Full Tilt completed phase two in its turn toward being an online poker room for recreational players last week, launching its new Players Club loyalty program. The system is geared completely towards those who like to play poker, but don’t make it their life’s ambition, yet still want to be rewarded for their play.
In a preview, Full Tilt’s Managing Director Dominic Mansour said of the program, “Players Club is a new take on online poker loyalty programs. Right now, the vast majority of players gain very little benefit from rewards schemes because they primarily reward the players that put in the most volume. We are breaking that mould to ensure that more players receive more rewards and more entertainment than ever before.”
Everyone is automatically a member of the Players Club from the get-go. It is highlighted by a special game called “The Deal,” which requires “Coins” for entry. Coins are collected at a rate correlated with how many Full Tilt Points (FTP) a player earns. The faster a player earns FTP, the faster he accumulates Coins.
The Deal itself is quite simple. Once a player pays one Coin, seven cards are dealt face down. The player selects two to discard, after which the remaining five are revealed to make a poker hand. Prizes are awarded based on the strength of the hand as follows:
Royal flush – chance for The Deal Jackpot
Straight flush – $200
Four of a kind – $20
Full house – 1,000 Full Tilt Points
Flush – $2 Ring Game Ticket
Straight – $1 Tournament Ticket
Three of a kind – $1K The Deal Freeroll ticket
Two pair – 1 Coin
One pair – 20% Coin progress
Ace high – $1K The Deal Freeroll satellite ticket
High card – No prize
The jackpot listed above starts at $25,000 and increases by 3 cents every time someone plays The Deal. As you can see, hitting a royal flush only gives someone a chance to hit the jackpot; it doesn’t guarantee it. When someone makes a royal flush, they are presented with a prize wheel split up into eight sections: jackpot, $3,000, $2,000, $1,000, and 4 x $500. Anyone who lands on the jackpot space receives half of the progressive total, with the other half divided up amongst everyone who played The Deal within the past 12 hours.
On the first day of the Players Club, nearly half a million people played The Deal, but nobody made a royal flush. According to Full Tilt, seven players had a royal flush ready to go, but discarded one of the cards they needed.
The Players Club also offers other promotions such as special tournaments and prizes for playing on consecutive days.
As discussed in an earlier article, Full Tilt also modified its existing Edge program, designed to reward the site’s high volume players. There are now just three levels, as follows:
Edge: 30-day rolling average of 80 FTP or 100-day rolling average of 70 FTP; $1 cashback for every 100 FTP
Edge Plus: 30-day rolling average of 250 FTP or 100-day rolling average of 150 FTP; $1.50 cashback for every 100 FTP
Edge Prime: 30-day rolling average of 500 FTP or 100-day rolling average of 400 FTP; $2 cashback for every 100 FTP
It appears that it is now not only harder to reach Edge status, but the cashback levels are more difficult to hit as compared to their previous equivalents.
