why are there so many 'named pro players' on full tilt?

luckylucky

There seems to be a huge amount of nominated pros on full-tilt's books these days, just wondering what that's all about. I've played a fair few of them in both Omaha and sngs. Some of them imo are at best reasonable players, certainly at the games I play them in, just wondering what it takes to nominate a player as a pro. Just checked on 1 guy's sharkscope stats now, a guy called Marco Liesy. I mean he's in profit but at average stake $122 and ROI at 1% it's not exactly earth shattering stuff. He doesn't appear to have had any massive live wins either according to the hendon mob. So basically just wondering what this bargain basement assembly of pros is all about, is it trying to say to the masses that 'hey you can be a pro too'.

Van Dice

they're fantastic, whenever I see a table in red text I join waiting list immediately. I have no idea why half of them are there, or who they are, but I have yet to play any good FTP pro at 3/6 or 5/10.

poorbarman

These guys get 100% rakeback,eg jonathan little who is one of the latest is running at 2% ROI but with rakeback he is cleaning up.Playing huge volumes because as he says "he cant afford not to".The idea seems to be that the fish are more likely to play if there is someone in red at the table and the regulars who do well dont mind playing these guys.Dmmikkel is another at the same thing.

semibluff

i was told that an english pro who plays on it - is payed to play a set amount of hours, at a set stake (lower than he'd nrmaly bother with) he just "spunks away a few hundred there - having a laugh. nice if ya can get it

luckylucky

poorbarman wrote: »

These guys get 100% rakeback,eg jonathan little who is one of the latest is running at 2% ROI but with rakeback he is cleaning up.Playing huge volumes because as he says "he cant afford not to".The idea seems to be that the fish are more likely to play if there is someone in red at the table and the regulars who do well dont mind playing these guys.Dmmikkel is another at the same thing.

hmm interesting. So any idea what criteria full tilt use to pick these 'pros', in sngs for example I've seen regular guys with far far better results, is it just because these 'pros' are a known name live do you reckon?

valor

luckylucky wrote: »

is it just because these 'pros' are a known name live do you reckon?

yes

Bandara

I'd also imagine that a lot of the time the pros are not playing themselves, why would they bother playing at what is penny levels to them.

Just get a mate to do it and stick to the ABC's

rag2gar

I think there is a lot of poker players involved in the running of full tilt. Wasn't it set up by Lederer, Ferguson, Ivey et al? Perhaps some of the full tilt lads on here could confirm or deny this?

This may be the reason for so many pros on the site

Ste05

rag2gar wrote: »

I think there is a lot of poker players involved in the running of full tilt. Wasn't it set up by Lederer, Ferguson, Ivey et al? Perhaps some of the full tilt lads on here could confirm or deny this?

This may be the reason for so many pros on the site

I seriously doubt the fact that the owners/initial start-up people were pro's has anything to do with this. I'd be pretty confident it's 100% a marketing decision. More "Pro's" means more people will want to play with them. Win anything in any country and get recognised and publicity and it's worth their while to sponsor you so the fish that recognise that player will want to play with them.

Van Dice

Ste05 wrote: »

so the fish that recognise that player will want to play with them.

lol

RoundTower

it doesn't really cost FT anything to have more pros, because red ink is pretty cheap when you buy it in bulk. So why not?

jimmii

As long as you're not a freak or really weird dude you will get backed by them from what I hear. Also play JJ Liu as much as possible and if you see Karina Jett fistpump call atc.

Ste05

jimmii wrote: »

As long as you're not a freak or really weird dude

I don't know why, but whenever I hear this I just crack up laughing, it could be down to all the great photoshops about it on 2+2.

jimmii

Ste05 wrote: »

I don't know why, but whenever I hear this I just crack up laughing, it could be down to all the great photoshops about it on 2+2.

Phew haven't been around a while so wasn't sure if it has been overused here yet!

At least we know that the big name pro's actually do make the decisions behind the scenes at FTP!

Van Dice

jj liu has severe issues with the fold button

jimmii

I didn't think JJ Liu had a fold button! Anyone got a decent PT sample for some stats!

Van Dice

41/18/1.6 over 3k hands.
A solid -14 ptBB/100 too, must have been lots of coolers for her in that sample, like running bottom pair into a set, or pretty suited cards into AA preflop.

jimmii

Van Dice wrote: »

41/18/1.6 over 3k hands.
A solid -14 ptBB/100 too, must have been lots of coolers for her in that sample, like running bottom pair into a set, or pretty suited cards into AA preflop.

FTP rigged for sure. I must start playing FTP more me thinks!

dannydiamond

RoundTower wrote: »

it doesn't really cost FT anything to have more pros, because red ink is pretty cheap when you buy it in bulk. So why not?

eagle eye

Well whatever they are doing, its working, they are now the second biggest site out there, and getting bigger all the time.
Don't like the software that much, its ok, but i do watch some of these bigger games sometimes.

