Full Tilt Poker Revealed as the Owner of Rival Domain Names

It has been recently revealed that Full Tilt Poker is the owner of many rival domain name variations as well as those of popular poker players. Two of the most notable rival domain names are those of Absolute Poker and Hollywood Poker. Full Tilt owns ansolutepoker.com which is a typo from the Absolute Poker domain name and in fact, the b and n keys are next to each other. Hits to the website have gone through the roof recently after stories of the UB/Absolute Poker cheating scandal was exposed by 60 Minutes and its associated newspaper article in the Washington Post.

Also on Full Tilt’s list of domain names is hallywoodpoker.com which is also one letter off from the popular domain, Hollywood Poker. The front man for the online poker site is World Poker Tour host Vince Van Patten and does not accept customers from the United States.

Several sponsored pros of other online poker rooms also have their domain names owned by Full Tilt. The domain name adamlevypoker.com is on Full Tilt’s list though Levy is a member of Ultimate Bet’s Star Players Team. Grant Hinkle, a member of Team Bodog and one half of only the second pair of brothers ever to win World Series of Poker bracelets has granthinklepoker.com owned by Full Tilt. Another domain that redirects to Full Tilt’s website is andreakkaripoker.com, Akkari is a member of Team PokerStars Pro along with Victor Ramdin who’s domain victorramdinpoker.com is a redirect to Full Tilt.

Several players are mentioned in the list and are not yet Full Tilt sponsored pros though their domain names are already taken. They are Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward, Terrence Chan (he finished second in a Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event in the 2007 World Series of Poker), 2008 Poker Stars World Championship of Online Poker champ Carter “ckingusc” King and Matt Matros, who took home third place money in the 2004 WPT Championship and author of a popular Internet poker blog.

The depth of Full Tilt’s intentions is unknown at this time but it appears it’s simply a ploy to capitalize and perhaps “tap the glass” a little. Particularly in the case of some of their competitors such as Absolute Poker and Hollywood Poker.

Full Tilt Poker FTOPS X concludes

The $5,000 + $200 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em event concluded late yesterday, capping a great run for the Full Tilt Online Poker Series X. The unique event, which forgoes the standard nine-handed tables in favor of smaller, more action-oriented six-handed table, attracted 500 players and created a $2.5 million dollar prize pool.

Hosted by Craig Marquis, who had quite the exchange with Tiffany Michelle at the 2008 WSOP. Was sporting his new “Red Pro” status as a new Team Full Tilt member and fresh off his big win the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event cash, the tournament ran deep into the night before a victor was finally declared. After surviving a tough field of players including Marquis, who placed 24th and cashed for $17,500, the ultimate winner was Amit “amak316″ Makjiha. Amit has had success in both online and brick and mortar tournaments having ran deep in several live events. His last big score was coming in second at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event in 2007, cashing for $560,000.

His victory in the FTOPS X finale almost matched his biggest win to date as he took home exactly $550,000.

The FTOPS event isn’t the only big draw at Full Tilt Poker. Click here to receive a special deposit bonus offer from TurboSNG.com

Full Tilt Continues to Break High Stakes Records

Full Tilt Poker for some time now has been known for hosting some of the largest games on the internet and this weekend was no different with record breaking pots being scooped. Most of the action can be attributed to Full Tilt’s infamous “RailHeaven” table which brings together some of the biggest names in online poker to battle it out over $500/$1000 no limit Hold’em. Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan are some of the well known players that regularly frequent the game.

This weekend, records were broke time and again as on four separate occasions new highs for pots were made. Tom Dwan made the first new record when he took down a cool $617,968 dollar pot in a heads up match with Lars Luzack. Dwan unfortunately wouldn’t hold onto that money. Soon after he gave up a whopping $678,000 pot to reigning WSOPE champion John Juanda. Juanda barely scathed by when he picked up a third king while holding KK against Dwan’s AA.

