Although the front page of this site is, in not so many words, so bland and disappointing it’s not even sellable as a standby page for a claimed internet domain, don’t let its boring looks deceive you. Unlike some sites that mostly concentrate on garnering as much “soft competition” glut into their player base for ballooned up statistics, Full Tilt Poker is serious poker for serious poker players. Just read the underlined “fine print”—or rather, the links on the nondescript page. If you want to play with pro-level, competition-league poker with real live pros, then FullTiltPoker.com (hence the name) is the only site knowledgeable and capable enough to cater to your competitive poker needs.

Full Tilt Poker–one of the few sites still open to US players—is one poker site that will surely raise your poker game to new heights. Either that or it’s a one-way ticket to bankruptcy; but if you’re a gambler, then you’re fully aware of that risk from the very start. In any case, Full Tilt Poker is expanding itself to other domains redirects (PartyPoker, 888 Poker) and a giving away a variety of bonuses (100% signup bonus up to $600 free); couple that with its world-renowned competition level and huge and dedicated player base, and it’s hard not to take notice of this poker site giant, regardless of its unassuming front page.

Endorsement and Poker Pro-Stars

More to the point, Full Tilt Poker doesn’t need flashy graphics, gadget giveaways, or lowest common denominator pandering. It gets all the endorsement it will ever need from poker pros such as Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, and Jennifer Harman. They participate regularly in the FullTiltPoker.com’s poker rooms and chat at all levels of the site.

Also, for those who are sick and tired of playing “PlayTech-inside” 3D and Flash-enabled games, Full Tilt Poker offers privately developed software that’s not part of a poker network and can be played on either PC or Mac (there’s a Mac-exclusive poker client)! Now that’s the kind of client pandering people can cheer for—it’s less condescending and more aware of the true needs of the dedicated poker player!

Promotions and Bonus Information

Even though the site is sparse with marketing gimmicks and flashy, eye-catching pictures of cards and whatnot, FullTiltPoker.com does reward their player base for playing their highly competitive games. In addition to the par-for-the-course signup bonus, clients also receive one player point for each dollar earned from pots, in which you are dealt a hand. There are also a lot of other guaranteed prize pools of up to $5 million a week and satellites to major live events that many a dedicated gambler will probably be interested in.

Whether you win big at poker or win through the points, you’ll always come out a winner at Full Tilt Poker! Sure, there’s a greater risk of losing all that money in the blink of an eye, especially if you’re a mid-range poker player, but the risk is part of the excitement, is it not? In fact, even though Full Tilt Poker isn’t part of any large poker network, this independent poker room rakes in quite a number of hard competition poker players. Peak hours at Full Tilt Poker usually occur in 7PM, Pacific Time.

Software and Game Variety

As opposed to those PlayTech-enabled, factory-line casinos and poker rooms, Full Tilt Poker offers you more of the same, but somehow different, poker client. You have those cartoon-like avatars that are all the rage in Internet Instant Messengers, and appealing backdrops not done through PlayTech technology. In any case, functionality is about par, the statistics are easily accessible, and the whole game architecture is stable and secure. You can even resize tables, if you like. The font could use a little work, though; readability is definitely sacrificed with its white on black, densely-spaced letters. Still, not bad. It presents nothing groundbreaking, but not bad.

On the other hand, when it comes to game variety (not to mention the quality of competition in some of the games), Full Tilt Poker really is ahead of the pack. Note that the word “variety” is used, not “extensiveness” or “quantity”; that’s because, instead of having a large library of games, Full Tilt Poker instead has many poker game variations not found in any other site, like 7-Card Stud, 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, H.O.R.S.E., and H.O.S.E—although the commonplace Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha (all variations) are also available.

Everything Else

Full Tilt Poker offers an intuitive cashier feature that makes it very easy for players to deposit and withdraw their money. Whether you want to cash-out using your credit card (MasterCard and Visa), NeTeller, Click2Pay, Cash Transfer and so on, your money and personal information is safe and secure with this fully licensed poker site. As an added bonus, the site heavily frowns upon cheating, and cheaters are banned off the bat with its extensive cheat-proof security measures and cheat-detecting software. As such, even Europeans want to have a piece of the action!

Again, the real feature of Full Tilt Poker is the fact that competition is so stiff in its rooms that pros like Gus Hansen, David Benyamine, Patrik Antonius, and Phil Ivey are often playing in those high games, winning and losing huge amounts of money like everybody else. If you really want to rise to a challenge, look no further than FullTiltPoker.com. The domain name should say it all.