Full Tilt Poker Review

Full Tilt Poker

Play with the pros! Full Tilt Poker is taking a shot at the big time. So far they've been doing almost everything right, and are now one of the top three sites in terms of active players.

They've got the big name endorsements. More than that, people like Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, and several other top pros are actually involved with running the company. They also provide a public face,writing weekly poker advice emails for the players and playing on the site quite frequently. These guys know poker, and they know what players want. They've hired some quality support staff, and they don't mess around with cashouts.

The software is a nice balance between cartoony and boring. For the record,I'm one of several monkeys. A very nice feature is "put me here", allowing you to choose exactly where you want your seat displayed in the window. This makes multitabling on a small monitor a breeze (I can rotate the tables so all my seats are visible at once - this way I can keep track of which tables I have cards at). They also offer a "pot" sized button for No Limit (and Pot Limit I assume) which makes correct bet sizing much easier. It runs fast, and even on my clunker, I can play three tables at once. Full Tilt is also the only medium sized or bigger site that offers Razz (lowball stud), HORSE (Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Stud, Stud High Low) tournaments.

The player pool is a little tougher than some sites for the moment, since it was poker geeks who first got excited by a heavily player-influenced site, but the stars are drawing a steady flow of fish to the room. Promotions like "win a piece of Jesus' WSOP winnings" are a definate draw.

Full Tilt Poker are doing well so far, and I really hope they grow. I love the software, and their seemingly friendly attitude to the players (sometimes, especially at casino-run skins, it feels like we players are an inconvenience, or the enemy). To top it all off, Full Tilt also offer a very nice bonus (and it clears even at micro limits, so everyone is happy).

DISADVANTAGES OF FULL TILT POKER

Shark infested waters
Play with the pros is right! While there is a large population at Full Tilt, it is also one of the most difficult games to beat.
Software allows very limited play
While the graphics are cool, the actual game play is very limiting. For example you cannot fold your hand and show your cards - you may only show if you do not fold. You also cannot rabbit hunt or show just one of your cards.

Bonus Match:	100%
Bonus Max:	$600

Deposit Bonus Information:
Full Tilt offer a 100% match up to $600 bonus (and have fairly frequent reloads). It clears in increments of $10 (100 points for $10, one point per dollar in rake for every pot you are dealt cards in) which is fairly standard. What is nice is that tournament play counts towards clearing bonuses, and that you can earn partial points, so there's no threshold to worry about - EVERY raked hand clears a little bit of bonus.

You can deposit, claim the bonus, and then withdraw most of your money, so you are not tying up $600 for more than 2 or 3 days.

The clearance rate obviously varies depending on how big the pots are getting in your games, but I was getting about 40 points per table hour at $1-2.