The Alderney Gambling Control Commission, a watchdog organization that regulates Full Tilt Poker, has suspended Full Tilt’s gaming license indefinitely. As a result, Full Tilt Poker has ceased all poker operations at this time.

Following “Black Friday”, Full Tilt’s failure to pay out American withdrawals, as well as its penchant for evading questioning, has caused concern for its viability as a poker site. An AGCC statement reads.

"The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation."

Full Tilt has already seen trouble this year after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted its owners and founders with money laundering and bank fraud charges. The violation of trust caused by Full Tilt’s failure to pay Americans was, it seems, the last straw for the AGCC.

But it’s not all doom and gloom: Full Tilt expats looking for a safe place to play need look no further than Party Poker. Party Poker is owned and operated by a publicly traded company (LSE: BPTY), so it’s about as mainstream as they come. Party’s every financial move is scrutinized by accountants and auditors, which means you can be assured that your money is safe there.

In addition to being extremely trustworthy, Party Poker is an all-around great place to play. Its software is fast and feature-packed, there are thousands of players online 24/7, and there are hundreds of game types to choose from.

Why take a chance? In this market, you want to go with a safe bet. Give Party Poker a try if you’re looking for a poker haven in these troubled times.

Visit Party Poker »            Party Poker Review »

Full Tilt Poker review

Summary

Full Tilt Poker is one of the fastest growing poker sites on the internet. Already the 2nd largest in terms of player traffic the great software, game variety and generous ($600) sign up bonus keep players coming back for more. Regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and holding a commitment to responsible gaming, Full Tilt Poker provides a safe and secure environment for players at all levels to enjoy. This includes state of the art security software based on SSL technology.

In addition to their large variety of cash-games Full Tilt hold regular tournaments suitable for players at all buy-in levels. These include freerolls for VIP club members, satellites to big televised events and a great selection of Sit and Goes.

Software and Extra Features

The software at Full Tilt Poker is rightly considered one of the best around. The table interface is colorful and fun, yet gaming information is clearly presented. Players can choose from a number of cartoon-like icons to represent them at the table and can change the ‘mood’ of these icons with the click of a mouse. Clear hand-history and a ‘bet pot’ option for no-limit and pot-limit games make the Full Tilt software very user-friendly.

The Full Tilt lobby is intuitive to navigate, your desired game and betting level can be located within seconds and statistics such as average pot size and number of people seeing each flop can be scanned quickly. Tournaments and Sit and Goes can be filtered by game time and buy-in level to allow users to get to their preferred games fast. Tables can be resized while playing to ensure that multi-table players can see all their games. Full Tilt Poker has a version of their software client dedicated for Mac users.

Player Traffic and Competition

Full Tilt Poker is the second largest online poker room in terms of traffic volumes. At peak hours you can expect almost 7,000 cash-game players and up to 60,000 tournament players to be online. As with all online poker rooms, the player base is weighted towards No-Limit Holdem games with Omaha Poker second.

The competition at Full Tilt varies within the buy-in levels of games. At peak times and the low to mid limits many inexperienced opponents can be found. As you move up the betting levels the competition gets tougher including online professionals and TV poker celebrities including Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer.

Sign up Bonus

The sign-up bonus at Full Tilt is a 100% match on your first deposit up to $600, the minimum deposit amount is $50. The bonus is released in increments 10% of your deposit amount or $20 – whichever you reach first. The bonus release is based on the number of Full-Tilt Points earned, each point accumulating 6 cents towards clearance.

Points are awarded at a rate of 7 points per dollar in tournament (including SNG) fees and 1 point for each dollar in cash game rake up to a maximum of 3 points per hand dealt. In addition to clearing the initial bonus these points can be used for freeroll entries or to buy goods from the Full Tilt Store.

Game Variety and Promotions

Game variety is huge as you would expect from such a large online poker room. In addition to the usual Texas Holdem and Omaha games you will find Stud, Razz and a number of Hi/Lo Split variations. Full Tilt Poker also include ‘Cap-Limit’ games, these work the same as No-limit Holdem except that there is a cap on the amount that can be bet on any one hand – the actual amount depending on the buy-in level. There are also an increasing number of mixed game tables available; these include HORSE and HOSE games as well as Holdem / Omaha and Holdem / Omaha Hi-Lo tables.

There are a wide variety of betting limits at Full Tilt to suit all pockets. The No-Limit Holdem games start with blinds of 5 cents and 10 cents, going right up to $600 / $300 for No-Limit and $1000 / $500 for Capped No-Limit games. Fixed Limit games start with 25 cent / 50 cent bets and go up to $1000 / $2000.

Full Tilt hold a monthly ‘Iron Man’ freeroll contest for all players who have collected enough VIP points. This allows players to win up to $50,000 over several stages starting with a multi-table tournament then a sit and go tournament for the winning players. In addition to this Full Tilt offer satellite qualifiers to the big televised tournaments worldwide. These can be entered using VIP club points or from just a few dollars.

Every Sunday Full Tilt hold their $500k Guaranteed tournament, this starts at 18:00 hrs Eastern Standard Time and has an entry fee of $200+$16. Satellites are available for as little as $2+25c or using 300 FTP (Full Tilt Points). In addition to their regular the FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) features many high buy-in tournaments with $7 million in guaranteed prizes. Tournaments include a variety of games including Omaha, Stud and HORSE in addition to Holdem. The main event of the 5th FTOPS event is a $500+$35 entry No-Limit Holdem tournament with a massive $2 Million guaranteed prize pool.

Deposit / Withdrawal Methods

Depositing money and withdrawing profits from Full Tilt Poker is very easy for players worldwide. In addition to the methods listed below Full Tilt will send players a paper check within 10 days of request. The other deposit methods include: Visa, Mastercard, Neteller, Click2Pay, PaySafeCard, Moneybookers and personal cash transfer.

Customer Service

Full Tilt Poker has an excellent reputation for customer service. Their system is to have dedicated e-mail addresses depending on the nature of your query (for example cashier enquiries or password resets). In addition there is a ‘system status’ tracker and comprehensive support FAQ available on their website.

Full Tilt Poker has changed the face of online poker by introducing a new breed of game: Rush Poker. As if the pace of 6-max games weren’t already blazingly fast, the team at Full Tilt has taken it upon themselves to turn up the speed. More on Rush Poker here