New features in today's 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.

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.

You can find more details here: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/synchronized-breaks

As a side note (since I know it will come up), when I asked the developers what it would take to implement this feature after seeing all the requests and threads about it, I was surprised to learn that it was a pretty easy thing for our system. It took one server programmer to fully implement, and he is in no way associated with either ring game filters or security features.

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.

This was a very large project and has been a long time coming (I could do the way-back-machine thing again and show you where I was talking about it, but that'd just be embarrassing). I hope anyone who has experienced any kind of "network lag" when it didn't seem like it was their connection gives it another go to see how it behaves now.

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).

Beta update:

Along with all of the above new features, the beta update includes a number of bug fixes. If you haven't tried it and have any interest in a high performance client (now with high performance networking as well as high performance on your machine!), download it here:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/beta

Even though it's getting fairly stable with few serious bugs at this point, the usual beta warnings apply. Use at your own risk.

Just saw this, very awesome! Can't wait for the ante games to move down to lower limits...$60kNL is sliiigggghhhhtly out of my BR

Also wp on the synchronized breaks, are you the first site to do this? (I know its been kicked around as an idea here and other places)

 

Originally Posted by ftpdoug

New features in today's update:

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.

WOW SHIP IT! ftpdoug you are the man. Seriously glad they did this, it's so annoying not having this and now that we do, I'm going to miss a lot less hands when I need to go have a square or get food or something. FTP>pokerstars

 

Originally Posted by Rocky Of Poker

Synchronized Breaks is a cool idea but really won't matter much unless stars does the same thing cuz im sure 90% of ppl will be playin on both sites.. nevertheless good job ftp. keep up the good work

At least you'll miss less hands if you have to piss or smoke like me :)

wow ftpdoug 4 prez, this is sick <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

hof

 

Originally Posted by AwesomeO

 

Originally Posted by Rocky Of Poker

Synchronized Breaks is a cool idea but really won't matter much unless stars does the same thing cuz im sure 90% of ppl will be playin on both sites.. nevertheless good job ftp. keep up the good work

At least you'll miss less hands if you have to piss or smoke like me :)

laptops ftw.. you'd be amazed what i can do w/ my laptop while playin pokers:
drive 30 mins on interstate to gf's apt
make dinner
take a #1/#2(obv)
i even shower and play at same time, sir

lolz

question about the sync breaks,

if a tourney starts at say 1:30, 1:45 will this be on the 1:55 break aswel

 

Originally Posted by Scully The Monster

question about the sync breaks,

if a tourney starts at say 1:30, 1:45 will this be on the 1:55 break aswel

level right? wtf do u think sync'd breaks mean?

 

Originally Posted by Rocky Of Poker

 

Originally Posted by Scully The Monster

question about the sync breaks,

if a tourney starts at say 1:30, 1:45 will this be on the 1:55 break aswel

level right? wtf do u think sync'd breaks mean?

lol

Doug,

What about $1, $2, & $3 Omaha Rebuy tournys?? Thanks

Merk

im not gonna lie .. im a stars guy but what you guys are doing over at full tilt is real good .. i know stars players have been begging for certain adjustments for months now and nothing .. well done full tilt .. im impressed

 

Originally Posted by ftpdoug

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.

SF COOL!!!

This is literally the best news I've heard in a while - I can't wait to have antes in the lower cash games for PLO....and NLHE!!

And the synched breaks will probably extend my life by 5 years actually being able to take a break over an 8 hour tourney grind !!!!!

I've always touted stars as #1, and the customer service is still there but these 2 things are HUGE!! Definitely a big step in the right direction!!!!

TYTY

 

Originally Posted by Rocky Of Poker

Synchronized Breaks is a cool idea but really won't matter much unless stars does the same thing cuz im sure 90% of ppl will be playin on both sites.. nevertheless good job ftp. keep up the good work

It's still a step in the right direction.

Now we need more avatars :)