Full Tilt have introduced a new and innovative form of poker called Rush Poker.  Is is fast and furious and you can end up playing 400 or 500 hands an hour to compared to the normal 60 odd hands.

With Rush Poker the instant you make a decision to fold your 8 opponents are swept away and 8 new opponents appear and you have a new hand right there in front of you.  So you can literally click click click through hands until you find one you like.  It works a treat it really does.  A whooshing sound sweeps those players away the second you click “quick fold”.  You dont even have to wait until it’s your turn to act.

If you fancy giving Rush Poker a go you then sign up to Full Tilt here and get a bonus up to $600

To play just look at the left of the main Full Tilt lobby where you have the options of Ring Games, Sit-and-gos, Tournaments, or Rush Poker.  Select Rush Poker then simply select your prefered stakes, and buyin for your prefered amount.  And then you’re away.  It’s very easy.

Lots of Rush Poker stategies can be used.  Raising each time can be effective as many players have already left the table (their avatar is still there but they’ve long since clicked “quick fold” and moved on).  When you raise you often get a lot of instant folds and not much opposition.    Another strategy is to flick through loads of hands until you find something really big like pocket kings or aces, and then playing them really hard.

Each hand you are at a table with different players, therefore no-one really knows if you’ve been stealing the blinds a lot all the time.  Talking of blinds, the big blind just gets allocated to the player who’s gone the longest without paying it.  Therefore it evens out and you pay the big blind on average every 9 hands.

Rush Poker really is something new and refreshing, so why not give it a try now

The 14th Mini FTOPS on Full Tilt Poker gets underway today.  Here is the schedule of events:

Event #01 Wed Dec 09th 21:00 ET $22 NL Holdem 6-max
Event #02 Thu Dec 10th 13:00 ET $22 7-Game
Event #03 Thu Dec 10th 21:00 ET $55 NL Holdem Shootout
Event #04 Fri Dec 11th 13:00 ET $22 NL Holdem 1R1A 
Event #05 Fri Dec 11th 21:00 ET $22 Stud8 
Event #06 Sat Dec 12th 13:00 ET $55 PLO 6max 
Event #07 Sat Dec 12th 15:00 ET $11 NL Holdem w/rebuys 
Event #08 Sun Dec 13th 13:00 ET $26 NL Holdem Knockout 6max
Event #09 Sun Dec 13th 15:00 ET $55 NL Holdem Heads Up 
Event #10 Sun Dec 13th 17:00 ET $33 NL Hold em 
Event #11 Mon Dec 14th 13:00 ET $22 PLO8  
Event #12 Mon Dec 14th 21:00 ET $109 NL Holdem 6max 
Event #13 Tue Dec 15th 13:00 ET $33 NL Holdem 6-max Shootout   
Event #14 Tue Dec 15th 21:00 ET $55 HORSE 
Event #15 Tue Dec 15th 21:00 ET $22 NL Holdem Turbo
Event #16 Wed Dec 16th 13:00 ET $26 PLO Knockout 
Event #17 Wed Dec 16th 21:00 ET $33 NL Holdem 6max Rebuy
Event #18 Thu Dec 17th 13:00 ET $22 NL Holdem Cashout  
Event #19 Thu Dec 17th 21:00 ET $22 Limit Holdem 6max  
Event #20 Fri Dec 18th 13:00 ET $22 NL Holdem  
Event #21 Fri Dec 18th 21:00 ET $33 Razz 6max 
Event #22 Sat Dec 19th 13:00 ET $266 NL Holdem Ante From Start
Event #23 Sat Dec 19th 15:00 ET $11 PLO Rebuy 
Event #24 Sun Dec 20th 13:00 ET $13 NL Holdem Knockout  
Event #25 Sun Dec 20th 17:00 ET $55 NL Holdem

The latest cash action on Full Tilt Poker has been crazy.  Huge games everywhere with durrrr and Isildur1 ploughing through tens of thousands of hands over the space of just a few days. 

On Sunday they played around 7500 hands with hundreds of them reaching 100K or above.  A massive 21 hands topped $400K.

Dwan finished Sunday around $1.2 million down and came back on Monday looking to get some of it back.   Monday saw a mind boggling 12,000 hand session, with Dwan losing a further $600K.

Tuesday it continued with Dwan dropping a further $850K to Isidur1

On Wednesday Dwan was tied up with filming High Stakes Poker, much to his frustration no doubt.    While the cat’s away the dog must play.  Isildur1 went up against Antonius, Cole South and Brian Townsend.   He finished up around $400K from that 4-way encounter.

Then Dwan was back, keen as mustard to start getting un-stuck, and went on to lose yet again, this time around $700K

Overall after this somewhat crazy week Durrrr was about $3 million down.   That sure did screw his overall stats over for 2009.

All this action flying around reached fever pitch today with Isildur1 and Patrik Antonius competing for a pot of just under $900,000.  A world record online pot.  Antonius emerged the victor, liberating Isildur1 of around $450K

What craziness will follow over the coming days, god only knows.  But one thing’s for sure it’s going to be exciting to watch.

