FTOPS main event winner collects $336 218

Someone who is clearly an action movie fan took home a bank-boosting winner's check of $336 218 at the weekend, truimphing in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) main event.

Using the "Die Hard" movie character "John_McClane17" as his handle and inspiration the player beat a field of 3 798 - an FTOPS main event record turnout - to win the fourth FTOPS main event and collect the big prize. Over 500 players made the money bubble, 15 of them in the $10 000 range - not a bad return for the buy-in investment of $500 + $35.

John_McClane17's final heads up was against a player using the handle "KingDan23", with the latter holding a slight lead which eventually went as high as a 3 to 1 advantage, but the vagaries of the game, McClane skill and good luck all played a hand in first equalising and then overtaking the lead and finally giving the game to the Die Hard fan. KingDan still collected a very creditable check for $203 193 for his efforts.

The 10-event series pulled in a total of over 17 000 players, creating a prize pool that approached $6 million, to record a 25 percent growth over the last time the event was held.