blonde poker forum

So on 2+2 a thread just popped up saying stars just bought full tilt after agreeing a deal with the DOJ.

If this was made up nonsense the post would have been yaken down pronto but According to one of the top mods and many respected posters they are confirming this as true.

No facts as of yet but a press release is expected shortly. Hope this can finally put the saga to rest.

Just wanted to share this news

Ps hope I'm actually allowed to post this as was unsure of rules regarding other sites etc

post is fine Matt.

Will merge it into the Black Friday thread once people have seen it/if it develops

link?!

It's in the news views gossip forum. Can't miss it. I've followed the most of the saga on and off for the last year as have got a lot of $ (for me lol) stuck there. Something just feels like this isn't a windup? I could be wrong but I think this is legit.

Pokerstars staff have all been viewing the thread but not posting which is odd. It's been up like two hours and If there wasn't some truth behind it woulda been instadeleted.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/big-news-pokerstars-purchases-ftp-1197424/

Rumour only, but plenty to think about!

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/big-news-pokerstars-purchases-ftp-1197424/

wow. seems hard to believe there hasn't been rumours of it leaked during negotiations.

If pokerstars pay back all players I would assume it buys a lot of favour with the DOJ. Come-on Stars!

If true, what am i missing as it seems like a pointless move by PS?  They don't need the software, they've just released Zoom to cover Rush, the client list has a massive crossover with their own and the brand is toxic in the poker community now.  If they suddenly paid out all of the players does this give them that much favour with the DOJ that they will be able to trade in the US again?

Eliminate their competition and get first foot in the USA door. Seems win win from stars point of view. Player pov not so good.

The main win for Stars here would be that part of the deal would be Stars and Uncle Sam being cool now, and that whole 'indictment and jail' thing would be forgotten about. Which would mean a toasty life for Stars if internet poker legislation is passed in the US.

The CEO of Chilipoker has tweeted that he says it's a done deal - $750m including player balances and settlement with DOJ.

per AndrewT

Alexandre Dreyfus ‏ @alex_dreyfus


Pokerstars buys FullTilt for a consideration of $750m, including settlement with DOJ and full balances of players (330m). I'm impressed.

In the short term good for those who have money on FT I would assume, long term I agree.  As for the competition, there isn't much.  Party obeying the blackout hasn't exactly helped them and there's not much else out there on a global scale.

Party did as they were told way back when and Uncle Sam isn't exactly their best friend.  PS would want as a secure agreement regarding the 'indictment and jail' thing as they could get to agree to this, this would obviously be a win.  I don't think it'll necessarily help them if internet gaming legislation changes in the US, Uncle Sam's head is easily turned, especially if a domestic, probably casino based, start-up makes a play.

Maybe i missed something in the last week or so, but Tapie, makes a new company called New Full Tilt, is employing people in dublin, and setting up for a relaunch.

How can this now happen?

I don't think everyone was convinced that Tapie was 100% committed to the takeover.  Also anyone can get gazumped before the final contract is signed.

Yea, thats true i suppose.

So his group wouldn't be part of this new deal?

I really don't know what to make of all this.

Hope this is true.

Have no Stars employee's commented on the 2+2 thread? They're fairly active over there aren't they?

Lee Jones and Pokerstars Douglas were both spotted browsing the thread but did not comment.

Surely if it was nonsense they woulda shut down the rumour?

News of a deal like this would only percolate down so far from the top.

Wow, didn't see this coming!

Tom Victor ‏ @egamingreview  Reply  Retweet  Favorite · Open
GBT: "our efforts to obtain final DoJ approval to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success" - more to follow
Retweeted by Kevin Mathers

igaming France ‏ @igamingFrance

Laurent Tapie confirms deal is off for FTP buyout, insinuates external sabotage over DOJ negociations.

I hope I get my 15 full tilt t shirts that I ordered
Plus 4k or what ever it is stuck on tilt

PokerStars has reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice, pokerfuse can reveal. Part of the deal involves the purchase of Full Tilt Poker and full repayment of all players.
...................
http://pokerfuse.com/news/poker-room-news/pokerstars-buys-full-tilt-settles-with-doj/

fair play to them

wow

Just spoke to guy from chilipoker who ran the marrakesh event. He says 100% Alexandre believes this to be true.

(http://www.e4.com/media/4B91932D-372B-40E2-8DA1-0D6A6C00EC26_extra.jpg)

Video footage of final moments of Stars/FTP discussions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_hPp4dgmrc8#t=207s

Lol. Yes but the emphasis is on Alexandre BELIEVES this to be true. They are the top guys at french site chilipoker and would not bull shit

Another twist, if true. Amazing stuff.

Guess it would give them access to the Rush Poker software, which in itself would finance the deal, even though they have the less mature but very good ZOOM already. 

Would this deal get through the monopolies and mergers commission? Probably have no authority and the US government make their own rules up anyway.

This makes sense if it makes PokerStars whole with the DoJ, clears all of their legal issues and paves the way to reenter the US market some time in the future.

Presumably a monopoly type situation in the US and DOJ Deal is on its own worth many times more than $750m to Stars?


The Poker Royalty guy just tweeted this

Brian Balsbaugh ‏ @Balsbaugh

If the $750m "all in" figure is correct, I know of 3 vastly more lucrative offers the FTP Board of Directors passed on last summer

lol that was b4 they had to admit they had f'all money in the bank  ;)

What monopoly?

Last time I checked Tilt had no players and no business.

Well their players are about to get $400m+ back, and talking of running the sites in tandem. Will be in an impregnable position in the largest world market opening up again.

Fantastic news for Stars, if its all as being said


another tweet

Lance Bradley ‏ @Lance_Bradley

1) Number is around $300/million for assets (rest is player balance) 2) DOJ also has no interest in blocking super site

Negraneu and lederer future endorsement buddies???

I don't know (or have any interest) in the other two, but I doubt anyone ever believed that Mr Tapie had the wherewithal. to finance such a deal.  As red herrings go & water-muddyers, though, it was a corker.

I'm referring to FTP having no money in the bank, not potential investors.  GBT was struggling to justify paying about half that amount, so I can't see anyway that someone would have put up more than Stars amount when the books were audited.  Stars obv paying extra to get themselves of the hook with DoJ as well.

GBT Statement just out

    Groupe Bernard Tapie regrets to announce that, after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain final approval of the United States Department of Justice of the agreement to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success.