The Sunday Million on PokerStars this Sunday brought a record breaking field to the felt.  A whopping 18283 registered at $215 a pop, making a prizepool over $3.6 million, the largest Sunday Million in history.

There was a 6-way chop before Zadman5311 went on to win the title

1st: Zadman5311 ($282,662.86)
2nd: m8675309a ($200,844.74)
3rd: call110 ($250,037.00)
4th: ZyeD3 ($144,353.10)
5th: waWe ($205,477.38)
6th: Guldlemmen4 ($177,650.76)
7th: The Omaholic ($54,849.00) <- Well known online pro, Mark Roland
8th: MATPOC28 ($32,909.40)
9th: E-Daddie ($21,939.60)

 The tourney took 12 hours and 21 mins to complete

We were spot on with that news blogpost on 2nd Oct regarding Tom Dwan.   A month and a bit later it was announced to the world that he had indeed become a member of Team Full Tilt.   I guess we were way ahead of the game on that

Dwan becomes the youngest member of Team Full Tilt, and the last member since Patrick Antonius to join.

Unlike standard red pros who get a base deal of 100% rakeback and $35 an hour, the actual “Team Full Tilt” members are cut in for a small percentage of the profits of the whole site.

So expect to see Dwan promoting the site heavily everywhere.  He’s likely to appear on commercials and various online marketing images.

He’s certainly a great signing for them, and will help increase appeal to a slightly younger audience.    He has a very big following through numerous very high profile live events, and his exceptional results and play at the highest levels both live and online.  The shear level of widespread exposure is surly excellent for the marketing of Full Tilt

It looks very much like Tom Dwan has signed for Full Tilt. Howard Lederer and the team have been after Tom “Durrrr” Dwan for a while to join their team. Whilst browsing the schedule for the FTOPS I noticed he was listed as a host. Slightly suspiciously he was then removed from the list a couple of hours later. Luckily I took a screenshot of it before they changed it. So, if this is good enough evidence it looks like it may have finally happened:

Jovial Gent has just won the 2009 WCOOP Main Event on PokerStars.  He beat Udon Wannit heads-up (final hand below).   There was no chop, and Jovial Gent won $1,715,200 (yes $1.7 million!).

 Final Hand

 PokerStars Game #33135880097: Tournament #200909045, $5000+$200 USD Hold’em No Limit - Level XL (60000/120000) - 2009/09/22 2:46:13 ET
Table ‘200909045 90′ 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (36796534 in chips)
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (6083466 in chips)
Jovial Gent: posts the ante 15000
Udon Wannit: posts the ante 15000
Udon Wannit: posts small blind 60000
Jovial Gent: posts big blind 120000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Udon Wannit: raises 120000 to 240000
Jovial Gent: calls 120000
*** FLOP *** [6s Kc 8h]
Jovial Gent: checks
Udon Wannit: bets 240000
Jovial Gent: raises 480000 to 720000
Udon Wannit: raises 5108466 to 5828466 and is all-in
Jovial Gent: calls 5108466
*** TURN *** [6s Kc 8h] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [6s Kc 8h 3s] [4c]
Jovial Gent said, “gg”
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Jovial Gent: shows [Kd 6d] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
Udon Wannit: shows [5c 6c] (a pair of Sixes)
Jovial Gent collected 12166932 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12166932 | Rake 0
Board [6s Kc 8h 3s 4c]
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (big blind) showed [Kd 6d] and won (12166932) with two pair, Kings and Sixes
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (button) (small blind) showed [5c 6c] and lost with a pair of Sixes

 A great WCOOP for djk123, winning 2 bracelets (in Razz, and HORSE) and then getting deep in the Main Event.   He ultimately finished 4th in that and easily bagged the Player of the Series.    Possibly a little bit of tilt crept in for the final hand.    First he lost a significant pot here (to a flush draw), to reduce him down to about 10 million chips…

PokerStars Game #33135555487: Tournament #200909045, $5000+$200 USD Hold’em No Limit - Level XXXIX (50000/100000) - 2009/09/22 2:24:17 ET
Table ‘200909045 90′ 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: reddeevil (5180894 in chips)
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (15601010 in chips)
Seat 4: djk123 (15584625 in chips)
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (6513471 in chips)
reddeevil: posts the ante 12500
Jovial Gent: posts the ante 12500
djk123: posts the ante 12500
Udon Wannit: posts the ante 12500
reddeevil: posts small blind 50000
Jovial Gent: posts big blind 100000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
djk123: raises 100000 to 200000
Udon Wannit: folds
reddeevil: calls 150000
Jovial Gent: raises 600000 to 800000
djk123: calls 600000
reddeevil: calls 600000
*** FLOP *** [Ad 5c 6c]
reddeevil: checks
Jovial Gent: bets 1100000
djk123: calls 1100000
reddeevil: raises 3268394 to 4368394 and is all-in
Jovial Gent: folds
djk123: calls 3268394
*** TURN *** [Ad 5c 6c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 5c 6c 4c] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
reddeevil: shows [Kc Jc] (a flush, King high)
djk123: shows [Jd Ah] (a pair of Aces)
reddeevil collected 12286788 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12286788 | Rake 0
Board [Ad 5c 6c 4c Qc]
Seat 1: reddeevil (small blind) showed [Kc Jc] and won (12286788) with a flush, King high
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: djk123 showed [Jd Ah] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

