Full Tilt Poker kicked off its long-awaited FTOPS IX (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) last Wednesday and already 10 players have earned lucrative 1st place victories. FTOPS IX guarantees a minimum of $15 million spread over 25 events, ending with the FTOPS Min Event on Sunday, August 17th, worth at least $2,000,000.

August 6th marked the grand opening of the ninth installment of FTOPS at Full Tilt Poker. 5,779 entries took to the tables to for Event #1, hosted by Allen Cunningham. ‘GARFIELD25’ routed the field to take $199,398 for 1st place.

The next day, FTOPS IX Event #2, hosted by Martin Kläser, and Event #3 hosted by Greg Mueller, got underway. 1,138 joined in the second event with a $200k GP, taken down by ‘Teledonk’ for $51,210. ‘CapTinBisKuiT’ earned the top spot in Event #3, ousting the 1,296 field for a prize of $45,360.

Friday, August 8th, Full Tilt Poker set the scene for FTOPS IX Events #4 and #5. With a $600k GP, Event #4, hosted by Dag Mikkelsen, went to the superfluous skills of ‘ryanghall’, collecting $159,735. Cyndy Violette was on hand to host Event #5, a $100k GP Limit Stud event that saw ‘dread noughts’ outmatching a field of 581 for the top purse of $26,946.

FTOPS IX Events #6 and #7 began Saturday at Full Tilt Poker as the high rollers paid $535 to take on the big boys in PL Omaha for more than $600k (originally $500k GTD). Host Robert Williamson III looked on as ‘chipwizard1’ took down the tournament for $85,355. Later that evening, host David Oppenheim watched nearly 2,000 entrants battle it out for a piece of the $621k prize pool (also originally $500k GTD). In the end, ‘bizzleraises’ earned 1st place, worth $127,946.

Sunday was the largest day thus far for Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS IX, hosting 3 events - #8, 9 and 10 – guaranteeing at least $2.5 million combined. Event #8 got underway at 2pm with Roy Winston at the helm. More than 3,000 players turned out for the Knockout NL Hold’em event worth $500k GTD, boosted to $615k. 1st place went to ‘ryanbluf’, pocketing $121,184. Kenny Tran hosted Event #9, won by ‘tedsfishyfry’ for $115,014.

Last but not least, FTOPS IX Event #10 kicked off Sunday evening, hosted by Full Tilt Pro Erik Seidel. The largest GP of FTOPS IX thus far, 4,985 participants took a shot at the $1.5 million GTD prize pool, resulting in the first FTOPS IX event that actually didn’t see a trumped-up purse due to excessive player entries. Not that the entrants weren’t excessive, but that’s a lot of cash to supplement for! It took nearly 11-1/2 hours of very tight action before ‘Harlinod’ was able to come away with the top prize of $259,440.