Full Tilt Poker’s Fall From Grace

Of all the falls from grace in the online poker world, none have been more shocking than the recent demise of one of poker’s major titans. We’ve seen some major turmoil after UIGEA. The Ultimate Bet scandal/Absolute Poker horrified us, especially the lack of any repercussions against the perpetrators. But none have served as a bigger wake-up call than the recent meltdown of the US poker industry. Pt 1 of this will deal with the history, and Pt 2 will be analysis.

The woes can be traced back to the UIGEA, a sketchy piece of legislation attached to the Safe Port Act. Congress members has a long-standing tradition of holding bills hostage unless other members sign their own bills, and UIGEA was tacked on to increase support for a bill to increase the security of American ports. The UIGEA didn’t ban poker outright, nor did it even mention poker once, but nonetheless, banks would take no chances (very ironic given what happened to most of them in just a year, a fitting end I suppose). Partypoker, the biggest provider at the time, completely pulled out of the US market. But Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker remained. The two were colossal sites. The two were gold standards of the industry. Granted, FTP demonstrated a severe lack of competency in its customer relations, but we overlooked that for the rakeback.

Fast forward to Black Friday. Any of us that had money on the site were horrified from day one. Then came the announcement that the DOJ was letting them pay us back, and we could breathe a sigh of relief. Stars sent out checks very quickly, but FTP remained mysteriously silent. Even Phil Ivey, once seen as one of FTP’s foremost leaders (who are the execs anyways?) filed a lawsuit and promised to boycott the prestigious WSOP.  That was just the tip of the iceberg for poker players, though. It took until late June for the trouble to hit the fan. FTP had its Alderney Gaming Commission license revoked. A major industry recognition, its loss meant FTP had no credibility in providing online poker and all play ceased.

Now, FTP is rumored to be in a buyout deal with European investors. FTP has no liquidity and estimated to have over a billion of dollars of liability. Still, it is a major name in the poker industry and is poised to make a major comeback if major changes are made in its management.

For those of you reading this who were Full Tilt Poker players and are looking for a new room I have to give a shout out to 888 Poker.  The 888 Poker bonus is one of the best in the business, with you receiving up to $600!

Big Weekly Online Poker Tournaments

I really enjoy playing multi-table online poker tournaments.  The more entrants and the bigger the prize the better.  This post will look at some of the biggest weekly tournaments hosted at some of the best online poker sites.  I make some of these tournaments part of my weekly schedule and if you enjoy these type of tourneys I suggest you do the same.

Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt is my favourite poker room to play large multi-table poker tournaments.  Full Tilt offers great tournaments all week long, but there are a few each week that I thoroughly enjoy and hate to miss.

$200k Double Deuce

This tourney takes place every Sunday at 4:22pm EST.  There is $200,000 guaranteed and the buy-in is only $20 + $2!  First prize is at least $30,000 every week, which is quite the return on a little $20 investment (150000% return).  The $200k prize pool implies that around 10,000 players will enter.

$750K Sunday Guaranteed

$750,000 is up for grabs every Sunday at 5pm EST.  The buy-in for this event is $200 + $16 and there are many ways to enter this tourney without paying the buy-in (satellites, Full Tilt Points, etc.)  This week the prize pool is being doubled to $1.5M so March 6 is as good a time as any to win this tournament.

The Sunday Brawl

Here is another fun big money tournament at Full Tilt Poker.  Play begins at 2pm EST every Sunday.  The buy-in is $200 + $16 and $40 from every buy-in becomes a bounty on the players head.  The remaining amount goes to the prize pool, with $350k guaranteed every week.  If you happen to get the most knockouts you will also gain a free entry to next weeks Brawl.

Poker Stars

Sunday Million

This is the largest weekly tournament anywhere online.  $1M guaranteed every Sunday with the tourney starting at 4pm EST and the buy-in $215.  This is the biggest and baddest online poker tournament you can play.  To make matters even crazier this coming Sunday, PokerStars is making the prize pool $5,000,000 and guaranteeing $1,000,000 to the winner of the big event, plus the champion will bring home a Lamborghini Gallorado LP560-4!  Definitely check that out if you can.  Winning $1M from an online tournament sounds good to me.

Final Word

Full Tilt and PokerStars have some of the biggest and best weekly online poker tournaments available to players.  If you are looking for poker sites with the best mtt tournaments look no further than these two industry giants.  The PokerStars Sunday Million this coming week is going to be huge and I suggest everyone check it out!

The Full Tilt Poker Black Card

The Full Tilt Poker black card is the newest loyalty program that Full Tilt has put together.  A Black Card is very hard to earn and Full Tilt claims that it is the ultimate recognition of poker status.

