End of an Era - High Stakes Games on Full Tilt Dying?

Online high stakes and Full Tilt have always been almost synonymous. Full Tilt Poker is the place where all the epic nosebleeds battles took place; it is the room where countless seven-figure swings were recorded and for that, it will always be remembered by the railbirds. However, some latest changes over there seem to suggest that all of this is about to become just a part of history.

After the events of Black Friday, leading to Full Tilt closure, online high stakes seemingly lost a lot of its appeal, perhaps mostly due to the fact that PokerStars, the only other room that could offer similar (or even better) playing conditions, did not have tables as diverse and limits as high as Full Tilt. When PokerStars came to the rescue and Full Tilt was re-launched, the gamses started picking up once again, and everything seemed to have fallen back into the place.

Over the course of months, however, it seemed that PokerStars was becoming more and more a room of choice for high stakes players, as they expanded the offering in both terms of games and limits. This situation reached somewhat of a peak couple of days ago, when Full Tilt decided to get rid of most of its high stakes tables, leaving only $25/$50 and $250/500 as available limits for many popular choices. This caused frustration with some of the nosebleeds regulars, like Doug 'WCGRider' Polk.

As if finding a high stakes game wasn't tough enough, FullTiltPoker just got rid of all high stakes except for 25/50 and 250/500. WTF
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 14, 2015

As for the fixed games and 8-game and 10-game tables, the selection there has been reduced as well, with a big empty gap between $100/200 and $1,500/3,000 limits. As for the lower limits, the $2/4 level has been substituted with $2.50/5 at the regular tables, while the rake in some of the popular Jackpot Sit & Go's is also being increased.

Playground for recreational players?

All these changes seem to suggest that Full Tilt is taking a full turn towards recreational players. Simplifying the games offering and severely reducing the availability of the high stakes tables are a clear indicator that the site is looking to attract more recreationals who want to find the games fast and don't particularly care for game selection, as long as there is plenty of action.

This means that majority of high stakes action will probably move over to PokerStars and nosebleeds games at Full Tilt could become just a distant memory. Of course, there are never guarantees with high stakes players as there are many factors influencing their decisions, but the future doesn't look too bright in this sense.