The first event of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series XV (FTOPS) played out Wednesday night. The $1 million guaranteed No Limit Hold’em tournament had a buy-in of $216 and attracted 5,646 players. The top 720 participants finished in the money.

While the attendance in this year’s first event was a 20% increase over the attendance of the kickoff event for FTOPS XIV, the field was somewhat smaller than the turnout for the first event of FTOPS XII in which 5,712 players participated in what turned out to be one of the largest events in Full Tilt’s history. Claiming victory in Wednesday was “SolidGoldman24k” who turned his $216 dollar investment into $151,000. “PHHSKid99” took second place and actually ended up with more than the first place finisher with $176,000.

Taking third place was “MiltOnTilt” who claimed the $96,000 third place purse. Hailing from New York, “MiltOnTilt” is starting off 2010 in great fashion. Last week, he took first in the $215 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event on Pokerstars. In January, “MiltOnTilt” earned $26,000 for his final table finish at a high-stakes Full tilt $1K Monday event.

“SoulCollector22” has also been on a good run finishing in fourth place, collecting $72,000. In Event 16 of FTOPS XIV, “SoulCollector22” was the second place finisher earning $35,000 and a month later he finished in the final table of a Full Tilt Poker $40,000 guaranteed tournament earning him $11,000.

FTOPS XV is host to 27 different events and offers a combined guaranteed prize pool of $17 million. Two events are scheduled for today. The $216 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better Knockout event with a total guaranteed prize pool of $250,000 is scheduled for 14:00 ET followed 7 hours later by a $535 No Limit Hold’em 3X Shootout hosted by Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby with $350,000 in guaranteed prize money.

The big $535 FTOPS XV Main Event guaranteeing $2.5 million is scheduled to begin at 18:00 on Sunday, February 21st. At the FTOPS XIV Main Event, “zhivago2” defeated 5,471 players to claim the first place prize of $418,000 with the top 18 players banking a minimum of $10,000.

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