Full Tilt Poker Introduces Multi-Entry Tournaments

In a move that has the potential to alter the nature of online tournament poker, Full Tilt Poker has announced the launch of Multi-Entry Tournaments, a new type of tournament that allows players to play more than one seat in a multi-table tournament (MTT).

The Multi-Entry Tournament allows players to enter the same tournament multiple times – either at the same time, or at any point before entries are cut off. Each entry from an individual player is seated at a different table, ensuring that a player won’t be able to play against themselves. Each Multi-Entry Tournament will have a maximum number of entries allowed per player, which will vary by event.

The tricky part is what occurs when there are fewer tables in play than entries remaining for a given player. This is a possibility in the late stages of a tournament; a player with two or three successful entries might be forced to have two entries at a single table. In these cases, a player’s entries will be merged. For instance, if a player has one entry at each of the final three tables, and one of those tables closes, that entry will be merged with the remaining entry with the lowest chip count. The chips held by both entries will be combined into a larger stack. In addition, if the money bubble has already broken, the player will receive the prize money that would have been given to a player who had been eliminated at the point where one of their entries was forced to merge.

Full Tilt Poker has often been at the cutting edge in adding new features for online poker play. Last year, they introduced Rush Poker, a format where players are immediately moved to new tables whenever they fold a hand, thus increasing the number of hands they can see during a session. Interestingly, Multi-Entry Tournaments are available for Rush Poker Tournaments, combining the two innovations into one event.