Full Tilt has ruined freerolls...

[Poof]

+1

As a lowly dial-up user, it was impossible to register for the 19:40, and almost impossible for the 15:40.

I'm in the 15:40 now and it's already down to 4,000 from 7,500 after only 25 minutes. No doubt most / many of the "extra" 4,800 were playing "shove ATC"

Or has FT changed the sitout policy ? ...(auto eliminate if not present ? )

FT does not auto eliminate, afaik.
At least not in the private freerolls, the players slowly blind out.
I would say almost half of any field plays shove ATC.

 

[MFaith]

Well, it looks like there are two flavors of the new 7500 freerolls, turbo & non-turbo. Unless you're a glutton for punishment, try sticking with the turbos. At least with the turbos, you'll know if you're going to make the money after 2 to 2.5 hours, with the other format it's 3.5 hours or so. And the worse one was the HORSE freeroll at about 4 hours; it appears that the blind structure may be different now, so maybe it's quicker. The DD turbo freeroll is worth a shot for the 1.5 hours needed to qualify for $1 or tourney.

The best ones IMO, if it weren't for the later (for East Coast) times, would be the Ferguson and the USA $250 freeroll.

 

[cardplayer52]

I remember they used to be 900 players. Those were so much easier to cash. That was when Chris Furguson did his challenge too. I'd like to see how long it would take him now!

 

[AtiFCOD]

So much for FTP having the best freerolls. From 2700 to 7500 with only a payout bump of $50 and 18 more spots paid. The 2700s took hours. 7500 that's just brutal. Seems like they went the way of stars where they let almost 10k people join each one. UGH.

Ouch, 7500 players. Thats really brutal. I think it took at least 7-9 hours to finish it.

 

[kadafi]

So much for FTP having the best freerolls. From 2700 to 7500 with only a payout bump of $50 and 18 more spots paid. The 2700s took hours. 7500 that's just brutal. Seems like they went the way of stars where they let almost 10k people join each one. UGH.

Lol FTP never had the best freerolls. Smaller sites offer the best freerolls.

 

[OzExorcist]

So originally their structure was longshot-horrible (paying 1% of the 2700-strong field) and now their structure is... still longshot-horrible? I don't get it - surely we're only complaining about degrees of horrible here, you can hardly suggest that their old structure was good / consistently profitable anyway.

 

[chipshuffler]

This is a stupid idea from full tilt. I really dont understand why they would do it. They already have the best reputation for freerolls and this is only going to ruin that.

If there were 2700 people in each freeroll im sure that everyone would be a lot happier. Gonna be a real struggle grinding in these things from now on

 

[orangepeeleo]

I'm not being funny but full tilts got a lot more going for it than 'the best reputation for freerolls' and i would think that their customer services dept places non depositing freerollers very very very low on the list of things they care about.

The site is giving all you tight arse frw's a chance to win FREE money how can you possibly complain about any aspect of the tournaments/structure when they are doing it off their own backs, and, considering the amount of money they make, really don't have to!

I don't understand why sites do so many freerolls anyways, i mean, besides from the odd handful that win a bit of cash, build it up, and end up being decent rake paying customers. When you think about it how much rake do freeroll players actually contribute to a site like fulltilt, on the grand scale of things, over their entire poker 'career', if you can call it that, not very much i would imagine, and with the extra strain that 20k+ people playing freerolls at a time puts on their servers i'm suprised they dont sack them off completely, or hold 1 a week or something, there's plenty of high rake paying regs that are whinging about the lagginess after the update, surely a solution to that would be to stop freerolls and take a bit of the strain off the system??

Anyways, back to the original point, all this fulltilt has ruined freerolls whine whine whine whinge whinge whinge, serves no purpose at all, they are a company at the end of the day and the only people they really care about are going to be the ones that pay them money and increase their profits.

I was half expecting somebody in this thread to write a reply in the vain of "i'm boycotting FT freerolls and never playing there again, who's with me", to be honest its the only reason i opened the thread and i'm very dissapointed so....

