Sunday, January 22, 2006
Review of Full Contact Poker
Yesterday at PokerStars, sitting to the right of a pre-flop super-raiser, I was going through some old email in my online email account. I found an email from Full Contact Poker about their new online poker room being ready, etc. I decided to give them a try.
At FCP, I am a "Charter Member". A while back I was reading Daniel Negreanu's blog. He was talking about the all-new FCP, and how if you signed up now (no cost), then you'd get bonus stuff later. Well, ok, just an email addres - not much risk.
Well, when the poker room stuff launched, I got an email telling about it and some of my FCP Charter Member benefits. One was the initial deposit bonus - 100% up to $200.00. Regular members were just getting 50%. Plus a 10% bonus for everyone, everytime, if depositing via Neteller.
All of this decided to give FCP a try this weekend. I transferred my remaining funds out of Stars to Neteller, and then transferred it plus the $50.00 I had in Neteller in to FCP. My bonus I am clearing is now higher than my initial deposit (110%).
FCP Pros:
1) Every 24 hours, they move bonus money to your regular money account - the piece of the bonus cleared. They don't wait until you've cleared your entire bonus to transfer bonus money. They transfer it as you earn it, daily. I like this.
2) They have $5.00 + .50 heads-up SNG tourneys. These are a lot of fun. I played 4 of them yesterday. Won 2, lost 2. I should have won a third, but was distracted by some other things I was doing around here and lost it. Just more evidence to prove that I need to focus on poker when I'm playing poker.
3) The stats on FCP are much more thorough. I've only looked at stats on Stars, not Party, so this may be how they are on other sites, but I like the amount of detail they are tracking at FCP. This is my stats window from the .05/.10 NL I was playing this afternoon: [This spot should be an image of the stats window. I am having some sort of error uploading and will try again later.]
4) The interface is nice. I've only played Stars, Party, and FCP, but so far I like FCP the best.
5) It has a fullscreen mode. Your table window goes full screen, and tabs are added along the bottom for the other windows you had up - one for lobby, one each for any other table you might be playing, etc.
FCP Cons:
1) They don't *clearly* state anywhere what the exact formula is for clearing bonuses. Yesterday I played .10/.25 NL, some .15/.30 Limit, and several heads-up $5.00 + .50 tourneys. I cleared 2.60 or so. Not sure how I did that, or which type of play was better for me.
2) It's like Party with the avatars. I have played so much at Stars that I am just used to the image on the screen representing the player and not just a generic avatar for that slot at the table. So, this makes me forget when the fish in chair 3 has left, and the tight aggressive player has taken his place.
3) There is some verbage about not transferring out more than $200.00 without validating your ID, but I'm unclear on the details. That definitely sucks, though.
4) You can't choose to show cards at the end of a hand. If you lost, and don't have to show, you fold. Automatically. And, folded hands (even at showdown) don't show in the hand history.
So far, I'm sorta break-even at FCP, but having fun playing there. I'll at least work off my bonus, then evaluate it again and see if I will stay there or return to Stars.
At FCP, I am a "Charter Member". A while back I was reading Daniel Negreanu's blog. He was talking about the all-new FCP, and how if you signed up now (no cost), then you'd get bonus stuff later. Well, ok, just an email addres - not much risk.
Well, when the poker room stuff launched, I got an email telling about it and some of my FCP Charter Member benefits. One was the initial deposit bonus - 100% up to $200.00. Regular members were just getting 50%. Plus a 10% bonus for everyone, everytime, if depositing via Neteller.
All of this decided to give FCP a try this weekend. I transferred my remaining funds out of Stars to Neteller, and then transferred it plus the $50.00 I had in Neteller in to FCP. My bonus I am clearing is now higher than my initial deposit (110%).
FCP Pros:
1) Every 24 hours, they move bonus money to your regular money account - the piece of the bonus cleared. They don't wait until you've cleared your entire bonus to transfer bonus money. They transfer it as you earn it, daily. I like this.
2) They have $5.00 + .50 heads-up SNG tourneys. These are a lot of fun. I played 4 of them yesterday. Won 2, lost 2. I should have won a third, but was distracted by some other things I was doing around here and lost it. Just more evidence to prove that I need to focus on poker when I'm playing poker.
3) The stats on FCP are much more thorough. I've only looked at stats on Stars, not Party, so this may be how they are on other sites, but I like the amount of detail they are tracking at FCP. This is my stats window from the .05/.10 NL I was playing this afternoon: [This spot should be an image of the stats window. I am having some sort of error uploading and will try again later.]
4) The interface is nice. I've only played Stars, Party, and FCP, but so far I like FCP the best.
5) It has a fullscreen mode. Your table window goes full screen, and tabs are added along the bottom for the other windows you had up - one for lobby, one each for any other table you might be playing, etc.
FCP Cons:
1) They don't *clearly* state anywhere what the exact formula is for clearing bonuses. Yesterday I played .10/.25 NL, some .15/.30 Limit, and several heads-up $5.00 + .50 tourneys. I cleared 2.60 or so. Not sure how I did that, or which type of play was better for me.
2) It's like Party with the avatars. I have played so much at Stars that I am just used to the image on the screen representing the player and not just a generic avatar for that slot at the table. So, this makes me forget when the fish in chair 3 has left, and the tight aggressive player has taken his place.
3) There is some verbage about not transferring out more than $200.00 without validating your ID, but I'm unclear on the details. That definitely sucks, though.
4) You can't choose to show cards at the end of a hand. If you lost, and don't have to show, you fold. Automatically. And, folded hands (even at showdown) don't show in the hand history.
So far, I'm sorta break-even at FCP, but having fun playing there. I'll at least work off my bonus, then evaluate it again and see if I will stay there or return to Stars.
