FTP On Demand?

WTF is this?!?!

Are they not running the $4 135 man Rush SnG's anymore? Anyone?

I have absolutely no idea!
I saw it earlier as well, and I was thinking the exact same thing.
Does anyone know what this is about? I can't enter the site where they describe it, so I can't read about it.

Don't really like the idea myself. I try never to reg late for a MTT anyway.

hugeee thread about the entire update on 2+2...seems like alot of ppl are not interested in fulltilt and will be switching to pokerstars next year

Don't like it either, always thought one of the main points of a sng is the fact the game starts with ten players & you know if you hit top 3 you get paid. also the fact you know roughly how long the sng will last.

This is garbage. If it's a 45 player SNG, then it should be limited to 45 players. Simple. Letting others reg late to a 45 player tourney is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. I never liked the whole late registration thing in the first place, and in the past few months it went from the first two levels (Which, wasn't too bad) to over an hour. Now that is just dumb. Survive the first hour with a healthy stack and get moved to a table full of late reg's and have the tourney turn into a shove fest. It also got to be quite a pissoff when I reg for a tourney on time and there's 300 players or so, thinking "Hey, this looks like a good one, shouldn't take all damn day", then by the time the late reg is over there are over 1000. Well, shit, now it's going to take all damn day just for a few bucks.

I have to agree with alot of the players at 2+2. I have been loyal to FTP because of the selection and software, but if bulls**t like this keeps up, I'm going to Stars permanantly.

Anyone else think it's time for a hate mail campaign?? I'm writing one right now BTW...

I personally thought it was a TERRIBLE idea. Why would they encourage late reg. in a SnG? Isn't the whole point that you all start at the same time and the last man standing wins? Whatever, I don't see myself participating in this style of MTT.

I really don't see this lasting. If it does I think they'll bring back the other games in addition to these new ones.

there are a few cool things with the update that came with all the annoying/bad things.

when im playing in my ring games it now pops up when opponent "calls" "raises" or "folds"...helpful

I dont think late reg should ever be seen in a sit n go lobby, lol. Are you guys a fan of on demand on full tilt?? I know im not. Let me know, thanks!

Agreed 100%. Thats why cap tournies can be nice though they prevent too many more people from joining.

worst idea someone has come up with
hope they take them away soon know i will stop playin em till they do
LATE REG IN A SITNGO SERIOUSLY BRAIN DEAD

Indeed. I have found myself playing alot more MTT SNG since late registration was implemented. Now I don't know what I'm going to do. Probably drop down to 27 player SNG until I build my 'roll on Stars.

And for some reason it sickens me that they call this a "feature".

"...once the tournament begins, you'll still have the opprotunity to get in on the action!" Seriously? Why bother to have a player cap at all? You want in the action? register for the next one, they run all the time...

Ugh, I find myself needlessly geting a slight bit upset over this.

auto add-on button. YEY!!!!

not reli sure if like the idea or not hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

MY vote is...... i don't like it at all.

Thumbs Down to this crap lol, glad to see im not the only one that thinks this is stupid.

I like it, im a Rush MTT SNG grinder and because there are so many of these in the tounrey lobby they are attracting some many random donks...

When I first noticed this today, nearly all the Demand tourneys in late registration were Rush tourneys, which started going at 50 players. Late reg for these is lasting thru Level 5. Looking through the lobby of running games, I see that some get over 300 players while others don't crack 140. So assume there will be approximately 200 players when the reg closes, and allot time accordingly. It seems that these are taking the place of 180 player Rush SNGs, and you don't have to wait and wait until they fill up. This has pluses and minuses.

Since it's most used with Rush and super turbo games, I guess these will appeal to the folks who have patience issues. Next hand-- NOW. All-in-- NOW. And there seem to be plenty of these players. I suspect that a good number of players will bust out of one and jump quickly into the next -- which is quite nice for Full Tilt. Some may multitable them -- it should be easier than ever.

