FULL TILT REVIEW

Quick Summary

Full Tilt Poker was a unique entity in the online poker world, as it was founded by world-renowned poker professionals such as Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. In fact, Ferguson founded TiltWare, the company that created Full Tilt Poker’s gaming client application.   They have merged with PokerStars and no longer are active in the US market.  In their hay day, Full Tilt Poker was tagged as the site for true poker players and offered great action at just about any table stake.

Poker Room Screenshots

Room Details

Quick Facts

    • Name
    • Full Tilt
    • Country
    • Canada
    • Network
    • TiltWare, LLC
    • Established
    • 2003
    • Telephone
    • N/A

Bonuses

    • Deposit Bonus
    • 100% up to $600
    • Bonus Code
    • no code req

Rakeback

    • Rakeback
    • N/A
    • Statistics
    • N/A

Deductions

    • Tournaments
    • N/A
    • Bonuses
    • N/A

Payments

    • Payments
    • N/A
    • Deposit and Withdraw Methods
    • N/A

Pros:

    • Has several themes and customizable options.
    • Playable software.
    • The players can choose between basic, classic and standard lobby view.
    • Different backgrounds, colors and avatars are available.
    • The avatars can be turned off.

Cons:

    • No telephone or live chat support.
    • There are no ten man tables.
    • Scrolling on the lobby is difficult.

Main Review:

Full Tilt is a unique entity in the online poker world, as it was founded by world-renowned poker professionals such as Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. In fact, Ferguson founded TiltWare, the company that created the Full Tilt software. They also have the most impressive pro line up online, including Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham and Jennifer Harman to name a few. Full Tilt ranks among the top five in player traffic, with over 35,000 players at its tables during peak hours.

The players at Full Tilt tend to be loose, as many are less experienced players who were attracted to the room because of the celebrity players they see on ads. As with any site, however, there are plenty of good players at Full Tilt, and the pros associated with the site play there themselves, so if you’re up for the challenge, you can sit down and play cards with the best.

Full Tilt - Game Types:

Full Tilt offers the standard poker games: Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and 7 Card Stud, along with their High/Low variations (except Hold’em). The poker room also throws in Razz, a game that many casual players are not used to and that can be a fun change of pace. Stakes range from nickels and dimes all the way up to $1000/$2000 for Fixed-Limit games and $50/$100 for No-Limit, while Pot-Limit stakes tend to be modest. Action can be found at most levels, although the higher stakes games lean towards short-handed (6 player) tables.

Like any decent poker room, Full Tilt has a wide range of tournaments. The site’s Multi-Table tournaments are probably its forte, with an array of regular, guaranteed and satellite tournaments offered daily. Sit-and-Go’s are abundant as well with full-ring, two table, and heads-up versions offered in all game variations.

One nice feature of the tournaments is that Full Tilt players start with 1,500 chips, as opposed to the 1,000 or even 800 chip stacks that other poker rooms use. The only problem with the Sit-and-Go’s is that the levels increase every six minutes, which is very fast, but the deep stacks help to keep the games going for a while.

Full Tilt offers a generous first deposit bonus, typically 100% up to $600, with reload bonuses averaging once every two months. They tend to be difficult to clear at low stakes.

Full Tilt - Software and Features:

Full Tilt has some of the best looking software in the industry. The lobby is an attractive shade of blue, with the games organized very neatly. All you have to do is click on a button for the type of game you want and you are presented with a list of all available tables. The tables are fully sortable, with stats such as players to the flop percentage, hands per hour, and average pot all there so you can choose the best table.

One thing that is a bit confusing is that the tournaments are listed in different colors – some are pink, some are brown, some are green, some are gold – and there is no immediate explanation as to what these colors mean. Upon further investigation, we found that the colors represent different types of tournaments: satellites, guaranteed, regular, etc. The tournament lobbies themselves are excellent, with all pertinent information readily available. In fact, you can pull up a mini-tournament summary while you are playing and let it float on your desktop so you don’t have to flip back and forth between your game and the lobby.

The tables are very colorful with solid graphics, although some might feel the look is too “cartoonish.” Much of this sentiment stems from Full Tilt’s use of avatars, or cartoon characters (people, animals, and objects at this room), to represent the players at the table. They can be fun - especially because you can actually change your avatar’s emotional state - but if they become annoying they can be easily turned off. The cards deal very quickly and animations are smooth.

On the negative side (and these points are fairly nit-picky) the default option at Full Tilt is to rotate the table once you sit down so that you are at the bottom-center of the screen. This can be confusing at first, since when you click on a seat, the rotation happens instantly, so it looks like someone else just stole the seat you clicked on. Additionally, the hearts on the cards are a little pointy, so they could easily get mixed up with diamonds. Fortunately, a four color deck fixes this.

The sound effects at Full Tilt are understated and perhaps some of the more realistic out there, but if you are distracted with other things, poker or non-poker, while you are playing, it can be difficult to hear the alert sound when it is your turn. The table does pop to the front when the action is on you, however, so as long as you are looking at your monitor, you’ll be fine.

The note-taking feature is fantastic at Full Tilt: you can write as much as you want about a player and even change the color of the “note” marker next to the player’s name to help with any sort of rating system you might develop. Hand histories are also top-notch, as they can be stored on your hard drive for future reference. You can also replay the previous hands at your table if you want to review what happened.

Full Tilt - Behind the Scenes:

Full Tilt offers standard e-mail customer support, and while it isn’t among the fastest in the world, the responses generally are not the canned, automated replies that some poker rooms offer. Customer queries are answered personally.

Full Tilt uses 256-bit SSL technology, and the company promises to not sell or share customer information with third parties. Full Tilt has a “Zero Tolerance Policy for Fraud and Collusion.” If any player is found to have cheated or defrauded a player or the company in some way, his account will be closed.

Cashier functions are easily accessible and financial transactions are very simple.

Games Types Available

    • No Limit Texas Hold’em
    • Limit Texas Hold’em
    • Pot Limit Texas Hold’em
    • Omaha
    • Seven Card Stud
    • Razz
    • H.O.R.S.E.
    • H.O.S.E.

Deposit and Withdraw Methods

  • Instant eChecks
  • paysafecard
  • Visa
  • MuchBetter
  • ecoPayz
  • Neosurf
  • Mastercard
  • Money Transfer
  • Instadebit


How to Register

  • 1. You must clear your internet cookies before downloading the poker software from our links. This will ensure that you are properly tracked to us for your promotion.
  • 2. Once you have cleared your cookie history, click on the download button and install the Full Tilt software.
  • 3. The poker room will require that you enter the bonus code that we provided for you when you create your new account. Please make a note of your new Full Tilt name after you create your account.
  • 4. Lastly, please notify us that you have registered your new Full Tilt account through our site. Enter your poker room account name in the respective box when you are signing up for your free gift, free money or rakeback promotion.

Platforms

Full Tilt is available on the following platforms:

  • MAC. OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or higher.
  • PC. Windows XP or higher.
  • LINUX. (some operating systems).