Today's FT Update...

[Talking Poker]

Apparently, a biggie:


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Originally Posted by FTPDoug

New this update:

A. Just about everything - The re-written table has been in beta for a few months now, and this update brings that out of beta along with a completely re-written lobby. There should be significant performance gains over the old client, especially for players on older machines who multi-table. Along with the performance, many graphic elements have been updated, many old bugs have been fixed, and we swapped the OK and Cancel buttons on the Mac to keep everyone on their toes.

B. Last Hand History window - This was completely re-written as well. There's now a replayer, a "Console" which lists all of your tables/tournaments/hands, and a separate transcript window. You can finally review a hand from a closed tournament table (often your bustout hand)! Note that this replayer uses Flash. You might be prompted to install a newer version of Flash when you first start the game. If you don't take that update you won't be able to view the replayer.

C. Mixed Limit ring games - You should see Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha H/L, and a 7-Game mix (HEROS + NLH + PLO) appear in their respective ring game lobbies over the next day or two. Mixed Hold'em will be in the No Limit/Pot Limit Hold'em lobby for now, but eventually it will have a home of its own.

D. Datamining - As promised a number of months ago, we've taken some steps to curb datamining. This includes no longer writing out observed hand histories to disk. This will undoubtedly upset some of you, but the datamining policy has been in place for a long time and we've seen too much abuse of that policy to do nothing. It's also likely this isn't the last change we'll make to address the problem. We feel this is ultimately the best policy for the overall health of the game.

I'll just go ahead and ask myself the first two obvious questions...

1. What?! Still no ring game filter?!

- We worked very hard to try to get it in this update, but it just wasn't ready in time. This is at the very top of our priority list and is 99% guaranteed to be in the next major update. As far as exactly why it's taken so long, I can't fully spill the beans, but suffice it to say we aren't just slapping a little "edit" link next to the stakes checkboxes...

2. And still no additional login security?

- Unfortunately, this is now unlikely to make the very next big update. The fact that the ring game filter stuff slipped a bit has had a knock-on effect on other projects. It really should make the big update after the filter one, though. Still trying not to give a date, but you have more fingers than the number of weeks it should take. Unless they call you lefty.

3. for the love of god, double or nothing sngs!

- We still don't have plans for this, but we talk about it every once in a while.

4. my client crashes 1-2 times per 12 hour session. Any way to fix this?

- The client is pretty much brand new, so let me know if things are more stable for you now.

5. Would like to hear more on the bigger rewards plan for your bigger players that you mentioned last month.

- It's still very much in the planning stages. There isn't really anything solid to spill just yet. It's very unlikely anything will happen before the end of the year.

6. i have set the option on ftp to display tables on bet or whatever but the tables dont pop to front like on stars.

- There have been some tweaks to how things like this work in the new software. Give it another go and let me know if it now behaves more like you're wanting it to.

7. Furthermore could you optimize the speed/cpu usage of the client so that one can multitable with a mediocre PC in times of crisis

- Yes! That's one of the major reasons for the new software. Let me know how it goes.

8. Request HH available to all nowww.

- The self-service HH request is still in beta and is probably still a good number of months away from being available to everyone. However, you can write in to support and they will send you all the hands you want.

9. Increase the maximum amount of names the client saves as on your friends list. Right now the limit is 10.

- I'll look into this.

10. Request: I'd like to be able to save hand histories to subdirectories named by game type: holdem, razz, horse, omaha, omaha8, etc.

- I like it. Not a high priority, but I'll ask around and see what it would take.

11. There needs to be an FTP security token MS paint thread.

- My entry:



12. I have messaged on here a couple of times and now I am desperate/confused... I keep seeing all these people getting great response/support from FTP... Yet i have thousands in limbo with FTP and and have NEVER received an email reply. I am emailing from my reg'd email addy so that cant be a problem ... id think?

- If you PM me your email address I can get in touch with the right people who can see if there's something bad happening between your ISP and ours. If you've really never heard back from support I'd be willing to bet good money it's a technical issue and not a lack of response issue.

13. Can FTP implement a similar time limit (for ratholing) of two hours?

- Not at the moment, no. It's fairly hard-coded into the server that the max limit is 30 minutes or 30 hands, whichever comes first. I'm told it would be a good sized project to get that changed. Once most of these very high priority projects are out the door we'll be able to look into things like this. For now, though, there just isn't anything we can easily do, sorry.

14. 'Sit in all', 'sit out all' buttons please, for cash and tourney tables.

- Yep, they're down as projects. It won't be any time soon, but we'll get to it eventually.

15. Some clients let you choose to hide all empty tables...i can't seem to find an option like that for the FTP lobby. Is it there somewhere?

- This isn't something you can do at the moment. However, when ring game filters arrive you'll be able to do something like that.

16. is there any way to disable the auto-rebuy feature for CAP NL games?? The reasoning being that there's no table buy-in cap on those games, and nothing is more aggravating than the FTP rebuy feature topping up your roll on one table with your entire account balance simply because you have the auto-rebuy fuction activated.

- I talked with the developers about this the other day and we came to the conclusion that it was just an oversight putting Cap games in the NL/PL auto top-up preferences. Because they have no max buy-in, they act much more like Limit games when it comes to topping up. We'll make that change as soon as we have the time. Sorry about that.

17. Does FTP have any plans of introducing £ and Euro tables

- Distant plans, maybe. We have more immediate plans to offer different currencies to keep your balance in, though. And by "immediate" I think I mean sometime this year.

18. could you make the ante sound different from the bet/posting blind sound? the sound that I have for betting makes it slow when antes are being posted, so I wanted to use the default sound for antes, and my own custom sound for betting/posting blinds.

- Low priority for sure, but I'll ask around and see what it would take.

19. Deal making at final tables

- Coming!

20. are you ever going to fix the SNG/MTT table bug? Every time im multitabling sngs/mtts and I move tables, my old table will not auto-close, and my new table pops up in a random location, its getting realllly annoying

- The table popping up in a random location should now be fixed. The fact that your old table doesn't close (if it wasn't broken) is intentional (so you can talk smack as you leave) so isn't likely to be fixed.

21. Is it true you guys ban people and take all their money for solely using PTR?

- It all depends on the situation, but it's extremely unlikely we'd ever ban and seize for a first offense of that nature. Speaking of prohibited programs, though, we've updated our Prohibited Programs page. Hopefully people find it easier to understand than the last version.

22. Why do the 27 man turbo SNGs have a 5 minute break after 30 minutes? This is the dumbest thing ever. Remove it, please.

- This was just an error. It's been fixed now, thanks.

23. When I open the client, it always goes to the top left of my screen. Everyday I have to move it over to the top right of my screen, where I want it. Could you make it so that it remembers where I closed the client? Or give it a docking feature?

- That's weird. How are you shutting down? It should definitely remember your lobby position as long as you exit cleanly. Let me know if the new software has the same problem.

24. any chance of 2-7 and badugi being added ever?

- Yes, good chance. Just not any time soon.

25. Not sure how popular this would be but could the $216 PLO tournament on Saturdays be made 6 max rather than full ring?

- We could probably experiment for a while with alternating every week. I'll look into it.

Doug