The one I played earlier was playing much more like a freeroll -- more allins per hand early on than I've seen in awhile. So I'd guess that some of us will do quite well in these -- a fishy game can be very profitable. I expect, however, that once the buzz wears off, the game will settle down. We've all seen this. Remember when Rush first started? Remember when DONs first started at PokerStars? We all saw how the play evolved in both.

There are quite a number of serious players who consider 180 person SNGs their bread-and-butter game -- and I expect that these will completely hit the spot with them. The influx of fish will be a plus. They know they can outplay the fish, with just a little luck.

And if you don't like them, there are plenty of regular tourneys around. These are for the ADHD crowd. And the truly addicted. And for Full Tilt.

There's no point in fussing. Play them or don't play them. It's not every tourney, after all. Nor every SNG.

Little bit annoying for the Rush 135 mans, because you're going to struggle to make those blind steals at 60/120 to 80/160 because people have just arrived with 2000 chips and are just shoving in and moving onto the next one if they get KO'd.

i don't reccomend stealing at those levels anyway

Don't play these so it doesn't really affect me but just so I can get my head around this - what games have they taken away and replaced with these new late registration SnGs?

Why wouldn't you steal at 80/160? Would you suggest waiting for antes?

This exactly, i really open my range up once the antes come into play. That being said it depends on my stack size to whether it is a 2.2x-2.7x raise or a shove.

Because of the Rush aspect I think seeing more hands in such a short time rather than attempting to steal blinds is definatly better in the long run.

I really like the update but not some of it don't like it.

In today's update:

A. On Demand Tournaments: Half Sit & Go, half scheduled tournament, this new tournament type kicks off when the required number of players enter (just like a SNG), but then shows up with late registration in the main Tournament lobby.

The $2 180 man SNG, 54 man Super Turbo SNGs, and the Rush 135 man SNGs have been converted to On Demand, and depending on their popularity we'll make adjustments from there. Let us know how you like them.

At the same time, we've changed how the other multi-table SNGs work a bit. Instead of only one registering at a time, a new empty one will always be registering (like how single table SNGs work). This should make it easy to join however many you want to play right away and just wait for them to fill up. Only the SNG with the most players will show up at the top of the Tournament lobby, the rest can be found in the SNG lobby.

B. Time Zones for Game Clock: Sorry for the long wait on this one (just assume I said this about most of today's update), but it's finally here. Set the clock to whatever time zone you want. Right now this only works in the game, and web pages will still show ET as the default time. Also note that the Iron Man day (and any other time based promo) still starts according to ET.

C. Auto Add-On: There's also "Auto Add-On by Default" in the Options, so you don't have to check it at the start of every tournament. Also, you can now rebuy (assuming you're eligible for a rebuy) any time during the add-on period. Which means you can late reg at any point up to the end of the add-on and still complete your rebuy+add-on.

D. Disable Tournament Announcements: Cash game players never have to see another tournament announcement in the chat box.

E. Changes to Late Reg "Punishment": Now, when you late reg and get moved tables before paying your big blind, you'll get dealt in right away at your new table assuming you aren't between the blinds (previously you could get moved tables a number of times before getting your BB and not get dealt a hand for like 10 minutes). Also, the "must wait for BB" rule has been eliminated entirely for Super Turbo tournaments.

F. Always Show Stack Size: The Check, Bet, Raise, Fold, and Call action messages have all been shrunk in size to allow the pod to still display the player's stack information. No more having to hover your mouse over his pod when your opponent bets.

G. Automatic "I'm Back" on Reconnect: Only for tournaments, when you reconnect to the game after being disconnected, any tournament that you were sat out in will now automatically register you as back (so you don't have to find 12 different SNGs and click "I'm Back" at each one).

H. Two Click Exit: Quit the game while still seated, and instead of having to click a dialog for each table you're sitting at, just click once in the new dialog telling you what tables/tournaments you're still "involved" in. This is also a way to unregister from all SNGs at once (you will be prompted on exit to make sure that's what you want to do).

I. 8-Game / 9-Game: 9-Game is just like 10-Game but without Badugi. 8-Game is just like 7-Game but with Triple Draw. These two games should start showing up later today.

