FTOPS begins on February 10th, and will include 27 different tournaments, which are each hosted by a Full Tilt Pro. The types of tournaments being run for this FTOPS XV include Knockout, Shootout, Turbo and Super Turbo tournaments. The FTOPS features a popular two day event, which has a $2500+120 buy-in and guaranteed prize pool of at least $2 million. The most popular event is the FTOPS Main Event, which has a massive $2.5 million guaranteed prize pool!

For those online poker players will smaller bankrolls Full Tilt has recently introduced MiniFTOPS, which is starting one month after the main FTOPS events on March 10th. The MiniFTOPS event has every tournament that the main FTOPS event had, but the buy-ins are 1/10th the amount! The exciting two day event is only a $250+16 buy-in with at least $600k guaranteed in prize money, while the Main Event has a very affordable $50+5 buy-in and $800k in guaranteed prize money. Full Tilt has done a great job with this MiniFTOPS, making it affordable for players with all different bankroll sizes.

Not only will you receive a very nice payday when winning a FTOPS event at Full Tilt, you will also be rewarded with extra prizes. Everyone who makes the final table of a FTOPS XV event will receive a nice FTOPS jacket, and the player who wins the event will receive the jacket plus a gold FTOPS jersey. Full Tilt also has a leader board for the FTOPS event, and is awarding the 1st place finisher a package worth over $8500 in tournament entries for the next FTOPS series.

With promotions, such as this FTOPS series, it is pretty easy to see why Full Tilt Poker is one of the leading online poker rooms. If you don’t have an account at Full Tilt sign up now, and be sure to use the Full Tilt Referral Code HUGE600 when signing up for a $600 initial deposit bonus!

To be clear, not every table at Full Tilt Poker will require players to pay an ante to play the game, however, some tables will at do require antes. Full Tilt is offering players the option of sitting at an ‘ante’ table, if you’d rather not, just double check the table that you’re about to sit at and be sure it’s not one of the new ante tables. If you are at an ante table there’s still a big blind, and a small blind, but every player will place a small ante into the pot at the start of each hand, before the cards are dealt, this will assist players in building the pots, and very likely the amount of rake rakeback poker players are able to earn in hands. Additionally, it will make the rocks put a few cents into the table every hand, instead of every revolution.

There’s a box in the Full Tilt Poker lobby Right hand side of the screen that is the key for all of Full Tilt Pokers icon symbols, look there for the new Ante symbol and the word ante to find these tables (or to make sure that you’re not sitting at one of them inadvertently).

The question on the lips of many Full Tilt Poker’s regular high-stakes poker audience members is simply this; Where did Guy go?

Guy Laliberte has multiple aliases on Full Tilt Poker – lady marmalade, elmariachimacho, ahtata and patatino. Between them, there was countless thousands of dollars in bankroll funds. However, none of these aliases have been seen in quite some time.

It is likely the biggest names on Full Tilt Poker who miss Guy’s high-stakes poker play the most. Without Laliberte on the virtual felts, we can safely estimate that the regular nose-bleed poker players could lose out on as much as $10 million in potential profits.

It’s not exactly clear why Guy’s online poker play was so incredibly dreadful. He has participated in many a live poker event, showing obvious skills for the game. He cashed in 4th place at the WPT Bellagio for $696,220, and displayed consistent talent in Season 4 of GSN’s High Stakes Poker Series.

Speculations don’t really get us anywhere, but many have questioned whether it is the economy drought that has scared Guy from the expensive action at Full Tilt. Maybe he’s just gotten terribly busy as of late? It could be he is finally fed up with the excessive losses suffered at Full Tilt Poker? One web site even theorized that Guy Laliberte may have regressed to the micro-limit tables!

Whatever the case may be, we would like to relay a resounding cry of “Come back, Guy!”, from all of us who enjoy watching him take on the big boys at Full Tilt Poker.

Originally reported by an Australian newspaper, courier-Mail, according to a report on the Poker Deposit Options website , Kolyma brought the lawsuit to the Supreme Court of Brisbane on May 25, 2009. The lawsuit alleges that Intabill owes the company AUD$52.75 million (USD$43 million), plus accrued interest since the filing of the suit in May; estimated at AUD$16,590 (USD$13,532).