    Ultimately, the deal failed due to two major issues.

    The parties could not agree on a plan for repayment of ROW players.

    GBT proposed a plan that would have resulted in immediate reinstatement of all ROW player balances, with a right to withdraw those funds over time, based on the size of the player balance and the extent of the player’s playing activity on the re-launched site.  All players would have been permitted complete withdrawal of their balances, regardless of whether they played on the site, by a date certain, and 94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1.  DOJ ultimately insisted on full repayment with right of withdrawal within 90 days for all players– a surprise demand made in the 11th hour, after months of good-faith negotiations by GBT.

    The legal complications surrounding the deal – specifically, questions surrounding the legality of the forfeiture under non-US laws – also proved unresolvable.

    All of the key assets of the FTP companies reside outside of the United States.  A non-US court well might regard the purported forfeiture as a “fraudulent transaction” and declare it invalid or deem the acquirer of the assets responsible for all of those creditor obligations.

    Given the $80 million purchase price, and the substantial amount of cash needed to relaunch FTP, those issues ultimately proved too substantial to overcome.

    GBT is very conscious of the hopes it has created – among FTP employees that they will retain their jobs, among FTP players that they will recover their balances, and among the entire poker community that the world’s finest poker platform will be relaunched and bring a needed added element of competition to a world market that today is fully dominated by a single operator.

    GBT cannot accept the end of those hopes.

    For that reason, unless a concrete and legally viable solution is found in the very coming days to save the employees and repay the players of FTP, we will move to our own plan of action.

    We understand from press reports that the DOJ may have entered into an agreement with PokerStars pursuant to which PokerStars will acquire the FTP assets.
If accurate, we can only assume that PokerStars determined that it was willing to accept these legal and financial risks in order to resolve its own legal situation with DOJ.

If a PokerStars acquisition of FTP means that all FTP players will be fully repaid immediately, we are very happy for the players, as their final and full repayment has always been our priority.

    We only regret that such a deal would signal further consolidation of a poker market already dominated by a single player – an outcome that may raise antitrust concerns and that, in the long run, is probably not good for players and for the whole online poker industry.”

I thought maybe you personally was gonna put up the dough to enable sky to take over.  I saw a photo of Mr  Tapie and thought he did not look like a guy I could trust

This made me smile

Posted by an employee of a Stars competitor about events today

(https://p.twimg.com/ArQ-UmkCQAInzkV.png)

maybe someone should have put a synidcate together using players funds as equity to buy the brand???

mmmm stop me if im wrong hear but was't that what FT was in the first place.... didt that work well

More or less GBT's plan.

We've had a lot of enquiries and there's lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumors. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so.

Eric Hollreiser is Head of Corporate Communications for PokerStars

With full, frank, and complete corporate communications like that, it's like they've been running FullTilt for years.

wow i may as well be french with ideas like that...

guess the problem with that equity of players funds is that they dont actually exist???

pokerstars have to buy that debt but also have to create that fund?

imo if theyre not denying it by now its pretty much fact

exciting times ahead possibly

wow!
what a turn around!

Buy the company, use (or bury) the software, competition threat eliminated for the foreseeable future.

As much as i think it would make sense i still don't believe all this.

I feel like the best chance a "new" or "re-launched" Full Tilt would have of regaining player trust would be with PokerStars behind them.

IDK though been so many twists and turns in this utterly fascinating saga.

Flushy - what you think likelihood of getting your old deal back is with Stars behind this?

This only makes sense if it paves the way for Stars to make a clean reentry to the US market.  They could later sell the FT software to a B&M consortium.

About the same as you landing in Vegas and saying "actually, don't think i fancy it" and getting back on the plane

lolz

Anymore on this? Purple lounge done me with their closure aswell, have to be more careful with how reputable all these dregs sites are.

New article today expecting player reimbursements and announcements at the end of May

http://pokerupdate.com/news/full-tilt-player-reimbursement-scheme-to-be-announced-at-end-of-may/

Think it's just the announcement that's due at the end of May, but that would be a pretty good start.

Ah, the old pre-announcement announcement.

It is in my opinion not a very good thing for poker players to see Stars take over Tilt. I cannot think of any other business situation where the
total domination of a market by one supplier would be allowed in this way ( a referral to the monopolies and mergers commission would defiantly
happen for a UK based company). It is the equivalent of one airline having 80% of the business or one bookmaking company having 80% of
all betting shops. Competition is needed in any market and it is hard to see that happening with regard to on line poker in the near future.
          Having said that stars do deserve credit ( although it has to be said it is obviously self interest rather than philanthropy ) for taking on
the debt and shall we say sanitising the on line poker business. It will be great to see players getting there deposits back ( if this occurs as it appears it
will ) and it will i`m sure give the industry a boost and will be shrewd business if it allows stars back into the American market.
          Although I don`t obviously have clear figures I believe stars lost 1/3rd of its revenue when it lost the American market but it effectively lost
in my opinion 80% of its saleable value as it went from market leader of a reputable business to market leader of in the American DOJ view an illegal business.
          It was rumoured that the recently departed stars chief executive had been recruited to prepare a market floatation ( although from what I am told he had not done this anywhere in the past) and if that was true the loss of the American market effectively blew that out of the water.
However if a new stars/tilt is allowed back into the US then the value of the business would again be stratospheric, licenced and legal. I also noticed party poker`s parent company share price has lost 10% or so in the last few days.
  Interesting times ahead for the business but short term joy for the players in my opinion.
   

I'll worry about monopolies once I have my money back.

                     

                                            fair comment.

I don't see how this could be classed as a monopoly anyway.

They dominate the market but there are other products available to consumers.

In a monopoly situation you usually have a product which consumers require but only have one place to go for it. That results in inferior or over priced products.

Stars are neither inferior or over priced. They are the best and they cost the same as pretty much all the others.

Also there are no significant barriers to entry in the market. Anybody with a chunk of cash could develop some software and do what stars are doing.

It's only if they start patenting things such as 'zoom' that they may face problems.

Besides looking at PokerScout, it seems they probably have more like 55-60% of the cash market, not 80%.

From Doyle brunson:

https://twitter.com/texdolly/status/229315221662072832

Says full tilt players to be paid up in full?

seems like a bit of a wind up

http://diamondflushpoker.com/2012/07/pokerstars-acquires-full-tilt-poker-assets-doj-agreement-complete/

I believe this is a pretty reliable source.