How To Earn Your Black Card

Well first of all you need to download Full Tilt Poker and set up an account.  Without an account at Full Tilt there is no chance of earning a Full Tilt Poker Black Card!

Then you must average 500 Full Tilt Points a day over a 100 day span.  That span is constantly rolling so after you’ve played 100 days the oldest day falls off the rolling average and is replaced with the newest day.  In simpler terms your rolling average includes the current day and the previous 99 days.

If you achieve this your Full Tilt Black Card will be mailed to your Full Tilt Poker mailing address!  That’s right it’s a real black card that you can hold.  Not a figurative online black card.

After you’ve earned your Black Card you must maintain a rolling average of 500 Full Tilt Points a day.  If you drop below 500 points you enter a 50 day grace period in which you must get your Full Tilt Points rolling average back up to 500 points per day to maintain your Black Card membership.

Black Card Rewards

Now that you know how to get it, you must be wondering why bother.  Well here is what you get:

• Exclusive access to the Black Card Store.  Spend Full Tilt Points on free cash, Black Card branded merchandise and more.
• Earn 2X the Full Tilt Points at all hours of the day.
• Earn entry to exclusive Black Card member tournaments.
• Enjoy preferred treatment at live tournaments and personalized customer service at Full Tilt Poker.

Earning your Full Tilt Black Card is easy.  Just play a lot at Full Tilt Poker!  Full Tilt is the top poker room online so you can find games at all hours of the day.  If you don’t yet have a Full Tilt account then you can take advantage of the 100% up to $600 Full Tilt Poker bonus when making your first deposit!

Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz Wants in on the Durrrr Challenge

Luke aka FullFlush1 Schwartz recently wrote a blog on Blackbelt Poker saying that he is interested in playing the Durrrr Challenge, but would much prefer to play only around 20K hands or so after seeing how long Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan are taking in this first Durrrr Challenge, taking about 4 months to complete just 20K hands.  FullFlush1 is willing to reduce the odds from 3:1 to just 2:1 if Tom Dwan will agree to shorten the required number of hands.

This matchup would be great for poker because there would definitely be more trash talking and much more excitement than the current Durrrr vs Patrik battle.  FullFlush would also likely choose to play no limit hold’em, which would also be more exciting to follow than the PLO that all the other entrants will likely be choosing.  FullFlush is known for saying what he thinks, no matter how rude or inappropriate that is, which has brought him a lot of press in the online poker community.

Before any new Durrrr Challenge can begin though, the first one has to finish.  Currently Durrrr is up just over $725K after a huge swing that saw Durrrr win $750,000 in a huge 15 hour session.  The two have now played slightly over 20,000 hands so there is still a lot of time for Patrik to make up the difference and get back in the challenge.

You can follow all of this action live from the tables at Full Tilt Poker.  If you are signing up as a new player at Full Tilt remember to use Full Tilt referral code “THEFULLTILT” in order to receive a 100% up to $600 bonus on your first deposit.

Full Tilt Poker Brings Back the $25K Heads Up Championship

After the success of the last $25K NL Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha heads up championships Full TIlt Poker is bringing back the $25K no limit heads up tourney.  The best heads up players from around the world are sure to compete in this big online event including Full Tilt Poker professionals like Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius.  The last time this tournament ran David Singer took down the title when he beat “whitelime” in the finals.  The other two notable mentions included Andy Bloch and Brian Hastings.

This tournament is set to begin at 3Pm EST on Saturday May the 23rd.  The tourney will play down to the final four and then go on break for the evening.  The final four will go back at it at 4pm EST on Sunday the 24th and play down to a champion.  There will likely be sweat tournaments again where you can play in the semi-finalist’s tourney who you think will win it all.  Then if you win your sweat tournament and your player wins the $25K heads up championship you will win an extra prize.

Check out all the action at Full Tilt Poker.  If you are new use Full Tilt referral code “THEFULLTILT‘ when signing up to get your 100% up to $600 bonus on your first deposit.

This tournament could be what brings a relative unknown into the poker spotlight.  Make sure to book the weekend off in order to rail all of this high stake heads up poker action.

Kevin Smith Plays Poker at Full Tilt

Kevin Smith recently announced on his Twitter that he plays poker at Full Tilt under the username : askewsme.  His graph shows that he is not the greatest player, with him down almost $20K in less than 2000 sit and go’s, but I guess being loaded means you don’t have to worry as much about whether you are a top quality player.

Soon after his twitter Smith was found playing in a $22 Full Tilt sit and go with Andy Bloch, where Bloch asked him if he would be attending ante up for Africa.  Smith said he was busy in July shooting a movie so he wouldn’t be able to attend.