Responsibility falls on co-owners of the online payment processors, British Virgin Islands based Intabill, and Australian headquartered BT Projects; both named defendants in the case. Specifically targeted in the case are co-owners Daniel Tzvetkoff and Sam Sciacca. Full tilt Poker’s parent company claims that these two guaranteed to pay Kolyma the allegedly owed money, but failed to do so.

According to the Courier-Mail report, Intabill serviced in excess of 5,000 customers across 70 countries, more than 50% of them using the service for online gambling purposes. The newspaper also reported that a single day’s transaction through Intabill, from one operator alone, exceeded $150,000 per day.

This is not the first mention of Intabill in the news of late, having dismissed 96 employees back in April.

It seems that Intabill has put up most of its resources for sale in an effort to resolve the issue. The report continues, stating that the online payment processor is indebted to Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars for about $30 million, Absolute Poker for another $3 million, and Golden Palace, operators of Golden Palace Casino, for yet another $2 million.

The story behind the story will surely come out soon enough, answering the most interesting question of all: How did Intabill go from a $120 million valued company, once ranked among the top 10 online payment processors in the world, to its current state of disarray, in a single year of operation?

The last Ante up for Africa was played yesterday during the WSOP, Full Tilt Pro, Jennifer Harmon, busted Hollywood Star Ben Affleck out of the tournament when he came up against her flopped flush draw with his trips. Harman finished the tournament in 9th place, tweeting shortly thereafter that it was ok; it all went to charity anyway. Harman said she felt bad for knocking Affleck out of the game.

All of the buy-in fees paid by poker players on FTP to enter this tournament will be donated to Ante Up for Africa to help ease the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Players not Satelliting into the tournament can buy-in directly for $100 plus the $20 fee that goes to charity.

Ante Up for Africa is a nonprofit organization that raises money and awareness for charities that provide much needed assistance for the crisis in Darfur. Ante Up for Africa was Co-founded by Don Cheadle in 2007. Don Cheadle was named an official Friend of Full Tilt Poker in May of this year.

Satellite tournaments are also available before the event in the Full Tilt Poker Lobby for as little as $1.00. Players can also play satellites for this tournament using their Full Tilt Poker points, for just 50 FPP’s you could take home the prize for this event.

The Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Ante Up For Africa Charity Tournament is scheduled as follows:

Name: Ante Up for Africa
Date: Saturday August 15th 2009
Time: 15:00 ET
Buy-in: $100 + $20

The main event alone features a guaranteed prize pool of $2,500,000. Every player that makes it to any FTOPS XIII final table will receive a special limited edition FTOPS jacket.

Event winners will receive other limited FTOPS memorabilia and virtual memorabilia (Such as FTOPS avatars, and gold jerseys) in addition to the already lucrative prize pools.

FTOPS XIII Event Schedule

FTOPS XIII Event #1 - NL Hold ‘em
Date: Wednesday August 5th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $1,000,000

FTOPS XIII Event #2 4xShootout 6 player max
Date: Thursday August 6th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $300 + $22
NL Hold ‘em
Prize Pool: $250,000

FTOPS XIII Event #3 - Omaha/8
Date: Thursday August 6th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $200,000

FTOPS XIII Event #4 - NL Hold ‘em
Date: Friday August 7th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $500,000

FTOPS XIII Event #5 - Stud
Date: Friday August 7th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $100,000

FTOPS XIII Event #6 - PL Omaha 6 player max
Date: Saturday August 8th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $500 + $35
Prize Pool: $350,000

FTOPS XIII Event #7 - NL Hold ‘em rebuy
Date: Saturday August 8th
Time: 16:00 ET
Buy-in: $100 + $9
Prize Pool: $500,000

FTOPS XIII Event #8 - NL Hold ‘em Knockout 6 player max
Date: Sunday August 9th
14:00 ET
Buy-in: $240 + $16
Prize Pool: $750,000

FTOPS XIII Event #9 - NL Hold ‘em Heads Up
Date: Sunday August 9th
Time: 16:00 ET
Buy-in: $500 + $35
Prize Pool: $500,000