Actual statement from tilt.


    FULL TILT POKER CONCLUDES TRANSACTION WITH POKERSTARS  AND UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
    Agreement Ends Civil Forfeiture Proceedings and Includes Payment For All Players
    Dublin – July 31, 2012 – Full Tilt Poker is very pleased to announce the conclusion of a three-way transaction with PokerStars and the United States Department of Justice which will result in all of FTP’s US players having the opportunity to be paid. The agreement ends the company’s civil forfeiture proceedings with the U.S. Department of Justice.
    Under the terms of the agreement, PokerStars will pay a substantial amount of money to the United States, and the government has agreed that all U.S. players will have an opportunity to request that they be compensated out of those funds for their losses.  In addition, within ninety days PokerStars will make available for immediate cash withdrawal or play, the account balances for all of Full Tilt Poker’s non-U.S. players.
    Full Tilt Poker apologizes to all of its customers who endured a long and difficult period wondering whether this day would ever come.
    Full Tilt Poker expresses its appreciation to its loyal employees whose hard work over the last 15 months preserved the value of the Full Tilt Poker assets so a deal like this could be possible, and to PokerStars and the United States Department of Justice for their efforts in bringing about this resolution.
    Jeff Ifrah of Ifrah Law PLLC,  (Washington, D.C.) Barry Boss and Anne Madonia of Cozen O’Connor (Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, PA respectively),  Tony Coles and Charles Gerada of Jeffrey Green Russell Solicitors (London), and Tony O’Grady of Matheson Ormsby Prentice (Dublin) represented the affiliated companies that owned and operated Full Tilt .

http://diamondflushpoker.com/2012/07/full-tilt-poker-issues-media-release-following-civil-settlement/

Stars statement

ONCHAN, ISLE OF MAN – July 31, 2012 – PokerStars today announced that the Company has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Southern District of New York. As part of the settlement agreement, PokerStars has also acquired the assets of Full Tilt Poker, and has committed to the full reimbursement of Full Tilt Poker customers outside the United States.

The total amount to be paid by PokerStars is USD$547 million which will be payable over a period of three years. The money paid to the US Government will in part be used to reimburse former Full Tilt Poker customers in the United States, through a remission process to be administered by the Department of Justice. PokerStars repaid all amounts owing to its own U.S. customers shortly after it closed its U.S. operations.

PokerStars will also make available in a segregated bank account, all outstanding balances owing to all non-U.S. customers of Full Tilt Poker (an amount totalling USD$184 million), with no restrictions on withdrawals, within 90 days of completing this transaction. PokerStars has remained open for non-U.S. players, with all its licenses in good standing, without interruptions.

Under the agreement with the Department of Justice, PokerStars does not admit to any wrongdoing. Furthermore, the agreement explicitly permits PokerStars to apply to relevant U.S. gaming authorities, under both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker brands, to offer real money online poker when State or Federal governments introduce a framework to regulate such activity.

PokerStars plans to re-launch Full Tilt Poker in most markets as a separate brand, following the appointment of a new, independent management team. Full Tilt Poker’s operations will continue to be run from Dublin, but regulatory oversight will be transferred to the Isle of Man. Further details of these plans will be announced shortly.

“We are delighted we have been able to put this matter behind us, and also secured our ability to operate in the United States of America whenever the regulations allow,” said Mark Scheinberg, Chairman of the Board of PokerStars. “This outcome demonstrates our continuing global leadership of the online poker industry, and our commitment to working with governments and regulators to ensure the highest standards of protection for players.”

“Acquiring certain assets of Full Tilt Poker strengthens PokerStars, brings welcome relief to Full Tilt Poker players who have been waiting over 12 months for repayment of their money, and benefits the entire poker community. Full Tilt Poker’s customers outside the U.S. can soon look forward to accessing their accounts and playing on the re-launched site, confident that they are supported by PokerStars’ history of integrity and our track record of delivering high-quality and secure online poker.”

“The way we have operated our business since the U.S. Department of Justice brought its claim has underlined our credentials as a responsible online poker operator,” Scheinberg continued. “In particular, the prompt repayment of our former US customers in as quick a time frame as possible demonstrated our industry-leading commitment to the segregation of customer funds. We continue to encourage jurisdictions all over the world to introduce sensible online poker regulation.”

source: http://diamondflushpoker.com/2012/07...-for-relaunch/

cliffs

PS now owns FTP.

PS to repay non-US FTP customers $184m within 90 days.

No restriction on withdrawals of that $184m

US customers must apply to DOJ to be repaid.

FTP to re-open soon.

WOW. PS are the nuts.

Nothing in this ... settlement ... shall limit the PS Companies and ... future affiliates from offering real-$$ online poker to ... individuals within the US ... if and when it becomes permissible to do so under relevant law

They're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

"The PS companies are prohibited from employing ... Bitar, Lederer, Furst, Ferguson, Burtnick"

Just in case that was a worry.

Anyone know if the $184million covers the total for ROW players balances, or if it will be a % being paid back?

pretty redic

<3 ftp

In full, with no restrictions on withdrawals.

I am aware, but its still amazing - nobody else would do such a good deal.

Just had this confirmed. As Andrew says.

thanks!

Best.Day.Ever!

Sweet, finally some good news about FTP

Didn't some big name pros have a lot on there? I remember something about haxton offering $600k @ 0.40 to $1... Anyone know if he sold?
Sick return...

Glad the ftp players get their money back, dark days behind hopefully.

i remember durr buying alot of jungleman

Oh my lord is this true? It's like Christmas. How do I get my money? Oh and FU Honey Monster Lederer for the mega sweat.

My guess is it's launched soon after WCOOP completion canny wait :D

Just tried to open fulltilt, it still wont open.

According to Lee Jones, Stars doesnt plan to open FTP in France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Belgium and Estonia

No, it won't. Wait till it reopens.

DOJ statement.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/july12/pokersettlement.html

Yes it is true. From the info I have read, your money will be sitting in your FTP as it was when it shutdown ready for immediate withdrawal.


Patience, it will be up in the next 90 days. They have only just reached an agreement, the process of getting the site back up is going to take time.

=


Patience, it will be up in the next 90 days. They have only just reached an agreement, the process of getting the site back up is going to take time.
[/quote]

far too easy

far too easy
[/quote]

Good one, where i can watch you do stand up?

