Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker debuted in 2004 with greater than usual attention for a poker site startup because of the site's endorsement by various stars including Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, and others. On April 15th 2011 Full Tilt Poker was part of the "Black Friday" raid by the United States Department of Justice. The DOJ seized assets and effectively shut down the website. It was later found that the site did not have all funds on hand and had been operating on player deposits. The Rationale Group, aka PokerStars purchased the bad debts of Full Tilt Poker as part of its own Black Friday settlement with the US DOJ. All player funds were paid back, although the process took over a year for USA based players.

Full Tilt was then reopened for business in the year 2013. Full Tilt Poker was rebranded to "Full Tilt" in 2014 as part of Rationale's move to add casino gaming and sportsbetting to the site, no longer merely focusing on online poker. In 2014 Full Tilt was sold off to Amaya Gaming, along with Poker Stars, in a massive debt funded leveraged buyout offer.

Deposit Bonuses and Rakeback
Full Tilt Poker, pre Black-Friday offered 27% flat rakeback to clients signing up through rakeback affiliates. However, as of the reopening of Full Tilt Poker in 2014 by the new owners, the Rational Group (the owners and operators of PokerStars) the flat rakeback program was removed. There is no longer any rakeback at Full Tilt Poker.

The initial deposit bonus is a 100% matching bonus. The maximum amount of the deposit bonus match is $600. Thus, if one deposits $300, one will receive a $300 matching bonus. If one deposits $600 they will have capped the bonus at $600. Higher deposit amounts do not yield higher bonuses.

The VIP program yields a maximum "rakeback-equivalent" of 30% when reaching "Black Card" status.

Quality of opposition
Cash games are average to weak. Low buy-in SnGs are way soft.

Customer Service / Cashout Issues
None known.

Cashout Times
Cashouts to e-wallets come in mere minutes now that Rational Group owns and operates FTP. Maximum Skrill and Neteller withdrawals up to 50k USD per transaction.

Limit hold'em
from microlimit HE to PLHE to NLHE.

Omaha High
same as above

Omaha H/L
ditto

Stud
same, but only the 0.25-0.50 and $2-4 are consistent

Stud H/L
there, but no one is playing

Razz
a couple of games are usually going The ones listed above are spread and go sporadically.
 * $0.25/0.50
 * $0.50/1
 * $1/2
 * $2/4
 * $3/6 (50 cent ante, $1 bring-in) - seems to go pretty regularly

Observations
Use this area to record observations of games running at a specific point in time before they can be generalized into remarks above.

Tuesday Eastern US afternoon
2006-04-11 20:42 UTC (16:42 EDT) Hold 'em:
 * $100/200 limit heads up and $50/100 6-max each have one player waiting
 * $30/60 limit HU table going
 * $15/30 speed 6-max limit table going and full, 3 waiting
 * another $15/30 limit 6-max table going and full, 1 waiting
 * $10/20 Corey Bierria special table is going shorthanded
 * $10/20 NL 6-max - 4 games going, ranging from 4 to full
 * $8/16 lim one full game, 6 waiting
 * $5/10 lim full ring, two full games, 2 waiting
 * $5/10 Allen Cunningham is almost full
 * $5/10 lim 6-max has 4 full games

Tuesday Eastern US evening
2006-04-12 00:41 UTC (4/11 20:41 EDT) Razz:
 * $20/40: 5 playing
 * $15/30: heads-up table full
 * $5/10: 4 playing
 * $3/6: full table (1 waiting)
 * $2/4: Howard Lederer 6 playing
 * $1/2: 7 playing
 * 25/50c: full table (none waiting)

NLHE: full ring except the celebs (8 seats)
 * 50c-$1: 16 tables, lists btw 1 and 4, Clonie Gowen full
 * $1-2: 11 full games, deep waiting list, 1 empty table, 1 at Ivey's table
 * $2-4: 5 full games, 2 on most waiting lists, empty table and D'Agostino's table empty

Tuesday Eastern US night
2006-04-12 03:49 UTC (4/11 23:49 EDT) Razz:
 * $20/40: 2 playing
 * $15/30: heads-up table one ready
 * $5/10: full
 * $5/10 HU: full
 * $3/6: 7 playincg
 * $2/4: Howard Lederer full, 2 waiting
 * $2/4: 2 playing
 * $1/2: 7/8
 * 50c/$1: 6/8
 * 25/50c: 8/8, 7/8

