FTTO Ring Games Tab
This tab in FTTO provides options for setting which ring game tables are opened and closed.
Opening ring game tables:
Max Number of Tables to Open
This is the maximum number of tables that FTTO will open. Full Tilt allows you to open a maximum of 16 tables. If you are using the unregistered version of the software, this number will be limited to 3 tables.
FT Lobby
Set this option to the type of poker game tables you want to open (Hold'em, Razz, etc.). This should match the setting of the tab you have selected on the FT Lobby.
Group Settings
There are eight groups (A-H) of tables that can be specified separately. Group A tables have the highest priority and will be opened first, then B, then C. This gives a lot of flexibility to open a variety of tables.
Example 1: You could set FTTO to open eight tables in group A, and eight of a different type in group B. The software will first try to open 8 tables of type A, and then 8 of type B. If you do not check "Allow extra tables" then you will never get more than 8 of either type (even if more tables are available or one type and fewer of the other).
Example 2: It is common at some of the higher stakes that there are not many tables of a particular type. But you might want to get the most of type A, and open some of type B to make a total of 16. If you set A to open 16 tables and B to open 0, AND you check the 3 checkboxes by "Allow extra tables", then the software will try to open as many of A as there are, and if there aren't enough of A then it will open as many of B as it can. Then as more A tables become available, it will close B tables if the software needs to make room for A tables. Setting B to 0 for its Quota means that it won't keep any of B open if there are enough of A. If you set A to 12 and B to 4, then the software will try to keep at least 4 of type B open, even if there are more than 12 of A available in the FT lobby.
Be sure to read the documentation below about the checkboxes concerned with "Allow extra tables" below.
Using the "Enable Group" checkboxes allows you to have multiple configurations. One day you might want to open tables in groups A, B and C and the next day you might want to open tables in F, G, and H. All you have to do is change the settings in these checkboxes.
When opening tables, the software makes two passes at opening tables. First it will try to open the highest priority tables up to the Quota set, then the next highest priority, and so on. On the second pass, it will try to open "Extra" tables in each group, above the quota set (if you have "Allow extra tables" checkbox checked). Additionally, FTTO will try to close tables to try to help full quotas.
Important Note: You should only have one group assigned with the same values in these 4 primary criteria: "Big Blind / #seats / Table Type / Table Options". It is not possible to have 2 groups with these 4 items the same in each group and just change the "average pot size" in the two groups. The software will count the same tables in both groups, and you will not be able to open very many tables. When counting the number of tables open in each group, the software only looks at Big Blind, #seats, Table Type, and Table Options to determine the number of tables in that group.
Setting Criteria for tables to open
- Enable Group: Check this checkbox to enable the group. This allows you to easily select which type of tables you want to open.
- # Tables to Open (Quota): selects how many tables FTTO should try to open in the group. FTTO will try to open this many tables and then move to a lower priority group. If you have the "Allow extra tables" checkbox checked, then FTTO will return to this group on the second pass and try to open extra tables in this group. Setting this box to 0 means that the software will only open some of this type if there are not enough tables to fill the other groups that are active.
- # Seats: selects how many seats there are at the table
- Min # Players: selects the minimum number of players that must be seated before FTTO will open a table. This is very useful to set if you want to find some tables with empty seats.
- Max # Players: selects the maximum number of players that can be seated. If more players are seated than the maximum, FTTO will not open the table.
- Big Blind: selects the amount of the big blind for this group (do not put in a "$"). If you are opening Limit games, then put the Big Bet amount in this box, not the big blind amount.
- Table Type: selects whether the table is a No Limit, Capped No Limit, Pot Limit, Capped No Limit, or Limit game
- Table Options: selects specific attributes about the type of table (deep stack tables).
- Max. Wait Num: sets the maximum number of people waiting to sit at this table. If you are looking to sit down at a table in this group, you might set the value to 0, so that the software won't open tables that have a lot of people on the wait list. Set this value to 50 if you do not care about this setting.
