Annoy Function.

One of the ads running in the Canadian market for Full Tilt Poker makes mention of the website's "realistic" poker sounds, such as the swishing sound of cards being dealt and the sound of chips being raked across a poker table.  But one sound that has yet to appear on their site, and I assume others, is the sound of players fiddling with their chips.  If you've ever played poker, or even just seen it played on TV you'll be familiar with players making all sorts of noise as they play around with their stacks when they're not playing a hand.  It would be an interesting sound to add to online poker software, as it might annoy your opponents and effect their play.  Of course unlike real world poker the online player would have the advantage of being able to turn the sound down if it got too annoying. 

Oddly in all the poker I've watched on TV I've never heard anyone complain about players making such noise.  Given some of the stuff poker players do complain about it's surprising no one ever seems to blow up at other players for being too noisy.

Full Mess Poker.

The cover story for the January 2013 issue of Bluff is a profile of Erick Lindgren.  Lindgren is a familiar face to many poker players and poker watchers, having appeared numerous times on programs like Poker After Dark.  But as the article reveals he's a man with major problems.  His gambling addiction has put him into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, as he owes numerous people several million dollars in unpaid gambling debts, some going back almost a decade.  Yet he's still playing poker, as that's pretty much the only way he has to possibly pay back those debts.  Generally when you think of addicts trying to fight their addiction you think of them having to avoid the addictive activity, but not in this case. 

The article includes discussion about Full Tilt Poker, which Lindgren was a spokesplayer for before the US crackdown.  Some of what's in the article won't be new to anyone who has been following some of the revelations made by people like Howard Lederer online.  But for me it was a surprise just how messed up Full Tilt's management in the months before Black Friday seemed to be, with Full Tilt pros like Lindgren being given loans with little thought put into how such loans might be paid back.  In fact just before the crackdown Lindgren was reportedly give a 2 million dollar loan twice.  In other words the company loaned him 4 million dollars, instead of the 2 million they were supposed to.  It's not hard to imagine that even if the US government hadn't gone after Full Tilt the company would soon have been in the news for screwing up its finances.

Online poker players can only hope that PokerStars, which now owns and runs Full Tilt, has better people running the fnances than the old Full Tilt did. 

A Familiar Look.

The last couple of days I've been playing on the revived Full Tilt Poker, which is now owned by the same folks who own PokerStars.  They had an offer for PokerStars players that if you linked your accounts on both sites you would get a 20 buck ticket to use to play Full Tilt  ring games.  Interestingly any time the dollar balance on that ticket gets over 20 bucks you end up making money when you leave a ring game table.  At the moment my cash account is up to $3.17.

As for the game play itself if you played on Full Tilt before it will seem very familiar to you.  Pretty much everything seems to be the same as it was when the US government forced Full Tilt to suspend operations in April of 2011, including the familiar cartoon character avatars.  For example I use the cowboy one, which is what I used to use.  My old account was opertional, so if you're one of those folks who had their money frozen in a Full Tilt account you should probably sign on and see what your status is.

I Played There.

I've been playing poker online since June of 2006.  During that time I've played on various sites.

The bulk of my playing has been on PokerStars.  It was the first place I played as a result of their World Blogger Championship of Online Poker.(Watching Spike's gambling competition show King of  Vegas was also an influenc in getting started.)  PokerStars has become the dominant online poker site, and unlike some of its rivals managed to survive the US crackdown on Americans playing online poker.  As noted in recent posts this is the only site I've ever played on using my own money.

I played on the ill fated Full Tilt Poker.  I played on it occasionally, and first had an inkling about the goings on in the US when I was unable to connect to the site.  However it's possible Full Tilt might have had trouble even without the crackdown.  It was already facing a number of lawsuits, including one from one time Team Full Tilt member Clonie Gowen.  PokerStars has picked up the assets of Full Tilt, and apparently will reopen it in November of this year.  I never managed to win any money off of them. 

Probably the most obscure poker site I played on was ScorePoker.  This was a site run in conjunction with Canadian sports channel The Score.  I did manage to win a golf shirt in one of their freerolls.  One feature that I liked about their software was that if you didn't play at all in the first levels of a poker tournament you would be booted out.  It eventually ceased to operate, presumably because the network didn't see any value in keeping it going.

For a while I played on the European based MansionPoker.  I signed up for their card room because of the TV series Poker Dome Challenge, which Mansion backed.  I did win some money at some point, but eventually decided to stop playing there.  I think I may have a software disc they sent me stuffed in a drawer someplace.

Then there was UltimateBet, the site that Phil Helmuth and Annie Duke were the spokespeople for.  As I remember it I stopped playing there after its software increasingly disagreed with the computer I was using at the time.  UB was another poker stite that was having trouble even before the US crackdown, having to reveal in 2008 that it had been heavily comprimised by cheaters able to see the hole cards of other players.

I briefly played on PartyPoker.  I didn't stay for very long, as for some reason I found the table software they were using at the time hard on the eyes.

Recycled.

I just logged into Pokerstars to see what freerolls are playing tonight.  I found they've got a new feature in beta.  It's called Zoom Poker.  Each hand you play takes place on a different table, with a different group of players.  When you fold or win a hand you are instantly transferred to the next table. 

Sound familiar?  If so it's because you played on the ill fated Full Tilt Poker, which debuted this idea back in 2010 as Rush Poker.  This brings up the obvious, did Pokerstars pay for the rights to use the concept?  Of course given that Full Tilt is currently in limbo because of last year's US crackdown on online poker there may be no one to pay any fees to, assuming they would actually have to.  Some might also wonder why it took them this long to take up the idea given that there's no sign Full Tilt is coming back soon, or at all.

Result Two.

I didn't do as well in the Full Tilt tournament I was playing.  There I cam in 305th out of 17 thousand some, but still quite a ways from the money, which started at 90th position in that tournament.  Hopefully one of these days I'll win some money from Full Tilt.

A Specific Challenge.

Playing two poker tournaments at once is a challenge.  Playing two poker tournaments on different poker sites at once is even harder.  Right now I'm playing tournaments on both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.  At least I've made the money in the PokerStars one, which is Pot Limit Omaha.  The Full Tilt tournament is No Limit Hold 'em.