New in today's update:

A. New FTP Calculation: It's been pointed out a few times in these threads that the way we awarded points favored the full ring player over 6-max, heads-up, and tournament players. They were able to "pay less" for each FTP they earned, and getting things like Iron Man every day was much easier for them than, say, a heads-up player.

Well, those days are over. Instead of giving 1 FTP per $1 raked (or 7 FTPs per $1 in tournament fees), the new calculation is this:

For ring game players, 10 FTPs are awarded to the *table* for every $1 raked and then divided equally among all players dealt into that hand.

So, for example, a 5 handed table plays a hand that gets raked $0.50. 5 points are awarded to the table, and each player dealt into the hand gets 1 FTP. Now a heads-up table gets raked $0.50 and the same 5 points are awarded to the table. Since only two players were dealt into the hand, each player now gets 2.5 FTPs (in the old system they would have gotten 0.5 FTPs).

For tournament players, instead of 7 FTPs per $1 in tournament fees, you now receive 10 FTPs per $1 in tournament fees.

One change that you'll be interested in because of this change is to the Iron Man program. The 50 FTP day is staying as-is, but because it's so much easier to get points now (5x easier for heads-up players!) we've increased the requirements for the 100 and 200 FTP days by 25%. So now you need 125 FTPs and 250 FTPs for those days. Keep in mind that for most players, it's actually easier to get 250 FTPs today than it was to get 200 FTPs yesterday, though.

For example, a $10 + $1 SNG player had to play 29 SNGs yesterday to get 200 FTPs. Today, he only has to play 25 to get his 250 FTPs.

I realize this isn't the biggest news of the day (although still pretty significant), but I had to mention it first because it obviously affects greatly the next item, making it fair to attain no matter what games you play...

B. The Black Card: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/black-card

Most of you have already heard about it and have seen the "preview" site describing in general terms what the program is about. The pages have now been updated with more details, so I won't get into the basics here. Some answers to questions that might not be on the web site, though:

- The 500 FTP average is base FTPs only, like Iron Man. "Bonus" points (from promotions, the Black Card itself, or Happy Hour) don't count towards the rolling average.

- If you're a Black Card member and are playing during Happy Hour, you get 3x points, not 4x points (the two promotions add together, they don't multiply).

- The Black Card store is very much a work in progress. Many more items are expected to be added over the coming weeks, and if you're already a Black Card member you can help us out by suggesting items you'd like to see in the store.

- Iron Man Plus is no more. It was too close to the Black Card and was really redundant. Sorry about that, Iron Man Plus fans, but hopefully you'll agree that the Black Card is a much better program.

- The first Black Card only tournament will be this Sunday at 16:00 ET, and will be a satellite to the $750K Guarantee with 25 added seats.

- If you have rakeback, the MGR hit for the Black Card bonuses happens as you clear the bonus, not when you purchase it from the store.

C. New Rake Calculation Method: This only directly affects players with rakeback, but as of tomorrow, October 1st, we're moving from the "Dealt" method of calculating rake to the "Weighted Contributed" method. This means that instead of everyone who gets dealt into a hand getting an equal share of the rake credited to them, it's only the players who put money into the pot that get any rake credited. The credit is split by what % of the pot you contributed.

For example: The total pot is $100 and you put $40 in, player B puts $40 in, and player C puts $20 in. $3 gets raked. Both you and player B get credited for $1.20 (40% of $3) and player C gets credited for $0.60 (20% of $3).

Note that this change also only affects ring game players not playing heads-up. Heads-up and tournament players will see no difference.

We feel that this change is needed because the Dealt method unfairly punishes the more active players by giving them credit for less than their fair share of the rake (since it's only active players in a hand that actually contribute rake to that hand). Much like the points change, this was the most fair method we could come up with. If it wasn't obvious with the various changes we've been making this year, we're big into fairness over here.

D. Bonus Dialog Changes: To make bonus purchasing a smoother affair, you can now view all bonuses in your account on the Bonus Dialog. Before, you could only see one. If you have two or more "active" bonuses you can now re-order them and clear them in whatever order you like (you can still only clear one at a time).

This also means we're able to work on automating the Iron Man Store bonus purchases as well (it's still manual for now, though).

E. Visual Indication for Ring Game Waiting Lists: Only for Individual waiting lists (doing it for global waiting lists would look pretty bad, and wasn't technically possible). Any tables you're on the waitlist for now will turn purple.

