Two Russians, a German and a Brit had a chance at $50,000 each if they could defeat the Full Tilt Professionals in three heads-up matches but no one could make it beyond Round 1.
As consolation two of the challengers walked away with $5,000 each to show for their efforts.
chris_munich from Germany and BENDER118 from Russia both won their first matches against Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom, respectively, while the other two challengers aleksleon and coles4038 were shut out in Round 1.
Hansen Crushes Aleksleaon, Finishes BENDER118 in Round 2
Danish superstar Gus Hansen played two Round 1 matches on Sunday and had two entirely different experiences.
Against Aleksleon, Hansen jumped out to a big lead early by catching the Russian bluffing big on the river. The board read 9♦ 4♠ 6♦ 7♦ 6♥ and Hansen called with 3-5 for the worst possible straight.
The Russian was bluffing with ace-high.
Hansen never looked back in that match, finishing off his opponent in just 21 hands which was the shortest match of the day.
Against BENDER118, however, Hansen fared far worse.
The challenger dominated the match, winning the majority of pots without showdown, and even garnered praise from the Full Tilt pro after Hansen folded in a big four-bet pot. “Nice play,” wrote Hansen in the chat box.
Hansen doubled up to 22 big blinds with KK against A♦ 6♣ and it looked like he would take a commanding lead when BENDER118 shoved over the top of Hansen's button-limp with Q-T.
Hansen snap-called with A-T but couldn't dodge the queen on the river.
In Round 2, though, Hansen won a big flip early in the match with pocket treys against A-J. BENDER118 was crippled and couldn't recover.
chris_munich Scores One Against Isildur1
Similar to the Great Dane's day, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom won one of his Round 1 matches but lost the other.
German chris_munich battled hard against Blom and accumulated a roughly two to one chip lead over the FTP pro before getting dealt a dream hand.
Blom had just seven big blinds and shoved in with K♦ 9♦. The German woke up with pocket aces and they held up for a $5,000 score.
Chris's second match against Blom lasted just 37 hands. Blom won a massive 100 big-blind pot when he flopped a straight with 6-5 and then got it all in when he flopped middle set with pocket fours.
Just to add insult to injury Blom made quads on the river to eliminate the German and officially end the challengers' hopes at scoring that $50,000.
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