- Poker and Casino, crafted by players, for players. You can login with your PokerStars account.
- The Full Tilt Saga might be far from over, and here is why – While Full Tilt Poker and all other poker sites closed down following Black Friday; fellow poker site PokerStars awaited a similar fate, and moved to the European market. However, rumor has it that PokerStars is willing to buy out Full Tilt Poker, and the Justice Department will.
Full Tilt Online Poker Download Featuring exclusive promotions and tournament types you won't find anywhere else, we are the home of authentic poker players worldwide. Joining the tens of thousands of players who play with us every day is a quick and easy process that can be completed in two short steps.
New Jersey will soon welcome back Full Tilt and PokerStars, but this time the two iPoker networks will be sharing player pools. (Image: poker-king.com)
Full Tilt (FT) players will soon be forced to make the transition to PokerStars after the Rational Group, parent company to the iPoker brands and under the Amaya gaming umbrella, announced this week a consolidation of the two customer pools in order to create one “market-leading poker product.”
All Full Tilt players will move to PokerStars sometime this spring, and those who hold separate FT and PokerStars accounts will see the two fused into one Stars credential. In a press release Rational says the decision “will allow Amaya’s development and technology teams to focus on improving one market-leading platform rather than two.”
Once a market leader in online poker, Full Tilt’s fall from grace came in 2011 when the US Department of Justice charged the site’s former owners with running a Ponzi-like scheme that netted the company hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2012, the US government dismissed charges against the actual FT brand in a settlement deal that included PokerStars purchasing Full Tilt and paying $731 million in civil lawsuits.
While PokerStars’ image was tarnished in the United States for operating illegally, it didn’t suffer nearly as bad as Full Tilt as the latter company’s actions ruined lives.
New Jersey Dual-Threat
The last thing PokerStars needs is additional fanfare, but that is precisely what aligning with FT will provide. After an exhaustive application process, in October the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement finally approved Amaya’s bid to return both PokerStars and Full Tilt to the Garden State for the first time since poker’s Black Friday in April of 2011.
The latest data from PokerScout shows the WSOP/888 and Party Borgata rooms totaling a weekly average of just 370 players. The iGambling market is flourishing in New Jersey, but Internet poker has struggled since its legalization in 2013.
The primary hurdle is of course player liquidity. PokerStars and Full Tilt is expected to bring former players from the early 2000s back online, and ideally entice new land-based players to the digital tables.
With PokerStars and Full Tilt working coherently, revitalizing online poker interest could be an easier task than initially thought.
Still Worth Fighting
Once one of the world’s largest and most active online card rooms, today FT dot-com is the 11th most popular poker destination on the web. PokerStars remains the largest, and is more than six times as active as its nearest rival 888poker.
PokerStars’ player base is 20 times that of FT, and while its players are being moved to the larger of the two, Amaya executives aren’t ready to completely throw in the towel. In its merger statement this week, the company says that while FT has “been in decline since its 2012 re-launch,” it still continues to be a profitable poker room.
Players who have grown accustomed to the FT software will be able to continue playing through the client. Full Tilt’s popular formats including Rush Poker and The Deal will also remain available for the time being.
Amaya moving FT players to PokerStars but not going all-in and shutting down the brand in favor of a dual-brand strategy shows that its corporate leadership isn’t entirely convinced it’s time to fold on the once-great iPoker powerhouse.
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Friday, January 1st
2020 Online Poker Site Reviews
Poker Stars
- Cost: FREE
Full Tilt Poker Pokerstars
Poker Stars offers a very attractive and easy-to-use web site that offers a wide variety of online poker games utilizing 'play money'. The site also includes a wealth of information for all player levels and abilities, and they earn our top rating.
Full Tilt Poker
- Cost: FREE
Full Tilt Poker offers a lackluster site that utilizes 'play money' for U.S. residents. Eight of the most popular poker games are available from your home computer or laptop, but overall they were hard to get excited about.
Who Offers the Best Online Poker?
There's little doubt that Online Poker has exploded in popularity across the country, and the world. This was especially true when online gambling was legal in the 50 states; however, due to legislation, residents of the United States are barred from participating in online poker games using actual currency.
Still, there are several websites that allow people from the U.S. and any other country to play online poker without wagering any real cash. Playing online poker against real people can be a lot more fun than playing against a computer. Watching and learning how a human plays their poker hand is something that just can't be duplicated.
Continued from above...
Also, for those U.S. residents that like to visit legal casinos and poker rooms, you can work on your poker game from home and improve your skills without wagering real money against people who are more experienced.
Whatever your reasons, the good news is you have a variety of good online poker games to choose from. However, before hopping online to play your next game of Texas Hold'em, you should consider a number of factors that make some online poker websites good, and other online poker websites great:
- Website Functionality. Do you download the online poker gaming software? How good are the graphics? Is finding online assistance easy?
- Selection. How many online poker games are offered at each website? Will they offer a wide selection of games or are you limited to only a few options for free play?
- Rules and Restrictions. Do rules and restrictions exist that limit the length of time you can play online poker for free?
TopConsumerReviews.com has reviewed and ranked the best online poker sites available today. We hope this information helps you find and win your next online poker game!
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