Full Tilt Poker is currently the internet's fastest-growing poker room. When I first signed up for an account back in February 2005, there were perhaps 3000 players at the tables during peak hours. Now, over 25,000 hungry souls try their luck each night. That's a lot of fish in the sea. They have good reason, however, to try and keep swimming- because the games on Full Tilt have never been better.
Full Tilt is the online home to over 40 of the game's top professionals with 52 WSOP bracelets among them.
All of Full Tilt's pros play on the site for at least 10 hours a week at both the lowest and the highest limits. On any given night a player could sidle up to Chris Ferguson in a $1 tournament or a razz freeroll or go headsup with John D'Agostino in a little $500-1,000 limit hold'em action. Since the end of this year's WSOP, Full Tilt has hosted some of online poker's highest limit games. Mike Matusow has been killing a $1,000-$2,000 Omaha hi-lo game with a lineup that includes John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, and David Grey among others. The $200-$400 pot-limit Omaha game often features Team Full Tilt's newest addition, Gus Hansen, and has perhaps the most dramatic swings of any game on the internet right now. $50,000 or $100,000 wins and losses are not uncommon. Pros are always willing to chat with players as well as answer questions- just keep it respectful.
It's not just about high limits on Full Tilt, however. The low-limit action is juicy, juicy juicy, particularly the low-limit-no-limit games at the $50, $100, and $200 buyin levels. Full Tilt spreads limit, no-limit and pot-limit hold'em, Omaha, and Omaha hi-lo as well as stud, stud hi-lo, and razz at limits from $0.05-$0.10 to $1,000-$2,000. In their latest software upgrade, Full Tilt added a new feature not found in any other online poker room-- nolimit hold'em "cap" games. Popularized by the high limit set (the "big game" at Bellagio typically puts a $100,000 cap on the no-limit action), these games place a "cap" on how much a player is allowed to bet on a single hand. For example, in Full Tilt's NLHE "cap" game with $2-$4 blinds and a $400 buy-in, no player can risk more than $120 on a single hand regardless of what they have in their stack. If you're concerned about losing your entire buy-in on one hand, but still love no-limit, this could be the perfect solution for you.
The tournament action on Full Tilt is top-notch and the options are endless. In addition to regular MTTs at the $5.50, $11, $22, $55, and $109 levels that one expects from online poker sites, Full Tilt offers a number of "guaranteed" tournaments every day at buy-ins ranging from $26 to $216. Their excellent satellite system allows players to earn entry "tokens" to these events for as little as $4. There's even incredible variety in the satellites themselves. To win a $26 token, a player can choose from a $4 winnertake- all SNG, a $6 two-table SNG that awards the top four entries, a $6 shorthanded winner-take-all SNG, or an $8 turbo two-table SNG that awards the top five. For one of the best low-limit MTTs on the internet today, try Full Tilt's $26 buyin "$20,000 guaranteed" tournament. It always exceeds the guarantee, first prize approaches $6,000, and over 60% of the field busts out in the first hour. Yum yum.
On the weekends, the guarantees (and the buyins) are stepped up, culminating in the $200+16, $200,000 guaranteed tournament every Sunday where first prize is over $45,000. Half a dozen or more of the site pros play it every weekend. Full Tilt also offers regular H.O.R.S.E. tournaments and was the first online poker site to do so.
Full Tilt is also on the rise in terms of qualifying players to major land-based poker tournaments. They sent over 400 players to the WSOP Main Event this year and run twice-weekly "Winner's Choice" tournaments that award players a $12,000 package to the WPT or World Series Circuit event of their choice. Full Tilt is also running both cash and freeroll satellites to January's Aussie Millions tournament in Melbourne. Even if your bankroll is looking more like pocket change, you can still win a seat through a three-step freeroll qualifying system or by using frequent player points.
Juicy action and the opportunity to check-raise Phil Ivey or put Mike Matusow on tilt? You don't have to ask me twice. I'm sold.
