LOL Full Tilt Poker

By now, I'm sure every body has seen the changes at Full Tilt Poker.

If not, here are the highlights:

• They instituted a Black Card Rewards Program which basically required a 500 pt rolling average over 100 days. If you do, some of the rewards are 2x Full Tilt Points, a black card store (with cash bonuses), black card tourneys, etc..
• They changed their points system where you now get 10pts per $1 raked per table (instead of 1 full tilt point per $1 raked).
• They changed Iron Man requirements to 250pts (from 200 pts). They also changed Gold to 125 pts.
• Rake calculation has moved from the dealt method to the weighted contributed method which basically takes the percentage of dollars you put into the pot and multiples that by the rake in the hand. While you can argue whether is fair enough (and the forums are going crazy over this one), it definitely hurts the tighter players.
• There were also some minor software changes that you can read about here.

I am a Rush, Full Ring Player and these changes are obviously not the best for me (or any other Full Ring Player). It is what it is and I'm sure thing may be adjusted in the coming weeks. Some of things people are wanting are a more tiered pt system for black card members. 2x for 500, 2.5x for 750, 3x for 1000, etc.. Making bonuses instant as opposed to clearable (such as PokerStars did this weekend). Of course, there is always people complaining about the rakeback hit.

My experience with Full Tilt Support just made me go... "LOL".

Being a full Ring player and with the new structure, I will get 10% more pts. I used to get 1 pt for per $1 raked. Now there is 10 pts per $1 raked per table. Since there is always 9 players at a Rush Full Ring Table, I will 1.11 pts. I now have to get 250 pts to keep my Iron Man status as opposed to 200 pts which of course is a 25% increase.

I also noticed that they hadn't retroactively keep the 200pt per month rule for September so it showed that I hadn't made Iron Man. So I left this email:

I just looked at my Iron man page. I see that the new Iron Man level is 250
pts which is fine.

My question is related to September as it says that I can't get Sept Iron
Man. I obviously played under the 200 pts a day rule for September. I'm
sure that this isn't an issue; but I at least wanted to bring it up to your
attention

I received this response (condensed version):

As a result of the recent update on site, there was a temporary display issue which showed your status as Gold for the month of September. I have reviewed your account And I can confirm that you achieved Iron status during September.

Also, we are pleased to confirm that we have adjusted the way FTPs are now awarded. This means that it's actually easier to earn an Iron Man status today than it was yesterday. The reason for this is that we now award ring game players 10 FTPs for every $1 raked and then divided equally among all players dealt into that hand.

In general, it is easier to earn 250 FTPs now than earning 200 FTPs in the old system. Here is an example, a $10 + $1 SNG player had to play 29 SNGs yesterday to get 200 FTPs. Today, they only have to play 25 to get 250 FTPs.

I then answered:

Thanks. Just to be sure I understand. This isn't necessarily better for full ring players, right? It will now be a little harder to get to iron man. We will be getting 10 percent more points; but we will need 25% more points to get to iron man.


They answered (stand cut and paste job I'm sure):

Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker Support.

For ring game players, 10 FTPs are awarded to the *table* for every $1 raked and then divided equally among all players dealt into that hand.

So, for example, a 5 handed table plays a hand that gets raked $0.50. 5 points are awarded to the table, and each player dealt into the hand gets 1 FTP. Now a heads-up table gets raked $0.50 and the same 5 points are awarded to the table. Since only two players were dealt into the hand, each player now gets 2.5 FTPs (in the old system they would have gotten 0.5 FTPs).

As you can see, with the new calculation, players will receive much more FTPs while playing regularly at the tables. Therefore, it makes it easier to earn an Iron Man status and accumulate Iron Man points.

If there's anything else we can help you with, please let us know. We're always here to help.


Nice... ask a full ring question and get short handed examples. LOL, I say. Since, i wasn't home and was using my phone, I kept my response short:

My response:

Again, I wad asking about full ring tables (9 players). It seems that we only get 10% more points; but we need 25% more points to reach iron man. Am I figuring that right?
Thanks

Their response:

Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker Support.

While the calculations that you have made are correct, the increase in the Iron Man requirements is not as bad as first appears.

The new requirements are as follows :

50 FTPs remains at 50 FTPs.
100 FTPs has increased to 125 FTPs.
200 FTPs has increased to 250 FTPs.

Therefore, the second tier has increased by 25 FTPs, and the third tier has increased by 50 FTPs.

With the new increase in the rate that FTPs can be accumulated, and the rate in which a player can play on site, this should not cause too much of a change.

If there's anything else we can help you with, please let us know. We're always here to help.


From here, I just gave up. Of course, it is not a big deal; but the fact that couldn't/didn't even respond to the question leaves a lot to be desired.

I will be curious how the traffic is actually effected as the forums are stating that a lot of people are leaving FTP for Stars. I haven't noticed too much difference yet.

Have a nice day!!!