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.

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Player Base for Various Poker Sites

This post will take a quick look at some of the more popular online poker betting sites and see just how many players are playing cash games or tournaments online at peak hours.  The more players playing at the poker room, the more options you as a player will have for game variety, stake and tournament size.  Poker Scout is a great tool to see how much traffic each online poker room had on any given day.

The biggest three online poker rooms are PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Party Poker, so we will take a look at these three first.

PokerStars

PokerStars averages around 30,400 cash game players online at any given time during the day.  At peak hours the cash game traffic can get up close to 50,000 people online.  On top of these cash game players there are usually around 180,000 tournament players playing in about 8000 PokerStars tournaments at any given time during the day.  PokerStars has continued to increase its player base over the past month and it looks to continue to grow into the future.

Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker, on the other hand, usually has around 90,000 total players online, which includes an average of about 18,000 cash game players and 72,000 tourney players.  Over the last 6 months Full Tilt has grown by a greater percentage than PokerStars and looks to grab a larger marketshare from PokerStars in the future.  The development of rush poker by Full Tilt will likely grab more of PokerStars players over time.

Party Poker

The next biggest online poker room is Party Poker, but there is a huge drop off from the big two players.  Party Poker averages around 20,000 total players online at a given time and about 5,000 of these players enjoy cash games.  Party has seen a slight increase in players over the past six months, but this is levelling off.  Party Poker seems to be becoming just another one of the smaller poker rooms that can’t compete with the big two.

UB/Absolute Poker

UB, previously known as Ultimate Bet, shares players with Absolute Poker and even after cheating players and rebranding in order to try to gain a new identity these websites are quickly growing together and their merge has allowed for more games on the Cereus network that they are apart of.  This in turn will continue to bring in more players looking for an alternative to Full Tilt and PokerStars.  The network currently has about 11,000 players online at a time with 2,500 of these being cash game players.  Time will tell if these poker rooms can play fair and gain a larger market share from the top rooms.

Building your bankroll can be greatly helped by clearing online poker bonuses at various websites.  These big 5 sites are great options for those of you interested in building your bankroll through bonuses because there are lots of games to be played and the bonuses are actually very player friendly.

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 .

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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.

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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.

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Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan Strikes first in Heads Up Challenge

The Tom Dwan vs Patrick Antonius heads up challenge has officially begun.  The two have four-tabled $200/$400 PLO Hi for almost 5 hours now and Tom Dwan has managed to build a lead.  Of the 1541 hands that have been played so far Tom has won 853 and is up $134, 911.50.  According to a written agreement in the chat at the end of their last session the challenge will continue tomorrow, February 20th at around 7am EST.

Sign up for Full Tilt Poker rakeback now and follow the action while you build your bankroll at Full Tilt.

5 Tips To Help You Beat Full Tilt Tier 1 & 2 Sit and Go’s

Full Tilt’s $8 tier 1 and $24 tier 2 sit and go tournaments can be very good value for the players who are able to use the tournament structure to their advantage.  The fact that 1 out of every 3 players get paid is different than most 18 player tournaments in which only 4 players cash.  The extra two players cashing, along with 1^st through 5^th being the same prize allows you to play a much tighter game in order to hold on for a cash.  Another reason the tournaments can be good value is because the first half of the tournament is played at two tables.  If your table doesn’t play as many hands as the other this means that there is a greater chance of players from the other table busting before players from yours.  A lot of players will just be scheduled tournament players who are used to very large fields and are just looking for tokens to some bigger buy-in MTT’s.  You can take advantage of these players by using the tournaments structure to your advantage.  Here’s how:

Play tight and aggressive early on

Your objective early in the tournament is to stay close to your starting chip count and not play many hands.  If you do get a big hand early of course you should play it and try to gain some chips or double up.  Play big hands aggressively at this stage though.  You do not want to let people catch hands against you and bust you from the tournament at this stage.  Remember to stay tight.  It’s actually possible to cash in these tournaments without every playing a hand.  Extremely rare, but possible.

Slow down your table

You can slow down your table by taking the maximum amount of time allowed for you to make every decision.  The logic behind this is that if your table plays fewer hands than the second table, the second table players will have more hands to possibly bust on, as well as have more blinds being put into the middle.  Obviously once you reach the final table this is no longer beneficial.

All in or fold with 10 times the big blind or less

Once the blinds have increased to a point where you have 10 times the big blind or less you have to start either pushing or folding.  You can no longer afford to call or raise because you don’t have enough chips to make moves after the flop.  At this point the only call you should possibly be making is from the small blind, with no other callers in front of you.

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Watch the blind increases

Once it gets down near the bubble the blinds will be very large.  At this point it would be smart to start managing the blinds are trying to be in the button seat when the big blinds increase.  The 200 chip difference between levels could be the little difference between bubbling and cashing.

