Honest Review of Full Flush Poker
This review was written by a professional poker player, Joseph Falchetti. A nine year poker professional specializing in limit holdem. He has written this review in an unbiased manner. Please accept the following review as an honest opinion approved by PokerWebsites.com.
Full Flush Poker is one of the rare new additions to the honest offshore US-facing sites in the poker market, or should I say rarely success sites to pop up. The site premiered in September 2013 and has been rather successful as a new entrant in the much-maligned US market. To access the site their url is www.fullflushpoker.com.
Full Flush is based and licensed in Curacao. They hold a license in good standing from the Curacao Gaming Control Board. They accept players internationally, as well as those in the United States. However, they don’t accept players from New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada because these states already have state-regulated online poker. Accept Borgatapoker.com (bonus info) as our substitute for those states.
Full Flush has a full-service Vegas-style casino, in addition to their online poker room. There is no sportsbook at Full Flush.
First Deposit Bonus and Player Option Points
Full Flush Poker offers a 150% Welcome Bonus, up to $1,500 with 20% instant cash back. Any deposit over $200 will receive 20% cash back, and those between $50–$99 will just receive 10%. Deposits lower than $49 will not receive cash back.
Full Flush’s bonus is sizable, but unlike many other bonuses in online poker, the bonus is not released in increments but instead all at once after it’s been fully cleared. Players will need to earn Player Option Points (POP) to unlock the bonus, and it must be cleared within 30 days.
They also offer regular reload bonuses to their customers with similar rollover rates and cash-back offers.
For every one dollar deposited, players must earn 20 POPs to unlock the bonus. Players earn 10 POPs for every dollar raked in or paid in tournament fees. POPs can be used for tourney buy-ins and can be exchanged for cash. 1,000 POPs is good for a $5.00 cash conversion, which will be deposited directly into the player’s account with no rollover.
Software
Full Flush is the product of a former BetOnline Poker executive, Clive Archer. The similarities between the two sites are evident, especially in terms of software. Their client is nearly identical to BetOnline’s software, which runs on the Chico Network. In fact, they both use software provided by Playsafe Holding.
Full Flush’s software isn’t anything special, especially in the realm of some more advanced poker clients that are coming out these days. However, it performs well and is bug free, and that’s truly all that matters. It also offers all the essential features you would expect, plus some advanced options.
The graphics are solid overall, and the games run quickly. The lobby isn’t super advanced in terms of customization or filters, but it’s still easy to find games quickly.
Stuff like four-color decks and resizable tables for multi-tablers are all options as well. Though, only up to four tables can be played at one time. This is mainly because Full Flush focuses on a recreational model and doesn’t want to attract professional or semi-professional players, but more on this later.
The client is only available for download. There is no in-browser play or mobile options. There are versions available for both PC and MAC.
Full Flush is not currently supported by third-party poker tracking software, such as PokerTracker and Holdem Manager. However, a user at 2+2 Forum has created a hand history converter for Holdem Manager, making it possible to track your play.
Player Traffic and Skill Level
Full Flush is the flagship room on the newly formed Equity Poker Network. The network doesn’t get much traffic compared to other US-facing networks, but it’s still more than a viable option for players. During peak hours in the evenings, they average 1,800–2,000 players online, but only around 300 real money cash game players are online on average.
The network has 8–10 sites that share the same player pool. Many of these sites are sportsbook properties, meaning that a large number of players that wander into the poker room will be unskilled. This gives skilled poker players an excellent advantage and lots of soft action where they can rake in the profits.
Banning Winning Players
The Equity Poker Network and Full Flush Poker have made it a policy to ban poker players who win too much. This is a borderline scandalous practice, but it’s important to note that they do pay players promptly and aren’t going after account balances of winners or accusing them of foul play. They simply deny poker players that drain their casual players pockets. It’s not a bad thing really unless you’re one of the very few who toss around millions online.
Some players who have had long-term success report getting an email from support announcing their account closure. The ban in the email is usually temporary, usually six months. As Full Flush gets larger, they plan to relax these restrictions on their winners.
