Full Tilt Poker - What do you think?

[ECondreras]

I am a Party Poker regular, but I decided to download Full Tilt poker to see what it was all about. After depositing $100, I spent the entire day yesterday playing on the site. Some thoughts:

1. The gimmick of having well known pros is pure genius in my opinion. With an effective advertising campaign, I think that these guys could have hit a homerun. We are a starstruck society (Hillary Clinton, NY Senator says it all), and people love to "mingle" with the famous.

2. The software seems ok. I could do without the cartoonish avatars, especially when you see 4 of the same ones at your table. I'd also like to see a better "fold" animation, something like Paradise. On Full Tilt, the cards just kind of shrink away when you fold during the hand. Didn't like that.

3. Naturally, game selection is tough right now. But if this thing takes off like I think it will, there shouldn't be a problem finding a game. But right now it is.

4. I have no idea how the pros are being compensated, but I can tell you one thing - people are lining up to hand them their money at the tables. Chris Ferguson opened an 8/16 hold 'em table and some poor soul buys in for $320 and sits down to play Jesus heads up. All I can say is that it was UGLY. 10 minutes and the guy had lost his buy-in to Ferguson. But did he seem angry? Hell no. He had a great story to tell his buddies on how he sat down and played Jesus heads up. Unreal. Then Lindgren and Freidman join Ferguson and the table quickly filled up with amateurs looking to "take their shot". What kind of moron would sit at THAT table.

5. Bonuses are not want people are used to. Full tilt does not offer the usual deposit bonuses, but instead has a cash back system and a point system that will be similiar to what Foxwoods Casino has (a "Full Tilt" store where you can exchange points for merchandise). By playing for one day I received a free buyin to a $24+2 single table SnG. The winner gets a free entry into the Full Tilt $200+16 tourney in August.

6. For all the Fish that can't wait to line the pros pockets, there is a price to pay. These pros are bombarded with stupid question after stupid question. If each pro got paid $1 for every question thrown at them, they could retire from poker. Best reponse to a stupid question comes from Chris Ferguson:

Moron: "Hey Jesus, what's the toughest thing to throw a card through?"

Ferguson: "Re-bar"

All in all I enjoyed my time on the site for the same reason I think it will succeed. I liked watching the pros. I played some $1/$2 with Lindgren (I'm sure he was not even paying attention at that limit) and he was very cordial, making sure to answer all questions. I watched Howard play NL (wasn't even thinking of sitting in that game) and he was real good with the people as well. I will continue to play Party because the games are so good, but I will definately keep my eye on this site as it has the potential to be a huge success.

-Ed-

[Sponger15SB]

Nice posts, and I agree with a lot of your points, anything that can get competition in the poker market, especially something that doesn't SUCK, like a lot of online poker rooms out there, makes me excited.

I watched a little of the $8/16 last night, so comical, who sits down at a table with Chris, Lindgren, and Friedman and thinks, hmmm this will be a fun 4 handed game.

The one thing I think is funny is the $200,000 guarenteed, oh yeah i'm willing to play in an online tourney with John J., Chris F, Howard L., Eric L., Andy B., etc. Yeah....where do I up and how can I lose $200 as fast as possible, this would be nice.

However, I would never mind saying I played w/ the pros in a $1/2 or $3/6 game...

Also, I bet the pros are bored a phuck playing in these things, and can't wait for it to take off so they don't have to play things like a 50 person, $1 buy in limit stud tourney...zzzzzz.

Does anyone know if the pros have done well/won any of these little tourneys?

[ECondreras]

Andy Bloch has won a bunch of the small tourneys, including a freeroll yesterday. After what happened at this year's WSOP, maybe they see it as practice for beating the amateur tournament player.

-Ed-

[Just The Facts]

[ QUOTE ]

Also, I bet the pros are bored a phuck playing in these things, and can't wait for it to take off so they don't have to play things like a 50 person, $1 buy in limit stud tourney...zzzzzz.