This was followed just 2 hands later by:

PokerStars Game #33135583131: Tournament #200909045, $5000+$200 USD Hold’em No Limit - Level XL (60000/120000) - 2009/09/22 2:26:06 ET
Table ‘200909045 90′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: reddeevil (12274288 in chips)
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (13626010 in chips)
Seat 4: djk123 (10291231 in chips)
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (6688471 in chips)
reddeevil: posts the ante 15000
Jovial Gent: posts the ante 15000
djk123: posts the ante 15000
Udon Wannit: posts the ante 15000
djk123: posts small blind 60000
Udon Wannit: posts big blind 120000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
reddeevil: folds
Jovial Gent: raises 161010 to 281010
djk123: raises 563434 to 844444
Udon Wannit: folds
Jovial Gent: raises 955556 to 1800000
djk123: raises 8476231 to 10276231 and is all-in
Jovial Gent: calls 8476231
*** FLOP *** [Jh Kh 4s]
*** TURN *** [Jh Kh 4s] [3d]
*** RIVER *** [Jh Kh 4s 3d] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djk123: shows [Th Td] (a pair of Tens)
Jovial Gent: shows [Kd Ks] (three of a kind, Kings)
Jovial Gent said, “gg Dan :(”
Jovial Gent collected 20732462 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 20732462 | Rake 0
Board [Jh Kh 4s 3d Qc]
Seat 1: reddeevil folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (button) showed [Kd Ks] and won (20732462) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 4: djk123 (small blind) showed [Th Td] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (big blind) folded before Flop

 WCOOP $25K High-roller Heads-up Event on PokerStars

Iftarii tanked this for over a minute before calling.   Sick slowroll.  A bit unclassy.   stevesbets probably thought he was good for sure here (ie against a draw only)

PokerStars Game #32807124802: Tournament #200909027, $25000+$500 USD Hold’em No Limit - Match Round II, Level III (80/160) - 2009/09/13 17:52:42 ET
Table ‘200909027 16′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Iftarii (21579 in chips)
Seat 2: stevesbets (18421 in chips)
stevesbets: posts small blind 80
Iftarii: posts big blind 160
*** HOLE CARDS ***
stevesbets: raises 160 to 320
Iftarii: raises 800 to 1120
stevesbets: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [4s 6d 5s]
Iftarii: bets 1500
stevesbets: raises 15801 to 17301 and is all-in
Iftarii: calls 15801
*** TURN *** [4s 6d 5s] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [4s 6d 5s Qd] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Iftarii: shows [8s 7s] (a straight, Four to Eight)
stevesbets: shows [4c 5c] (two pair, Fives and Fours)
Iftarii collected 36842 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 36842 | Rake 0
Board [4s 6d 5s Qd 7c]
Seat 1: Iftarii (big blind) showed [8s 7s] and won (36842) with a straight, Four to Eight
Seat 2: stevesbets (button) (small blind) showed [4c 5c] and lost with two pair, Fives and Fours

14 hours of poker later and we were all done in WCOOP Event 10 (The 10K Highrollers Event).   Fine displays from Sowerss, BeL0WaB0Ve and SCTrojans (2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively), but ultimately it was Sumpas from Linkoping who triumphed and took down the bracelet and the $611K first prize

Here is the final hand:

PokerStars Game #32548015182: Tournament #200909010, $10000+$300 USD Hold’em No Limit - Level XXVIII (7000/14000) - 2009/09/07 6:34:33 ET
Table ‘200909010 18′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Sowerss (780000 in chips)
Seat 4: Sumpas (2210000 in chips)
Sowerss: posts the ante 1750
Sumpas: posts the ante 1750
Sumpas: posts small blind 7000
Sowerss: posts big blind 14000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Sumpas: raises 16000 to 30000
Sowerss: calls 16000
*** FLOP *** [4s Ks 4d]
Sowerss: checks
Sumpas: bets 30000
Sowerss: raises 60000 to 90000
Sumpas: raises 75000 to 165000
Sowerss: raises 583250 to 748250 and is all-in
Sumpas: calls 583250
*** TURN *** [4s Ks 4d] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [4s Ks 4d 7s] [3d]
Sowerss said, “nh gg”
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Sowerss: shows [Jh Td] (a pair of Fours)
Sumpas: shows [Kd Tc] (two pair, Kings and Fours)
Sumpas collected 1560000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1560000 | Rake 0
Board [4s Ks 4d 7s 3d]
Seat 1: Sowerss (big blind) showed [Jh Td] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 4: Sumpas (button) (small blind) showed [Kd Tc] and won (1560000) with two pair, Kings and Fours