Maybe you could teach me how to quote posts on forums after the show.

Wow, am I dreaming, amazing news, got to love pokerstars.

Awesome news for all those ft players. Won't be long before stars chuck enough millions at Dtd to make selling it worthwhile to Rob.

will i get my 200 ftp points back?

So how long befor stars sell tilt on and make a bucket load of money back when they become the first big name into the us market

Surprised they don't go and buy Zynga and then offer to migrate the play money customers over to the FTP software.

Playing now:

Pokerstars 118k

Zynga: 230k

I wonder if i will get my 13 t shirts

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

great news, liked FT far more than stars..

Because Zynga has a market cap of $2.2 billion?

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=481720736332929

Sent to an enquiry yesterday....

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

Account security is of the utmost important to us, in our re-launch in approximately 90 days.

Extra security measures will be put in place to authenticate and validate all accounts.

Access to current/previous Full Tilt Poker accounts will only be provided to the owner of the account, as at June 29, 2011.

We will not be responsible for any account ownership changes, changes of detail since this date, nor transfers - and will work extraordinarily hard to ensure we are providing secure mechanisms for account access.

You will be able to cash out your entire balance once we have re-launched, in 90 days after finalising our agreement with the US Department of Justice. We can not provide more information on your FTPs at this time however.

We appreciate your patience in the meantime and endeavour to update all of our players as time goes on.

Please continue to check our FAQ for more information at: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/


Regards,

Simon
Full Tilt Support

Great idea!!! Was kind of hoping the two sites would be completely seperate though. Not looking to play Pokerstars games on Fulltilt Software.

ut oh

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2012/08/01/the-big-question-for-full-tilts-u-s-players-will-they-get-their-poker-winnings-back/

Sounds like journalists being journalists and just stirring it up a bit.

It would be illogical and inconsistent for them to not pay back the US players - but then again it is the American government, so obviously not out of the question

Thing is, whoever gives the green light to pay the customers, will be setting themselves up for attack by the anti-gambling lobbyists.  Re-election nightmare for anyone willing to get involved. 

It also adds steam to the 'legalise it' camp's fight, because they're effectively supporting online poker by paying it back.

Either way, I don't envy them.

PokerStars officially closed their deal with the US DOJ today, FTP will be operational by Nov. 6

 ;yippee;

Full Tilt back on US Presidential election day? wow coincidence?

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/doj-files-second-amended-complaint-alleges-lederer-13385.htm (http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/doj-files-second-amended-complaint-alleges-lederer-13385.htm)

Feel free to move if not in the FTP news thread, couldn't find the thread I was thinking of...

At last the man talks

http://www.pokernews.com/m/news/12421.htm

part 1 - 30 minute interview is going to be up today apparently, will have to remember to watch it, will try and just put the link up here to it when it is released but if someone else can beat me to it, more than welcome.

The Howard Lederer Files: The Beginning of Full Tilt Poker http://ow.ly/dNyTV

No ones bothered about the beginning. It's the ending that stinks :)

Actually just watched part 1 on a link Barry put up on Facebook. Gonna follow the lot now

I thought it was fairly interesting.  The whole thing looks like it has taken a fairly heavy toll on him physically and it could serve as a case study as to why company directors should take their legal responsibilities seriously.

Part 2

http://tinyurl.com/8bkrq54

Blue jeans, black socks and black shoes is such an poor clothing combo. If I had seen this vid before I would never have left money on Tilt. Those jeans look like prison jeans and the shirt is just very boring and doesn't match anything else. I mean it's annoying really how people from USA just throw random clothes about their person and seem totally blind to the car crash result.

:D

I actually think (and have thought for a while) that Lederer prolly wasn't complicate in the illegal stuff at FTP, but that he (being quite a savvy/smart guy) had a pretty decent inkling something suspect was going on but didn't act on those suspicions. I'd like to think the hundreds of thousands of dollars p/m he was making weren't the reason he chose to ignore the concerns but I think we'd all be quite naive to think that didn't play a part.

Chris Ferguson's role in all this is something I'd really like to hear more about, I always felt like he was more innocent than the others BUT HL kinda implying he had a much more hands on role within the company than he did, which is interesting.

id say he took some time and decided what to where before the interview. didnt want to turn up in a designer suit and expensive watch.

Don't he always dress in a similar way to that?

So you're saying you're more inclined to believe he's an incompetent lazy idiot than a dodgy businessman? For someone to be on the board of a company like this and not have a clear view of what is going on is almost criminally incompetent.

I appreciate not everyone follows the biz as closely as I do, but it just doesn't wash for me. Everyone knew how difficult payment processing had got in the US. He knew the business inside out and wouldn't have needed things explaining to him from scratch. He would just need someone to say in simple terms what was happening and he would have got it.

just checked some HSP and he normally is in a suit with a fancy watch.

Board members often only know what they are told - particularly in larger sized businesses.
Financial people, and operating execs can be quite creative, when it comes to business reporting.

I know this. I was a financial journo before getting into online gaming. But if a board member of a PLC missed this kind of thing they would arguably be classed as criminally negligent.

Also this isn't  some huge PLC with a massive board comprised of people from various fields and huge corporate structure. This is a four person board of directors and he was the ex-COO. He knew the business inside out. Hence my point.

Also it wasn't a business as usual situation from late 2006 onwards. It was crisis management in the US. There were huge restrictions on their business and everyone had one eye on the DoJ. The cost of doing business in that market was rising and the risks were getting higher. Any director that simply ignored all this and didn't ask questions was not doing their job to put it mildly.

Bet he isnt wearing blackgreen hublot anymore

Been pretty tilting to watch so far, its certainly no frost/nixon.

Yeah, we snap called his bluff tho. Wearing black shoes and prison jeans to try and pass as some hapless hobo is insulting our intelligence. Look Howard we all know you took our Tilt dollars so have a bit of respect and tidy yourself up for the camera. Decent suit, crisp white shirt, bit of bling, and perhaps facial. If you did nothing wrong those things are allowed.

+1

Given that there is still a civil lawsuit pending against him and with the knowledge that all of this is going to come out anyway when Bitar goes on trial, he has very little incentive to lie in this interview.

anyone on here got a substantial amount on there?

I know haxton is supposed to have mid 6figs.. Best of luck to all the players involved.