FT SUCK, I'M NEVER PLAYING FREEROLLS THERE AGAIN, WHO'S WITH ME??

 

[OzExorcist]

This is a stupid idea from full tilt. I really dont understand why they would do it. They already have the best reputation for freerolls and this is only going to ruin that.

If there were 2700 people in each freeroll im sure that everyone would be a lot happier. Gonna be a real struggle grinding in these things from now on

I'm pretty sure Full Tilt (and indeed every other serious poker site) are a lot more interested in the rate at which they're converting freerollers to real money players than they are in their position on the "Best Freerolls LDO" list. So it makes sense for them to sacrifice the latter in favour of the former and making it harder to win freerolls makes it more likely people will just give up and deposit.

Keep in mind too that some people may actually see this as a good thing - the kind and benevolent Full Tilt managers have increased the field sizes so that more people get to play and they've increased the prize pools so that more people get a shot at getting their bankroll started. You and I may know that they've also made it a lot harder to reach the money, but not everyone will see it that way.

One last thought - how good are the freerolls at poker stars? Where do they come in on the "Best Freerollz" list? I rarely play there, let alone in freerolls, but I'm pretty sure they've got even bigger fields in their freerolls where it's even harder to make real money. And yet they're the biggest site on the internet - apparently having bad freeroll structures hasn't hurt them in that regard.

 

[wobble]

If you want a shorter freeroll, look out for the turbo freeroll to the daily dollar.

7500 entrants to 200 winners in under 2 hours. Then you can unregister from the daily dollar and spend your single tournament dollar on a real money SNG or tournament.

 

[Divebitch]

I'm not being funny but full tilts got a lot more going for it than 'the best reputation for freerolls' and i would think that their customer services dept places non depositing freerollers very very very low on the list of things they care about.

The site is giving all you tight arse frw's a chance to win FREE money how can you possibly complain about any aspect of the tournaments/structure when they are doing it off their own backs, and, considering the amount of money they make, really don't have to!

with the extra strain that 20k+ people playing freerolls at a time puts on their servers i'm suprised they dont sack them off completely, or hold 1 a week or something, there's plenty of high rake paying regs that are whinging about the lagginess after the update, surely a solution to that would be to stop freerolls and take a bit of the strain off the system??

Anyways, back to the original point, all this fulltilt has ruined freerolls whine whine whine whinge whinge whinge, serves no purpose at all, they are a company at the end of the day and the only people they really care about are going to be the ones that pay them money and increase their profits.

FRWs? Don't you think that's a little harsh? Not that it's any of anyone's business, but I've deposited plenty on FT, and do play cash tables (albeit microstakes) on a very regular basis, as well as private buy-in MTTs. If I also enjoyed a few freerolls, it's not to amass a fortune, again, not that it would be anyone's business. Call it whining all you want, but it is reasonable to be disappointed at what they did.

If it was putting such a strain on their servers, tell me how it makes any sense at all to increase the size of freerolls by 3x? FWIW, I experience no lag whatsoever there lately.

Your last comment tells me you're not the marketing expert. Why do you think just about every site out there does offer freerolls of some kind? You're right, at the end of the day, they care about the bottom line. They are not in the business to give away money, so freerolls must serve some sort of purpose to that end, namely profits.

One last thought - how good are the freerolls at Poker Stars? Where do they come in on the "Best Freerollz" list? I rarely play there, let alone in freerolls, but I'm pretty sure they've got even bigger fields in their freerolls where it's even harder to make real money. And yet they're the biggest site on the internet - apparently having bad freeroll structures hasn't hurt them in that regard.

Good points. I have no idea what to attribute Poker Stars success to. Maybe they have been around the longest or close to it? Maybe a lot of smart marketing and decision-making WRT to games/stakes offered, promos, ease of deposit/withdrawal internationally, customer service, etc?

