#424 - “You’re Uncle Tilty” Report - Part I

I am fighting a war I am destined to lose.

I brought Jo Anne to Las Vegas so we could spend two days together - I swear, practically our first time alone in almost a year - before the craziness of seven weeks of the World Series of Poker. My backlog, among other items, is my report on the suggestions made by the entrants of my previous contest, “You’re Uncle Tilty.”

I’m going to get you as much of the report as quickly as I can. When I complete it is an open question. But Andy Bloch is in the chip lead of Event #1, and I’ve outlasted Ted Forrest and Greg Raymer in Event #2 and I don’t even play for 12 1/2 hours - so I better get moving.

[Note: The following should be obvious to anyone who understands my position in the Full Tilt universe or reads this blog but I want to state it so there is no confusion - the following are my opinions. As far as I know, they may make assumptions that are untrue or unsound or have nothing to do with the facts as they exist at Full Tilt or with the factors that control decisions in connection with the site. Don't confuse my analysis with anything actually going on at Full Tilt. This is solely how I see things.]

Since the first version of Full Tilt’s client software went live in Spring 2004, the site has maintained an aggressive, continuous program of site improvement, increasing the variety and limits of cash games, sit-and-gos, and tournaments. The client has also been updated numerous times to improve its look, feel, navigation, and administrative features.

In some ways, it’s hard to believe how much things have changed in four years. There was a time when you couldn’t play no-limit hold ‘em or turbo SnGs or HORSE. You couldn’t request extra time to make a decision in a hand or have any protection against disconnecting in a hand.

Even in the last few months, the changes have been significant: knockout tournaments, heads-up tournaments, shoot-out tournaments, the ability to unregister a satellite win for tournament dollars.

But there is still a long way to go. Running an online poker site is a service business. In fact, to me, it’s like running eHarmony or Match.com, matching up people who want to get together. But instead of companionship, sex, or matrimony, these people want to match skills in contests to take each other’s money.

There is certainly demand for this kind of business. If not for competition, merely posting a sign saying “open for business” could suffice as promotion. But there is competition everywhere - from other online poker sites, live poker, other forms of game-playing, other forms of gambling, other ways to spend time online. So the goal will always be to provide an experience that is better than the other guy’s and the most appealing way possible to play poker.

For all the changes Full Tilt has made, I speculate that it has considered and rejected for more. Not every idea is a good idea. Not everything a player wants - or even things a lot of players want - is good for the players, or the site, or poker. And, as Don Barzini said in The Godfather, “after all, we are not Communists.” Certain ideas don’t make sense for a capitalistic enterprise.

That said, let’s throw open the floor to suggestions. What do Full Tilt players have on their minds? Are there some good ideas out there?

I will categorize the entries from the contest in eight areas:

*tournament ideas

*SnG ideas

*cash games

*low limits

*Full Tilt points

*play money

*look-feel-mavigation-administration, and

*miscellaneous (including humorous entries and players complaining about bad beats and players complaining about players complaining about bad beats).