Wednesday US afternoon
2006-04-12 22:04 UTC (18:04 EDT)

Razz:
 * $8/16: 8/8
 * $3/6: 6/8
 * $2/4: 5/8
 * 25/50c: 2 full tables, 1 waiting

Wednesday Eastern US night
2006-04-13 02:27 UTC (4/12 22:27 EDT)

Razz:
 * $8/16 David Singer: 5/7
 * $3/6: 5/8
 * $2/4 Lederer: 7/7
 * $2/4: 5/8
 * $1/2: 7/8
 * 25/50c: 7/8 and 6/8

NLHE (selected levels, full ring):
 * 50c-$1: 15 full games, 8/9, short waiting lists (0-2)
 * $1-$2: 12 full games, 8/9, short waiting lists (0-2)
 * $1-2 Ivey: 8/8
 * $2-4: 5 full games, wait 0-5
 * $2-4 Juanda: 8/8, wait 5
 * $3-6: 5 full, 1/9, wait 0-3
 * $5-10: 2 full, wait 1
 * $25/50 6-max: 4/6

Stud hi/lo:
 * 25c/50c: 8/8 (ONLY game going)

Stud high:
 * $5/10 Keith Sexton: 7/7
 * $2/4 Alan Boston: 7/7
 * 50c/$1: 6/8

Friday Eastern US evening
2006-04-14 23:48 UTC (19:48 EDT)

NLHE (selected full ring)
 * 50c-$1: 12 full games, 1-3 wait.  Gowen is empty.
 * $1-$2: 11 full, 1-3 wait
 * $1-2 Ivey: 8/8, 2 wait
 * $2-4: 4 full, 2-4 wait, D'Ag empty
 * $3-6: 3 full, 2-4 wait
 * $5-10: 1 full, 1 wait (33% to the flop)

Razz:
 * $1/2: 7/8
 * 50c/$1: 7/8
 * 25c/50c: 8/8, 0 wait, 2/8

PLOH:
 * 5c-10c: 9/9, 9/9, 7/9, 0 wait
 * 10c-25c: 3/9
 * 25-50: 8/9, 8/9, 7/9
 * 50-$1: 9/9, 0 wait

Tuesday Eastern US early afternoon
2006-04-11 17:38 UTC (13:38 EDT)

HE:
 * $25/50 NL: 5/6
 * $15/30 L speed: 5/6
 * $15/30 L: 6/6
 * $10/20 NL: 6/6, 1/6
 * $8/16 L: 6/6
 * $5/10 L: 9/9, three 6/6, two 5/6
 * $5/10 NL: two 6/6, 1 wait

19:37 UTC (15:37 EDT)
 * $3/6 L: two 9/9, 1-2 wait, three 6/6, 2-3 wait
 * $3/6 N: 9/9, 8/9, 6/6, three 5/6, 1/6, no wait for any
 * $2/4 L: two 9/9, 1-3 wait, three 6/6, 0-1 wait, Juanda 8/8, 1 wait
 * $2/4 NL: three 9/9, 3-6 wait, 6/9; seven 6/6, 0-2 wait.

Tuesday-Wednesday Eastern US overnight
2006-05-01 08:06 UTC (04:06 EDT)

HE:
 * 50c-$1 N: six 9/9, 0-1 wait, 14 6/6, 4/6, 4/6, Gowen 4/8
 * $1-2 N: nine 9/9, 0-4 wait, 2/9, eight 6/6, no wait, one 5/6, four 4/6, three 3/6, Ivey 4/8

Thursday-Friday Eastern US overnight
2006-05-05 08:34 UTC (3:34 EDT)

HE:
 * 50c-$1 N: seven 9/9, 0-1 wait, two 8/9, 4/9, 18 6/6, 0 wait, 4/6

Tournaments spread
Everything from 8 player Razz SnGs to 18 player NLHE to large MTTs. Some private HORSE tourneys as well. SnGs can take a while to get going since this site seems to need players.

Competition in the lower buy-in tournaments ($10 and lower) is the softest I have ever seen.

General payout structure
The number of places paid is varied so that roughly 10% of the tournament finishes in the money, rounded to the nearest table of nine.

Payouts:

Reviews

 * Full Tilt Poker Reviews