Andy Bloch on Full Tilt
Back in 2002, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson had an idea – he wanted to create the best poker software on the market, designed and endorsed by the pros. His mindset was simple – create the best product and the players will come. He got together with Andy Bloch and some of his other poker friends, and FullTiltPoker.com was born. Keep in mind this was 2002, before the explosion of online poker.
About a year later, online qualifier Chris Moneymaker had won the World Series, the WPT was on TV, and Chris, Andy, and their poker friends became household names.
These guys really put their minds together to create an impressive site. We at PocketFives.com think Full Tilt is going to become one of the biggest players in the industry. We decided a feature piece on Full Tilt was in order. Since I'd seen Andy on our site a few times I called him up for some input.
The first thing I asked Andy was a very straightforward question: Why should an online poker player try Full Tilt? He obviously had a lot to say in response. He first mentioned user options. Team Full Tilt has tried to give online players everything they could want. Their graphical hand history allows you to easily go back through hands to see what was shown down. They have an assortment of avatars so that users can choose how they want to appear at the table – or players can simply turn off the avatars if they don’t like them.
His favorite feature is the ability to choose your position at the table. Once you’ve taken your seat, you can rotate yourself to the middle, the corner, etc. So if you have multiple screens overlapping, you can position yourself to where you can always see your cards as they are dealt.
Andy’s next reason to play Full Tilt was the blind structure. It’s simply one of the very best blind structures for skilled players on the internet. He says, “We designed the blind structure so that there will never be any big jumps in the blinds. They never double – you will never be sitting on a comfortable stack and then suddenly realize your in trouble as the blinds move up to the next level. Our blinds move up slowly and you rarely see our tournaments become all-in fests at the end.” Their blind structure has been highly praised by some of the top players online, as you’ve probably seen if you are a regular reader of the PocketFives.com forums.
Pros play on Full Tilt literally everyday. The pro presence is Full Tilt’s biggest marketing ploy. In fact, when I called Andy to interview him for this piece he was in the heads up of a $20 Seven Card Stud tourney, which he went on to win. Pros that are not on Team Full Tilt also frequent the site. You’re likely to see the likes of John D’Agostino, Steve Brecher, Rafe Furst, or Hoyt Corkins in any $100 buy in and up tourney you play on Full Tilt. Andy says most of these pros don’t have ownership in the company but they do get extra benefits. Full Tilt will help cover part of their buy-in fees at some live tournaments if they play on the site and wear Full Tilt gear at live events. This is a great deal for these pros since they would probably spend the same time playing on a different site without benefits if it weren’t for Full Tilt.
Andy made some very interesting comments concerning normal players that get to play with the pros on Full Tilt. He says the advantages of playing against the pros are threefold. First, the players can go out and tell their friends that they’ve played against the pros. It’s fun for them and great marketing for Full Tilt. Second, players stand to learn a lot playing against the pros, especially in the tournaments. Third, and perhaps most important for our readers, is that the pros in the cash games often drop a ton of cash. Phil Ivey plays $2000-$4000 limit poker regularly. Is he really going to play his best at the $1-$2 or even $10-$20 No Limit Tables online? Not all the pros always play loose in the cash games, but, for the most part, they have a lot of money and are playing below their normal levels. A good player can really clean up at the right table.
Andy also addressed a question I’ve often seen addressed about Full Tilt – if all the pros play there, shouldn’t a less experienced player stick to a site like PartyPoker? He says no, because the presence of the pros is attracting a lot of inexperienced players to the site. They’ll sit down at a $5-$10 Omaha H/L table just to play with Layne Flack, when they might not even know the rules of the game! Combine that with the fact that not all the pros try very hard to make money, and you’ve got a very profitable situation for a solid player when the pros are present. This writer has cleaned up on a few occasions at Flack’s table. I’ve also heard lots of stories about enormous wins off the pros, so I know exactly what Andy means.
Full Tilt is one of the fastest growing online poker sites, and we see no reason why it’s going to slow down. The user options are second to none, the tournament structure is great, the software is constantly updated and improved, and you get to play with the pros. All they really need is more players to fill their tables. PocketFives.com strongly believes this site will be one of the top four or five online sites by number of users within two years. Sign up for Full Tilt now and enjoy the ride!
Current Full Tilt Promotions:
100% Sign-up Bonus up to $600
10 WSOP Seat Guaranteed Freeroll – No joke, this is the biggest freeroll tournament in the history of online poker. To gain entry to the Freeroll you must gain 10,000 FullTilt points between April 10th and June 10th. Acquiring these points will not be a difficult task for someone who plays regularly
30 WSOP Seat Guaranteed $500 buy-in Tourney. Their running tons of satellites, but this is an enormous tournament. We’re expecting an overlay.
And last, but not least, Full Tilt will give you $10,000,000 dollars if you win the WSOP after qualifying through their site. Ten Million Dollars. That’s got a nice ring to it.
All of these promotions are explained in detail on Full Tilt’s front page.
