over the first few days of play. Notable names who won’t be winning this year’s Main Event include, in no particular order:

• Poker Babe Erica Schoenberg and her Frenchie fiancé, David Benyamine
• Gavin Smith
• Jason “George Costansza” Alexander
• One Angry Monkey’s perennial pick, Lee Watkinson
• Past champions Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, and Jamie Gold
• Jesus
• Negreanu
• Larry Flynt
• Andy Bloch
• Phil Ivey

Big stacks moving on to Day 2 include David Oppenheim, Robert Mizrachi, and Brandon Adams. Last year’s big winner, Jerry Yang, is on life support, but still hanging around.

Of course, all of the action over the next week is just the Big Tease, as the good folks at the Rio will stop action once we reach a final table. Then its three months of rest, relaxation, intense poker lessons and bare-fisted negotiations before the final table is played out in November. Trust me, it won’t be pretty.

So, all of the bracelet events are over, except for the big one, and it’s time to tally up how your favorite FTP pros performed over the past six weeks. The short answer; pretty well.

Through the first 53 events, our gigantic stable of pros collected 10 bracelets and combined for more than $11.5 million in winnings. Leading the pack was, of course, Erick Lindgren who found his way to three final tables, won his first career bracelet, and banked more than $1.3 million.

Other pros who earned some serious cash included David Benyamine with more than $940K (three final tables, one bracelet), Andy Bloch and Chris Ferguson (two final table each and more than $650K in winnings – each).

Now that it’s officially too late to join the donkery of the 2008 WSOP, we have a suggestion for everyone who needs their fix of big MTT action – FTOPS IX.

If you haven’t noticed, satellites for the August edition of FTOPS are now available in the game and there’s plenty of reason to play. What’s plenty? How about $15 million guaranteed over 25 events?

Head over to the FTOPS page for all the details. Who knows, maybe you’ll win enough to play in next year’s WSOP?

Yeah, I’m approaching the $50K HORSE event from the wrong end, but as long as I don’t step in a big pile, who really cares?

Hold on – scratch that – what I meant to say is that this is the tourney that all the big names pros really want to win. Sure, the Main Event provides the big-ass payday that everybody wants, but the HORSE event is the bidness. 148 pros ponied up $50K each for a shot at what has become the game’s most prestigious title and, in the end, some really big names played their way to the Sweet 16, including Brunson, Bloch (15^th place), Negreanu, and Ivey (12^th place).

The final table was even more impressive, boasting names like Greenstein, Seed (7^th place), Lindgren (3^rd place) and Scotty “It’s All Over Baby” Nguyen. Lindgren, who started the final table with the chip lead, busted third and added more than $781K to his roll. Nice money to be sure. Oh, if you’re curious, second place pays more than $1.2 million while the winner grabs almost $2M.

Wow, what a shitty headline. I should apologize for that. Really, I should, but nah….

For those of you who don’t know to whom I’m referring, please meet Martin “I really need a nickname” Kläser, winner of WSOP Event 43. Why is Martin worth your time and effort? Simple – he’s a 21-year old kid with game.

Martin became a pro last October after winning our Million Euro Challenge Freeroll tournament and then beating both Chris Ferguson and Gus Hansen heads up to collect €350K. Not a bad way to start a career, if I do say so myself. Then, he followed that up by heading to Vegas last week, buying into his first ever WSOP event, and winning the whole damn thing. That’s more than another $200K in the coffers and one of those shiny bracelet things for his wrist.

!@#$% 21-year old ^%#$!# whipper-snapper punk kids. Uh, I mean, well done Martin, well done.

Now, if you’d all excuse me, I’m off to check my bankroll and cry in my beer.

If you think D-Ben had an easy time of it at the final table (he is an Omaha Hi/Lo specialist), check out the line-up he had to face:

• Tony Ma
• Jason Gray
• Ram Vaswani
• Toto Leonidas
• David Chiu
• Mike Matusow
• Greg Jamison
• Eugene Katchalov

While there are some folks there who you probably don’t recognize, consider this – Vaswani, Leonidas, Chiu and Matusow own a combined nine WSOP bracelets. That’s as many as our entire team of 1,000+ pros has won so far this year. So, Benyamine now has a WSOP bracelet, nearly $1 million in tournament winnings over the past three weeks, and Erica Schoenberg. Damn, I hate him – and not just because he’s French.

We’re not nearly as anal about keeping stats as our friends who follow baseball, but then again, we’re not nearly as geeky as they are either. Still, the FTP pros have put up some impressive numbers so far this year:

• 9 bracelets
• 41 final table appearances
• Nearly $9.5 million in combined prize money

Benyamine is leading the FTP pack with the most prize money won (still nearly $1 million) and the most final table appearances (3). Following close behind are Team Full Tilter’s Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren, and Mike Matusow who have each reached two final tables so far this year. Also doubling up on final table appearances are David Singer and David Chiu. Hell… forget 2008 being the Year of the Pro… it’s the Year of the Pro Named David.