F. Waitlist Number in Player List Widget: In the ring game Player List, it will now show how many players are on the waiting list without having to click over to the Waiting List tab of the widget. It's still not quite as fast as the column was, but much faster than before. The column still isn't coming back, sorry.

G. Improved Notes Icon: Nobody liked the new style of note on the pods with badges, so they've been changed. Hopefully for the better. Check them out again if you turned off badges only because you didn't like the note icon.

Sounds nice Doug. Always appreciate the heads up on what's going on with the software.

Doug,

Many times during a MTT, a players SN and chip count will disappear and only display their last action (i.e. Fold, Check, etc.). I usually have to manually close the table and reopen to refresh. Can you please fix this?

So much for making a shit ton of rakeback off of rush poker....

 

Originally Posted by mindtrip954

Well this is the update I think Ive been waiting for and gotta say its kinda upsetting... All year you have made mention of a new incentive programs, ones that would make players without rakeback a little happier... the second highest cash bonus is equivalent to 4% rakeback. This is nowhere near the stars vip program.

Honestly what more do I have to do to gett rakeback on FTP? Ive played nearly 20,000 tournaments/sngs at FTP and have been told repeatedly I do not qualify for rakeback. The only reason I get is because I am linked to another affiliate. I NEVER clicked an affiliate. I signed up at FTP at a friends house, and a cookie was saved in his history, and because of this I get no rakeback...

It can not be that hard to let the remaining few of us without rakeback to join the club and finally recieve rakeback...

pokerstars Jan 1 ftw... Fuck this bullshit at FTP...

i feel for u, its actually a joke. i sent ftp a email bout a year ago now (when i was hardly playing any volume) and requested rakeback, they told me go to (cant mention the site name or post gets deleted u prob know about it anyway) and they were happy to hook me up with rakeback.

since then number of my friends have been lucky enuff to have it accepted and a few have been turned down when we all play around the same amount of volume..

seriously fulltilt just needs to fix up and look after there loyal customers

FU FTP! 4 real! I'm so tilted with your shitty bonus program... FU!

Maybe this has been brought up before, but I hadn't noticed this until today/today's update...

I get a pop-up that pretty much says "due to an extended period of inactivity, you will be disconnected from full tilt," and then I can click whether to stay connected or not within like 30 sec or w/e before I'm auto disconnected.

What's the deal? Not a fan at all.

Looking at my iron man page, I was qualifed for Bronze this month and now the with the new change I dont make the requirements? I thought this was in effect for Octomber wtf?

 

Originally Posted by hateraises

Looking at my iron man page, I was qualifed for Bronze this month and now the with the new change I dont make the requirements? I thought this was in effect for Octomber wtf?

yea i cant get gold cuz of this..i needed today to get gold and now it says i cant even thugh i have enough points

happened to me twice today so far... security measure?

 

Originally Posted by shanetrain22

Maybe this has been brought up before, but I hadn't noticed this until today/today's update...

I get a pop-up that pretty much says "due to an extended period of inactivity, you will be disconnected from full tilt," and then I can click whether to stay connected or not within like 30 sec or w/e before I'm auto disconnected.

What's the deal? Not a fan at all.

ya this is soooooo fucking lame... Imma try having cash tables running in the backround to fix this but Im not gonna be happy either way...

needs removed imo

 

Originally Posted by hateraises

Looking at my iron man page, I was qualifed for Bronze this month and now the with the new change I dont make the requirements? I thought this was in effect for Octomber wtf?

This

 

Originally Posted by iCONoFpOKER

yea i cant get gold cuz of this..i needed today to get gold and now it says i cant even thugh i have enough points

If i were you i would play today anyways. This happened to me a few months ago. It said i was unable to qualify when i knew i was able. They went into my account and said there was a glitch and fixed it.

I am beyond annoyed about how FTP continues to treat its loyal customers.. I have many consec months going and now penalized.. Old system much better..

Friends of mine have over 36 months consec, I'm sure they will be beyond annoyed..

The new rake method also annoys me, but can live with that, its more the shitty way FTP treats its loyal customers is bad.. At least give some kind of bonus or something to the people that have a streak going if this change must stay..

I must have missed the part of ftpdougs post where he said they fixed late registration? I'm pretty sure there were at least 10 threads about that between the last update and this one but they decided to make us earn more points to earn iron man instead? Please listen to what the community wants ftp

Everything in this update looks like shit and non-rakeback players like myself (over 40k tourneys here) are still screwed.

Then again, Doug, answer this one. How long until FTP bones Washington as well?