More on FT new update
This caught me by surprise today during the 3R Donkament but it's actually a pretty useful feature that Full Tilt implemented. I'll highlight the information they put out regarding the new feature.
"Playing in more than one Multi-Table Tournament at the same time can make it difficult to take advantage of individual tournament breaks. With Full Tilt Poker's new Synchronized Breaks, you'll have the chance to "take 5" out of every hour of tournament play without missing a hand.
How Synchronized Breaks Work
Synchronized Breaks will take place at 55 minutes past every hour. For example, if a Tournament starts at 10:15 ET, the tournament clock will stop at 10:55 ET and all hands currently being played will be completed before the break starts. This will ensure that players at tables that finish their hands before all tables have completed their last hand won't miss any of the current blind level. The tournament will then resume exactly five minutes after all tables have completed their hands. This will result in most tournaments resuming at slightly different times. The next Synchronized Break will then take place at 11:55 ET."
Basically this allows MTTers who are playing multiple tables the chance to take a break every hour without worrying about multiple tables.
Here's the link - [old link~tb]
http://w.fulltiltpoker.com/synchron...0b2tlbj1WSlBLOEFOVVhLVEtBWVBSTlZQTkU-&brand=1
I thought I would post here what FTPDoug has posted on Two Plus Two for those who don't venture off to that Forum.
If your on dialup this is huge. And a few Q and A from FTPDoug
New this update:
A. Blinds + Antes games - No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha with antes! Limited to higher stakes only for now, but it should work down to the lower limits in the coming weeks.
Not to sure about this, could be good. Interesting atleast. With that being said i'm going to give them a go when they are down a few levels.
B. Ring Game Lobby Icons - No, it's not ring game filters. It is, however, a step closer to that goal (some of the plumbing that is needed for filters is now done because of this feature). For now, you can sort by ring game type better than you could before. For example, Deep tables used to be mixed in with normal tables, and now if you sort by "Type" they are separated.
C. Synchronized Breaks - Basically, every multi table tournament in the game will now start going on break at :55 past every hour. The tournament clock will stop, the current hand will finish, and then the 5 minute break will start. This means that the actual restart of all tournaments will be slightly staggered (since the tournament with more players take longer to finish that final hand before the break than the tournaments with fewer players) but most people will have a good 5 minute break now no matter how many multi-table tournaments they're playing.
The Tournament players have hit GOLD!
D. Improved Network Communication - Even though this isn't a "feature" that you can see when you log in, this is probably the thing that will make the biggest difference in everyone's day to day playing experience. Basically, the way the game client communicates with the server has been completely re-written. It's easiest to notice the difference when you flip back and forth between, say, the Hold'em and Omaha lobbies or when you open a very large tournament like the Double Deuce. What used to take an annoyingly long time is now much faster. The worse your internet connection is, the more of a difference you'll notice.
Big help for me
E. Anti-Ratholing in Limit Games - The same check we've always had for NL games is now being applied to limit games. If you leave a game with more than the minimum buyin, you can't re-join the game with less than that amount within 30 minutes (or 30 hands, whichever comes sooner).
This is good, Congratulations to FT for finally adding this.
Question: In order to promote responsible
gambling please allow self banning from stakes of your choice. For example, I want to only be able to play 10nl and lower.
FTPDoug: We'll look into the possibility, but it's not on the radar at the moment and wouldn't be for a good while.
Question: Although you say there are distant plans to add 2-7 triple draw, how distant are they? and do you plan on add all draw games (i.e. 5 card draw, 2-7 triple and single, A-5 triple)?
FTPDoug: When I say "distant plans" that means the end of the year would be the earliest we would see that thing. More likely 2010. Our current pipeline of projects will take us to nearly the end of the year, so if a particular request isn't in that current pipeline, that's when I start saying things like "distant plans."
That being said, when we do add triple draw, we will very likely add other draw games, yes.
Question: "platinum" iron man for 1k points a day, or something equivalent?
FTPDoug: No plans for this. We do have some distant plans (oh no!) for a bigger rewards system for our "bigger" players.
Question: How about private cash tables?
FTPDoug: I've always liked this idea. I've got a few ideas about this, myself. It certainly won't be any time soon, but you know, distant plans...