Glitch in Full Tilt's software?

I played in Full Tilt Poker's "Midnight Madness" $10+1 tournament tonight. Within the first few hands, something so peculiar happened that I went back and took screen shots of the hand histories to help document it.

Here's the basic problem: In one hand, I was in the big blind and called a raise from the under-the-gun player to my left. Flop and turn were both checked around. I bet on the river and he folded. But on the next hand, the big blind skipped over that player, as did the small blind on the subsequent hand.

Let me show you. This is Hand #4 of the tournament:



And here is the accompanying hand history (Note: I have edited these to add a sequential hand number at the top for ease of reference, and I have deleted the section containing the hole cards and action, since those are not relevant here):

4.
Full Tilt Poker Game #19933949432: Midnight Madness! (151106863), Table 40 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:02:52 ET - 2010/04/09
Seat 1: bagwisson (1,485)
Seat 2: prizefighter00 (1,455)
Seat 4: riquin (1,455)
Seat 5: feverdog11 (1,470)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (1,500)
Seat 7: Rakewell (1,500)
Seat 8: twackeditlostit (1,500)
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (1,635)
feverdog11 posts the small blind of 15
pinkcinderella posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #4
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 75 Rake 0
Seat 1: bagwisson didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: prizefighter00 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: riquin (button) collected (75), mucked
Seat 5: feverdog11 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Rakewell didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: twackeditlostit didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: BackDraft72 didn't bet (folded)


Next is Hand #5, the one in which I'm in the big blind and won against the UTG raiser:



And the history for Hand #5:

5.
Full Tilt Poker Game #19933963479: Midnight Madness! (151106863), Table 40 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:03:38 ET - 2010/04/09
Seat 1: bagwisson (1,485)
Seat 2: prizefighter00 (1,455)
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog (1,500)
Seat 4: riquin (1,500)
Seat 5: feverdog11 (1,455)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (1,470)
Seat 7: Rakewell (1,500)
Seat 8: twackeditlostit (1,500)
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (1,635)
pinkcinderella posts the small blind of 15
Rakewell posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #5
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 195 Rake 0
Board: [Tc 8h 3h 4d 5d]
Seat 1: bagwisson didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: prizefighter00 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: riquin didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: feverdog11 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Rakewell (big blind) collected (195), mucked
Seat 8: twackeditlostit folded on the River
Seat 9: BackDraft72 didn't bet (folded)

Fine. No problem so far. But here's where it gets weird.


Hand #6:



Now, this part I can't document for you--you'll just have to take my word for it: The guy to my left (twackeditlostit in Seat 8) did not disappear during this hand, though the hand replayer showed the seat as empty. I know this for a certainty, because if he had vanished, I would have simply assumed that as the player who was next to post a big blind, he had been spirited away to balance the tables. It was precisely because he was still sitting there, and still in the hand (or so it appeared; I don't think he did anything but fold, and in retrospect, even that may have been automatic by the software, rather than the player doing it deliberately), that it caught my attention as an anomaly--why did the big blind skip that guy???

Here's the history for Hand #6:

6.
Full Tilt Poker Game #19933983059: Midnight Madness! (151106863), Table 40 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:04:41 ET - 2010/04/09
Seat 1: bagwisson (1,485)
Seat 2: prizefighter00 (1,455)
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog (1,500)
Seat 4: riquin (1,500)
Seat 5: feverdog11 (1,455)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (1,455)
Seat 7: Rakewell (1,605)
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (1,635)
Rakewell posts the small blind of 15
BackDraft72 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #6
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 330 Rake 0
Board: [Kh 5c Qh]
Seat 1: bagwisson didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: prizefighter00 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: riquin folded on the Flop
Seat 5: feverdog11 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Rakewell (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (big blind) collected (330), mucked

Note that it shows Seat 8 to be empty for this hand, consistent with the animated hand replayer. The big blind skipped over him to Seat 9, again as would be expected if he had been moved to another table--except that he wasn't.


Next up is Hand 7:



And the history for Hand #7:

7.
Full Tilt Poker Game #19933996966: Midnight Madness! (151106863), Table 40 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:05:26 ET - 2010/04/09
Seat 1: bagwisson (1,485)
Seat 2: prizefighter00 (1,455)
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog (1,500)
Seat 4: riquin (1,350)
Seat 5: feverdog11 (1,455)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (1,455)
Seat 7: Rakewell (1,575)
Seat 8: twackeditlostit (1,410)
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (1,815)
BackDraft72 posts the small blind of 15
bagwisson posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #7
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,030 Rake 0
Board: [As 4h Qd Qh Ac]
Seat 1: bagwisson (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: prizefighter00 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog showed [Ks Ad] and won (3,030) with a full house, Aces full of Queens
Seat 4: riquin didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: feverdog11 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Rakewell (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: twackeditlostit is sitting out
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (small blind) showed [Qc 8s] and lost with a full house, Queens full of Aces

Now twackeditlostit is back in Seat 8, but "sitting out."


Hand #8:



And the history for Hand #8:

8.
Full Tilt Poker Game #19934013744: Midnight Madness! (151106863), Table 40 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:06:20 ET - 2010/04/09
Seat 1: bagwisson (1,455)
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog (3,030)
Seat 4: riquin (1,350)
Seat 5: feverdog11 (1,455)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella (1,455)
Seat 7: Rakewell (1,575)
Seat 8: twackeditlostit (1,410)
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (315)
bagwisson posts the small blind of 15
grumpy lil frog posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #9
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 735 Rake 0
Board: [Ac 9s Jc 4s Ad]
Seat 1: bagwisson (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: grumpy lil frog (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: riquin folded before the Flop
Seat 5: feverdog11 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: pinkcinderella didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Rakewell folded before the Flop
Seat 8: twackeditlostit showed [Qd Kh] and won (735) with a pair of Aces
Seat 9: BackDraft72 (button) showed [Th 3d] and lost with a pair of Aces

As you can see, twackeditlostit is back in the game and even won the hand--without having paid the blinds for this round. (The button skipped over him, too.)

Below is a summary of the players, seats, button position, blinds, etc., as taken from the hand history. Player name in parenthesis means that the hand history designates him as "sitting out" that hand.



So twackeditlostit plays a hand under the gun, skips the big blind, sits out one hand (the one that would have been his small blind), and then is back, coming in behind the button.

One possibility is that he was whisked away to balance the tables, then, just by freak random chance, whisked back to us to rebalance the tables. However, that would not explain why his avatar remained at the table the whole time, and it's an awfully big coincidence to believe, given the size of this tournament (2082 entrants, so well over 200 tables). Of course, if he were just voluntarily sitting out, the blinds would still hit him.

It's very peculiar, and even after spending all the time it took to prepare this post, I can't figure out any explanation that makes sense--other than a serious glitch in the FTP software.

I am going to send an email to their support team about this anomaly. If they give me any sort of substantive response, I'll post it here as an addendum to this blog entry. In the meantime, if any reader can figure out a scenario under which this set of facts makes sense, I'd be happy to hear about it in the comments.



Incidentally, want to know how I went out of the tournament? Yeah, I thought you would want to hear all about it. Blind versus blind. I flopped top pair top kicker with my A-8 offsuit in the small blind, on a flop of 8-7-7. I bet. Big blind raised all in. I thought he was full of it, so I called. I was right. He had no pair, no draw. I was feeling fine--until he hit runner-runner straight:




That, of course, points to another little glitch in the FTP software: It's RIGGED!