why is there no 24/7 support on ftp?? This is ridiculous

High stakes players:

There was a post made yesterday about some players having issues being able to transfer their balance to Stars due to recently receiving large transfers and obviously with the removal of high stakes game it is now not possible to meet the normal play requirement for you on Full Tilt.

I've spoken with someone and you should now be able to contact the payments team and have this issue resolved, if you try that and are not allowed to transfer your full balance to Stars, please send me a PM on here and I will give you the direct email for someone who can sort it out for you.

Update - there is no planned change to the value of FTP's

I think that is still up for debate to some extent so feel free to provide your feedback of what you would like to see (obviously some what inline with the general theme of changes on the site so far).

The problem is user experience for new players, it's much worse when they play HU. KOTH doesn't solve that problem.

Have seen screen name changes suggested a lot, will certainly pass that idea along next time I'm in Dublin. Personally not what I would like but seems there is a lot of support for it. I'd like the removal of shallow tables too, think there are people on both sides of this argument though so if liquidity allows i would expect them to stay.

Completely respect that opinion, I'm more than happy to speak out if I disagree with changes FT makes or if I think something they do is unfair to the players and like I said this is my own personal time I'm using to answer these posts, it's not part of my job. If I was in your shoes right now I know I'd want quick honest replies to my questions. So instead of leaving Shyam to make one or two posts a day I decided to jump in and help as best I could, especially as I consulted on these changes and thus have a lot of the info you guys wanted. Again, though, I completely respect your opinion and I hope in time you'll see I'm not just on FT's side because they pay me, I need to earn that trust from players that don't know me already though. I do realise that.

To be honest it kind of sucks for me that for the most part I agree with these changes. Would probably have helped my credibility if I didn't like more of them. I'm against raising the rake at micros to fund the new rewards system, I think they would have been better taking the hit to their bottom line on that one but everything else I like to some degree or another. I'm sure there will be stuff in the future that I'm not a fan off and think are bad for players and hopefully you'll get to see I am trying to be fair to the entire player base when those come up.

Certainly some people who like shallow and 9-max especially at the smaller stakes, I think you're right though just 6-max 100bb tables in the lobby would look cleaner for sure.

Within the next month or two.

Then I'm going to look like a complete idiot lol!

I really don't believe that is their intention though for what it's worth.

Are you sure that is the case? I get replies at all sorts of hours of the day. Would be very surprised to find out there isn't 24/7 support although I really have no idea.

Seems like good changes on the face of it, the amount of posts from people I have on ignore is great supporting evidence to this

I think I found a bug...if I open the client and click on "watch a table" instead of login, close the jackpot SNG that always opens, and then go log in, my cash game lobby is empty and I have to restart the client.

sry if already posted

Also, since we cant filter the cash game lobby it would be nice if I didnt have to squint to see the 6 and 9 distinguishing FR/6m table. Just make the numbers dark like the rest, instead of white with this black square background or do like stars does.

the changes are not good for most recs and the changes are also not for the benefit of recreational players. For recreational palyers the changes might be neutral for most regs they are bad. THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL REALLY BENEFIT FROM IT IS FTP )if the changes will work. looks like they are not as ftp is a gosttown now)

Would you mind firing an email to support@fulltilt.com with as much info as you have describing the problem so the bug team can fix please - thanks

actually the new lobby makes it worse for recs. because most bumhunters will stop playing (they are softer opponents) when the guys they face now. the best regs wiling to paly everyone. so they will lose the moeny even faster

Very true.

why is it not possible to see at lest the players in the player pool like on stars for the zoom player pool. in live casino you can also see the other pelayers playing befor you decide to play

Why cant the tables have individual names under the main pool name? Would be easy enough to implement and not cause HUD problems like it does now.
Also, I would like to see the names of the players playing and be able to access my notes and color codes to at least have a minimal table selection (which btw is a normal part of the game anywhere, live or online).

this ^ not sure what these guys behind the scenes at full tilt are thinking sometimes they should talk to players first before making these type of decisions. Some HU players much prefer heads up and when they do have to sit and play 6 max they just spew away buy in after buy in calling far to often wanting to play every pot, now their just going to do it vs a much better heads up regulars who play in the 6max games.

Stop claiming you know this. You certainly do not. x-post: Causation and correlation are not the same thing. There is no way they have stats on WHY people deposited and how much they enjoy different games and that is obvious because the players were not surveyed on it. They claim to simply have a stat saying those that play heads don't play on the site for as long in days as those that don't.

That doesn't imply at all that those people didn't enjoy heads up, or that they would have played on the site at other tables if there was no hu. You also play far more hands per hour at HU than 6m so judging by months and not hands is also a pretty piss poor method. My point being, you can't just deduce that because there is a large group of people that deposit, play heads up for a month, and don't return, that somehow the situation would be improved if there was no heads up. Some of those players would have never deposited in the first place. Some would find 6m with all the mass tabling grinders timebanking preflop to be utterly awful and left much faster. Some may like 6m. But the leap from correlation to causation here is leading to a change that will be bad for all.

I assume most people here, even those that like this idea, realize that part of FTP's goal is to reduce winrates and suck people dry more (along with making lobby cleaner etc) but tolerate it if they think the dreaded bumhunters numbers are reduced. I think they are using that perfectly legitimate desire to lead people off a cliff though I actually think that in the end they will be shooting themselves in the foot as well.

You could be right about the causation/correlation argument, I certainly can't prove you're wrong. Personally I think it's unlikely there isn't a relationship but really only time will tell. There will certainly be some people who deposited simply to play HU and that group will be lost due to the change to no HU. Shyam clearly said FT are going to lose money by removing HU so if it doesn't have an impact on new player experience then it will be more likely it gets brought back I would imagine.

