Full Tilt Poker is known for hosting one of the most popular poker tournament series on the internet, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). Many an online pro has made their mark winning FTOPS events and the rewards have been lucrative. Starting in September, Full Tilt is changing things up a bit, introducing a new tournament series designed with the recreational player in mind: the Full Tilt Classic.
The Full Tilt Classic will begin Friday, September 11th, and run through Sunday, September 20th, featuring 20 events. Monday through Saturday, two events will be held each day, at 12:30 and 14:30. On Sunday, the schedule shifts an hour earlier – the two tournaments will begin at 11:30 and 1:30.
As Full Tilt says, it is getting “back to basics” with the Full Tilt Poker Classic. No levels of buy-in tiers, no pros hosting tournaments, and not a lot of game variety. Two events per day for ten days. Most of the tournaments will be No-Limit Hold’em, but there is some Omaha, Razz, and mixed games thrown in there. There are even odd varieties like No-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo and Six-Card Omaha, but on the whole, there are not a lot of exotic games. Table sizes for the tourneys vary: four-max, six-max, eight-max, and full ring are all represented. There are no heads-up events.
As mentioned, this seems to be geared towards casual players, as buy-ins range from just $10 to $100. You won’t see any super high roller events here. The Main Event is the final one, on Sunday, September 20th. It is your good, old No-Limit Hold’em freezeout with a $100 buy-in and a $75,000 guaranteed prize pool. All told, there is $270,000 in guaranteed prize money across the entire series.
On top of all that, there will be Full Tilt Classic Side Events interspersed amongst the 20 regular tournaments. There are 40 of these, ten per day, and they are all No-Limit Hold’em, though there is some variety within that game type (table size, re-entry, etc.). Once again, buy-ins range from $10 to $100, but there are no guaranteed prize pools.
As is always the case with tournament series at Full Tilt, there is a Full Tilt Classic Leaderboard. Players earn points for participating in events and more points based on where they finish. The top 100 points earners at the end of the Classic will win prizes, all paid out in tournament tickets (told you this was for recreational players). First place will receive two $50 tournament tickets, four $25 tickets, and five $10 tickets, for a total value of $250 worth of tickets.
And, of course, Full Tilt is holding satellites in which players can gain entry into any of the events. There are also freeroll satellites, though players must qualify for them. For the first two, held on September 11th, players must earn one Full Tilt Point in the 24 hours leading up to the tournament to earn entry. For any of the other freerolls, players must participate in a Full Tilt Classic event on the previous day.
