Full Tilt Poker - Best Sign-up Bonus and Review

Full Tilt Poker Bonus

Full Tilt Poker Review

Full Tilt Poker has launched in June 2004 using the horsepower of a team of poker legends. Some of these profesionals are Howard Lederer (nicknamed "The Professor"), Gus Hunsen ("The Great Dane"), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. The marketing strategy of the room is to constantly atract professional poker players to join their "Full Tilt Pros" team. They are sponsored by the poker room and promote it. You can play, chat and learn from the Pros by joining them at the tables. With 32 WSOP bracelets between them, your poker satisfaction is guaranteed. You can easily spot the table at which the Pros are playing because the game/table line in the lobby list is colored in red instead of black.

The Pros team make FullTilt unique and is the atractor of the best poker players. It allowed FullTiltPoker to become the first room to offer ultra high-stakes games with $1,000/$2,000 stakes for Limit Hold'em. Many events include the participation of a Pros, for ex. the tournaments that take place throughout the day. This team also plays a central role in a series of FullTilt sponsored TV programs: Learn from the Pros, Poker Equalizer, Poker Championship at Red Rock.

This room has the reputation of a tough nut to crack because the majority of players know what good poker means. Actually it refers to medium/high stakes poker. It's easier to play at low level tables, but limit hold'em can still be a challenge even at low stakes. The hot atmosphere at FullTilPoker was relaxed after 2006 by the fishy U.S. players that moved to FullTilt from other poker rooms that left the U.S. market after UIGEA.

Besides standard No Limit/Pot Limit games, Full Tilt Poker adds a special flavor to these games called "Cap-Limit". Hands are played exactly as NL/PL games until the Cap is reached, after that all remaining players will be considered all-in. It means that you can wager a maximum amount of money for each hand (In $.50/$1 stakes the max is $30). Such an "obstacle" will save you from your Risk of Ruin plays. At the same time it will not allow other players to push you off because they can bet only up to the cap limit. Cap-Limit games represents a transitional phase for limit players wanting to enter the No-Limit arena.

FullTiltPoker definitely knows how to make its poker room a favourite place for his players. After registering at FullTilt you'll find out that it offers the Full Tilt Points (FTP) system. When playing at real money games, you'll earn FTPs: one point per raked dollar that is dropped. Most poker rooms gives your one point maximum per hand. FullTilt raises this maximum to 3 points. You can use your FTPs for special tournaments and freerolls, but the pleasant news is that your can buy items from their Full Tilt Store: clothes, jerseys with Your Name embroided!

Approximately every three months, FullTilt is sponsoring a series of tournaments called Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). On of the latest FTOPS had 27,493 participants and a $11,158,000 prize pool. The FTOPS that started on February 2008 is comprised of 20 events each hosted by a FullTilt Pro.

Full Tilt Poker is not part of any poker network. It means that you'll not find the kind of action offered by FullTilt in other poker rooms. The room operates under a gaming license from Kahnawake Gaming Comission.

Software and Playability

Table

Lobby

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FullTiltPoker is constantly improving its software by listening to the pros and players opinions. It uses a privately developed software and it gives them better control over the room's features. A poker client for Mac users is also available. You can also run FullTilt under Linux using the Wine package.

Player Notes, although being a basic room feature, are well thought: you can access the "player notes" by double clicking the avatar of an user. Besides the note itself, you can mark the opponent with a color (for ex. I use the red color to mark aggressive players). After you save your note, you can see it just by pointing your mouse over the player's avatar, and a hint window will show up. But what is more important, you are able to see your notes and the colors you gave to your oppenents in the lobby! In the table's player list in the right of the main grid, you'll see a small colored triangle, by moving the mouse above that player you'll see the note you made about him.

At FullTilt you'll enjoy the cartoon-like avatars, each with four emotions (normal, happy, angry and confused). which you can change in the game by right clicking on your avatar. Notice, that when you are changing your avatar and playing at a table at the same time, you should leave the table and join it again in order to see the new avatar. If you have Enough FullTiltPoker points you can ask for a custom avatar! (Notice that the Pros have there own avatars).

Multi-table play is comfortable due to mini-view table functions and the TimeBank feature. TimeBank gives you the little extra time that may be needed to make a hard decision. The table layout can be saved, and the next time you'll enter the room the tables will be arranged in that order. More than one layouts can be saved. There are two table views: classic and racetrack, both with and without avatars.

A recently added functionality are the default buy-in preferences (buy-ins and auto-rebuys for ring games). You can choose different settings for NL/PL games.

As of November 2007, FullTilt introduced Knockout Bounty Tournaments where you are paid when you knock a player out. A part of the buy-in is called a player bounty. When you knock a player his bounty is credited to you. For ex., if the buy-in is $10+$1, the bounty will be $2.

A simple yet great feature is the clock you see in the lobby. Since all times are in ET, it's a good clue to understand when exactly an event will take place.

Game Variety & Limits

Full Tilt Poker is excelling in game variations. Besides standard games like Texas hold 'em, Omaha High and Hi-Lo, you are able to play Razz, Seven Card Stud, Stud Hi-Lo. Furthermore, FullTilt offers some variations that are rarely available at other poker rooms, these are mixed games: H.O.R.S.E., HOSE, and HA (Texas and Omaha). Mixed games are offered in both cash games and tournaments.

*HORSE is a fixed limit game. Each letter means a different game. The game type is changed at each tournament level. H = Texas Hold'em, O = Omaha Hi/Lo - Eight or better, R = Razz, S = Seven Card Stud High, E - Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo - Eight or better.

The limits for Limit Texas Hold'em ranges from low stakes $0.25/$0.50 up to high stakes $1,000/$2,000. There is always a lot of action at low and medium stakes ($0.25/$0.50 to $8/$16). The higher you go, the more the game will diversify: lot's of raises, bluffing, agressivelly played pocket cards that normally shouldn't be played etc.

No Limit Hold'em is mostly played from $0.05/$0.10 up to $2/$4. The average pot at $2/$4 NL Holdem is around $60 (raging from $30 to $120).

There is action at Omaha Hi tables up to $2/$4 games. Omaha Hi/Lo is frequently played up to $8/$16 stakes.

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