Yes, it’s true… we do have a few pros who aren’t named David. In fact, our most recent non-David addition is Robert Williamson III, a long-time friend of Full Tilt Poker who finally took the plunge and started playing as a red pro last week.

A WSOP bracelet winner and yet another Omaha specialist, Robert is one of the coolest cats in the game and always good for fun stories around the table. And hell, you’ve just gotta love a guy who drinks beer with hot sauce in it, don’t ya?

Phil Ivey may be best known for ruthlessly taking his opponent’s money at the poker tables (and on the golf course… and in huge prop bets), but now the Phenom is giving something back.

You can help support Phil’s Budding Ivey Foundation to provide educational opportunities to at-risk children by – you guessed it – playing poker. Phil is holding a charity tournament at the Golden Nugget on July 1^st where a $1,000 donation and $500 “re-donations” throughout the first hour give you a chance to take down a first-place prize worth at least $10K and help some needy kids.

Through 26 events at this year’s World Series of Poker, our 5,000 Full Tilt Poker pros have won seven brand new shiny gold bracelets, 27 of our pros have made final tables, and all together our pros have earned more than $6 million in prize money. Yes, its official, Full Tilt Poker rules the world! And I’m not getting paid to say that (well, actually I am, but my pay has been downgraded from the Peso to the Thai Baht, so I’ve got that going for me).

I’m predicting right now that by the end of the Series we’ll have won 73 bracelets, had at least 3,000 of our pros make final tables, and earned at least $50 million in prize money (which, non-coincidentally, is about 1.6 billion Thai Baht − or about enough money to buy a condo in North Hollywood). One more prediction: by the end of the Series, Full Tilt Poker will be home to at least 10,000 of the world’s finest poker players. That’s right, you heard it here first.

Congratulations on winning a bracelet, next stop Disneyland?

A hearty round of congrats are in order for three of our pros from this past weekend, as Jens Voertmann, Max Pescatori and Kenny Tran all won themselves one of those shiny bracelet thingies. Hooray for everyone!

Jens won his first bracelet in Event #22, the $3K HORSE donkament. Voertmann managed to fight his way through a star-studded final table, including Team Full Tilter Jen Harman and Full Tilt Poker pro Steve Zolotow, and take home nearly $300K for his first-place finish. Max “The Italian Pirate” Pescatori won his second career bracelet by besting a field of 457 players in Event #24, the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em/Omaha tourney. This was another tough final table which included Allen “Clever Piggy” Cunningham, but it was “The Italian Pirate” for the win and just under $250K in prize money. Last but most certainly not least, we had Kenny “The Man” Tran taking down Event #25, the $10K No-Limit Hold ‘em Heads-Up Championship. Tran took down eight consecutive heads-up matches to claim the top prize of just over $539K, besting Alec Torelli in the final match for his first ever bracelet.

Just a quick round-up of other Tilt related happenings:

Full Tilt Poker awarded 150 seats to this year’s Main Event yesterday − hooray for us! If you still dream of hitting the big time and making your way to the Big Dance, we’re running our final WSOP qualifiers over the next week or so – get all the details here.

The MSOP is still running and I’m still losing all of my money chasing that oh-so elusive winner’s watch. My bankroll is so decimated at this point that I have to satellite into even the smaller buy-in events. The lesson here is that playing a large donkament while shotgunning beer after beer might not be the best idea…

And finally, for those of you who haven’t heard yet, newly minted Team Full Tilter and uber-hunk Patrik Antonius has issued a challenge to all the high-stakes online players out there that he’s ready to start kicking ass and taking names. So if you’re feeling frisky and would like to donate some money to the Antonius fund, he’s waiting for you on the site even as we speak.

Hopefully Big Donkey will be back next week to bring you up to speed on all things Tilt (and save me from this horrible indignity). If not, don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Maybe a little from column A, maybe a little from column B. That’s the best part about Ivey being Ivey – his utter disregard (and disrespect, possibly) of money. I like to imagine that Phil is so rich that he uses his money for more mundane everyday occurrences than anything else. Spill some milk on the kitchen counter? Ivey whips out a pack of hundred dollar bills and wipes it up. Out of Post-It notes? Phil Ivey to the rescue. No TP? Well, let’s not go there…

The point is that Ivey obviously has enough money to play in all these WSOP events with his only goal being to win a bracelet, not earn more cash. That’s why he can stroll into one of the rebuy events with about 100 “just in case” rebuys waiting in his back pocket or on a chip-filled tray. You absolutely have to be both rich and crazy to do that sort of thing. I’d love to get to the point someday where money just has no meaning to me. Maybe then I’ll start wiping my ass with hundred dollar bills …

What’s the deal with the WPT? Are they done, or just dying a slow death? 

