I’m the type of poker player who’s pretty loyal when it comes to where I choose to play online. I tried most of the popular sites a few years ago, but lately I’m just far too comfortable with the PokerStars software to want to try anything new… but with all the buzz that Full Tilt Poker has been generating lately, I thought it might be a good time to give them a try.

The first thing you’ll notice is their new player deposit bonus… whatever your first deposit is, they’ll double it - up to a maximum of $600 free… of course you don’t get it straight away, you need to play at the tables earning Full Tilt Points that allows you to clear sections of your bonus as you progress - pretty standard stuff really.

Getting started is straight forward, I was up and running (for real money) in only a few minutes - everything went nice and smoothly. The lobby was easy enough to understand (see below) and there were plenty of players on line. My only gripe with it is that the tournaments don’t show enough detail at a glance… you’ve got to click on each one to find out things like what the entry restrictions are, what tournament stream they are a part of etc. compared to the amount of information you get at PokerStars at a glance the Full Tilt lobby is a little disappointing.

On to the games though, and the display options give you enough choices to make things easy on the eyes. Full Tilt Poker makes good use of avatars (a decent selection are available), giving the table a somewhat cartoon-ish feel, but not one that distracts from the game too much. I went for the Donkey… sometimes I play that way, sometimes I want people to think I just play that way… either way it seemed like a good choice at the time, lol.

You can see me at the bottom of the screen - this was my first sit n’ go tournament… all was going well, but I think I must have ‘bad beat’ tattooed on my forehead or something, I seem to attract them more than most, here’s what happened. There were still 7 players left, I was dealt KQo small raise, two callers, flop comes KQ7 (awesome!). I check, next guy bets 250, 3rd guy folds, I move all-in, original bettor calls (he only had about 200 more chips than me total) and turns over QJo (fantastic!). Turn shows a 9, river gives him the runner-runner straight with a 10… you just can’t beat dumb luck.

On the bright side, it’s encouraging to see that there are plenty of weak players prepared to call someone pushing all-in with only 2nd pair… bad beats aside, I don’t think you can ask for more than that really :)

So what happened next? I played another sit n’ go and copped another bad beat, but probably a hand I shouldn’t have been in, I had A5 up against JJ, moved all-in after the flop with an Ace showing (no Jack)… he caught his two-outer on the river. In my third tournament I finished 3rd, so moving forward…

Full Tilt Poker is a great place to play, I still like Poker Stars, but Full Tilt is a high quality 2nd and may even become my first choice site as I play there a bit more. I’ve added a list of their promotions to the sidebar (on the right hand side of this page), so check them out - if there’s something there that appeals to you, they are definitely worth a try.

Nenad Medic has taken out the first event at the 2008 WSOP. Event #1 was a $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold ‘em event and Nenad walks away with $794,112 in winnings.

Starting the final table in 2nd place, he defeated seasoned pro Andy Bloch heads up. The final hand saw Andy Bloch’s 9h9d against Nenad’s 5h7h, Andy pushed all-in after the flop which showed 8h5s4h, Jh hit the turn giving Nenad a flush Andy needed another heart for a higher flush but no luck with the 5c on the river.

Nenad Medic had previously won the 2006 WPT Championships at Foxwood and is sponsored by FullTilt Poker.