Iron Man: Use it, it's free!!!

So in another thread, Time to quit playing poker and start taking it for real, I talk about looking at poker as a part time job. I mentioned that you need to pick a site and stick to it, to take advantage of the promotions they offer. Full Tilt offers the Iron Man Promotion. However, I've talked to some CC members and there is a lot of questions on how Iron Man works.

Where is the Iron Man section.
Go the the Full Tilt Cashier and hit the my promotions button at the bottom. It will take you to your "My promotions" web page. Click on the Iron Man Challenge button. From there, there are tabs for your Iron man page to track your progress. There is an Iron Man Main page tab, an Iron Man Store tab, Iron Man Details tab, a One-A-Day Freeroll tab and finally a rules tab. You can find pretty much all the information you need on those pages. However, even with all that information some people are still confused, and I can understand why. So I'll address some of the common questions I've heard.

One-A-Day Freeroll vs Iron Man Challenge
You can pretty much think of this as two different promotions with a similar name. The One-A-Day challenge is pretty straight forward all you need to do is earn one FPP point per day or more in a month and you are eligible to play in a special freeroll the second Saturday of every month. You can't make up any days, if you don't earn a point one day, you are done and have to wait till next month. If you don't want to play in the freeroll, just don't register and about a week later you will receive 15 Iron Man Medals in your Iron Man Medals Bank.

What are Iron Man Medals?
Think of Iron Man Medals as a second set of points. You earn them by hitting one of four Iron Man levels, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the highest level Iron. You can use the medals in the Iron Man store to buy gear with the Full Tilt and Iron Man logos. These are separate items not available in the regular Full Tilt FPP store. You can also use them to buy FPP's, Tourney tokens and cash bonuses.

Buying cash bonuses and Tourney tokens are probably the best value of the Iron Man medals. There is a good article here on the value of Iron Man. That will give you the best idea of what you should use your Medals for.

What happens if I miss a day?
A lot of people I've talked to confuse this with the One-A-Day freeroll. Yes, if you miss a day in the One-A-Day challenge where you don't earn at least one FPP you're done for that month and will earn nothing.

However if you are trying to hit one of the Iron Man Levels it depends on where you are in the month. You can miss days, but if you miss too many you wont be able to hit certain levels. For example to hit the highest level (Iron) you must earn 200 FPP's or more a day for 25 days in a month. So if there were 31 days in a month, you could miss six days throughout the month and still hit the Iron level.

You can't make up any days by earning twice as many points as you normally would. So plan ahead on when you are going to miss days.

What type of plan do I need?
Iron man is pretty much geared for ring grinders, although SNG's players doing a lot of volume can also hit Iron Man. I'll just assume you play cash games, because that is what I know about.

If you have a small roll and are playing 10nl, it's kinda hard to earn 200 FPP's every day. It's possible, I've done it. Playing 8 tables at a time you are looking at around 3.5 - 4 hours a day. Which might be a stretch for a lot of people. So shooting for 50 points a day is probably more reasonable. If you hit 50 points a day for 20 days in a month, you will hit the lowest level which is Bronze, if you do it for 25 days, you'll hit the silver level.

On average, it takes around 600 hands at 10nl to hit 50 FPP's. The more tables you play, the faster you earn points, but don't kill yourself with too many tables where your win rate goes from positive to negative. Just take it slow at first. Don't worry about trying to hit any Iron man level until you can do four tables. At 10nl it's going to take about two hours on average to hit 50 points, playing four tables.

Iron Man seems like a lot of work for little reward.
True, when you are starting out and playing micros. Iron Man can seem like a ton of work for little reward. However, doing the Iron Man Challenge has it's benefits.

First, it's creating a goal for yourself. It's forcing you to play volume which, if you are a winning player is healthy for your bankroll. It's forcing you to play longer when on an upswing, at the same time it makes you play through downswings.

The more consecutive months you hit Iron Man, the quicker you earn Iron Man Medals, which means the quicker you can buy bonuses. Meaning rewards start to come at a quicker rate.

Iron Man Bonus
Every six months Full Tilt gives Iron Man bonuses. For every month you hit the Iron level, you would get $100. So if you hit Iron every month, you would get a $600 bonus. If you hit Bronze every month you would get $150 bonus. Basically the break down is Bronze is worth $25 a month, Silver $50, Gold $75 and Iron $100.

Do Happy Hour points count towards Iron Man?
No, the happy hour points do not count towards Iron Man.

What happens if I can't play for a month?
Well if you miss a month and don't hit an Iron Man Level, you will start over. You'll still receive any bonuses that you have coming to you. However, if you are earning Iron Man Medals at a quicker rate do to hitting Iron Man levels for more than two consecutive months you'll go back to the beginning rate.

