Full Tilt Announces Ring Game Overhaul

Full Tilt continued on the path toward becoming a friendlier place to play for casual players by revamping its ring games, removing certain games altogether and disallowing players to bum-hunt and choose the tables where they'd like to play.

Gone from the ring game lobby are Heads Up, Nosebleeds, Draw, Stud and Mixed Games. The latter three did not attract enough players, high stakes action no longer fits in with Full Tilt's developing recreational player model, and Heads Up games were being sorely abused by regs who waited for a weak opponent to sit down rather than play against a skilled player.

Casual HU Players MIA

Full Tilt Managing Director Dominic Mansour announced the ring game revamp in a blog post, citing the "adverse impact" experienced players caused by targeting newbies in Heads Up action. Those rookies who started out their play at Full Tilt by trying to win at Heads Up often had bad experiences and tended not to return.

"Heads Up ring games just didn’t form part of a healthy poker ecosystem, which made our decision to remove them easier," Mansour stated.

Naturally, the move did not sit well with a number of regs who make their living by preying on the weak and unaware. Some were wondering why Full Tilt did not try other options before removing the HU games altogether.

FTP Poker Room Manager Shyam Markus answered that question on a thread at 2 + 2 by stating that "nothing changed the fact that the more new players play HU, the less likely they are to continue playing. If we wanted to be serious about trying to fix a broken poker economy, we had to find all of the biggest issues and either really solve them, or remove them."

Markus also pointed out that none of the decisions on the changes at Full Tilt were made on a whim. Deep contemplation and discussion went into every move. Mansour seconded that sentiment, adding that "everything we’re doing is in line with Full Tilt’s core values of fairness, openness and putting players first."

Live Poker Room Seating Duplicated

With regard to table selection, players will no longer be able to scout the ring game lobby and look for weak and inexperienced players tabbed as such in previous sessions. Instead, players will log on and indicate the game and stake level preferred, and be taken to an available seat that matches their request.

That protocol is similar to a live poker room and Full Tilt hopes to recreate the same type of experience for online players. That includes the merging of short-handed tables when the need arises.

There is no player segregation as to skill level. The idea is to get players into a game as quick as possible at their chosen stakes regardless of who happens to be seated there.

Players can request a table transfer, Markus explained, by checking a "Request Move" box. A player's desire to move to another table will be duly noted, and processed according to the next availability.

Doing away with bum-hunting is a huge step toward making online poker more palatable for recreational players. It furthers the goal of leveling the playing field and ensuring that casual players do not have a target on their backs the moment they sit down to play a few hands of poker.

Mansour stated that the new system is designed so that whether a player wins or loses "is determined by your talent at the table, not your skill in choosing opponents."