J. Quick Fold to Any Bet: A very small change to Rush, but the "Fold to Any Bet" action is now "Quick Fold to Any Bet" when appropriate.

K. SNG Finder Change: The checkbox that offers to "Register for another Sit & Go of this type" has had its behavior changed a bit due to feedback. Instead of always remembering your last setting for that checkbox, it will now always reset to unchecked for each new type of SNG. Just because you want to load 12 $22 SNGs quickly doesn't mean you want that box checked when you also register for that $24+$2 satellite SNG.


Black Card / Iron Man Update:

As most of you are already aware, we made two changes to the Iron Man program last Wednesday. I wasn't sure the 500 point day was going to make it in time when I last mentioned the changes, which is why I said we were only hoping to get one in for December.

As for the Black Card change, that's still planned for January. It won't be the Jan 1, but we're aiming more towards the middle of the month, assuming nothing goes wrong.

Answers:

1. If possible, could you have a notice appear when the client tried to connect and maintenance was underway? This would help the perceived stability of FullTilt in a big way in my opinion.

- Yep, I totally agree this is needed. We've had a project on the list to do this, but it hasn't gotten enough love. I'll see what I can do to bump the priority a bit.

2. Any chance of getting a nightly $5 6max with a guarantee on it.. that isn't a rebuy or a rush? The only small buyin 6max gtd is the $5r.

- We'll take a look.

3. Seems like Badugi action will be severely limited with it "below the fold" in the lobby browser. Hopefully something can be done to address this.

- The default view is "All Types" so that should be somewhat helpful. As someone else pointed out, it's alphabetical (by game type, not limit type), not an intentional snub of Badugi.

4. buy-in between $52 and $104, and between $104 and $216, for super turbo sngs please.

- I'm not sure about this one. We already have $75 Steps, so that's in between, and I think we'd just be taking players away from the $50s and $100s if we added the middle grounds.

5. there's really no reason why FL omaha o8 hu sng's don't have the same tourney buyins as all the other games. Also really no reason not to have holdem turbo's. Please fix.

- I believe this is fixed.

6. FTP transfers working for anyone since the update an hour ago?

- All cashier (and My Promotions) features are usually down a bit longer (an extra hour or so) than the game maintenance itself.

7. Any answers about the check withdrawals and other cashout problems?

- It's always our top priority to keep deposits and withdrawals flowing smoothly. Unfortunately, that's not always possible, but we have a large team dedicated to working on it, and from what I hear we hope things should be looking better in a few days.

8. please add HU 10-Game Sngs.

- This is planned, but I'm not sure when it'll happen.

9. Any update on being able to register non gtd tourneys longer than 1 hour in advance?

- Sorry, no. I'll see if we can't get something going by the end of the year or so.

10. Will this do anything to address the HUGE gap you created for someone who is Iron Man but NOT black card?

- I'm not sure I agree there's a huge gap there. It's been pretty strongly argued in the other direction, actually. High volume players are saying they'd be getting a larger percentage of rakeback if they were only Iron Man, and the more they play the less (as a percentage) they get back. Taking away Iron Man+ did create a small hole for the few players who could make IM+ levels on some days but not Black Card, and hopefully the re-introduction of that program has helped fill that a bit.

But overall, I think most people would tell you that if you're a long term Iron Man player without playing enough to get the Black Card, you're doing great in terms of rakeback.

11. Can you look into players being able to buy in short on rush tables, winning a pot sitting out for that entry and then re-buying in short again?

- It's not likely. The min buy-in for Rush is 40BBs (higher than the "standard" 35 at regular games), so shortstacking isn't all that short. Even if we wanted to do something more here, it's actually pretty tricky given anyone can enter and exit the game up to 4 times. For example, we aren't going to make it so if you double up from 50bb to 100bb you'd have to buy in for 100bb if you wanted to enter the same game at a second "table." And if we allow you to buy in for less, then you can easily "rathole" by doubling up, sitting out (but not leaving), buying in for 50bb in the same Rush game at a second table, then leaving the game with your 100bb stack after that.