Phil Ivey in his normal form went on to break Juanda’s $678,000 pot when he pumped the pot pre flop and made a set of tens which gifted him with an impressive $690,000 pot. The fourth and final record again involved Tom Dwan who has become well known and liked for his massive swings! “Urindanger” took down a huge pot of almost three quarters of a million dollars when he was blessed with $723,938.

RailHaven is an aptly named table being that it regularly produces massive record breaking nights. The biggest names in poker gather on Full Tilt to play in some of the most action oriented games on the internet. Imagine that in just a few minutes, internet poker superstars are winning and losing more money in one hand than some will ever earn in a lifetime!

Matrix Tournaments at Full Tilt Poker

For those players that enjoy multi-tabling, Full Tilt just released a new version of Sit and Go tables called Matrix Tournaments. It’s a unique twist on SNG’s and allows a player to pay one buy in and play the same players at FOUR individual tables. Unlike traditional multi-tabling where you may face a range of opponents, this format puts the same players at every table. The benefit to you is that if there’s a fish at table one, it’s the same fish at table two, three, and four! While the format for a Matrix Tournament may seem complex, it’s pretty easy to grasp once you see the overall concept and payout structure. To make sense of it let’s look at the following example:

You buy into a $10+$1 Matrix tournament so the total prize pool is $90. That prize pool is paid to the top three players at each of the four tables but before you do the basic math and assume that each table has a $22.50 prize pool (90/4=22.50), wait one second! Here’s where the next twist comes into play as you enter the “Matrix”. Because there’s an additional prize pool of $18.00 that’s paid to the overall best player (points wise), that leaves each individual table with it’s own $18 prize pool. So first place is paid $9.00, second gets $5.40, and third place gets $3.60.

Beyond that, the player with the best average finish at each table will get payouts as well. If you can beat every table you will take the entire pot along with the title of “Dominatrix”. There are more detailed rules regarding this new format at Full Tilt Poker and if you’re interested, I highly suggest reading the rules in detail along with the scoring model. While it’s somewhat complex the lobby will give you detailed stats on your play and that of your opponents as you play. After playing a few of these Matrix Tournaments today I got the hang of it pretty quickly.

To find a Matrix Tournament at Full Tilt Poker, simply look for a small grahpic “M” next to any Sit and Go event listed in the lobby.

So enough reading up on them, head over to Full Tilt and try one of these out!

Are standard pre-flop raises effective in Turbo SNG’s?

As a regular player in the low-limit Turbo Sit and Go games at Full Tilt, I often see players making standard raises and getting 3-4 callers. Is this a symptom of the accelerated environment or simply bad players that don’t respect standard 3X-4X raises? The short answer is no, or yes depending on who you ask or when you play in one of these games. The full answer, like most answers to poker strategy questions, depends on many factors and without a crystal ball it’s almost impossible to discuss every situation that you may see at one of these tables.

Inexperienced players in Turbo Sit and Go tournaments will often play too many hands and as a result, call too many raises pre-flop in the hopes of getting lucky and busting someone. The downside to this is that they will ultimately look down at their chip count and see that they’ve bled off a quarter of their stack without winning a single hand. So how do you combat these players to keep them from chasing poor hands? There are a number of techniques but in reality you do want them to call your raise pre-flop if their tendency is to do so with poor starting hands. What you DO want to avoid is getting 3-4 callers and the best way to do that is make larger than standard raises. My experience has been that a 5X-6X raise is appropriate, especially early in the SNG.

Of course this becomes very difficult when the blinds are 100-200 and you have 1,700 chips. You’re essentially committing the rest of your stack by putting in a pre-flop raise of 1,000 chips (5X). With this in mind you should be ready to push and pray if you really like your hand. In the Turbo SNG events you must make this adjustment to your game play. The games are designed to encourage quick play and a fast conclusion so actually this strategy isn’t unusual at all. So the next time you play a Turbo Sit and Go at a site like Poker Stars, keep this strategy in mind and just be prepared to make a quick exit or a quick win in the process!