This just goes to show that you could be playing with celebrities at Full Tilt without even knowing it or without them being highlighted in red .

Sign up to Full Tilt Poker now using Full Tilt referral code ‘THEFULLTILT’.

Full Tilt Poker Fight Train

Full Tilt has joined forces with UFC and is bringing 10 lucky winners to UFC 97 Redemption.  All of the winners join Full Tilt pro’s Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith and Perry Friedman on the Full Tilt Fight train from Toronto to Montreal on April 17^th.  The main fight of the evening will feature Anderson Silva defending his middleweight title against the challenger, Thales Leites.  The other feature match of the evening will be UFC legend, Chuck Lidell vs Mauricio Rua.

Sign up for Full Tilt Rakeback now!

The ten winners will also be attending two UFC-themed parties and will be able to meet the fighters and chill with the UFC ring girls.  This package is a must have for any MMA fan and it can be yours from Full Tilt today.  Full Tilt will be running three Fight Train Freerolls daily, with the top 18 finishers in each advancing to the Fight Train Weekly Final each Sunday until April 12^th.  The top 2 finishers in each weekly final win the prize packages, which include tickets to the fight, a ride on the Fight Train and 2 nights’ accommodation in Montreal, all for you and a guest.

**Remember to use Full Tilt referral code THEFULLTILT when registering a new account at Full Tilt to receive your Full Tilt Poker bonus.

Durrrr Jumps Back Into the Lead After Good 4th Session

Durrrr had a very good session Monday winning $206,757 off of Patrik Antonius is the fourth session of the durrrr challenge.  3,952 total hands have now been played with Durrrr winning 2,196 of them to build an almost $150K lead.  The challenge has now been played for 12 hours and 37 minutes and if it keeps going at this rate we will have a winner in about 9 weeks.  There have been plenty of swings and lead changes and there are no signs of this changing in the future.

Keep up with the durrrr challenge at the dedicated durrrr challenge tables at Full Tilt Poker.  Sign up for Full Tilt Poker Rakeback now and don’t miss out on any of the incredible high stakes action.

New $10 Minimum Deposit and Micro Limits at Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker has just lowered their minimum deposit down to $10, which is substantially lower than the old minimum deposit of $50.  Full Tilt has also added new micro stake tables with blinds as low as $0.01/$0.02 where players can buy-in with as little as 40 cents.

These changes make Full Tilt Poker at much better place for lower limit players looking to build their poker bankroll.  Full Tilt is now a place where anyone can play poker no matter how large or small their bankroll, Full Tilt is the complete range.

Get Full Tilt Rakeback now and build your bankroll up from the microstakes!

7 Reasons to Play at Full Tilt Poker

1.        Huge Player Base

At Full Tilt Poker you can find games of all varieties and types to suit your liking at any time of the day.  There are also scheduled tournaments running every few minutes with very large player pools.

2.       Initial Deposit Bonus

Full Tilt offers an initial deposit bonus of 100% up to $600.  This bonus is one of the best in the industry and is also one of the easiest initial deposit bonuses to clear.

Get this bonus by using Full Tilt Referral code THEFULLTILT, or by signing up for Full Tilt Poker Rakeback.

3.       Happy Hour!

You can earn double or triple full tilt points by playing in cash games and tournaments during select Happy Hours throughout the day.  Happy hours are a great way to build your FTP collection and can really help you complete other Full Tilt promotions such as gaining Iron Man status.  Check out the Full Tilt Happy Hour schedule.

4.       Full Tilt Pro’s

Full Tilt has hands down the most poker pro’s playing at their site.  You can play in games or tournaments with some of the most well known players in the world including Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.  This can also help your poker bankroll because if you bust out a Full TIlt pro in a tournament with 30 or more players you win the buy-in of the tournament back up to $200.

5.       High Stakes Action

Full Tilt has the highest stake action online.  You can often see Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan battling it out at $500/$1K tables with pots getting as high as $500K some hands.

6.       Big Guarantee Tournaments

Full Tilt runs a new FTOPS series every few months, where the best Full Tilt players and many Full Tilt pro’s try for the big payouts.  Some of the big weekly guarantees include the $750K Sunday Guarantee, the $200K Double Deuce (Buy-in for only $22) and the daily $50K guaranteed fifty-fifty.

7.       27% Rakeback

Full Tilt is the biggest poker room online that offers rakeback.  PokerStars has the biggest player base, but does not offer players anything back in terms of rake.  The fact that Full Tilt, a huge poker room, still offers rakeback to its players sets it apart in the online poker industry.

Get Full Tilt Poker Rakeback now.

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