Aussies Online: Big Day for Strong Play

“What a massive Monday we are blessed with today people” was the quote from Joel “Strong Play” Dodds as he opened the weekly Monday Gogogo thread. The guy seemed far too happy for someone about to engage in over 18 hours of mind-numbing tournament grinding.

But here he was, the Sydneysider rising at 2am, joined by other tourney professionals and more than a few amateurs, taking a break from their day jobs, on one of the biggest days on the online tournament calendar (and of course those lucky Queenslanders who pay homage to online poker with a string of convenient public holidays that somehow coincide with all the major online tournaments).

Just like the “perfect storm” the opening day of the PokerStars SCOOP series, combined with the final three events of Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS series, and the usual swag of majors across the span of the online poker universe combined for one mammoth Monday event to remember.

The FTOPS events had $4.5 million in guarantees alone, while a mammoth card of nine tournaments on PokerStars across the three stakes levels saw another $8.5 million guaranteed added to the kitty.

Losing with flopped middle set against flopped top set is always a great way to start the day and Ben “CNT_Crusher” Delaney had the privilege of bowing out of one of his tourneys in this manner while a lot of us were still crushing some sleep.

As the morning hours wound on the beats were coming thick and fast for the Aussie troopers, with those internationals donks catching their overcards and draws left and right. Jay “Seabeast” Kinkade got things going the right way though, final tabling the Party Poker 100k High Roller. He hit a fourth place finish for $7,938 and followed it up with a win in Stars $109 double rebuy for $9,911. In a great feat the Seabeast had won the same event just the day before, and will be shooting for a perfect three from three in May as he looks to follow up tomorrow. Not a shabby effort at all.

Andrew “higher wattage” Watson cashed in on the big day getting a career-high win in the $35,000 guaranteed single rebuy and add on event. Watson is based out of Wollongong and the Illawarra region could be quickly queing up behind Adelaide as a hotbed of online poker talent.

But the most HOF (Hall of fame for those not into the online lingo) day on the online calendar would come to a close where it all began. In Sydney with Joel Dodds.

The PokerNetwork moderator and circuit regular got things going in the Main Event of the FTOPS. With $3 million guaranteed in the pool and only 4,534 runners at $600 a pop, the event was overlaid by almost $300,000. Dodds had a huge PokerNetwork fan base on the rail as he rolled onto the final table.

Eighth place was where it would end with Dodds cashing for a handy $45,000. The Australian out of the way Kirbynator went on to win the tournament after the players chopped it five handed. For winning the tournament he’d take home $327,000, but that would be less than the amount awarded to the second and third place finishers in the tournament who took home around $342,000 each after the deal. Still Kirbynator has grabbed himself the title of being an FTOPS Main Event champion, something that few in the poker world can lay claim to.

A hearty congratulations is in order for Strong Play, Higher Wattage and Seabeast on their big efforts, and of course GOGOGO to the all the Aussies going into battle in the various SCOOP events over the next two weeks.

Major Results