Disagree with this. This doesn't remove an incentive at all. Besides, there is a difference between telling the truth and telling the whole truth. Omission can be huge. There are a lot of I don't knows in there. I am NOT accusing him of lying, he may as you say be telling the complete truth. But if he is it seems bizarre and incompetent of him. Better to be a fool than a fraud though.

Lederer is involved in a $443m fraud in USA. He is on the hook for assests totalling $43m which feds have traced to stolen money and Bitar could get life in prison. Also Howard's rep is in tatters and he will be lucky if he can ever enter a casino with any credibility again. In fact he will prob get the odd slap from disgruntled/drunk poker players for the rest of his days. Thus there is massive incentive to lie at every turn and the constant lies will be like machine gun fire. To think there is no lying here is quite cute and innocent.

Part 3 The Backlog and Black Friday

http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/the-lederer-files-the-backlog-and-black-friday-9174.htm


Part 4 The Lederer Files: Black Friday Aftermath, the Search for a Solution

http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/the-lederer-files-black-friday-aftermath-the-search-for-a-so-9182.htm

im not sure
i dont want to speculate
i cant quite recall
im not sure at this point
ill have to think about that
i wouldnt like to guess
it could be i really dont know
i cant say that didnt happen
im not sure if i ever asked that question
i dont recall ever seeing that email, but its possible i did.
i know it was a 9 figure number but i dont know what it was

im not sure he has actually answered 1 question giving details that i didnt already know.

That's pretty much it, he hasn't got anything to tell the poker public.

5 The Lederer Files: The Phil Ivey Lawsuit, Transition 2.0

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/the-lederer-files-the-phil-ivey-lawsuit-transition-2-0-13447.htm

6 The Lederer Files: Outstanding Member Loans, Groupe Bernard Tapie Complications

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/the-lederer-files-outstanding-member-loans-tapie-13449.htm

http://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comments/107f4g/the_lederer_files_30_truth_30_plausible

And also http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=34923832&postcount=1282

Part 7 http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/09/the-lederer-files-pokerstars-saves-the-day-apology-13457.htm


Some insider reaction http://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comments/107f4g/the_lederer_files_30_truth_30_plausible

http://www.billrini.com/2012/09/21/the-lederer-files-parts-5-6-and-7/

Cliffs on the Lederer interview for those that haven't got a spare 3 hours.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkZrFSQkM2M

thanks for this i really cba to create an account to watch the vid :)

they are on youtube.. and they're worth the watch imo

the majority of it is complete bollocks and unbelievable. Can you imagine what the 3 1/2 hours they cut out was like

Watched all of em.  Shockingly bad interviews.  Would love to have seen Frost and Paxman tag-team this one.

The interviewer answered his own questions  a lot, but most annoyingly failed to probe further into the answers, just preferring to "stick to the script" and rarely, if ever, challenging the validity of any of the answers or lack of answers.

It should have been (and hopefullly if 2+2 still get the follow-up gig as anticipated it still will be) focussed far more on the bad business decisions that led to insolvency and far less on the DoJ actions.


YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KHMO14KuJk

"Did you threaten to overrule him?"

"I did not overrule him"

"But did you threaten to overrule him?"


Legendary

I think Paxman (even if briefed on the situation) would have been entertaining but ultimately even more frustrating viewing.

Anyone with a modicum or restraint can bat back those kind of interviewers these days. They are just theatre. Even footballers are sufficiently media trained to deal with them. Or he could simply get up and walk out. He doesn't have to be there remember. How many politicians do you see on newsnight these days? Exactly.

I think the interviewer adopted the correct style for this situation. Respectful, serious and friendly. You want the interviewee to feel comfortable, to trust you and to open up.

But yeah some if not most of the questions were just awful. Rambling, long and closed questions allowing Howard to just say whatever he wanted. And the lack of follow-up was just dreadful. Some huge open goals were missed.

Today, PokerStars sent out a press release in which they stated that:

"PokerStars has been working with regulators in all relevant jurisdictions to ensure that repayment is conducted in strict compliance with local regulatory requirements that ensure the security of player accounts and confirmation of the rightful ownership of those accounts."

The method of repayment/access to Full Tilt Poker depends on your jurisdiction:

All former non-US FTP players: When Full Tilt Poker re-launches during the first week of November, non-US Full Tilt Poker players will have access to their accounts.

France, Spain, Denmark, Estonia, Belgium: Former Full Tilt players will be repaid via their respective PokerStars platform. Players will 'pair' a PokerStars account with their Full Tilt account, allowing them to withdraw or use their balances on the licensed PokerStars site.

Italy: PokerStars is currently working to determine the appropriate process to ensure compliance with local regulations.

USA: the repayment of US players will be through a remission process to be administered by the US Government.

such as?

Such as why did people take/award  dividends when they knew the money wasn't theirs to take?

Not sure of the point of this question.

Yh, I am pretty sure he's told a lot of lies, I just actually do think that he didn't set out on a mission to do this, i think he's guilty of realising it was happening and counting the paychecks instead of stopping it. Chairman of a company doesn't take any interest in the finances? Give me a break Howard lol

doesn't take any interest or fears its too good to be true and doesn't ask the right questions..


It's got to be a lot easier to stick your head in the sand than to fly to Ireland to really work it all out.
obv everyone thinks they're invincible in this instance.

Don't necessarily agree with all the accusations but people are funny and so full of hate...

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMmDp4JGqjI

:)

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PngHldUW-Os

Haha amazing. Lederer Gangnam Style!

Love serious stuff. Took him a while to get that one up tho :)

The 2 plus 2 pokercast with Lederer on is very good

http://pokercast.twoplustwo.com/listen_and_browse.php (http://pokercast.twoplustwo.com/listen_and_browse.php)

Lederer talks for 3 hours with very few I don't knows.  I think it is better than the pokernews ones by some way.

 

The Gus Bus is the new face of FTP, this popped into my inbox an hour ago:

GUS HANSEN WILL RETURN AS THE FACE OF FULL TILT POKER

“The Great Dane” becomes re-launched site’s first brand ambassador

DUBLIN – October 2, 2012 – FullTiltPoker.com today announced that international poker star and tournament legend Gus Hansen will return as brand ambassador for the site, which plans to re-open for real-money poker on November 6, 2012.  