FTOPS XIII Event #10 - NL Hold ‘em
Date: Sunday August 9th
Time: 18:00 ET
Buy-in: $300 + $22
Prize Pool: $1,500,000

FTOPS XIII Event #11 - HA (half PL Hold ‘em, half PL Omaha)
Date: Monday August 10th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $200,000

FTOPS XIII Event #12 - NL Hold ‘em Antes
Date: Monday August 10th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $1,000 + $60
Prize Pool: $1,500,000

FTOPS XIII Event #13 - NL Hold ‘em 3X Shootout
Date: Tuesday August 11th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $300 + $22
Prize Pool: $200,000

FTOPS XIII Event #14 - HORSE
Date: Tuesday August 11th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $500 + $35
Prize Pool: $300,000

FTOPS XIII Event #15 - NL Hold ‘em 6-max turbo
Date: Tuesday August 11th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $500,000

FTOPS XIII Event #16 - Pot Limit Omaha/8 Knockout
Date: Wednesday August 12th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $240 + $16
Prize Pool: $200,000

FTOPS XIII Event #17 - NL Hold ‘em 6-max rebuy
Date: Wednesday August 12th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $300 + $22
Prize Pool: $1,000,000

FTOPS XIII Event #18 - Pot Limit Omaha Heads Up
Date: Thursday August 13th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $150,000

FTOPS XIII Event #19 - Limit Hold ‘em 6-max
Date: Thursday August 13th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $150,000

FTOPS XIII Event #20 - NL Hold ‘em 6-max
Date: Friday August 14th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $200 + $16
Prize Pool: $400,000

FTOPS XIII Event #21 - Razz
Date: Friday August 14th
Time: 21:00 ET
Buy-in: $300 + $22
Prize Pool: $150,000

FTOPS XIII Event #22 - NL Hold ‘em 6-max 2 Day Event
Date: Saturday August 15th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $2,500 + $120
Prize Pool: $2,000,000

FTOPS Ante Up For Africa - NL Hold ‘em 6-max - Ante From Start
Date: Saturday August 15th
Time: 15:00 ET
Buy-in: $100 + $20
Prize Pool: $100,000

FTOPS XIII Event #23 - Pot Limit Omaha rebuy
Date: Saturday August 15th
Time: 16:00 ET
Buy-in: $100 + $9
Prize Pool: $350,000

FTOPS XIII Event #24 - NL Hold ‘em Knockout
Date: Sunday August 16th
Time: 14:00 ET
Buy-in: $120 + $9
Prize Pool: $750,000

FTOPS Main Event NL Hold ‘em
Date: Sunday August 16th
Time: 18:00 ET
Buy-in: $500 + $35
Prize Pool: $2,500,000

Seated at a $500/$1,000 Omaha Hi-Lo table termed “Wilma”, these two professional poker players had a less than charming morning. Playing 197 hands over the session, Full Tilt Poker Pro Erick Lindgren suffered overall losses of about $70,000.

Fellow poker extraordinaire Ted Forrest, under his FTP nickname “profbackwards”, walked away from the Omaha Hi-Lo game $15k lighter.

On the bright side, “FakeSky” ended the session as the overall winning, pocketing $39k for his skilled efforts. “DIN_FRU” cashed in another $25k on the morning, while “PixKim” will have no trouble paying the bills, $13k richer.

Full Tilt Poker is infamous for its crowd pleasing, high-stakes action, especially where today’s top professional poker players are concerned. The online poker room has the largest mix of professional poker player endorsements from its sponsored pros.

Team Full Tilt Pros include the impeccable skills of Phil Ively, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Erik Seidel, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Gus Hansen, Andy Bloch, Allen Cunningham, Patrik Antonius and, of course, Erick Lindgren. Countless WSOP bracelets and WPT Championships are held between these 14 incredibly talented Full Tilt Pros.

If you’ve ever fancied challenging the most gifted poker players in the world, Full Tilt Poker is certainly the place to do it. Just because they have such exceptional careers in the poker circuit doesn’t mean you won’t be able to scathe a few thousand from their bankroll. Just ask “FakeSky”, the overall winner of yesterday morning news-worthy $500/$1,000 Omaha Hi-Lo showdown!

