Guide To The Full Tilt Online Poker Series

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is unique among online poker tournament events in that it happens several times during the year. The popularity of this event, combined with the large player base at Full Tilt Poker mean that big fields and guarantees are available – recent FTOPS featuring $9 Million in guaranteed prize pools.

Full Tilt Online Poker Series – Overview And History

From its beginnings in 2006 the FTOPS has grown rapidly, in terms of the number and variety of events held and the prize pools offered. The first event paying out around $2 million compared to $11 Million for the event held in November 2007. Though future events are not announced too far in advance the first FTOPS of 2008 is expected around February. Each event during the FTOPS is ‘hosted’ by a Full Tilt Poker pro – many others from their large team of name players can also be found playing in the events.

Reflecting online poker in general, Texas Holdem tournaments, including the $530 ‘Main Event’ are the most popular format at the FTOPS. Over recent series a number of other poker variations and tournament formats have been introduced, bringing the total number of events to 16. Poker games on offer including Razz, Omaha (including Hi-Lo), HORSE and 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo.

Full Tilt introduced the first online 2-day tournament during FTOPS 6. This event had a huge $2,620 buy-in and guaranteed $1.5 Million prize pool. The deep chip stacks, and slow blind structure, making it a true test of poker skills. Also introduced during FTOPS 6 was the first ‘knockout’ tournament. In this event half of each player’s buy-in makes up the final prize pool and the other half is used as a ‘bounty’ for which ever player knocks you out.

How To Qualify For The FTOPS

Full Tilt Poker run a comprehensive satellite schedule at any time – during the FTOPS there is quite literally something for every player. The Full Tilt Poker Satellite qualifier system is based on winning ‘tournament tokens’ (usually in $26 and $69 denominations) which allow you to enter the direct qualifier multi-table satellites.

Accumulating tokens is easy thanks to the fantastic variety of satellites on offer. Sit and Goes and Multi-Table re-buy tournaments run from just a few dollars or in exchange for ‘Full Tilt Points’. Sit and Goes can be single table events, 54 or even 90 players. The direct qualifying tournaments into which they feed are at a variety of buy-ins too – the number of FTOPS seats awarded being dependant on the prize pool and often including a guaranteed number of places.

During qualifying for the FTOPS, Full Tilt run a ‘satellites challenge’ awarding additional cash prizes to those players who win the largest number of satellite tournaments. The system is that the first entry must be used to play the FTOPS event, then any subsequent entries can be exchanged for the cash equivalent.

Full Tilt Poker offer a generous 100% up to $600 initial sign-up bonus with bonus code XXXXXX. This clears at 42c per dollar in tournament fees – making your FTOPS experience even better value!