In August, PokerStars obtained the assets of Full Tilt Poker and committed to reimburse Full Tilt Poker customers outside the U.S. whose accounts have been inaccessible since the previous management closed the site in June 2011.
  
Full Tilt Poker will offer real-money poker games and tournaments globally, with the exception of the U.S., France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Estonia and Belgium. Full Tilt Poker’s customers in the rest of the world can soon look forward to accessing their accounts and playing on the re-launched site, confident that they are supported by PokerStars’ history of integrity combined with Full Tilt Poker’s track record of delivering the highest quality online poker experience.  

Hansen, a poker icon and four-time WPT champion, already boasts career tournament earnings of nearly $11.2 million and is widely considered to be one of the best all-around players in the world - whether it be large tournaments, live cash games or online.  As a former Full Tilt Pro, Hansen, 38, is excited to be returning to one of the world’s leading poker brands.

He said: "I’m very excited to represent the industry’s most authentic poker brand. Full Tilt Poker has the best games, most innovative software and the strongest poker community; to me this feels like coming home.”

"Gus is one of the best-known and most respected names in the poker community," said Sarne Lightman, the newly-appointed Head of Marketing at Full Tilt Poker. "Gus has always embodied the best characteristics of the Full Tilt Poker brand and we are thrilled to have him return as an ambassador.”

“Expect plenty more news in the comings weeks,” states Lightman. “More international pros, exciting launch promotions and the return of Full Tilt Poker as the world’s most innovative poker site.”
Players can start playing on Full Tilt Poker from November, 6 2012

http://youtu.be/wN5yifiwJWA

Do pokerstars really want this sort of thing being said?

I was thinking the same thing. Most innovative software is such BS as well, PokerStars was already superior (IMO) and that was before 18 months of tweaks and improvements.

I don't think they plan on trying to help on another.

Just picked up this email from Full Tilt

Full Tilt Poker will re-lauch under new ownership on November 6th, 2012

The Rational Group, which owns and operates Pokerstars, acquired assets of Full Tilt Poker in August 2012 and appointed new senior managment to reopen and operate the site as a seperate brand to Pokerstars, providing the online poker community with another high quality poker platform.

Following re-launch you will have complete access to your account - Including your full balance - and you can once again play on the innovative online platform that made Full Tilt Poker home to serious online poker players.

etc etc etc


Im not completely 100% on all the ins and outs that came with the shut down of FTP, but this is pretty exciting stuff??

Are we to expect the same kind of site as before in terms of software,games,tournaments etc?

I got the same e-mail the other day.

I'm pretty sure the software will be the same and probably a lot of the tourneys but it will be interesting to see what sort of numbers they get.

Can't wait for my old 6.30pm PLO rebuy and for MrFloppy1 to ride again.

There is a FTOPS scheduled for the first week back, is there not?

There is not. It's first two weeks of December.

Arrr just got why LB44 is giving up live poker from nov 6th now.

Yes got same e-mail!!

Access to full tilt account, and the funds! Lovely.

What I have got no email :(

I have no funds.......FML

Oh wait, I seem to remember I had $0.02 left

i heard the email went to accounts with 5k+

Sounds right, I didn't get one and have around 2k (fantasy league money) on there.

I'm 99.9% sure my full tilt account was empty but I just got that email. Sweat?

There's only around $300 in my account still happy to see it again though.

It's a great opinion but not one shared by many. Can't wait for this day so I can start playig online again.

the truth behind the software is pretty fun, guy who designed it is a genius, but nobody e3lse can touch it from what i heard  #keepingyourselfinajob

Same here, got loads of player points but had clkeared out account after BF.

I know about as much about programming as Tikay, but surely that's bollocks.

Mind you I have heard from every executive who has bought poker software that if you don't get the original team you are in trouble though. If you don't have the guy(s) who know how the code works you might as well not bother.

Isle of Man Regulator/Commission talks the FTP license

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/10/iom-gambling-supervision-commission-ceo-steve-brennan-13569.htm

Fame at last.


;)

Let me be the first to welcome you back to posting on threads about full tilt.

Is Tikay now the S.I. Unit of computer knowledge?

"I don't claim to be an expert in this particular piece of software, but I'm probably 2.4 Tikays"

"The second candidate was well presented and certainly fits the brief. My only concern is his aptitude test put him as 0.8 Tikays."

I'm not sure an SI Unit that has a base value of 0 is that useful...

Now now! It's a high enough base value for him to read that!

Oi!

QED

I got the email!! Love FTP software!! Can't wait to get back on there!!

I got the email. 100% have nothing on there and banned afaik.

Is there gonna be problems with people forgetting pass words/ changing bank details/ passing away etc etc.

Pretty inconsiderate of people to pass away before this could get sorted..

:( well you get what I mean. Pretty sure a few people get blinded away every year at the wsop as they pass away between winning a seat and the event taking place. Lots of things could have happened between black friday and 6th nov. Would a spouse be entitled to the dough?

you banned from everywhere Jase? how?

Banned from full tilt as I let someone else ( a good mate ) use my account as he was an illegal and just wanted to play.

Have self excluded from 1 casino before the card room manager banned me. Wish I had held on a bit as he was found out to be skimming only a few weeks later. But that was years ago and is obv up now.

Banned from playing poker in the local Riley's but am allowed in for pool etc. Basically when it first started doing poker 1 or 2 people had been to hull and told em £10 rebuys were the way to go on. First week was all fine and dandy as I went out early so just ended up playing pool for money. Then the trouble started when I made 12 final tables on the bounce and it was starting to piss people off. I was sat on the 12th final in 12 weeks  and and the prizepool was usually about £1200-1400 and I was averaging about £200 a week from it.
I moved all in for 7000 and get 1 caller for 6000. Naturally I take 1k back and as they are dealing he flop one joker shouts out "wait a minute that ***** cheating. One minute he is all in and the next minute he has got an extra 1k from somewhere". I was used to handling these situations as I in previous weeks I have had to explain other technicalities in the game such as a straight does not beat a flush and its defo not a split pot if two guys have a flush. Some big meathead who I did not know then started saying poker was all luck. My mates were pissing themselves at the sticky predicament I was now in and I could see it was about to kick off. The final nail in the coffin was when of my mates looked me straight in the face, winks and shouts "that Herbert is a cheating *****, when do you ever see him with bad cards." That was it "yeah he always plays good cards. I bet he pays the dealers". At this the meathead turns the table over and come straight for me. Luckily one of the local nut jobs ironed him out with one punch and it all died down. After that the management asked me not to play again.