At any rate, their freerolls truly suck. lol Huge fields for NO money whatsoever (only that finishers in the top 1% get a ticket for entry into a $2k freeroll) yet they fill up. I play the freerolls I really like just for practice, like HORSE, Omaha HL, 2-7 Lowball, Badugi, and 8-game. I currently have 18 of those $2k tickets stored up, and can rarely be bothered using them, as the non-NLHE games are Sunday afternoon, football time.

 

[kmixer]

Makes you wonder why would FTP want to tie people up for a longer period of time when they could be spending that time in a micro game. I would really like to see FTP bring the 10 cent 240 SnGs over like PS has. I would LOVE to see games other than HE and PLO at this price level. Games like LO8 and Razz at 10 cetns with 240 players would be really good.

On topic I actually don't mind the 7500. If I am planning on playing in one of these I pretty much have to set aside the rest of my day on it anyway.

Trying out my first one today. I am sure after I am done with it I will be back with complaints

The PS freerolls are the pits. All that time spent and sometimes don't even get a ticket not to mention I never get a chance to use the tickets I have. Yet I still play in them. Keeps me out of trouble when I am on tilt.

 

[LizzyJ]

This thread gives me extra motivation to stay within BR requirments. I've played a few of the 7500 FR's but had to sit them out around 1/2 way through.

Good luck to those who have the patience and fortitude to play them!

 

[dd_decker]

Copycat move?

I think this might be because of competition with Poker Stars freerolls which have so many entrants. Remember this summer when the sites were competing to get the most players in a single tournament? They were going crazy, offering lots of cash added to get like 100,000 players in an event. Bragging rights I guess. Maybe I'm wrong but is seems like a copycat move.

 

[Maid Marian]

If you want a shorter freeroll, look out for the turbo freeroll to the daily dollar.

7500 entrants to 200 winners in under 2 hours. Then you can unregister from the daily dollar and spend your single tournament dollar on a real money SNG or tournament.

This tournament is rather difficult to win...the first time I won took nearly 3 hrs....the 2nd was about 2hrs. You start with only 300 chips too...basically all-in or fold to start. I've won 2/4 times I've entered that one. It is turbo, but that even makes it more difficult to achieve a win with this one. GL if you try it!

 

[sharkyo01]

Jesus 7500, Could take all day!

 

[TinaPete]

It seems that all the sites are allowing more players and having few tourneys,,poker is brutal...smiling

 

[kmixer]

I was interested to see how long it would take to get down to the 2700 that this tourney used to start with so I watched the results and have recorded them here for you all.

This is for the 1:40 EST PLO tourney. All times listed EST

Tourney Starts 1:43
6500 People left @ 1:46 (3 minutes)
5500 People left @ 1:51 (8 minutes)
4500 People left @ 1:55 (break starts at 1:59 with 4,284 left)

Over 3000 people gone in 16 minutes

Back from Break 2:05

3500 People left @ 2:12 (32 minutes)
2700 People left @ 2:22 (42 minutes to reach the old number)

We all know that from here it is going to be slower moving but 42 minutes including a break is not bad to get the field back to 2700.

Finished 2102 so wont be tracking the rest of the tourney results. Hope this helps for some that were concerned about a lot of extra time to play these.

 

[Divebitch]

I was interested to see how long it would take to get down to the 2700 that this tourney used to start with so I watched the results and have recorded them here for you all.

This is for the 1:40 EST PLO tourney. All times listed EST

Tourney Starts 1:43
6500 People left @ 1:46 (3 minutes)
5500 People left @ 1:51 (8 minutes)
4500 People left @ 1:55 (break starts at 1:59 with 4,284 left)

Over 3000 people gone in 16 minutes

Back from Break 2:05

3500 People left @ 2:12 (32 minutes)
2700 People left @ 2:22 (42 minutes to reach the old number)

We all know that from here it is going to be slower moving but 42 minutes including a break is not bad to get the field back to 2700.

Finished 2102 so wont be tracking the rest of the tourney results. Hope this helps for some that were concerned about a lot of extra time to play these.

Yes, and I forgot to apologize to Maid Marian. She was right. Where there is not the limit game, like in PLO, the field clears a LOT faster. I went out yesterday in 40 - 50 minutes, and there were maybe just 2500 left. I had told her I lasted past the 2nd break with 3600 left, but that was in HORSE.