[/ QUOTE ]

You would be suprised how non-boring this is when you are have ownership in the site and those "little" games are like a Piggy-bank that just keeps filling up. As far as the big tourney they have in August, the winner gets to play 4 pros for up to $50,000 more to add to the win. Also, the pros will have bounties on them, and will not be keeping their winnings. This will make them play down to the masses and leave their A game at the door. This site has taken their time in order to make sure they have done it right. The player base will grow slowly but steadily.

[ECondreras]

[ QUOTE ]


As far as the big tourney they have in August, the winner gets to play 4 pros for up to $50,000 more to add to the win. Also, the pros will have bounties on them, and will not be keeping their winnings. This will make them play down to the masses and leave their A game at the door.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't know that the pros weren't keeping their winnings in that tournament, but I still think that they will bring the A game. Bloch seemed like he really wanted to win that freeroll yesterday. Anyone with any sense of pride always play to win.

-Ed-

[Just The Facts]

[ QUOTE ]
Bloch seemed like he really wanted to win that freeroll yesterday. Anyone with any sense of pride always play to win.

-Ed-

[/ QUOTE ]

Andy may be the exception.

I was not suggesting they would soft play or anything dubious like that, just that they are there as "entertainment". I suspect they will play the same way as players like Phil H. does when he joins a LLHE game at UB. Sure, they play to win, but they also play a more action game that is easier for newer players to get lucky against. As I said though, I expect Andy will play as if it is the final table of a WPT event.

[ECondreras]

When I first became a poker enthusiest, Andy Bloch was one of the first pros that I rooted for. I really like the guy and always pull for him. Can't fault a guy for playing to win!

-Ed-

[djack]

Egh.

[David]

From what I have seen.....

The key is to get at a table with a pro and a bunch of starry eyed wannabe's. The wannabe's play lots of hands trying to impress..... ?somebody? and you can really pick some people off with your big hands. Has worked for me so far. I think the site has lots of potential if the pros keep playing as much as they have been. As for the game with four pros sitting? No thanks. I'll take the 1 pro and 7 wannabe's every time though. Try it.

[Mike Haven]

the thing that's wrong with all the new starts is that the television-fish are being led in shoals to partypoker - very few swim off to new sites, and if they do, the shark to fish ratio is too high, and they soon lose more money than they thought they would - at some point, if they don't give up altogether, they hear about party, try it, and find that they win some/lose some - but if they start to lose an embarrassing amount of money at one particular table, at least they can lose themselves easily by moving to one of dozens of other full tables, something they can't do at a site with only a few short-handed games

unless a new site comes up with a very attractive gimmick and markets it well so that hundreds if not thousands of fish all arrive at the same time, then it is difficult to see how they can break through, these days

ZR had a gimmick, but their chosen initial marketing system seems to have blown it for them in the early, most important days of a new site's life

fulltilt has the gimmick of your being able to play with pros - the pros give all their winnings to charity, and they may not play their a-game all the time, but their c-game is probably as good as most winning players' a-games, so they will continue to take money off the table

after the initial thrill of playing with top pros wears off (and i saw that even GrannyMae sat down to play a few circuits at Eric Seidel's table yesterday, telling him it was an honour to have met him) ordinary sharks will realise that it's maybe not as highly profitable to play at a table with Andy Bloch and Jonny Chan, even if there are a couple of fish temporarily also in the game, as playing at their usual stocked ponds

the few fish that continue to wander in will be cleaned out in quick time, again, because of the shark/fish ratio, and the site will struggle to maintain reasonable business profitability for the number of pros concerned

of course, that's not to say that fulltilt hasn't got a good
infrastructure in place - but imo they must not be complacent and think that their present gimmick is powerful enough on its own to make the site a huge success - they need to sit down, now, and think strategy, strategy, strategy in terms of one question: "how do we get a sudden massive influx of existing fish through our doors while our reputation in the eyes of everyone who knows we exist is at an extreme high?"