I don’t think that they’re done or dying a slow death, but poker on TV just ain’t what it used to be. I’m not saying that the product is bad (hell, it’s probably better produced than it’s ever been), but the market just isn’t the same. The poker boom has come and gone, and now we’re left with a veritable wasteland of has-been poker TV shows. The market has been super saturated, which means that at this point only the best of the best will survive.

All of which should be seen as good news for the WPT. Yes, their TV contract with GSN has expired and will not be renewed. But they’re still one of the best and most well known poker shows on the market. Somebody will want that name brand recognition on their station, be it SpikeTV or one of those other “especially for men” channels. The show must go on, and I’m certain that the WPT will be back for a seventh season.

Been playing in any of the MSOP events? Those things are the biggest donk-fests that I’ve ever seen.

Like many of the other low-stakes ballers out there on Full Tilt Poker, I’ve been doing my best to donk it up in as many MSOP events as I can. I tend to agree that these have been some of the most donk-tastic poker playing experiences I’ve ever been a part of. It seems that most of the time any Ace is good enough to push with, any King is good enough to call with, and any suited connector or small pocket pair should be played as if they’re Pocket Rockets. In one event I held A-Q and pushed all-in after an Ace came on the flop. I was called by two players, one holding A-6 and one holding A-3. The turn brought a 3 and the river was a 6. But hey, that’s poker baby!

I am happy to report that I finally cashed and very nearly made a final table in Event #17, a $15 + $1.50 NLHE triple shootout. After taking down my first table by waiting while one guy went on a heater and eliminated most of the competition until I utterly destroyed him heads up, I made it all the way to heads-up play again at the second table. And as much as my first heads-up match was a complete beat down, my second heads-up match could be aptly described as a lesson in how not to play heads up. I was weak, I was scared, I got my ass handed to me by a guy who probably has most of his experience in play money SNGs. It was embarrassing and demeaning beyond my worst nightmares. Now my confidence is completely shot and I’m playing poker like a deer caught in headlights. But the donk-fest must go on, and I shall keep playing these MSOP events until I either make a final table or die trying. Until next week…

After Nenad Medic’s victory in Event ,#1 David Singer made it two out of three for FTP pros by taking down Event #3, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em. Hot on the heels of his win in the $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship, Singer was the last one standing out of 713 players, taking down Jacobo Fernandez heads-up to win $214,131 and his first bracelet. Singer obviously runs good at life – his very pregnant fiancée was there to drag his ass away at any moment support him with their baby due the next day.

Erick Lindgren finally got the monkey off his back by finally winning his first WSOP bracelet in Event #4, the $5,000 Mixed Hold ‘em (No-Limit/Limit). Lindgren overcame a pro-heavy field of 332 players and a stacked final table which also included Howard Lederer (6^th, $74,199) and Roland De Wolfe (4^th, $117,030) to collect the $374,505 first place prize and shiny (something shiny? Where? Oh sorry got distracted) new bracelet.

It’s not that we’re prone to conspiracy theories, but this little doozy popped up – David Singer and Erick Lindgren both just won their first-ever WSOP bracelet and they both did it in the exact same way. Oooooh spooky! On David’s final hand the chips were all-in on the turn with the board reading 3d-5s-7d-6c. Jacobo Fernandez turned over 7c-3h for two-pair, but Singer rolled over Qs-4s for a turned straight, which held up.

In Lindgren’s case, the chips were all-in on the river with the board reading Tc-5c-3d-4h-8h. Justin Bonomo showed 5s-4s for two pair while Erick had Ah-2d for the turned straight. Both losers had two pair and both winners hit their gutshots on the turn – feel the chills down your spine? Lol live-riggaments.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson obviously didn’t get the memo that said a Full Tilt Poker pro must win every event, spoiling a clean sweep of the first four events by coming in third in Event #2 for $388,287. Greg “FBT” Mueller also narrowly missed a win and his first bracelet – taking second in Event #11, a $5,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em Shootout for $298,638. All in all, the pros have cashed for over $3.6 million so far – and we’re not even a quarter of the way through the Series.

Apparently, there are a few hardy souls out there who are looking to write their way to Vegas for the Big Dance. The entries that we’ve received thus far have been entertaining and it’s clear that folks have put a lot of effort into their work. In fact, check them out for yourself:

katiemother - Post 1 and 2

TuscaloosaJohn - Post 1 and 2

lightning36 - Post 1 and 2

Looking at this list, it’s definitely worth noting that katiemother, TuscaloosaJohn, and lightning36 scored big-style in Battle of the Bloggers tournaments. Each of them took home a $2K WSOP prize package – well done and congratulations.

If you’ve not entered yet, you’ve still got a few days to take a shot at being our “Blogger on the Rail.” Check out the Write Your Way to the WSOP page for full details.