Full Contact Poker

Full Contact Poker didn't originate as an online poker room like Party Poker, Full Tilt Poker, or PokerStars. The site launched as a poker forum, and the celebrity endorser behind the website was Daniel Negreanu. Not only has Negreanu participated in the forum at FullContactPoker.com since the very beginning, he also blogs about his own poker career on the site. (On May 1, 2007, Casino City reported that Negreanu's contract with the site is about to expire, and he may choose not to renew.)

Full Contact Poker Signup Bonus

Full Contact Poker has one of the best poker signup bonuses in the industry. With a 1st deposit of $500, you receive a 100% bonus of up to $500. The bonus money is released at the rate of $1 for every $2 you contribute to the rake.

FullContact Poker.com Poker Software

FullContact now does offer poker for real money online, and it is one of the few sites still accepting US-based players. But the poker room is a smaller site, and the software is not unique to the Full Contact Poker site. The poker aspect of Full Contact's cardroom is powered by a network of poker rooms called Digital Gaming Network. (Formerly known as Dobrosoft.) The casino games are powered by Future Bet software.

I wish I could say something complimentary about the Digital Gaming Network poker software, but honestly, it's 2nd rate. I'm used to playing at state-of-the-art poker sites like Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, and Full Contact's software just doesn't measure up. I'm not a huge fan of Bodog's poker software either, but it's better than the software I experienced at Full Contact Poker.

The main problems I had with the software is that it just didn't seem intuitive. At one point I made an all-in bet with pocket kings, and the software just hung up on me, then folded my hand as if I hadn't acted at all. I think this might have been a connection problem on my end, but I was disappointed that I don't know for sure. (Any time I've experienced connection problems at places like Party Poker or Full Tilt Poker, it's been crystal clear what happened based on the messages on the screen.)

That being said, I didn't see any evidence that Full Contact Poker deals anything but a fair game. Their poker software might be a little bit clunky, but they seem to be dealing a fair game.

Full Contact Poker Deposit Methods

I was also able to make a deposit easily with their exclusive deposit solution, MakeaDeposit.net, but I was confused as to why I couldn't sit down and play immediately after putting money in my account. It turns out that once you make a deposit, the funds go into a Full Contact account, and then need to be transferred into either the poker account or the casino account. This is almost certainly because they're using 2 separate providers for their casino and poker functionalities.

I think they would be better off switching to the Microgaming Poker network if they can, because then the players would also be able to access the casino games from the same cashier account. Having those multiple account options just made for a little more frustration and confusion than I would have liked.

The only other deposit option was eWalletXpress. While the limited number of deposit options was a little disappointing, Make A Deposit.net was so easy to use that it really didn't matter. The minimum deposit is $25.

FullContactPoker.com Player Volume

Player volume at Full Contact Poker was extremely low compared to Full Tilt Poker, which is where I play most of the time. (There were fewer than 1000 players online at any given time I was logged in to play.) It was even low compared to the poker player volume at Bodog Poker, which is not a super active place to play. On one hand, I like rooms with low player volume, because I'm more likely to be able to get a "read" on another player's betting patterns. And any time I'm able to be familiar with the other players at the table, I feel like I've got a little bit of an edge.

The players at FullContact Poker.com didn't seem to be particularly strong, but I did play mostly low limit games there too. One aspect of Full Contact that I liked was the wide variety of lower limit games and tournaments available. A lot of times the smaller online poker sites don't have many games to choose from at lower limits, but Full Contact Poker offers sit and go tournaments with buy-in's of $1.00 + $0.10 and $2.00 + $0.20 and so on up to $10+$1's and higher. The sit-and-go's take a little while to fill up though, so be ready to do some waiting.

If you're interested in playing games other than Texas holdem, Full Contact is probably the wrong place. At the time of this writing, there are no players at the 7 card stud tables, and there is only one Omaha table in action. (And it's full.) The full table is a low limit table too, nickel dime pot limit.

The Texas holdem tables were available in limits as high as $200/$400, but there weren't any players at the higher limit tables. There were 2 players at 2 tables of $5/$10 Texas holdem, one limit, and one no limit, but most of the players were playing $1/$2 and $2/$4.

Full Contact Poker Recommendations

If you're looking for a place where you can comfortably learn poker, get to know some other poker players, and participate in a poker community, then Full Contact Poker is probably a good choice for you. There are lots of low limit Texas holdem games available, and the poker room is small enough that you can get to know the people who play there fairly quickly. Also, the forum is active and interesting, which is a nice perk.

On the other hand, if you're into other games like Omaha or Stud, you might be better served by checking out another site. I don't recommend Full Contact Poker for high stakes players either, since most of the action is in the low limit games.