Do not be the bubble boy

This goes without saying.  You do not want to finish in 7^th position and have played the entire tourney with nothing to show for it.  If you are a shorter stack near the bubble you should be checking if you or other short stacks will be having their chips forced in first.  If other players will be forced in by the blinds before you, it may be smart to wait and hope that their cards don’t hold up when they are pushed all-in.  If it is you who will be the next person forced in you should be looking to push all-in sooner rather than later.  When choosing when to move in you should take into consideration your position, the other players chip stacks and tendencies and of course your hole cards.  A perfect situation would be pushing from the button with a good hand on players in about 4^th or 5^th who would not want to risk crippling their stacks and doubling you up.

On the other hand if you have managed to develop a large stack heading into the late stages of the tournament you should try to coast into the money and not risk your chips.  You should try not to play many pots with other large stacks.  Remember there is no difference in prize money between first and fifth so be stingy at this point and don’t risk your chips.

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5 Tips to Improve Your Full Tilt Super Turbo Game

Full Tilt’s super turbo sit and go’s have a very unique structure which can make them very profitable if you know how to use this unique structure to your advantage.  In the super turbo’s players start with only 300 chips and the blinds at 15/30, with the blinds increasing every 3 minutes. Full Tilt’s super turbo tourneys can be a good value for the player because the fee is a little bit lower than usual and because a lot of the players who play them do it when they are on tilt because they feel the super turbo’s are just lotteries.  However, I’m here to tell you they are not lotteries and there are many ways to increase your advantage in these tournaments.  Here are 5 tips that will help you beat the Full Tilt super turbo sng games and hopefully increase your poker bankroll.

Ship it in or fold

You start with only 10 times the big blind and this means you should forget about calling and only be pushing all-in or folding.  If you get lucky and double up early to about 20 times the big blind you can start doing standard raises again, but be aware that most of the other players will still be either pushing or folding, which means your raise is still basically as good as putting all of their chips in.  Slow playing with this small amount of chips will not work because the other players will be just as likely to call an all in as they would a minimum raise.  The one exception for making a call might be in the small blind with a monster.  Calling in the small blind can often induce a big blind push because it implies weakness.

Play tight for the first couple levels

Since you start with only 10 big blinds you want to push with a good hand, at least early on.  There are 9 players in the tournament, which means you get to see a lot of hands in the early stages without putting in many blinds.  If players start going out and the blinds increase and start coming faster you will have to change the range of hands you will move in with.  A common mistake in these tournaments is feeling the need to push early and often.   Be patient for the first couple levels and only move your chips in with a quality hand.

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Use your position

Position is extremely important in this tournament structure.  You should be pushing hands from the button that you would have folded under the gun.  An example would be that (Ace, Nine) is an easy fold under the gun, but would likely be a push from the button with no previous callers.

Increase your range short-handed

As the amount of players remaining decreases your range of hands to push with should grow.  The fewer players remaining, the greater the chance that your hand is the best at the table.  For example, 9-handed (A,5) doesn’t look so great, but 4-handed it becomes much stronger.

Avoid the bubble

This is easier said than done, but a 4^th place finish is the worst position possible and they can mess with your head.  If the tournament is down to 5 or 6 players and you have a short stack, it’s time to start pushing from good positions with a wide range of hands and hope to double up or steal some blinds.  Don’t let yourself blind out.  6^th place prize money is the same as 4^th, $0.

You can find Full Tilt super turbo sit and go’s with buy-ins anywhere from $3.50 to $70 at Full Tilt Poker.

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Antonius Accepts Tom “Durrrr” Dwan’s $1.5 Million Heads Up Challenge

If you haven’t heard, Tom Dwan, aka Durrrr, put out a challenge to any player in the world to play him in high limit heads up no limit hold’em or pot limit omaha at 4 tables simultaneously for 50,000 hands.   What makes the challenge really interesting is that if Dwan wins his challenger must pay him $500K, but if Dwan loses he pays the challenger $1.5 Million!  The 3 to 1 ratio shows just how confident Dwan is that he will come out on top, but it is also a very good value challenge for many top poker professionals.

Patrick Antonius was the first player to accept Tom’s offer to play in this heads up Challenge with Phil Ivey and David Benyamine close behind.

Full Tilt Poker has already created “durrrr challenge” tables in the $200/$400 PL Omaha section of their software in preparation for the challenge.  Antonius had the choice and decided to play PL Omaha.  The challenge will start in a week or two and we will keep you posted on the outcomes.  Whatever happens you can be sure that this event will be followed with the utmost attention and will be very good for online poker as a whole.  It’s anyones game as these are two of the best poker players in the world.  One thing that we can be sure of is there will be many big pots with lots of money exchanging hands and some huge bragging rights on the line.  One player will end the challenge with a big increase in their poker bankroll, while the others may be completely crippled.

Catch all the action at the Full Tilt tables by signing up for Full Tilt Poker Rakeback now.