12. Can you please consider changing the mix games to 6 hands of each rather than 10.

- For sure we'd consider it if there was lots of feedback requesting it. Would this be for all mixed games, or just the 7/8/9/10-Games?

13. Doug, you didn't answer my question about adding some sort of button or menu option to "Close all tables/sit out"

- While it's not exactly what you're asking for, the new Two Click Exit feature should allow you to approximate the "Close all tables" behavior as long as you're willing to exit the game and restart it. We do plan on more "session management" features in the future, and that should include a "sit out all tables" feature.

14. No black card badge?

- None planned, but certainly if enough Black Card members wanted it we'd consider it.

15. No RIT with no extra rake for rush?

- No plans at the moment for RIT in Rush.

16. just tried some HU draw. it's nice to have a new game to rape regfishes, but the animations suck big time. Also I'd like to see my new cards as soon as I discard the old ones

- You'll have to be a bit more specific about the animations. The way the draw works, though, was done on purpose. It doesn't make a difference HU, but in bigger games it cuts down on potential collusion (you can't tell your partner what you just drew before he decides what to throw away).

17. Doug, why not Badeuci?

- Maybe someday!

18. Can you tell us if the planned changes will affect the cash bonuses in the Black Card store? I'm holding off on buying a bonus because I'm waiting to see if any positive changes are made.

- The planned changes will not impact the cash bonuses.

19. A while back you programmed the Find Player window so that it remembered its last location every time it opens. The LHH window works the same way. Could you please also do this for player notes windows? They always pop up right over the table, blocking the action, and I have to move them to the side

- Yep, I'll see what we can do.

20. Can you make it so that there are two different notes pages for each villian? That way our cash and sng notes can be separate.

- No immediate plans for this. We don't see many requests for it (given only a very small percentage of players take any notes, a much smaller percentage would want to take two different sets of notes) and there is something of a workaround just by making the one note bigger and tagged with <cash> or <sng> near the note so you know the context.

21. I 16 table sngs, and whenever a new table pops up, I am instantly redirected to the new table's chat box. Whether I'm typing in a bet amount, taking a player note, or chatting on instant messenger, I am suddenly typing in the new table's chat box when the sng starts.

- We didn't manage to fix this in this update, but it's known and will be fixed in an upcoming release. Sorry about that.

22. Can you make the HH replayer available to use for any FTP hh (other than recently played one)? I'd like to be able to view hh's from the past with FTP's replayer. Is this possible?

- Not at the moment, but we have some plans to make this sort of thing doable in the future.

23. NL 2-7 SD HU SNGs and 1-Table SNGs

- Yep, they're planned. I'm not sure when, though.

24. i asked in last months thread to get 4 Man HU shootout sngs added for super turbos in all game types that are currently available. Can this be implemented?

- I think so. I'll look into it.

25. Doug, I think it's ridiculous that there are special, exclusive Black Card only tourneys happening on your site, yet it's nearly impossible to stumble across.

- Agreed. We've now made it easier to find the upcoming Black Card tournaments:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/black-card/experience

I think we'll be adding it to the My Promos Black Card pages as well at some point, but for now you can just look there (and click the link to be taken directly to the tournament's lobby).

26. It's always been kinda silly that I had to choose whether I wanted bonus medals or the freeroll every month when I went to the IronMan page but its absolutely rediculous that it now makes me choose EVERY time I go to the page.

- Yep, we're going to get rid of this. In fact, this month you shouldn't have to choose between medals and freeroll since we'll be giving out tickets at the end of the month instead of auto-registering players. If you don't use the ticket in the freeroll you'll be able to trade it in for your bonus medals.

27. Full Tilt seems to be offering some kind of 27% rakeback to players connected with affiliates. Is this one of the changes Doug was talking about? Will the people who already get rakeback get any extra $$$?

- It's not one of "the" changes (it is, of course, "a" change), and it's not for anyone that already has rakeback through an affiliate.

28. when sng madness comes around again you should split the games into super turbos and turbo/normal speed sngs. Its impossible to make the leaderboard if you don't play super turbos which not everyone wants to endure.

- We definitely agree the Super Turbo players had too big an advantage in the last one and will make adjustments (although probably not to the point of splitting the games) for the next one to even the playing field a bit.

