Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker owns the somewhat dubious honor of… um… let’s just say breaking me in twice. It was the first online poker site I ever played at and now it is the first poker site that I am reviewing.

Let’s start with what is good. It is well known and respected. Lots of pro poker players (most of them are famous and on the boob tube a lot) play online too. I played with one once but it wasn’t that memorable of an occasion as I don’t even remember which it was. I also had the opportunity to play with Phil Ivey but didn’t because I wasn’t comfortable playing for the stakes he was at. They were pretty reasonable but I was a newbie. Passing on this game is something I regret and something my friends will never let me live down.

What’s not so good about this site? Well the competition can be pretty stiff. This is in comparison to other online sites of course. Full Tilt isn’t associated with any online casinos (none that I am aware of). These tend to attract fish. However, most of the people that play at Full Tilt probably know about it from watching poker on TV or going to poker related websites and seeing banners promoting Full Tilt.

Other things of note: I’ve heard that Full Tilt has a slightly tweaked tournament structure that many seem to like. I personally did not notice much of a difference in terms of structure playing there as opposed to some of the other sites. But supposedly it is there. Also, Full Tilt offers the full selection of HORSE at their site. For those of you that don’t know, this stands for Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Eights or Better. Full Tilt also offers a decent deposit bonus (currently 100% up to $600) and occasional reload bonuses. These tend to be on the slower side but make up for it by being some of the largest bonuses out there. Finally, Full Tilt provides some of the best software out there which includes the perk of possibly getting your own personalized avatar if you play enough.

On to the ratings (scale of 1 to 5)

Player Quality (x2.00): 1.75
Software Quality (x1.50): 4.25
Bonus Quality (x1.25): 4.00
Tournament Quality (x1.00): 4.25
Game Variety (x1.00): 4.00

Total Weighted Points: 23.13
Total Weights: 6.75
Weighted Average: 3.43

Absolute Poker

Absolute Poker is one of my favorite places to play online. This is for one reason and one reason only – the abundance of fish. The website has its downsides, such as not having the greatest of features and not a huge variety of games. But I turned a $10 free gift from Absolute into $700 in four days … playing only one or two tables at a time, and for just a few hours a day. It’s my number one spot when I need some quick cash … I Absolutely recommend it.

They also have a pretty good initial deposit bonus … 100% up to $750. Clearing it takes about an average amount of time, in my opinion. Not the fastest, not the slowest. The tournaments there are huge (1,500 or 2,000 entrants for most of them), so cashing in one is easier said than done. But they have plenty of freerolls that pay real prizes, so you can use those to sharpen your game. And don’t expect a large game variety either. If you’re playing at off-peak hours, you may have some trouble getting a full game of Stud or Omaha going.

The breakdown (scale of 1 to 5):

Player Quality (x2.00): 4.5
Software Quality (x1.50): 2.5
Bonus Quality (x1.25): 4.0
Tournament Quality (x1.00): 3.0
Game Variety (x1.00): 2.0

Total Weighted Points: 22.75
Total Weights: 6.75
Weighted Average = 3.37

Online Poker Rooms: Introduction

When we started this blog, one of the things we wanted to bring you were reviews of the various online poker rooms that we have played at. There are many places online already where you can go for in depth reviews. My personal favorite is Poker Listings. Since these are already in place, we will just treat this as a starter and talk briefly about game variety, player quality, software quality, tournament quality, and bonus quality for each. We will also provide an overall rating that is a weighted average.

Each item will be rated from one (bad) to five (good) and then weighted as follows.

Player Quality x2
Software Quality x1.5
Bonus Quality x1.25
Tournament Quality x1
Game Variety x1

All these added up and divided by 6.75 will be the total score with a higher score being better.

I have spent many hours playing online poker at various sites. Included among these are Bodog, Full Tilt, Paradise, Aboslute, Poker.com, Poker Room, Party Poker, Empire and Interpoker. So I have sampled quite a few places. Jamin also has played in many of the above rooms and a couple others. Hopefully our experiences will help you choose a great poker room.