The purpose of the tournament is to provide much needed aid to the survivors of the Crisis in Darfur, and because of that, and the significance therein, the tournament draws not just the top poker pro’s in the world, but many A-Listers from Hollywood.
Needless to say this tournament doesn’t just do great things for people that really need the help; it’s a top choice among fans as well, movie fans, sports fans, and of course poker fans.

This year, for the first time in the history of the charity poker tournament, ESPN is televising the tournament.

In attendance were Brad Garrett, of Everybody Loves Raymond, Charles Barkley, who isn’t a role model, but does play the occasional hand of poker for charity, Cedric the Entertainer, Hershel Walker, Meg Tilly, Dean Cain, Jason Alexander, Montel, Nelly, Matt Damon, Mike Tyson, Sarah Silverman and tournament founders, Cheadle and Annie Duke.

In addition to the Hollywood A-Listers, some of Full Tilt Poker’s A-List was in attendance as well, including poker pro Andy Bloch, 2-time 2009 WSOP bracelet winner Greg “Full Blown TIlt” Mueller, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Gordon,  and Erik Seidel.

FTP Pro Jennifer Harman was in attendance, in fact, she took the liberty of busting Ben Afleck, when his trip sixes met up with her flush draw, and you can guess the rest. Harman was eventually knocked out in 9th.

In the end, alex bolotin took down the title, the prize pool, and the glory.

The popular online poker room has always shared poker tips and trips with online poker players, publishing hundreds of articles chocked full of poker strategies, in addition to their newsletters that contain a plethora of poker information, brought to you by your favorite full tilt poker pro’s.

Now, Full Tilt is offering poker players a chance to sharpen their skills in the Full Tilt Poker Academy, where new poker players will have an opportunity to improve their game as they learn from top names in the poker world.

Academy Deans Howard Lederer (who some say looks the part perfectly…) and Phil Gordon will head up the Academy. Poker Players will begin their journey with simple poker lessons, given textually, and on video, taught by big name, cash earning, and professional poker players.

The interactive poker lessons will be brought to Full Tilt Poker players by members of Team Full Tilt like Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Howard Lederer (the dean) and Phil Gordon (another dean).

Media used to deliver lessons includes video, podcasts that you can watch while you’re waiting for a doctor’s appointment, actually at the poker table (where allowed) or anytime you’ve got time, and an iPod in your hands. Hand replayers, quizzes and poker tests will also be used. These tools are updated daily, and are suitable for brand new poker players, and for players of every skill level.

The lessons taught include key online poker strategies and techniques, as well as poker theory, which you can see, and experience firsthand, that will not just teach students how to play poker, but how to play the game well, to win money at poker tables, not just take up space and play rake. Once poker players graduate this course, the idea is to have a chance to master the game, to become the pro, or, just enjoy pitting their newfound skills against other poker players, profitably.

Players will take challenges online at Full Tilt, where they will use their newfound poker skills during interactive Sit-N-Learn sessions.

The Full Tilt Poker Academy is free to join so long as you have a Full Tilt Poker account. As a matter of fact, it’s not just free.. there are rewards for being a good student.

Full Tilt Poker Academy students will have a chance to earn free online poker tournament entries based on their achievements.

Filming for “Face the Ace” begins in Las Vegas on July 9th and is set to premiere on August 1st, which is a Saturday, at 9pm EST on NBC.

According to NBC, who announced the show towards the end of April, poker fans can expect a show that’s part reality, but part game show as well. Face the Ace will be hosted by Sopranos star Steve Schirripa.

So who are these Full Tilt Poker Pro’s? According to our sources, Full Tilt Pro’s such as Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Howard Lederer (known as the Poker Professor),  Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Allen Cunningham, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Patrik Antonius and Gus Hansen are expected to appear on the show.

The show will begin with the poker player that won their chance on the show playing online at full tilt choosing between for doors, behind each of these doors is a different “ace” or a different Full Tilt Poker Pro. The player will then play heads up poker against that pro, once the match is over, if the online poker player wins, they have a very difficult decision in front of them.. Take the money and run… or… Try again face another player, lose everything, or win more.

Players can face up to three poker pro’s, risking their winnings each time, or eventually, winning a sweet, cool, one million dollars.