Oh just realised I have a life ban from a snooker club in Scunny ( the one Ulliot writes about in his book ) when my mate bought it and at the official opening 6 days later he had managed to get all his first weeks takings into a pot playing 3 card brag. I never even won the hand but coz I could not stop myself laughing at the grief his wife was giving him he took it all out on me :)

http://www.highstakesdb.com/3368-isildur1-and-durrrr-sign-with-full-tilt.aspx

I love your story's Jase

Good story jase we all started there ,luckily we have a good bunch of lads in our games
Love the good cards pays the dealers bit tho
One of the managers of a branch of Riley's then said " I never play aces as they always get cracked " wtf ? I thought ,but every time she got em they did bless her

I am turning into one of those old boys that I used to love listening to when I first started playing. Heard so many stories of pubs/ betting shops/ homes changing hands over gambling. Been told off a couple of times for mentioning names on here and had to delete posts quickly :)

Have you heard aabout the chinese guy in Beverly ????






Pls tell more stories

i only know of the Chinese kids who frequent the hull casinos 7 nights a week. They all live up and off Beverley road and were a decent close knit group of guys. Sadly living in each others pockets they slowly started to fall out and gone there seperate ways. Billy, Jimmy, Frankie all went back to china these passed 12 months. Kim, Cam n Pan still will be in there most nights. Intrigued to know what went on with the Chinese guy in Beverly so will find out.

It's quite amazing that you can walk into most Casinos and see the same faces that frequented the establishment 5/ 10 years ago. Don't matter if its hull Leeds Bradford Manchester or Liverpool you will find the same hand full of people.

Shit got serious

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/content/Full-Tilt-Poker-De-Tracks-All-PokerStrategy.com-Players_65378/

why should new owners be liable for the (over generous?) arrangements of the old crew?

Not good for those currently tracked, but it can't be a surprise can it?

Hadn't they already said rakeback deals no longer going to be used on "new FTP" anyway?

PS gave a free $50 bankroll to members on full tilt, there are over 485,000 members on full tilt tracked.. Added liquidity gone?

The possibility of a monoploy is v v scary, zynga+party wan time?

It's an offshore industry, largely unregulated. That market share and market dominance would come under anti-trust legislation in the majority of worldwide industries, but obviously not here

Of course they are going to exploit that, and the margin boost from ending historic arrangements is going to be substantial. They might lose some volume, but I would imagine most serious players will play on there tracked or not.

can you explain a bit more please? Ty

Full Tilt aren't paying rake back any more.

They are using a Stars style system.

plus deleting all relations with affiliates that initially brought them their player pool and liquidity, some of whom even gave their players a 50$ bankroll and spent time/effort into developing a poker school to turn these guys into winning players thus raking more money from the initial deposit (which they paid for)

38 comments may not seem alot but when you look at

germany..

http://de.pokerstrategy.com/news/content/Full-Tilt-Poker-enttrackt-alle-PokerStrategy.com-Spieler_65378/

russia

262

http://ru.pokerstrategy.com/news/content/Full-Tilt-Poker-%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8F%D0%B5%D1%82-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B2%D1%8F%D0%B7%D0%BA%D1%83-%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%85-%D0%B8%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2-PokerStrategy.com_65378/

and 19 other languages there is going to be a lot of hostility from the members always 30% of the comments seem to be fear from players about a possible monopoly effect. This is just from 1 affiliate, between all affiliates they brought in 10m++ of traffic a month building business models that they believed would work around lifetime revenue shares and now they don't get paid.

In PokerStrategy.com's instance they are even owed money from last year (over 1m) but didn't say 1 single word in the negotiation phase of stars/tilt as they didn't want to harm any potential deal as they realised the pain their members went through, after the takeover the funds are no longer being paid to PokerStrategy.com and they are currently putting a case against full tilt.

looking forward to seeing Negreanus weekly rant on the potential monopolization of the online poker world.

Pokerstars didn't take over Full Tilt, they bought the assets of Full Tilt.  The company pokerstrategy dealt with is busto.  

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/

As part of its agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), PokerStars has obtained the assets of Full Tilt Poker, and will use these assets to re-launch the Full Tilt Poker site. PokerStars has also committed to the full reimbursement of funds owed to Full Tilt Poker customers outside the United States by November the 6th. United States Full Tilt Poker players will be reimbursed through a remission process conducted by the U.S. government.

Good luck with the legal case.

Got email regarding my points and any rakeback due, can anyone remember approx value of points ? i.e how much a $200 tourny ticket would cost in ftp points ?

Can't find any details. Only thing I know is that if you had tournament tickets they have been converted to $

I don't want to get into a row about the specific case between you and Full Tilt, but this comment is naive at best.

These players clearly had a lifetime value > $50 and the decision to give them a starting bankroll was a simple financial one based on getting affiliate revenue >$50 from that player in the future. Poker Strategy were not the first to do this and they won't be the last. They just did it best.

I get this really sucks for a lot of the companies involved but I'm pretty happy to see affiliates taken out of this. I got screwed out of rakeback a bunch of times (usually on the weeks when I raked the most). Had this annoying string of emails between FTP, my affiliate (Life of Sports) and myself with FTP telling me there was no money in the affiliate account to pay me from and my affiliate claiming it was FTP that were supposed to pay me from the affiliate account and that they had no access to it to withdraw the funds before I could get paid. Either way someone stole 4 figures in rakeback from me before I eventually quit and moved to stars

My Stars cashier now has an option to transfer to Full Tilt.

If I had an email, I have deleted it by accident.  Is there a way to get it again?

Mine was in spam fwiw

Okay, advice for a hypothetical situation please.

Played A had a Full Tilt account, but because of the way he signed up in 2006 or whenever, he could not get 27% rakeback when he discovered what this even was. So in 2009, Player A's Dad, who doesn't know how to play poker, decides to sign up for an account complete with 27% rakeback. On his original account Player A has barely played, but his Dad (despite his lack of knowledge of poker), manages to do quite well at and has a decent amount of winnings.

Now that rakeback is irrelevant, should Player A use his original account, and his Dad retire from playing poker, or should he inform Full Tilt that his father might not be quite as good as his stats suggest, and perhaps suggest the accounts are merged and use the more well known username?

