FullTilt’s FTOPS vs PokerStars WCOOP

Full Tilt poker and PokerStars.com battle one another for online tournament players, and arguably these two sites put together the two most popular online poker tournament series during the year, the FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) and the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker). Let’s take a look at these two tournament series compared to one another.

The Full Tilt Poker FTOPS IX

Here are the lean mean details on the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS IX Series

• Starts August 6th
• 24 Events Total
• $15 Million in Prize Pools Guaranteed
• Largest Buy-ins = $2500
• Smallest Buy-In = $120+9 “Knock Out tourney at the end of the series, most events are $200
• Satellites start at $50+5 to events currently, more expected soon.
• Blind Times range from 10 minutes to 30 minute rounds.

Poker Stars WCOOP

Here are the lean mean details on the Poker Stars WCOOP, aka the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker.

• Starts September 5th
• 33 events total
• $30 Million in prize pools guaranteed
• Largest buy in = $25,000, this is a special high roller Heads up Poker tournament with 1.6 mill guaranteed!  Sick!
• Also a $10,300 NL hold em main event for the non heads up tourney.
• Smallest buy in = $215
• Satellites start at $2.20
• Satellites also from FPP’s.
• Steps satellite system, win a seat through a series of steps sattelites.
• Winners win a WCOOP Bracelet
• 30 minute blinds across the series

PokerStars WCOOP or FullTilt’s FTOPS?

The choice is really up to you, the debate rages constantly about which is the better place to play online poker, PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker, but in this comparison of the FTOPS vs WCOOP I’m going for PokerStars and the WCOOP. That is even with the recent criticism by online poker players about the new tournament payout structure that PokerStars implemented where they award more money to a larger portion of the field and not as top heavy as a typical poker tournament. Argue that as you may, the fact that I was quickly and easily able to find a ton of cheap PokerStars satellites into the WCOOP and the Full Tilt Poker satellites were $50 bucks, a fourth of the initial buy-in itself which doesn’t seem that great of a satellite to me. It is possible that they just do not yet have any satellites listed in the Full Tilt Poker lobby for the FTOPS series yet, but they should have.

This Comparison Winner goes to: PokerStars.com

Sites Accepting e checks

Poker Sites Accepting US Players e Checks

If you are a poker player from the USA, you probably know that your deposit options can be somewhat limited. There has been a move to using e checks to play online poker. This is a list of internet poker rooms accepting e check for instant deposit.

• PokerStars.com echecks is probably the quickest way to deposit online other than a credit card (which is limited to only a few credit card poker sites). If you use echeck to deposit at PokerStars you will get a 100% bonus up to $50 by using the bonus code first2008 (valid through Dec 31st, 2008).
• Bodog Poker - If you already have an account at Bodog you can utilize echecks but they are not yet available for brand new players at Bodog. If you are new and wanting to play at Bodog you are going to have to utilize a credit card, cash transfer, or some other options available in the cashier. Current bodog real account holders can utilize echecks for instant deposit online poker.

Poker Stars is also now proud to have their online poker and mac compatible software.

Full Tilt Poker’s Deep Stack NL Holdem

Surfing around FullTiltPoker.com’s lobby the other day I noticed some blind levels that I hadn’t seen before at the no limit texas holdem cash tables.

There were tables offering $0.15 / $0.30 blinds.

The cool thing about these tables is that these are a deep stack buy in table, the max buy-in is $60, or 200 times the big blind. Consider that the normal max buy in for the .25/.50c table is $50, or 100 times the big blind, this deep stack table offers something that the other big poker rooms do not offer right now, and that is smaller staked, deep stack no limit texas holdem cash games.

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Holdem

I have only played at these deep tables in the in the 6 man variety, aka short handed play, although they do offer full 9 man tables.

I’ve only been playing at these deep stack no limit tables for a month or so and so far, so good! Weak players, putting in large sums of money on the flop with way bad hands… This lets you take advantage of weak players who will go way to far with top pair on dangerous flops.

They also offer other stakes of these ‘deep stack’ tables including $0.40/$0.80 deep stack, $0.75/$1.5, and up from there. All of these tables offer 200 x the big blind buy-in’s.

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