Amit Makhija Takes Down the FTOPS $5K

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series X (FTOPS X) proved to be a star studded attraction during its big two day no limit hold’em tournament.  Event number 22, which offered a $5,000 + $200 buy in attracted the best of the best players and a field of 500 that more closely resembled a World Poker Tour event than an online tournament.  To mix things up a bit, the tournament was played six handed, giving players a fun change of pace from the typical format at large tournaments.  The large field of players generated a prize pool of $2.5 million with $550,000 going to the ultimate winner.

The tournament host was November Nine member Craig Marquis.  The newly minted Full Tilt pro blazed a new path by cashing in his own tournament, finishing in 24th place and earning $17,500 plus the $200 bonus in rakeback.  Two more pros proved why they were members of the Full Tilt Poker elite, both David “The Dragon” Pham and Brandon Adams both cashed in the tournament.  Not only did Adams cash but he bubbled the final table, ultimately busting in seventh place and taking home $57,500.

Other names to cash that are either known as popular live or online players included: Casy “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek (48th), Justin “Boosted J” Smith (47th), Keith “cheesemonster” Lehr (44th), Matt “NoBadBeatsPlz” Kay (43rd), Dani “Ansky451″ Stern (40th), Luke ”magikstik8″ Vrabel (34th), goyshark2 (33rd), Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau (31st), Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker (28th), Eugene “myrabbifoo” Katchalov (20th), Hans “miAmihAns” Winzeler (17th), Steve “thorladen” Weinstein (16th), David “Davidp18″ Peters (12th) and Kevin “GetPWN3D” Saul (11th).

The final table featured some of the most recognizable players including online pros Amit “amak316″ Mahija, Evan “NEONPILS99″ Parkes and live tournament pro Mark “Buster Love” Seif.  In the end, only one player could be on top and Makhija proved to be that player, beating KaKeTKa heads up for the title and the impressive first prize of $550,000.  Makhija proves he is on a roll as this was his third six figure score in a major tournament (both live and online), including nearly $200,000 for a final table at the World Series of Poker and over $560,000 for a runner-up finish at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker.   

The final results were:

1.  Amit “amak316″ Makhija — $550,000

2.  KaKeTKa — $362,500

3.  PureCash25 — $262,500

4.  Mark “Buster Love” Seif — $195,000

5.  Evan “NEONPILS99″ Parkes — $137,500

6.  dpowell — $90,000