I think at face value the changes are actually mostly good.

However I do have some concerns, though I mean firstly I worry about the shuffle been random or allocating me against players of own ability consistently. thus ensuring I constantly lose to the rake.

Of course this has already been addressed and I have been informed this will be entirely random if so thats fine but time will tell and I do have my suspicions.

In regards to the six table cap this rings alarm bells, if this applies to just cash games its not to alarming as most cash game regs dont play more then 8 tables at once anyway so would not have to many issues unless they tried to game the system so to speak.

However for sit and goes that is a huge problem, primarily because you can only ever attain a certain ROI% depending on the game per say. eg hypers will turn typically 0-3% pre rake back where as slower formats or lower stakes may turn 5%+.

playing $5 or $10 sngs would never be worth it for a reg if they were capped to six tables per stake level.

it would also kill traffic and kill the games. I typically play 20+ tables when i do play if I am going to be stuck on only ever playing six I might as well quit now, as variance over a small sample is brutal the hourly return would be tiny and it would take me years to get to a stake where i could make a proper income and then the variance would be huge and that would be a smallish income due to low volume etc and thats assuming those games still ran which I assume they would not.

Ultimately all these spin and goes and all in promotions are not to my taste I dabble occasionally but I am into poker for the dream of one day hitting it big.

that may or may not be a delusion. I have advanced a lot as a player over the past several months. so who knows.

buying lottery tickets and etc is pointless to me as its a dream that in truth will never happen there is nothing I can to make it happen and its millions to one etc. poker is a dream which in theory if I am good enough could happen.

all in shoot outs and spin and goes are lottery ticket long shots. I want to have that hope I cant have that if its just a wild shot in the dark.

I believe the whole concept is that these winrates are the supposed maximums right now because every table you are at has 50%+ regs/pros. In the new system (ideally), there are substantially more new or recreational players, and a skilled player can achieve a higher win rate across fewer tables. Think of the math this way:

There are 20 hyper turbo pros in the world, all of whom can play up to 20 6max tables (thus filling up 400 seats). There are 100 6max hyper turbos running at any given time (thus creating 600 seats). In this ecology, 67% of the seats (400) are filled by pros, 33% are filled by recreationals (200) and a win rate is likely very low.

In the new system, there are those same 20 pros, and now they can play 6 tables (filling 120 seats). Their reduction means 280 less seats filled, or ~47 tables, so now there are only 53 tables filled (318 seats). In this ecology, 38% of the seats (120) are filled by pros, 62% of the seats (198) are filled by recreationals, and you should be able as a skilled player to achieve a higher win rate, even if exactly zero new players sign up as a result.

Will it go up 3x as high to result in the same gross money won? To be fair, I doubt it. But (theoretically) it should force you to focus on improving your play rather than trying to figure out the most automated way to make your decisions so you can win on volume rather than skill.

And yes, I know SNGs are solved and there's no way to improve your GTO play in them. Been hearing that since 2005. Somehow they continue.

Valid point here from coon74 won't this defeat the purpose FTP? I know SpinWiz completely defeated the idea of having blind registration for spinngoes yet is still allowed by Amaya. Funnily enough the email I got back from Amaya game integrity team regarding spinwiz showed a lack of understanding about how the software works.

One good thing to come out of the changes is that they might drive traffic to other sites so that Amaya finally gets a bit of competition.

You are joking right? The fact that you believe this just shows how naive/ignorant you are. HU is easily the least profitable format for a poker site, and the only reason they reluctantly offer it is that so many people clamor for it.

Revenue will decrease but of the players that don't leave the site FT will get a better rate of return on their play in other formats obviously. I don't know if that will make up for the net loss due to removal of HU.

How much can it cost to add or remove several (dozens) of electronic tables ? It can only "cost" if one truly believes that there is a significant cannibalizing effect and people will be herded into more profitable (for the site) alternatives now.

I am a recreational player, have been playing a fair bit of HU on FTP (never been my only site though, obv), and will simply continue to play HU at the other sites that offer it, and not play 6-max on FTP all of a sudden. I may have been playing the "least profitable format for a poker site" on FTP, but they lose that now. What they do doesn't make much sense to me.

Exactly, FT are making these changes under the guise of improving the Poker ecosystem and hurting bumhunters when it's clearly about maximizing profits, otherwise why raise the rake? There's nothing to suggest rec players get less enjoyment out of HU. What FT do know if that's the area where they lose the most and rake the least so it doesn't suit them.

Yep, they could make it more profitable with a KOTH system since regs would be forced to play each other for tables and bumhunters would all go elsewhere. You wouldn't have 50 tables in the lobby with a bumhunter waiting on each.

Well, as a bumhunter myself i have to disagree here

1. If bumhunters leave and good regs stay teh general reg:fish ratio will inevitably get better which is undeniably better for fish

2. Im very doubtful that strong regs certainly win more from fish than bumhunters. Im definitely not the best player yet im sure that in almoast all cases where u sit me next to a fish i will end up with a higher EV BB than players who are significantly stronger than me overall

It's definitely true, you can take the best player who outplays every other reg in a reg war then put them in a game with a fish and they have no clue how to maximise their return there.

Anyway if FTP do not allow name changes (and I mean name changes where notes or any sort of markers do not carry over) and also continue to allow all software then whats the point of all this. rec hunting will still occur, just differently to now. Still have not seen a single valid reason why removing the highly entertaining pastime of railing nosebleed stakes is good for the recs. FTP must have got soooo many deposits over the years from people getting the buzz watching high stakes action and then depositing a little to jump in a $20 SNG or w/ever.

So the top hu player can adjust vs the best hu regs, but vs fish they won't know how to adjust

That's Gold Jerry Gold!