Full Tilt Poker

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Full Tilt Poker is an online poker card room launched in June 2004 with the involvement of a team of poker professionals, among them Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson.^[1] The real money site can be reached via fulltiltpoker.com and the play money version via fulltiltpoker.net. Full Tilt offers both Windows and Mac software with equal features. Games offered include Texas hold 'em, Omaha High and Hi-Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, and mixed games including H.O.R.S.E., HOSE, and HA (Hold'em and Omaha). In August, 2009, Full Tilt Poker added a new mixed game to their line-up; 7-Game Poker. ^[2]

Tournaments take place throughout the day and often include participation from one of the Team Full Tilt pros. Freeroll tournaments are common. "Sit and Go" tournaments are offered for one, two, three, five, ten, and twenty tables. Tables seat 8 players for the H.O.R.S.E., Razz, Stud, and Stud Eight or Better format and 9 players for Hold 'ems and Omaha variations in each in these tournaments, though some have six players per table and are select tournaments/sit n gos which have turbo blinds (to speed up gameplay). There are also heads up "Sit and Go" in both 2-player and split 4-player or 8-player formats. The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is Full Tilt's poker tournament series. They also offer a "Mini Series of Poker", where players may enter tournaments that that are 1/10th of what it would cost to play in that day's World Series of Poker event.

Contents 1 Team Full Tilt 2 Features 3 Full Tilt on television 4 American players 5 Legal 6 Full Tilt Online Poker Series 7 Records 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit] Team Full Tilt

"Team Full Tilt," made up of the pro players who play regularly on the site and are considered full-fledged members, includes professional players Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham, Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan. In addition to Team Full Tilt, several notable pros are "Full Tilt Pros," who are sponsored by the site but are not full-fledged members. This group includes Farzad Bonyadi, David Chiu, John D'Agostino, Layne Flack, Perry Friedman, Rafe Furst, David Grey, Berry Johnston, Eli Elezra, Jeff Madsen, Paul Wasicka, Erica Schoenberg, Mark Vos, Brad Booth, Nenad Medic, Eddy Scharf, Carlos Mortensen, Chip Jett, Karina Jett, David Oppenheim, Roland De Wolfe, Robert Mizrachi, Michael Craig, Andrew Black, Huck Seed, Rob Hollink, Gavin Smith and Lee Watkinson. The Hendon Mob (Joe Beevers, Ram Vaswani, Barny and Ross Boatman) also makes its online home at Full Tilt.^[3] In March 2008 Team CardRunners (including Mike Schneider and Brian Townsend) were announced to have been signed as Full Tilt pros.^[4] Fult Tilt Poker owns many domains that include the name of rising players, even those who are not affiliated with the cardroom. These domains ultimately redirect to their main site.^[5]

[edit] Features

Full Tilt has "cap limit" games which are played identically to pot-limit or no-limit games, except that the total amount a player can bet in any single hand is capped at 30 times the big blind. A type of tournament added in November 2007 are "Knockout Bounty Tournaments". In these tournaments, a small percentage of the buy in is awarded to the player for each opponent he or she knocks out. Another tournament type is the Super Turbo, a Sit and Go where players only start with 10 big blinds. They offer hand history files for analysis, discussion and conversion using a poker hand converter. An optional "racetrack" view of the table flattens the 3D model in favor of a flat table window. Another site feature is the "Tips from the Pros" newsletter which includes tips from the professional players associated with the card room. Full Tilt also has podcasts, vodcasts and a blog offering information on the site and the game of poker.

FullTiltPoker.net hosts only play money games. These same games are available through Full Tilt Poker alongside the games played for real money. Full Tilt Poker does not offer any other form of gambling.

[edit] Full Tilt on television

Full Tilt Poker is or has been the principal sponsor of a number of poker television programs, including:

• Learn from the Pros
• Poker Championship at Red Rock
• Poker After Dark
• Poker Equalizer
• Face the Ace

[edit] American players

On September 29, 2006, the U.S. Congress passed the SAFE Port Act which includes otherwise unrelated anti-gambling language known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Though a number of major online cardroom operators closed their doors to U.S. players as a result of the legislation, Full Tilt Poker continues to offer its services to U.S. players. The company has stated that poker is a game of skill, and that since Full Tilt Poker operates strictly as a poker room the legislation does not apply to Full Tilt's operations.^[6]

[edit] Legal

On April 29, 2009, Full Tilt was sued civilly in Los Angeles, California, by James Hicks in the case of JAMES HICKS v. TILTWARE LLC; FullTiltPoker.com; TILT PROOF INC.; CHRISTOPHER FERGUSON, a case alleging unfair business practices and the conduct of illegal Internet gaming.^[7] The case primarily seeks an injunction and no specific monetary damages are requested. James Hicks, the plaintiff, is also a Los Angeles lawyer whose firm is representing the plaintiff.

In late 2008, Full Tilt was sued in Nevada by Clonie Gowen, prominent poker professional and former Full Tilt endorser. She claimed that during the formative year (2004) she was offered a 1% ownership in Full Tilt in exchange for her advertising efforts. She admitted in her legal papers that there was no written contract to this effect. Damages of $40 million US are being sought. Full Tilt has characterized the lawsuit as frivolous, and denied liability.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Full Tilt Online Poker Series

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is an online poker tournament series sponsored by Full Tilt Poker. The FTOPS was established in August 2006 and paid out prizes of $2,008,800. Unlike many other poker tournament series, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series is not an annual event, but is held approximately every three months. The most recent FTOPS saw 27,493 participants and a prize pool totaling $11,158,000. ^[8] Like other poker tournament series, the FTOPS consists of multiple tournaments in a variety of different poker games. The games vary from series to series, but have included Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, Pot Limit Omaha High and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, HORSE, and HA. The main event is always a $500+35 buy in No Limit Texas Holdem tournament. Full Tilt also run a series known as 'MiniFTOPS' which is identical to the FTOPS except that the buy-ins are 10% of FTOPS buy ins.

[edit] Records

On July 19, 2009, Full Tilt attempted to beat the world record for the highest number of players playing in an online poker tournament.^[9] This event was part of their fifth anniversary celebration. They successfully broke the old record of 35,000 by hosting a tournament with 50,000 players, but this record was surpassed later that day by PokerStars.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Free play site

v • d • e Team Full Tilt Patrik Antonius · Andy Bloch · Allen Cunningham · Tom Dwan · Chris Ferguson · Phil Gordon · Gus Hansen · Jennifer Harman · Phil Ivey · John Juanda · Howard Lederer · Erick Lindgren · Mike Matusow · Erik Seidel