Throughout the UK and beyond, online poker players are prepping for the 26th edition of the Mini Full Tilt Online Poker Series (aka Mini FTOPS XXVI). Slated to kick off on Sunday, September 7th, and running for two weeks through the 21st, the 31-event series is guaranteed to pay out a whopping $1.4 million in prize pools. Suffice to say, there isn’t much “mini” about the upcoming online poker festival.
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Full Tilt’s miniature version of its biggest seasonal online poker festival is the perfect opportunity for casual poker players across Europe to get in on major poker action without breaking their wallets. The Mini-FTOPS is a mirror of Full Tilt’s celebrated FTOPS series (which UK online poker players have dominated of late), but with all buy-ins reduced to approximately 1/10th of the larger rendition. The Main Event features a slightly higher than 1/10th buy-in of $70+$5, as opposed to the $600+$35 traditional FTOPS Main, but also guarantees a much higher scale prize pool of $500,000, whereas the FTOPS Main guaranteed just 2x that at $1 million. For all other events, the 1/10th buy-in is fairly spot on.
Mini FTOPS XXVI will feature a wide range of online poker tournaments. Traditional NL Texas Holdem freezeouts are the dominant variety, but with several knockouts, bounties, Rush poker, turbo style, 6-max and heads-up tourneys in the mix. Three Pot Limit Omaha events are on the schedule, including Event #9, PLO Hi-Lo 6-Max ($22 entry, $10k GTD), Event #14, PLO Hi 6-Max Triple Chance ($33 entry, $15k GTD) and Event #29, PLO Hi Rush ($22 entry, $10k GTD).
The majority of the 31-event schedule offers tournaments with buy-ins/fees of anywhere from $5.50 to $33. Only four events exceed that mount, including one mini-high roller and the Main Event. Event #13 features a $109 buy-in with a straight-up NL Holdem structure and $75k GTD up for grabs. Event #18 carries a $55 price tag and $20k GTD, with a 10-Game Mix, 6-Max multi-entry structure. On the following Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 20th and 21st), the Mini FTOPS XXVI will feature a 2-Day high roller as Event #28, costing $215 to enter and guaranteeing $100k in the prize pool.
The Mini FTOPS XXVI Main Event will get underway on the final day, Sunday, Sept. 21st, at 3:30pm ET (8:30pm GMT). It will cost $70+$5 to buy into the main, with re-entries available in the early levels. The winner of the event will share in a guaranteed $500k prize.
Satellites to the Mini FTOPS XXVI Main Event are currently underway with multiple opportunities to win a seat on a wide scale of price ranges. The cheapest cash buy-in is $0.55 for a ‘Monster to Mini FTOPS’ satellite, scaling up to $11 for a direct-entry multi-table satellite, or $26 for a 9-seat SNG with direct entry. The Monster Mini FTOPS Satellite can also be entered for 100 FTP (Full Tilt points), while 1,875 FTP gets players into the 9-seat SNG Satellite. All told, there are a dozen different satellites awarding seats into the Mini FTOPS Main Event, with FTP and cash buy-ins available for both multi-table and SNG tournaments.