The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Tournament Edition

What This Tool Actually Does

The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Tournament Edition is a solver-based poker training tool designed primarily for tournament poker. It uses game theory optimal (GTO) principles to generate strategy recommendations for various tournament situations — preflop ranges, river bluffs, continuation bets, and so on. The software was originally built to work with Full Tilt Poker's player base, but its range charts and decision trees apply to any online tournament environment. I started using it back when Full Tilt was still operating. The interface was clunky. The database hadn't been updated in years. But the GTO ranges it produced were solid enough that I kept going back to them despite the tool's decay. That's where this guide comes in — not because the tool is in good shape today, but because the underlying concepts it teaches are still useful if you know how to use them.

The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Tournament Edition

Download location: The original site is gone since Full Tilt shut down in 2011. You can find archived copies on poker forums, GitHub repositories, and sites like PokerStrategy.com's file archives. Look for "FTPSolution" or "FTPOutput" directories. Be careful downloading from random sources — some bundled unwanted software. I used a copy I had backed up from 2009, and it still runs fine on modern Windows machines with a compatibility patch. The core program is called FTPOutput. It generates preflop and postflop tables based on stack depths, position, and number of opponents. The preflop section is the most complete part. You select your position, your hand, your effective stack size in big blinds, and it outputs a range of hands that are profitably open-raising or calling from that spot. The postflop section exists but is less polished and sometimes crashes on certain board textures.

How to Run It Properly

Don't just click around randomly. The program has a specific workflow. First, load the preflop module. Set your stack depth — this is measured in big blinds. Most tournaments you play will fall somewhere between 25bb and 60bb effective. The tool gives you different outputs at 10bb, 20bb, 40bb, and 100bb increments. If your stack falls between those, interpolate manually or pick the closest one. I've found 20bb and 40bb are where most tournament action happens anyway. Select your position carefully. UTG, MP, CO, BTN, SB, and BB each have different range charts. The difference between middle position and cutoff is smaller than beginners expect, but the difference between UTG and the blinds is massive. UTG open ranges from this tool are tight — roughly top 12% to 15% of hands. That matches what modern solvers like PioSolver output for the same spot. The tool isn't outdated in a meaningful way here. The postflop module works differently. You input the board texture and your range, then it shows you which hands should bet, check, or fold. This is where I hit my first real problem. The tool doesn't handle complex three-way pots well. On a 3-person pot with a wet board like 8s 7s 6h, the output would sometimes show contradictory bet/fold recommendations for the same hand depending on which street you were looking at. I figured out the workaround: only use the postflop module for heads-up situations, or for preflop-only ranges when you're playing against one opponent. The tree structure it uses assumes binary opposition, and it breaks down with three players.

Another issue I ran into: the tool doesn't account for antes. If you're playing a tournament with antes, the correct opening range is slightly wider than what the tool suggests. I added about 3-5% more hands to my opening range across all positions when antes were in play, based on simple EV calculations. It's a small adjustment but it matters at lower stakes where margins are thin.

Common Mistakes People Make

The biggest error I see is treating the output as absolute truth. These are GTO recommendations based on simplified models. They don't account for player tendencies, table dynamics, or ICM pressure. When you're deep in a tournament with a bubble approaching, ICM considerations completely override what GTO suggests. The tool doesn't have an ICM module. You need to adjust manually or switch to a tool like ICMIZER for that phase. A second mistake is over-relying on the preflop charts without understanding why they look the way they do. The tool gives you a list of hands. It doesn't explain the reasoning. If you just memorize the charts without grasping the concept of range advantage and nut advantage, you'll make mistakes when you encounter situations the tool doesn't cover. I learned this the hard way during a cash game session where the ranges looked similar but the postflop dynamics were completely different from tournaments. My blind wins dropped because I was applying tournament logic to a cash game setting. The third mistake is using outdated range data. The Full Tilt strategy was built for a specific era of online poker. Player pools were looser back then. Tightening your ranges slightly from what the tool outputs is often correct for modern games, especially at mid-stakes and above. I'd recommend reducing the tool's suggested bluffing frequency by about 15-20% against recreational players who call too much. Against tighter opponents, stick closer to the tool's numbers.

What This Tool Won't Do For You

It won't teach you to read opponents. It won't help you manage your bankroll. It won't adjust for tilt. None of those things. The tool is purely a range and decision matrix generator. It's a study aid, not a complete solution. If you're looking for something that does everything, you'll be disappointed. I spent about six months trying to make it work for situational adjustments and mostly gave up on the postflop module entirely. The preflop section remains useful though. I still pull from it occasionally when I'm studying new positions or stack depths I'm less comfortable with. The output format is crude — plain text tables with no graphics — but the numbers hold up. Modern solvers confirm the broad strokes match what PioSolver and SimpleNLG produce for the same spots. For a free tool that hasn't been updated in over a decade, it still has value in a specific niche: learning GTO preflop ranges for tournament poker. Don't treat it as gospel. Don't expect it to solve every problem. Use it as one reference among many, and fill in the gaps with current solvers and hand history reviews.