FULL TILT POKER BLOG

Posted by Editor | Filed under Rush Poker

You can call Full Tilt “buttah” – because it’s on a roll. In back-to-back weeks, Full Tilt has rolled out a pair of monster promotions. Last week, it was Rush Poker, which I’m finding addicting despite having no prior interest in online cash games. This week, it’s Double Guarantees, which seems less than revolutionary but is having a gigantic impact.

I realize The Full Tilt Poker Blog is not a place where you would expect an impartial review. I suppose, if I really disliked some new Full Tilt feature, I would be more likely to ignore it than trash it in the Blog. (I feel I’m sufficiently critical that I can admit that some of Full Tilt’s promotions and innovations have been less than successful. For example, I thought the Matrix seemed like an exciting idea, but after the novelty of the gimmick wore off, I lost interest and so has just about everyone else. The Friday Night Fight tournament has become a regular feature, but it was designed in tandem with a “Main Event” in which a pair of Full Tilt pros would play a big heads-up match.  After the first few weeks, the heads-up matches and the connected “sweat tournaments” disappeared.) But I’m not going to hype something that stinks.

Rush Poker is the real deal and you can test it yourself to see. Even though it’s less than two weeks old, it looks like there are always three or four thousand players on Rush Poker and Full Tilt has just started expanding the games and stakes.

But what I really want to gush over is this week’s promotion, Double Guarantees Week. As an active online tournament player, this one time doubling of tournament guarantees was something I wanted to watch very closely. Would there be some big overlays? Tournament attendance would increase, but by how much? Would some of this increased participation lead to increased tournament pools after the promotion ended? Would Full Tilt raise some guarantees based on the results? Would Full Tilt try this promotion again?

The response to Double Guarantees week has been overwhelming. It began with Sunday night’s Midnight Madness. That $10 +$1 tourney recently raised its guarantee from $15,000 to $20,000; it typically draws about 2,200 players. Because I often play the Madness (and have won it twice), I signed up to get an early idea of the impact from doubling the guarantee.

Entries soared beyond normal numbers and, by the end of the first level, there were about 3,000 entries.  As I suspected, one feature of Double Guarantees week is extending the late registration. Players were allowed to register until the first break, and by that time nearly 5,000 players had entered.

Throughout the week, my experience in the Midnight Madness has proven typical. Most of the time, total entries far exceed the guarantee. Only once have I played in a tournament that did not meet its double guarantee.

Even though my results this week have been spectacularly awful, I love the idea of competing with much bigger fields for (usually more than) double the prize money. This is what I would like to see Full Tilt do: (1) Full Tilt should extend late registration in all tournaments until the first break. The effect when Full Tilt first began allowing late registrations was immediate and dramatic. I think entries increased by 20% or 30%. Extending that period should have another positive effect. (2) Full Tilt should be more aggressive about increasing guarantees. If the experience of this week proves anything, it’s that “if you build it, they will come.” (3) Full Tilt should consider making Double Guarantees week a regular promotion, like one week a month or every other month.

Even a partisan like me recognizes that Full Tilt doesn’t hit a home run every time. But on the heels of the success of Rush Poker and Double Guarantees week, I can hardly wait to see what they have planned next.

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Permalink | January 28th, 2010 Play Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker

2 Responses to “#955 – Rush Poker + Double Guarantees Week = Buttah”

1. SG_FTP Says:
   January 29th, 2010 at 12:51 pm

   Rush Poker is sick. I’m not a cash game player at heart but there’s been about an 80-85% “Thumbs Up” from online poker communities.

   Double Guarantee week was definitely a way to see if FTP could build its clientele by increasing the prizepools. However, after this week, I don’t see how FTP could go back to the original guarantee levels.

   IMO — Leave the prizepools where they are as of this week. Overlays have been few and far between so this is still MAKING MONEY for Full Tilt while INCREASING players, an online poker executive’s dream.

   And FYI Mikey C. & FTP — See if you can find a way to sponsor a few events in the U.S. PokerStars is still crushing you in the U.S. market and they are still dumping money into new tours, new locations, etc. etc. that I’m sure you can afford as well. I’d love to see an FTP sponsored event at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun but PokerStars beat you to the punch with the NAPT (even tho it’s only going to be one $5K event at Mohegan).

   You can relay this message to Shauna, Mike, but I think FTP’s marketing should be going after the East Coast poker players that don’t seem to get a ton of love in the “live poker” community. If we want to play in any big events, we have to fly to Vegas, take a trip to AC, Biloxi, casinos in the South, etc. etc.

   Tell FTP execs. to get on the horn with Foxwoods and Mohegan. I’m sure Foxwoods would like to fill the gaps between the FPC and the WPF and Mohegan is trying to make a name for itself in poker with its new room. See if you can roll out a series at one of these two places with buy-ins ranging from $500 – $5K and possibly some type of ME for $10K (Mohegan would love this to compete with Foxwoods two premier events that attract players + crowds = more players at the pit tables and in the general poker room).

   Just a thought….

2. Randy Says:
   April 27th, 2010 at 11:28 am

   Rush poker is the dumbest game I have yet to play get rid of it

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