First Glance at Full Tilt

Guard: You won't get away so easy.
Aladdin: You think that was easy?

”Aladdin”

I have made the move to full tilt, along with many working bloggers and celebrity pros. My initial reaction was man, this place looks nice. All those pretty cartoon characters for players, not bad. My Godfather is always feeling normal, as he looks far too weird to be angry, happy or sad.

The software does feel sluggish to me, or perhaps it just takes some getting used to. Another big change is all tables have only 9 players, while every other site I have every played at has 10 person tables. This is no real big deal in ring games, but does make a difference to the SNG structure. I am finding that there are fewer low limits games going on, but the site does have a lot of bigger games and players available. It was almost sad to see Phil Ivey sitting with $12K at a NL table all on his lonesome. I should have bought in for $10 and see if I could double up on the first hand, just to say I doubled through Phil Ivey. Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea, if the minimum buy in was only $10, which I’m sure it isn’t.

The tournament schedule is horrendous for me. During the week I play at times that are about 4-5am US time, are if there is a tournament on it is some $300 buy in crap that would cost me half my bank roll to play. I haven’t played in a tournament yet so I don’t know how good/bad their structure is as yet.

My initial theory on how easy it would be to clear the raked hands bonus for PSO is proving to be true, which is a welcome change. The amount needed to clear it is 200 Full Tilt points. Each $1 raked from any hand you are dealt cards equals one point. Now at $1 level, $1 rakes don’t occur very often. But you can earn partial points. So here is my math: usually a raked hand at any other site only counts if the hand is raked 25c, so using that at Full Tilt I need to clear 800 hands. But this is less if the hand gets raked 50c, 75c or the rare $1 (I’m micro limit and proud, baby. I try to squeeze as much value out of my tiny bankroll as possible!), so the 800 comes down for those hands. But what is really great is every $1 spent in tournament commission is worth 7 points. While that is about $0.42 value per dollar according to their site, it is still more bonus than other sites are prepared to give for these bonuses.

After two days I have 60 odd points, and these are from very quick sessions. I’m already more than a quarter through the PSO bonus, and I am up $50 to boot. That includes two losses in SNG’s, where I am yet to finish ITM at Full Tilt. My cash games though are thriving at the minute.

I have been playing $1/$2 holdem and 50c/$1 Omaha Hi/Lo fixed limit. I’m now comfortable at the $1/$2 level to bet without the nuts, which is a huge step for me. I have to admit I have been getting some nice cards too, but my upped aggression has allowed me to do this. For example, a check-raise with bottom pair gave me two free cards which hit trips. If I was re-raised on the flop or even bet into on the turn, I was done with the hand, but the aggression put fear into the other players and allowed me to draw. This is a welcomed change for I used to just sit back and wait for Aces before I bet, then drop them when a 3-flush hit the board. Baby steps.

The Omaha hi/lo games have been a blessing to me since I learned to accept draws, both my own and my opponents. Hi/lo does add another element to it, because it is hard to know if the opponent is looking to go for the low pot only or is going for the high pot only, or both? That makes it more fun to me, and also FOUR CARDS! Man, I could hit anything! Lol.

I finished up a 25 minute session at a full table of 25c/50c Omaha hi/lo up $20 after scooping a few pots and having the others folded to me. There is something special about having two callers all the way to the river when I have the nut high, and then they split the low. Sure, I don’t make as much as I could, but it was nice of them to come along for the ride. On one hand, in a four-way pot on the button I bet on the turn to try to get at least one player to fold, and it was no good and all four come for the river. I had no low draw and only two pair for the high, so unless I hit my boat I’m done with the hand. The river made a low possible, and I was not calling one bet. Luckily, there was not one bet to be had. I checked also, and saw the nut-low split three ways, and my two pair Queens and fours was good enough for the high. It’s a beautiful thing.