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.

Software Issues[]

Pros

Cons

Avatars are cute, and can be user-changed between four displayable "emotions"
Has decent "player note" function with color-coding, and tooltip note viewing
Allows user to "rotate" table in viewing window, placing themselves at any relative seat.
Software shows total pot size including current bets in this round (configurable)
Nice hand history viewer with a graphic view of a mini-table showing everyone's hands (who showed).
Detachable and expandable chat window for each table that stays "relatively glued" to the table.
Easy to find satellites to a tournament, by following the embedded satellite links
Has $100 freerolls open to everyone about six times per day.

Fewer Avatars to select from than Poker Stars.
Indication that you have left a note on a player is subtle and easy to overlook
Bet slider in NLHE doesn't work too well. I have to type too much.
When you "sit out", your cash balance is hidden, so you can't tell how much you have in play at a table without hovering over your chair
No way to expand text box in hand history viewer

Games spread[]

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

No-limit hold 'em[]

Designation	Small blind	Large blind	Min buy-in (20 BB)	Max buy-in (100 BB)	6-max	Full ring (9 seats)	Remarks
$0.05/$0.10	5c	10c	$2	$10	6-max	full ring
$0.10/$0.25	10c	25c	$4	$20	6-max	full ring
$0.25/$0.50	25c	50c	$10	$50	6-max	full ring
$0.50/$1	50c	$1	$20	$100	6-max	full ring	Also Erik Seidel special table; 10-15 games at peak times;
$1/$2	$1	$2	$40	$200	6-max	full ring	Also Phil Ivey special table
$2/$4	$2	$4	$80	$400	6-max	full ring	Also John D'Agostino special table
$3/$6	$3	$6	$120	$600	6-max	full ring
$5/$10	$5	$10	$200	$1000	6-max	full ring	Starting around here, the 6-max appears to have heavier traffic
$10/$20	$10	$20	$400	$2000	6-max	full ring
$25/$50	$25	$50	$1000	$5000	6-max	full ring
$50/$100	$50	$100	$2000	$10000	6-max	full ring

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

$0.25/0.50
$0.50/1
$1/2
$2/4

The ones listed above are spread and go sporadically.

$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.

Payout structure[]

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:

Place	9 paid	18 paid	27 paid	36 paid	45 paid	54 paid	63 paid
Total entries						451 -540 ?
1st						25%
2nd						15.5%
3rd						11.25%
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th - 20th
21st - 30th

Reviews[]

Full Tilt Poker Reviews