ZZR1100

See also that Daniel Negreanu moved to pokerstars taking all the players of full contact poker with him. If you had an account with FCP, u now have an account with stars.
Oh and Boris becker is also a new stars signup ??

eagle eye

The big thing with FT is the amount of Pro's they have.
The bad thing is the amount of time you have to wait for a reply from their support.

Ste05

eagle eye wrote: »

The big thing with FT is the amount of Pro's they have.

I'm actually genuinely interested to know if you really think this is a big selling point for FT to you, and helps make up your mind to play on the site??

Personally, I think FT is growing so much because they're one of only maybe 3 or 4 sites that still allow US players to play, and as such have a large captive market, that by it's very nature attracts other people due to the volume of players they have and then the thing snowballs with just a little nudge in whatever way they wanted to. Among other things obviously.

Personally I sometimes have the nose bleed games open in the back ground to see if anything crazy happens, but very few of the "Pro's play on those levels, and when they do, they usually attract a good game (possibly Ivey being the only exception)

zuutroy

Yeah I agree. I think its kinda retarded having all these poster boys, but obviously thats what works in terms of marketing in th US. Though genuinely decent players the likes of CTS, GP etc seem to play the nosebleed games there which is cool as you said. I think I remember Andy Black getting owned pretty good in one of the cardrunners videos.

TomPich

Because the fork out the $$$

jimmii

I love them having loads of name pro's because all the fish want to play with the pro's. They some how think that playing on the same site as Ivey makes them better.

Glowingmind

jimmii wrote: »

They some how think that playing on the same site as Ivey makes them better.

It does.

Wallko

Was just thinking this! Just playing at an omaha table with 2 of them. David Chiu and Zigi Stockinger. Bot very average. Googled them for the crack. David has for bracelets and I still didnt leave!

eagle eye

Ste05 wrote: »

I'm actually genuinely interested to know if you really think this is a big selling point for FT to you, and helps make up your mind to play on the site??

Personally, I think FT is growing so much because they're one of only maybe 3 or 4 sites that still allow US players to play, and as such have a large captive market, that by it's very nature attracts other people due to the volume of players they have and then the thing snowballs with just a little nudge in whatever way they wanted to. Among other things obviously.

Personally I sometimes have the nose bleed games open in the back ground to see if anything crazy happens, but very few of the "Pro's play on those levels, and when they do, they usually attract a good game (possibly Ivey being the only exception)

I don't play there very often, as i don't like the set up, but the reason i knew it existed was because of the number of well known pro's who were wearing full tilt gear. I do think that this sells to the American public in particular.
As you said they are one of only a few sites which are still open to Americans but they are now the second biggest and still growing. Probably this is now due to the American situation, but in the first place it was due to these well known pro's and the advertisements.

And there are a lot of people out there who just love the thought of trying to take a few quid off a big name pro, so its always going to work.

On a personal note it would not attract me to a site to play with the pro's but it would get me to take a look at it and more than likely make a deposit.
But ft have other problems, like their support which is diabolical, and the choice of games.
For instance i ended up by accident at a no limit omaha hi/lo game one night i played there, and of course, very first hand was aa2k double suited so i potted it, or so i thought, and actually stuck all my money in. There was no warning to let me know when i sat down that this was no limit and it was stuck in the middle of the pl games.
They are trying to improve and with the money they are now taking in, they could well become a viable alternative to stars if they improve their customer service and improve their software along the way.

luckylucky

eagle eye wrote: »

I don't play there very often, as i don't like the set up, but the reason i knew it existed was because of the number of well known pro's who were wearing full tilt gear. I do think that this sells to the American public in particular.
As you said they are one of only a few sites which are still open to Americans but they are now the second biggest and still growing. Probably this is now due to the American situation, but in the first place it was due to these well known pro's and the advertisements.

And there are a lot of people out there who just love the thought of trying to take a few quid off a big name pro, so its always going to work.

On a personal note it would not attract me to a site to play with the pro's but it would get me to take a look at it and more than likely make a deposit.
But ft have other problems, like their support which is diabolical, and the choice of games.
For instance i ended up by accident at a no limit omaha hi/lo game one night i played there, and of course, very first hand was aa2k double suited so i potted it, or so i thought, and actually stuck all my money in. There was no warning to let me know when i sat down that this was no limit and it was stuck in the middle of the pl games.
They are trying to improve and with the money they are now taking in, they could well become a viable alternative to stars if they improve their customer service and improve their software along the way.

Personally I like their software, except for 1 or 2 minor irritations, but the main thing for me is that it is very reliable in general. Their customer support is poor from my experience also. But the big ironic thing for me is that the 'pros' I play in PLO or in sngs are very often the weakest players, and that's not just based on my observations, it's backed up by Sharkscope.