While this sounds bad, the poker room is not the only site to restrict or even outright ban winners. They’re currently the site most actively doing so, but players have had their play restricted or been banned from larger networks like Merge Gaming for winning too much as well.
Cash Games
Full Flush offers several variants of both Texas Hold’em and Omaha, but for cash games, only No Limit Texas Hold’em, and Pot Limit Omaha receive any significant traffic.
While they offer stakes as high as $20/$40 NL, it’s rare that players will see many games going above $5/$10 NL. There’s not a ton of action above the $.50/$1 level, with only a few games going at $1/$2 NL. The room is still an excellent option for players at these stakes or at the micro limits. It just doesn’t offer much for middle to high-limit players.
Tournaments
Due to Full Flush and the Equity network’s size, their tournament schedules won’t be nearly as heavy as other bigger sites or networks that service US players. As you can see by the image above of the tournament lobby, there are not many tournaments running but I’m writing this report at 4:00am in the morning as well.
The room has grown a fair bit since their inception, and their guaranteed tournaments are getting larger. They now offer at least a $5,000 Guaranteed Every Sunday, which occasionally is pushed to $15k Guaranteed. This is in addition to nightly guaranteed tournaments throughout the week.
The room has weekly freerolls for those that take advantage of their reload bonuses and monthly 1st depositor freerolls as well.
Sit N’ Go Tournament action is extremely sparse. Full Flush has tried to jumpstart their SNG traffic with a number of promotions, including offering SNGs with no fees until the end of Dec. 2014, but even during prime hours, few games are filling.
SNGs are heavily dependent on player traffic. Sites simply just need more players on their site before these games reach the critical mass necessary to attract other players. Their network and site are still growing, so it’s something to keep an eye on for the future if you’re an avid Sit N’ Go player.
Support
Full Flush’s staff is among the best in the US market. They offer phone support, something that is becoming less common in poker support, and are also available through email. They answer emails quickly, sometimes in a matter of minutes, and always within 24 hours. Players can also speak to support via live chat, which is available through the poker client with just one click. All support options are available 24/7. One thing you won’t find at it’s counterpart, Betonline.
Cashier
The site offers a number of deposit options for players and is among the fastest at processing payments for US-facing offshore poker rooms. Part of this may be because they have a smaller client base than other sites, but all that matters in today’s climate is that players are getting paid in a reasonable timeframe. Full Flush passes that test with flying colors.
Players can deposit via VISA credit card or debit card instantly and with no fees. The other option is through cash transfer. This can be done using Western Union or MoneyGram. Full Flush will cover cash transfer fees (they will be reimbursed into your account) for deposits of $250 or more.
OPTIONS: Full Flush offers three payout methods for Americans, which include cash transfers (person to person), bank wires, and checks.
Cash transfers will take 3–5 business days to process and up to $750 can be sent. They come with varying fees, based on the amount sent, which range from $36–$48. Bank wires are the preferred method for high-balance holders. These are processed within ten business days, come with a $65 fee and a max withdrawal of $5,000 per wire.
Finally, checks, the preferred payout method for most, reach players’ doors in about a week by courier and are processed in 3–5 business days. Players can also request checks by regular mail, which cost $30 and take 8–10 working days to arrive. Checks have a rather large $700 minimum amount and a maximum withdrawal of $2,499.
These speeds are extremely strong for payment processing. Some sites can take up to a month to process checks and bank wires. Most importantly, these rates have held steady for the most part since Full Flush opened their doors. The real test will be how they handle payment processing as they continue to get larger.
Overall
Full Flush isn’t going to be an option for mid- or high-stakes players, but their large deposit bonus and extremely fishy low-stakes games make it an excellent training ground for those looking to refine their skills and build a bankroll.
While their practice of banning winners isn’t desirable, they pay all their players legitimately and have some of the fastest processing speeds in the industry. As they continue to grow and gain liquidity, they may become a top choice in US poker markets. Visit www.fullflushpoker.com if you are satisfied with their review.
Author: Joseph Falchetti (twitter)
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