Luckily in the Iron Man store you can buy an Iron Man Month for 150 medals. So if you know you are going to miss a month for whatever reason just purchase the continuing month so you don't lose your status and all the hard work you put in. You can purchase an iron man month for two consecutive months if needed.

Also if you ran short towards the end of the month, you can purchase Iron Man days in the store as well. You can buy up to four Iron Man days in any given month.

Closing
So, if you are going to start treating poker like a part time job and you are going to play on Full Tilt. Be sure to take advantage of all that the Iron Man Challenge has to offer. By doing so it will create structure for your poker business, give you goals to shoot for every month, as well as give your poker business some extra income.

Questions?
That's a run down of questions I've been asked by CC members. I'm sure there are other questions out there. If you have any other questions feel free to post them in the thread.

Great post.. Like you said in your post it is a lot of work for people playing at the micro level like my self, but when I have more money I will definitely try reach the iron man levels.

Awesome post!
I am so glad I didn't go and waste my time reading it on the site when you yelled at me to, lol.
This version I am sure is more, me friendly.

If you play enough for it to matter, not opting in is just leaving money on the table. One thing you neglected to mention is that the IM bonuses (end of and mid year), unlike basically every other bonus, does NOT effect your MGR/RB. This makes the IM bonuses worth their full amount for those with rb.

Also once you've been a IM for about 18 months consecutively you'll be earning enough IM medals (assuming you're hitting Iron each month) to buy and additional $600 bonus every 6 months.

Basic rule is to take advantage of every perk possible as it all adds to your bottom line. Next post on the FT Academy, TPC?

Great post, One weird instance that happened to me was that I logged on one day and i had a bronze chip, but I didnt come close to qualifying for it. FT realized the mistake and took it off a week later lol. A post of FT academy would be helpful too

Thanks for picking up my slack WVH Great addition.

I'm probably not the best person to talk about the FTP Academy. Even though I should be using the Academy to my advantage I really don't spend a lot of time there. I spend more time on CC, Stox and Cardrunners. I do random Academy challenges and check in every couple of days to see if I've completed a challenge. But I don't give much thought to it. And somehow due to my lack of effort regarding the Academy I still have over 20k Academy credits. I need to start figuring out what I'm going to do with those.

Anyone really use the FTP Academy to it's fullest? It's something I need to pay more attention to for sure.

I use the Academy pretty much like you. Pick a "challenge" and play until I complete it and the do it again until I have to pick a new challenge. I don't play any of the ones that require me to play any different than I normally would.

As far as what to buy, I just get tokens. There are $26 Matrix tourneys that are, imo, the easiest way to turn tokens into $$. I don't really play MTTs though so their might be a better option for those that do.

There are also cash bonuses in the FTP Academy store, I wonder if they count against rakeback?

As far as I know they do. Tokens do not unless they're used for a tourney with an overlay.

Just what are the iron man medals' real use?just like ftp?

So the Biggest value from the FTP Academy would be from the Tourney Tokens. So Tokens it is!!! Just need to set up a tourney day for myself.

^^
You also can get entered into the bronze, silver, gold, or iron freerolls. You can also collect them and there is a iron man store you buy stuff in kinda like the ftp

No, you can't buy bonuses with FTP's. So as I said in the OP, think of Medals as a second set of points that you use in a different points store.

Below is what you can buy in the Iron Man points store.

Attached Images

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You earn Medals even if you do the freerolls. If you don't do the freerolls you would earn bonus medals in addition to the normal iron man medals. Bonus medals for Bronze would be 25, Silver 40, Gold 70 and Iron 100.


Edit: Smuggla what you quoted from the OP is the Iron Man mid year and end of year bonus. Which is also in addition to everything else you earn in the Iron Man promotion. See how it can all get confusing

great read, even though i could've used it a month sooner, lol.

i've been working on this have 4 days to make bronze or nine to make silver. whichever doesn't matter right now. never thought i'd get this far.

thanks also hillbilly on the heads up on the academy. never looked at it that way, but guess i should get back into it. i can't lose the more i play, the more practice i get in the better.

good luck to all whose trying. peace

lol,i've been playin' on full tilt more than a year now and yet gained an iron man medal....lol,in fact,any medal at all...should try it on somedays..thanks

So you have to play a free roll per day, starting from the first day of the month? Then you play every day and somehow earn 1 point ach and every day and then you play another monthly free roll that you qualified for the next month? Where do you find these free rolls, I cant even find the CC free roll tournaments.

Read the thread!!! That's not what I said at all.

i enjoy the ironman and try to get 1 point a day! it may take a while but eventually you can build up your medals and trade it in for a cash bonus or merchandise! a good perk if you have time and drive to remember to play every day at ftp! gl everyone at the tables!

