For reference, previous answers thread:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...-4-2-a-450652/
New this 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.
On to the questions...
1. No cash game filters
- Still true. Barring catastrophe, this is entering the home stretch of development and will appear in the next major update. I can't give an exact date because that's impossible, but it really is coming.
2. Security procrastination
- We are in no way procrastinating. At least one of the two bigger security projects we're working on will make it into the same update as cash game filters. I'm hopeful we'll get both into the update.
3. in order to promote responsible gambling please allow self banning from stakes of your choice. for example, i want to only be able to play 5 10nl and lower.
- We'll look into the possibility, but it's not on the radar at the moment and wouldn't be for a good while.
4. Also, a ballpark estimate of when the FTPA Store will open?
- I've been assured that it's a matter of weeks. Sorry for the delay.
5. Are you going to code it into the software where someone can't sit on more than one HU table alone per limit?
- If we ever do that, it won't be quite as you describe. We'd likely let you sit at as many as you want to sit at, but only show one of your empty tables in the lobby itself. For now we aren't working on that, though, and are just going to go with manual intervention and see how that works out.
6. What are these threads going to be about when all the low limit tourny/sng donks run out of suggestions for stupid player/buyin/structure crap that no one cares about?
- I'll proudly retire when we're all done with low limit tournament/sng suggestions.
7. SpadeEye is a prohibited program, yes. Does this go for the "light" version as well that doesn't have the data mining capability?
- No, SpadeEye Light is not prohibited in its current form. There was some confusion at first, but it's been cleared up and there isn't a problem using it.
8. Can you make the $3 90 man a super turbo?
- No, but we added some 45 man super turbo SNGs.
9. although you say there are distant plans to add 2-7 triple draw, how distant are they? and do you plan on add all draw games (i.e. 5 card draw, 2-7 triple and single, A-5 triple)?
- When I say "distant plans" that means the end of the year would be the earliest we would see that thing. More likely 2010. Our current pipeline of projects will take us to nearly the end of the year, so if a particular request isn't in that current pipeline, that's when I start saying things like "distant plans."
That being said, when we do add triple draw, we will very likely add other draw games, yes.
10. I know its getting crowded but is there anyway to create a different logo in the lobby to differentiate turbos from 300 chip super turbos
- Yeah, we're going to work on that. For now my idea is just to have the same turbo "T" icon, but in yellow instead of red. Let me know if you can do better in something that's like 8x8 pixels!
11. Small gripe. When exiting a tournament or ring game the exit screen has changed from the regular version to the beta. Yes/no are switched around. I keep hitting the wrong one due to habit. Is this going to stay this way?
- This is a Mac only change. Basically, the Mac beta now uses "native" style popups for the most part. And "native" for the Mac means a swapped Yes/No from what our players are used to with FTP (although it should be what they're used to for other Mac software). Your complaint is the first I've seen about that, and if there are many others we'll consider going back to the old way. It makes more sense to us to behave like Mac users expect an application to behave, though, so we're likely going to keep the current beta behavior.
12. Really looking forward to this...But....Distant plans? What does that mean? Is it better that the distant future? Please have it up for the next FTOPS
- See my definition of "distant plans" above! Sorry, but it's definitely not making the next couple of FTOPSeses.
13. "platinum" iron man for 1k points a day, or something equivalent?
- No plans for this. We do have some distant plans (oh no!) for a bigger rewards system for our "bigger" players.
14. I am sicking of having to click agree to the education tables. I agree so let me have an option to disable this popup when I join the table.
- We made the decision not to have a "don't show me this again" for Edu tables because we wanted to be sure players knew each time they were about to sit at one of them. We'll revisit this behavior and see if it makes sense to allow players to opt out of seeing the message, but no promises.
15. Would it be possible to get a fold and show button added. I think it is a beneficial part of my poker game sometimes to show a good laydown.
- Distant plans! Maybe.
16. how about private cash game tables?
- I've always liked this idea. I've got a few ideas about this, myself. It certainly won't be any time soon, but you know, distant plans...
17. It doesn't appear that the tournaments above affect MGR when you buy in with points. Can you confirm this is true prior to the mFTOPS for the mFTOPS events, too, please?
- I *think* that's correct right now. If I had to guess, though, I'd say that could easily change in the future. It seems more like an oversight to me than anything, so I don't want to get your hopes up and say it's always going to be that way.
18. Plus, would it REALLY be that big of a deal to add a little symbol to all promos to reflect whether they affect MGR or not?
- I don't think that will happen, sorry.
19. Is it a permanent change that ironman points are updated with a one hour lag instead of in real time?
- No. The database that the Iron Man page gets its information from has been having trouble keeping up for the past while. People are working on making sure it catches up and stays caught up. I don't know exactly when that will be, though, sorry.
20. Please please please make the ftp software compatible with stacking tables. Id prolly just play at ftp if this was done. As it is now I just play at stars cuz its just easier to play more then 4 tables.
- I think this is done "correctly" in the beta. Have you given that a shot? We've been cleaning up the behavior of those things (along with things like chat/bet focus and detached chat issues) in the beta, so give it a shot there and see if it's more to your liking. If you have any problems let us know and we'll see what we can do to fix it before the beta goes live into production.
21. Can I request all my hand histories from a specific game...ie all my O8 limit hands or razz hands played or at least request back to a certain date?
- Yeah. You can do that self-serve right now if you're in the Hand History beta (found off of the My Promotions page). If you aren't, you can send a request to CS and they should be able to do it for you.
22. ever since the crash some games are missing, for example $5 NL HU sngs seem to be gone, as well as various turbos. Fix this please.
- Something got screwed up when we came back up from the downtime on Thursday morning. We couldn't fix a lot of it until we went down again this morning. We're working to fix all of the SNGs back to the way they were as fast as we can. If, after tomorrow, you notice anything missing or "wrong" let us know and we'll be sure to fix it. Sorry about that.
23. Are bank transfers open to Canadians? If not, when? If so, do I need to request the option?
- I believe there is a Canadian option coming in a few months, in the mean time I think you can use InstaDebit (
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/payInstaDebit.php) to transfer funds directly to your bank account.
24. How about a straddle option in cash game?
- No current plans for this, although I agree it would be fun.
25. plz ban table ratings
- It's already on our prohibited list. We'll be taking stronger steps in the future to lessen their ability to gather data.
Doug
Are you also aware that some of these hacked accounts are for very large sums of money? Click here for the April 21, 2009 thread of the high stakes player who had his account hacked for over $100,000.
I mean, seriously. Some of the security features would be soooooo easy to implement. I understand that implementing RSA token security is a little hard (although your competitor has done it), but other security features are not. And yet, seven months later and you've still done nothing!?!?!? 