29. How about a 5-card draw challenge in the Academy?

- I don't have too much insight into the goings on at the Academy, but I do know they're working on getting other games up and running for challenges.

30. Chat is way too cluttered up in the draw games

- Agreed. We're going to change it up a bit so you only see the number of cards drawn in the "Normal" chat and if you want to see the number of cards dealt (and whether or not there was a reshuffle) you'd have to use "Everything" chat.

31. Do I have to play this month to get the year end bonus, or can I wait another month?

- You have to qualify for any level of Iron Man in December to get the bonus.

32. Has FTP ever considered doing anything to facilitate staking? For example a player could buy someone else into a tournament in exchange for X% of winnings.

- We have considered it, but decided against it. Like you said, all kinds of issues.

33. It would be really cool if when we lose our connection, we could be automatically unregistered for any SNGs that we have registered for that have not yet started.

- Yep, agreed.

34. Does FT monitor programs such as AIM/Skype, Teamviewer, or internet browsers? If I'm looking at OPR while playing, does FT monitor that?

- No, we don't monitor any of that (although I'm not sure about Teamviewer, I'm not sure there are any reasonable uses there). We look for very specific (prohibited) software running.

35. Hand Replayer is buggy.

- Can you elaborate? What isn't working properly?

36. Can something be done about the players in mixed games -- especially the 10-game -- who sit out the rounds they don't like playing and then come in for the games they like?

- Yes. We have the ability to turn off a player's "mixed games rights" which means they can no longer sit at a mixed game. So first we get a report and look into it. If we find that they're definitely sitting out their "bad" games, we issue a warning. If they keep doing it, we give them a temporary mixed game ban (usually just a few days). If they keep doing it after that we just give them a permanent mixed games ban. So if you see anyone doing it, report it to support and they'll take it from there.

37. Does FTP have weekly or monthly SNG competitions?

- Yep, and we just introduced Heads-Up SNG Leaderboards:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/leaderboards-gateway

The scoring of the HU Leaderboard is pretty unique and I'd be interested to hear any feedback from HU SNG players. It's meant to reward playing lots of different players instead of beating the same player over and over (which would encourage collusion too much). Hopefully it creates a little incentive for players of similar skill levels to actually sit and play each other.

38. Are we going to see some additional games and blind levels in rush any time soon?

- No immediate plans for new ring game additions to Rush. More Rush tournament game types are very likely, though.

39. Excellent point - presumably this [3rd party poker software that auto-clicks timebank] violates FTP's TOS in the same way as an autofolder. Doug, could you please confirm if this is the case?

- It isn't the case. The former isn't a real decision. It's just saying "I always need extra time to make my decision." The latter is definitely a decision to "fold everything." There are real arguments for not allowing auto-timebanking, but the current TOS isn't one of them.

40. Are there any future plans to be increasing or completely unlimiting the maximum amount of tables we can play at FTP? If not, what is the reasoning for the limit?

- No, no plans. At the moment we feel that increasing the limit would be bad for the games (both from a speed and a quality standpoint).

41. Is it possible to add super turbo SNGs for draw games, particular the no limit draw variants?

- Yeah, we'll look into it.

42. Is it possible to add PL Triple Draw and Badugi? I think NL Triple Draw is as wacky as NL Omaha, but PL works well for each of those games.

- Yes, both are possible. I don't know when (if ever) they'll happen, though.

43. If you will not have a weekly or bi-weekly Turbo night, will you at least add some more turbo MTTS in the evenings(est) please.

- Yes, that we can do.

44. NLHE/PLO tournaments would be way more popular than the current PLHE/PLO ones. Can we try changing some of them and see if it impacts on numbers?

- Yes, but I don't know when.

45. Watching the durrrr challenge and it said that I had 60 sec or they would boot me due to inactivity. Is that new? Never happened before. If so, is that there to help slow PTR down?

- It is new, and it's not there to help slow PTR down.

46. Did PokerTableRatings stop working for FTP?

- Huh. Weird.