I did read your thread, all the following responces and the Full Tilt instructions, I just dont see where it tells what I was asking. It says play every day and win at least one point, so does that mean the first day of the month? and how do I find the free rolls for this? Sorry I just dont see it or can I find the free rolls, I did see an Iron man Heads Up for 2 players but thats not one of them.

One-A-Day Freeroll vs Iron Man Challenge
You can pretty much think of this as two different promotions with a similar name. The One-A-Day challenge is pretty straight forward all you need to do is earn one FPP point per day or more in a month and you are eligible to play in a special freeroll the second Saturday of every month. You can't make up any days, if you don't earn a point one day, you are done and have to wait till next month. If you don't want to play in the freeroll, just don't register and about a week later you will receive 15 Iron Man Medals in your Iron Man Medals Bank.

Full Tilt
The One-A-Day Freeroll takes place on the second Saturday of each month at 14:45 ET. Registration for the Freeroll will be open by the 3rd of each month for those who've qualified and wish to play. If you'd prefer not to play, do not register for the Freeroll and you'll receive 15 bonus Iron Man medals for use in our Iron Man Store after the tournament is complete.

This is a promotion for players that play for real money. You must earn one point a day. Points are awarded to players that play real money games which is dependent on how much rake they pay.

There is not a freeroll every day. The One-A-Day freeroll promotion is titled that way because you must earn on point a day to play. Once you qualify for the freeroll Full Tilt will email you an invite to the tourney.

This is not a handout it's a reward to Full Tilt's loyal paying customers.

Never mind, It started to make more sence when I found the calendar of my FTP winning history, I get it, sorry!

You are still confused? Nope. Read the post again.

Freerolls are what you can qualify for if you either do the FTP-a-day or qualify for a level. You cannot get ironman points by playing a freeroll.

You can qualify for the special monthly freerolls if you do ironman or you can opt for additional medals. The freerolls for the levels (you get entered into, say, the silver freeroll if you qualified for silver that month) and these are definitely worthwhile freerolls -- a lot of added money. (The lowest level -- bronze--has $10,000 in the freeroll; the highest -- iron -- has $30K.) And because only so many people qualify, the payout structure is very good. Far better than the average tourney. And neither the structure or the play resembles a normal freeroll at all.

You cannot get medals unless you qualify for some level, or decline the freeroll for 1-a-day.

Ironman is totally for people who regularly spend a fair amount of time a day at FTP.

great post, ok i did make iron man 2 months ago but just l8ly i really cant play every day so its hard to maintain the iron man status. the only prob i had is i totally forgot about playing the freeroll lol. this post has made it that much easier to understand and define what i need to do to become iron man and maintain it thanks

If I get some time at the beginning of next week, I might put together something on FTP Academy. I enjoy using it and it does keep my game together when it seems like it's falling apart.

But TPC, one question. You said the Happy Hour points don't count towards the IM. Does this mean that both pts don't count, or just the Happy Hour point? In other words, if you play during HH and make 100pts consisting of 50 regular pts and 50 HH bonus pts, do you still get credit in IM for 50 pts?

Yes, in that scenario you would get the regular 50pts for Iron Man.

And thanks in advance for putting together a Full Tilt Academy thread.

Thanks. And np, but it will only be if I can get the time to. I went from dead to busy overnight it seems. But I'll try.

Well, I got the time (although my hands feel like they are on fire) so I put it to use trying to explain the FTPA or link.

Great post! I always thought that the iron day and iron month calendar things were actually calendars you bought for your home/office or whatever LOL...thanks for clearing that up.


I really need to start taking advantage of the iron man instead of forgetting about it like last month....
iron.jpg (http://www.cardschat.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=27370&d=1270592468) Looks a little crazy..and I was pretty close to at least bronze it looks like.

I have been short by a day or two from forgetting to play and take advantage of iron man, wish I had known that I could use those iron days for last month.. I even sometimes will stop playing at 49 points or so without realizing it...silly me.

If I get the $100 bonus does it affect my MGR? AKA will I only be netting $73 since I will lose $27 in rakeback?

Iron Man bonus doesn't affect MGR.

To clarify, the end of / mid year bonuses do not effect your rb. The bonuses you buy from the IM store do effect your MGR.

Awesome post! I now understand what iron man is for and I never really looked at it in that point of view. Thanks for helping me to understand and that is another goal to aim for.

Alright thats what I thought, I just wasn't 100% sure. I only have 729 medals anyways...so not enough to buy that $600 I have my eye on! Or well....my $438 bonus (if i did my math in my head right)

I actually like to buy the IM bonuses in the same months as the end of / mid year bonuses because they can be cleared concurrently. It's like getting twice the bonus for 1/2 the grind and only one hits your MGR.