Full Tilt Poker Review

Intro:

The self-styled ‘Home of the pros’, even casual players are usually well aware of Full Tilt.
Since launching in 2004, a relentless marketing campaign has seen their reputation and traffic sky-rocket – it is second only to PokerStars in terms of active players, with around 10,500 ring-game players & over 70,000 tournament players during peak hours.
Of course the site is most famous for it’s dazzling array of sponsored professionals, including the likes of Phil Ivey & Patrik Antonius – some of the biggest cash games online happen on their tables so you can either watch the best in the world in action or play yourself in a huge variety of games right down to the micro-stakes.

Banking:

You can make deposits by pretty much any means possible. Of course Visa, MasterCard, Solo, Switch & Maestro are all accepted, as well as Neteller, Moneybookers & a number of other European wire transfer sites. They also offer cash transfers (US only) where you can walk into over 100,000 locations and deposit your account with hard cash in person. The minimum deposit & withdrawal is usually $50.

Game Variety:

As you would expect, you can play almost any form of poker you want on Full Tilt. All the usual Hold ‘Em & Omaha games are covered, as well as Stud, Razz, & a wide variety of mixed games such as HORSE, HOSE, HEROS & HA. Hold ‘Em games range from the $0.05/$0.10 micros right up to $500/$1000 – the biggest game anywhere online. Omaha (PLO & o8) are the same levels, with a $2,000/$4,000 for the really big o8 hitters. Stud (hi & hi/lo) & Razz are offered from $0.25/$0.50 to $2,000/$4,000, while the mixed games generally start at $0.05/$0.10 and go up to $500/$1000.
Sit and go’s start for free & can go right up to $5,000 if you feel, while their MTT selection is similarly massive. FT offer some of the most famous online tournaments in the world, including the Sunday Mulligan, the Sunday Brawl & the flagship event, the $750k GTD.

Competition:

The standard of play at Full Tilt is generally some of the highest around. Though the small stakes games do have large amounts of poor players (as all sites do), as you go through the limits you encounter some excellent mid-stakes grinders – anything above that and you are very likely to be facing a world-class player. Of course, this is hardly surprising when the site sponsor most of the world’s top players anyway! Don’t let this put you off, though – a lot of players have signed up due to their heavy TV advertising schedule (and sponsorship of shows such as Poker After Dark) so there is still plenty of money to be made at the lower levels. And when they say ‘Learn, chat & play with the pros’, they are not kidding – their team can be found playing all over the site (as I logged on today I saw Kenny Tran sitting in a $0.05/$0.10 NLH game!)

Sponsorship & Promotions:

Full Tilt offer a 100% deposit bonus for joining up to $600 which is one of the most competitive sign-up bonuses around. Given their sponsorship of events such as the WPT, Poker After Dark & the NBC Heads-Up Championship, qualifiers are also on offer for a wide variety of major offline tournaments.

Graphics/Software:

The Full Tilt software is legendary for its uniqueness. Firstly, you have the player avatars, which you can select ranging from an army officer to a Mike-Tyson esque boxer to Frankenstein. They also have happy and sad faces which you can add accordingly.
Whenever a sponsored pro is at a table, that table will appear in red on your lobby: another excellent feature if you like sweating your favourite players doing what they do best. While the software was a bit complex on its launch, the site have clearly listened to the advice of the players and the lobby & general lay-out is simple and ideal for multi-tabling. There is also an instant hand history button available on all tables which is a life-saver when you are ploughing through games on a number of different tables.

Support:

Full Tilt support is available 24/7 but is no way near as good as PokerStars or a number of other sites in this department. Only e-mail is available and it can take a while for them to respond (up to 72 hours on occasion), but when they do get back to you the issue is usually resolved fairly quickly.

Overall:

Full Tilt is absolutely one of the top sites out there and given their heavy advertising schedule & array of famous pros, there is no doubt it will only get bigger. Their worldwide reputation should ensure a decent amount of poor players regularly flow in and if you are a fan of railing the world’s best players in the world’s biggest games then Full Tilt is an absolute must in your armoury.