- Min. Avg. Pot: sets the minimum average pot size before FTTO will open a table (set to 0 if you do not care about this setting)
- Min. % Plyrs/Flop: sets the minimum percentage of players that are seeing the flop in order for FTTO to open a table (set to 0 if you do not care about this setting)
- Min. Hands/Hr: sets the minimum number of hands per hour before FTTO will open a table (set to 0 if you do not care about this setting)
- Max. # Short Stacks: sets the maximum number of short stacks that can be at the table in order for FTTO to open that table. If you set it to 0, then FTTO will not open the table if there are any short stack players at the table. If you set it to 2, then FTTO will only open the table if there are 2 or fewer short stack players at the table. Set it to 10, and it will disable this feature (in other words, FTTO will open the table no matter how many short stacks are at the table). On the Misc tab you can define how many big blinds is considered a short stack.
Checkboxes for Opening Tables:
- Allow extra tables to be opened in groups (above Quota): If you check this checkbox, then the software will try to open additional tables in each group, even above and beyond "# of Tables to Open" (but not to exceed "Max Number Tables to Open" for all groups. This is useful if you have multiple groups enabled, and you want to get some tables open in each group, and if there are still more tables available to open you can allow extra tables to be opened.
- Close lower priority tables (that are over quota) if more higher priority tables become available: If you check this option, then FTTO will close lower priority tables (above their quota number) if an additional table in a higher priority group becomes available in the FT lobby. Sometimes new tables open up in a higher priority group, but if you are already maxed out, you can't open another one. But if this is checked, then FTTO will close lower priority tables so that this higher priority table can be opened. FTTO will not close a table in a group if that group has less than its quota.
- Close higher priority tables (that are over quota) if more lower become available (to help reach their quota): If you check this option, then FTTO will close higher priority tables (that are above their Quota value), so that if a lower priority table becomes available (and the lower priority group is below its Quota), it can be opened (in the case where you are already have the maximum number of tables open). This helps you to reach the quota for lower priority tables, should more lower priority tables become available. (whew... that's a mouthful of words ;)
Note: Most users will want to keep the above three checkboxes checked.
Opening Tables
To manually (one time) open a group of tables, click on "Open Tables using Criteria below" and tables will be opened based on the criteria selected. To continuously keep tables open, use the Automatic Opening and closing of tables as described below.
Closing ring game tables
Setting Criteria for tables to close
Tables can be closed based by checking the following checkbox options:
- Close empty tables and tables not in current FT lobby: if checked, FTTO will close tables that are now empty and are no longer listed in the FT lobby. This allows tables to be closed even after FT removes the table from the lobby list, before FTTO has a chance to see that the number of players has dropped to 0.
- Close tables in FT lobby but not part of any active group above: This allows FTTO to close any "stray" tables that may have been left open while you are changing the opening criteria.
- Do not close tables that are visible (i.e. not minimized): Check this option if you want to keep tables from closing that are currently visible on your monitor. This is useful if you are observing a table, and you don't want FTTO to close it.
- Close tables with less than "Min # Players" criteria: if checked, FTTO will close tables that no longer have this minimum number of players seated at the table (as defined in the opening tables criteria)
- Close tables with more than "Max # Players" criteria: if checked, FTTO will close tables that have more players seated then the specified maximum. This is useful to use to close tables that fill up and there are no longer any seats available at the table.
- Close tables not meeting (almost all) main criteria: if checked, FTTO will close tables that do not meet any of your criteria (except Max. Wait Num. and Max. # Short Stacks are two criteria that are ignored).
Irregardless of these settings, FTTO will not close any tables at which you are seated (but your table must be visible on the screen and not covered by other tables or windows).
Closing tables
To manually close tables based on the selected criteria, click on "Close Tables using Criteria below".
To quickly close ALL open tables, click on "Close All Tables".
To continuously open and close tables, use the Automatic Opening and closing of tables as described below.
Automatic Opening and Closing of Tables
For automatic operation, select a timer period (5 or 10 minutes is usually a good choice), and press "Start". Tables will automatically open and close on a regular basis based on the criteria selected.
The number of tables open in each group is displayed at the bottom of this tab.
Minimize/UnMinimize Buttons
Two buttons are available to quickly minimize and unminimize all of your tables at once.
The button "Minimize Tables" may not close a table if it is covered by some other window. Simply bring that table to the forefront and try again.
Miscellaneous Details:
Important configuration details are in the Full Tilt Poker Setup, Poker Tracker Setup, and Observed Hands Setup sections of this documentation.
All of your settings/preferences will be saved when you exit the program.
If you are using your computer for other tasks while FTTO is running, it may be helpful to minimize FTTO, otherwise "focus" will be moved to FTTO occasionally.