47. Why was somebody allowed to change their screen name (in the middle of a SNG no less!) after playing 20k+ SNGs?

- I know you want more than the answer Sean gave in the dedicated thread about this, but there really isn't much more I can say about it. There are certain situations in which we allow a screen name change, and this player fell into one of those situations. When making the change, we screwed up and didn't make sure he wasn't playing at the time.

48. For the screen name change, if you can't tell us why it was allowed in this case (which I assume you can't/won't) then at least give us a list of acceptable reasons one might be able to change his/her screen name.

- I can't give that list, sorry. We'd just get a bunch of players writing in claiming that one of those reasons applies to them.

49. You should do some kind of promotion to promote the new draw games...

- We're going to kick some ideas around.

50. PLEASE add a "sit out next BB" option at Rush tables! This would be so great.

- Some changes have been made recently that have opened up this possibility. So it's now down as a project and should (as long as everything works the way we think it will) happen eventually. So there's hope!

51. Use your Iron Man medals to purchase an IronDay and increase your Iron Man status. An IronDay will add an Iron level day to your qualification status... So will this be good for 500 pts? Or still 250?

- The "Iron Day" will now be a "500 point day" instead of 250. We are considering breaking them up into all 4 days so you can buy whatever level you want, but I can't say when it'll happen, if ever.

52. Also, could we see a Matrix week similar to the Rush week we're having now? I've always enjoyed Matrix tournaments, but they run so rarely.

- Yeah, I'd like to do a Matrix promo someday. I've always thought they should have been more popular, although being forced to 4-table is definitely intimidating for newer players.

53. Can you add bet sizing buttons like PS has, configurable buttons that bet a preset number of BBs or percent of pot?

- Yes, something like this is planned.

54. But how about an increase on the regular rebuy guarantees?

- We'll be taking a closer look at guarantee amounts in February or so. We might change a couple here and there before then, but I wouldn't expect big changes.

55. please consider giving out a holiday bonus like last year.

- No Holiday Hundred this year, sorry. We have some other holiday type promos coming soon.

56. Can we expect some kind of live events for BlackCard members anytime soon? If so will they be only in U.S, or in Europe also?

- I'm not sure what the plans are here. For sure we'll have something at the WSOP, and we're always looking for events where we can do something special for Black Card members, but I don't have any concrete events/dates.

57. Will the rush week freeroll ticket be converted into medals if it isn't used?

- Nope, it's use it or lose it.

58. They have non-turbo Rush tourney already, just not enough. They don't get deep.

- You must have some harsh requirements for being called "deep." The final tables at non-turbo Rush tournaments (especially the rebuys) are some of the deepest I've seen.

From the FullTiltPoker Forum who post it FTPDoug.

I think its a bit useless...it kinda just turns the 'on demand' SnGs to normal MTTs.

...except they don't need to be scheduled so they can start any time enough players want to get together. Maybe people are getting hung up on the SnG bit?

I can see how people who've lost their regular games might be upset by this but otherwise aren't they really just more MTTs for people that like them?

Add me to the do not like the idea crowd.

I liked the 180 player MMT's. Game last the time I liked spending.

If I wanted a 300 to 400 player game I would sign up for that.

Brutal!

A bit late for chiming in, but I lost my internet for 5 days, so just wanted to say I hate the on demand feature at FT. The 135 Rush tourneys were just right for me, An hour and a half or so and move on. Plus bankroll was going in the right direction sticking with KC's rush strategy.

BRING BACK THE OLD WAY!!!!

The thing that I don't get is why get rid of the 135 man rush, and not just add a 45 on demand tournament as well?

On demand tourneys that combine MTT and SNG. Brilliant!! (he said sarcastically). Dumbest idea I have ever heard.

I totally missed this, and yesterday went to play the 4.40 135 man sng. I was bummed that I couldn't find it, and jumped into the 45 player. I couldn't figure out what was going on when ppl were still registering, then it hit me.
I actually liked it because it ended up being like the 135 man.

My first impression was worse than expected, as in WTF worse.

In no way should these be considered SnG's.

FullTilt, invent a new name for these!.