 

[swrittenb]

+1

As a lowly dial-up user, it was impossible to register for the 19:40, and almost impossible for the 15:40.

I'm in the 15:40 now and it's already down to 4,000 from 7,500 after only 25 minutes. No doubt most / many of the "extra" 4,800 were playing "shove ATC"

Or has FT changed the sitout policy ? ...(auto eliminate if not present ? )

I hear that - previously when playing on my slow laptop, it wasn't possible to get in some of the freerolls because the loading time for the user list jammed up the system, and the button just never appeared. At least now there's a two or three minute window, and it's definitely going to work.

AFAIK, Full Tilt didn't change the sitout policy, so you can just hang around and finish with the others who are getting blinded out. That used to be around the 300-800 player mark.

 

[swrittenb]

I was interested to see how long it would take to get down to the 2700 that this tourney used to start with so I watched the results and have recorded them here for you all.

This is for the 1:40 EST PLO tourney. All times listed EST

Tourney Starts 1:43
6500 People left @ 1:46 (3 minutes)
5500 People left @ 1:51 (8 minutes)
4500 People left @ 1:55 (break starts at 1:59 with 4,284 left)

Over 3000 people gone in 16 minutes

Back from Break 2:05

3500 People left @ 2:12 (32 minutes)
2700 People left @ 2:22 (42 minutes to reach the old number)

We all know that from here it is going to be slower moving but 42 minutes including a break is not bad to get the field back to 2700.

Finished 2102 so wont be tracking the rest of the tourney results. Hope this helps for some that were concerned about a lot of extra time to play these.

Thanks! People play super aggressively in the freerolls that take a long time, so it's good to know these numbers. :B

 

[Maid Marian]

Yes, and I forgot to apologize to Maid Marian. She was right. Where there is not the limit game, like in PLO, the field clears a LOT faster. I went out yesterday in 40 - 50 minutes, and there were maybe just 2500 left. I had told her I lasted past the 2nd break with 3600 left, but that was in HORSE.

That's OK, I usually play the $250 US freeroll every night...except for this past two weeks because I forgot to register till too late. That's why I know so well about the time. Take care & gl!

 

[mstram]

.... making it harder to win freerolls makes it more likely people will just give up and deposit.

Well I'm just about at that point

After playing many .... many ... many freerolls for the last 2.5 years, I have a total of $0.00

Almost ..... https://www.cardschat.com/forum/poker-goals-challenges-wins-46/ft-omaha-freeroll-53-7-500-a-164632/

I actually have cashed in Feerolls and SNG's, but have never been able to "boostrap" a bankroll.

Usually because of getting impatient. E.g. I "graduated" in the pokerroom school thingy, and got $50, and had built it up to ~$80.00 or so, then got impatient / tilty / loose / spewy etc, and blew it all ....and that was just playing LIMIT poker.

On the postive side, I have gained experience playing at low limits, and have found that the cash, and SNG's at low limits are not much different than the "serious" freeroll players.

As for the 7,500 players, I'm finding that it's not taking much longer than the 2700, as it seems there are proportionally as many sitouts and "ATC shovers", if not more, so the playing time is almost the same. E.g. the 40,000 massive tourney last week, (I didn't play in it) where I initially thought it might take ~20 hours to play

 

[kmixer]

Keep in mind this was for PLO. The numbers will change when playing NLHE and as dive said limit games will take way longer matter what.

Thanks! People play super aggressively in the freerolls that take a long time, so it's good to know these numbers. :B

 

[moemtg]

Good Lord

I hadn't noticed this vast unimprovement to their freerolls... I mean the United States FR is 7500 and that took me 8 and a half hours to get to the final table.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Full Tilt pulls a stunt like this... And no November promotion...

Thank God for CardsChat and the teams generous freerolls. I guess I will never be participating again in any of Full Tilt sponsored regular freerolls.

Sad to hear,
Moe