Kind people of Poker Rakeback please note that this analysis was written by our colleagues over in the UK at Rakeback.co.uk so watch out for tales of afternoon tea and crumpets…

Full tilt rakeback players have no doubt heard about the new multi-entry tournaments at Full Tilt Poker  and will be wondering exactly whether they are a good idea or just another way for Full Tilt to make money out of poor online poker players. At Rakeback.co.uk we thought it was our duty to put our minds to work and come up with some answers.

1. More Attempts at the Biggest Tournaments:

Whilst there are thousands of online poker tournaments at Full Tilt and at other poker sites there are always a few tournaments which we like the best but may only run once or twice a day. Likewise there is only one Sunday Million and only one Sunday Brawl. With multi-entry tournaments you can now enter these same tournaments with more than one chip stack and not have your play ended early with one bad beat.

Verdict: Thumbs Up

2. Negative EV when stacks are merged:

This has been calculated using a fictional pay scheme and fictional chip stacks but if you held the top two chips stacks as a tournament was reduced to the final table you lose out quite significantly using the ICM software.

E.g.

Tournament Pay scale:

1st: 220k
2nd: 140k
3rd: 80k
4th 60k
5th 45k
6th 35k
7th 26k
8th 20k
9th 17k

Pre-Merge your stacks are 1.5m and 900k

Which gives you ICM $Equity of $123,126 and $95,050 which is a total of $218,176

Post merge you would have the payout of 9^th place = $17,000 plus ICM $Equity $156,635

Total Pre Merge = $218,176

Total Post Merge = $173,635

Verdict: Thumbs Down

3. Perfect for MTT Grinders:

These tournaments are indeed now perfect for MTT grinders who can have more than one shot at the big tournaments and can reduce their variance by playing greater volume within the same tournament. It is similar to being able to play four Sunday Millions on the same day. This is of course a problem for those who are not as well rolled and may have to move down stakes as regulars from higher up the food chain move down.

Verdict: Depends who you are

Rakeback.co.uk Verdict:

Whilst the Full Tilt Multi-Entry tournaments may well be negative EV when you reach the closing stages of a tournament and the rake is increased (yet another reason to have a Full Tilt Poker Rakeback deal) the ability to play four Sunday Millions or your personal equivalent at once more than makes up for this. If you regularly (and it has to be very regularly) cash in MTTs then you may find out you are losing some expected value but for this to be a real concern you must be cashing very regularly and thus winning plenty already.

Full Tilt rakeback poker players should enjoy these tournaments and potentially look at moving down a buy in to try them out and discover your own personal optimum number of buy ins. The ability to play four Sunday Millions is frankly too good to miss so for all the complainers: during Double Guarantee Week you will have four shots at the $2m guarantee…