Player A doesn't want to risk getting any kind of ban from either Full Tilt or PokerStars obv.

(fwiw, there is no multi-accounting shenanigans or anything like that).

Hypothetical my arse. Your dad's just better than you

Yeah mine would have been too, I just get so much of it I auto empty it.

Why would anyone expect Stars (who've never done rakeback) to support rakeback at FT when it re-opens?  Naive, at best, to expect this.

Like everyone else, I'm sure the members will be relieved at getting funds back that they'd probably written off long ago.  That's more than they'll ever get in a normal insolvency situation, and it sounds like they all got a free $50 out of the deal in the first place.  Not much room for 'hostility' as far as I can see.

Whatever liability existed against the old Full Tilt operation will remain as a claim against the old company, for which there'll be zero return.  Expecting to get anything from the new entity, which didn't take on the old liabilities, is a waste of time.

It's not the first time people have lost a rakeback deal from a site, and this is a much more understandable situation than when Party unilaterally fucked their player base over by withdrawing rakeback and then hunted down the affiliates who tried to continue to honour it.  People live with Stars not doing direct rakeback, and they'll get used to whatever reward scheme StarsTilt come up with from now on.

Ok it's a little difficult to explain but it's not just the rakeback that is the problem it's the fact that the members will also not ev able o recover strategy points. If stars did something similar there, again, would be hell on.

When party stopped rakeback deals try didn't stop payibg the affiliates they just paid the players in a different way.

Anyway watch this space..

That sounds a little like Party wiping out the loyalty points that players earned (which they've done to me on at least two occasions), so again, no worse that what other sites have done of their own volition.  At least this situation has arisen due to a company going bust.

My general point is that, when there's an insolvency situation, it's inevitable that there will be creditors who lose out.  In this case, it seems to me that the players are extremely fortunate to be getting their funds back from a 3rd party takeover, which is a remarkable occurrence.  This feels like the affiliates, who will have lost out on outstanding monies owed only (there was no future income stream coming from the old company, so they're not losing anything by there not being one from the new one), trying to further their agendas by depicting this as a player issue.  I'm certainly not feeling any hostility towards Stars for re-opening Tilt (quite the opposite, actually) and I suspect my views are shared by the majority of the player base who are looking forward to seeing their seized funds again.

Oi oi!

"FullTiltPoker.com is coming soon. Please return on Wednesday, October 31st to download the software."

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/download-maintenance

Just fired up Full Tilt and it updated and started,thats 0.68p I didn't know I had.

SEND ME MY PASSWORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this. why taking so long?

It let me login with my old password and then instructed me to change it.

sigh forgot my pin

I saw the cash tables were active and busy.  Took me a few minutes to realise it was only for play money, lol.

Fantastic, I have my poker roll back :)  Happy days.

Wiiiiiiiiiii it's nice to see my old $342 :)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

$1.97

8607 ftps

9 step 2 tickets!!!

What a happy day :D

Only showing 1159 players online. Slow start......

No real money tables. Explains that one :)

Thought this was worth a cross post from 2+2...

Hi all,

The game software is available for download/update. You can now log in and play for play money. There are additional security checks in place for the first time you log in, so please read everything carefully as you go through the process. You'll also have to accept our new Terms and Conditions before fully logging in. If you encounter any issues that can't be handled automatically (resetting a forgotten password is an automated process as long as you still have your registered email address, for example) you can contact support and they will help get you up and running in time for the 6th.

In the meantime, the next few days are more of a beta test than anything. We'd love it if you would log on and play (even if you hate play money) to make sure everything is running smoothly before the real money re-launch. Try the new features (listed below) and try to break something. Don't be surprised if we need to issue multiple updates or even take the game down again before the 6th. We want the 6th itself (and beyond) to be as smooth as possible.

Important note for players with .FR accounts: You'll be logging in (with your .fr account details) to the .com client, and the cashier in the .com client only displays USD amounts. So even though you'll see "$0" as your account balance, your Euro account is still intact and will be fully available to be credited to PokerStars.FR.

Details of the Deal Me In promotion are now available on the website here:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/promotions/deal-me-in (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/promotions/deal-me-in)

Details of Edge (the new rewards program) are also available here:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/edge (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/edge)

Here's the fairly long list of new things you'll see when you start playing again:

A. Account Pairing With PokerStars: The pairing process starts over on PokerStars and complete on Full Tilt Poker. Look for the "Pair PokerStars Account…" option under the "Account" menu to be available in the coming days. More information about this feature can be found here:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/faq/account-pairing-and-transfers (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/faq/account-pairing-and-transfers)

The "Transfer to PokerStars" button is also now in the cashier, but the functionality won't be available until re-launch on November 6th.

B. Double and Triple Chance Tournaments: A new tournament type based on the WSOP multi-chance events. You can take your extra chance(s) at any time up to the end of the designated level (at which time you will be forced to take the extra chips). You can read more about this tournament type here:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker/tournaments/double-triple-chance (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker/tournaments/double-triple-chance)

C. "+ Table": At all ring games and SNGs you will see a new button below the "Layout" button in the top right corner called "+ Table". When you click it you will open up another table or SNG that "matches" the one you're currently playing. There is also a hotkey (Ctrl-Shift-A) to get up to the number of tables you want to be playing even faster.

D. "Add Table": At all heads-up ring games and SNGs you will see a new checkbox (bottom left of the Classic table, bottom middle of the Racetrack table) called "Add Table". If both players check this, a new heads-up table or SNG will start up with both players on it. This makes for easier multi-tabling against the same opponent without the possibility of another player getting in the way (some third player signing up for the SNG before the second player can register, for example).

E. Auto Post on All Tables: All ring game tables have been changed to behave more like speed tables, where everyone has auto-post on and is put into "Wait for BB" mode right when they sit down. This should speed up the game slightly for everyone.

F. Ring Game Auto Buy-in Options: Under Options->Table Options->Buy-In Preferences there is now a new "Activate One Click Buy-In for Ring Games" checkbox that, when set, will allow you to skip the ring game Buy-In dialog and automatically buy in to a table for your Default Buy-in (found in the same Buy-In Preferences dialog). If you don't want to buy in for that amount, you can right click instead of left click (on the seat itself) and you will get the standard buy-in dialog. Note that if you have a usable Ring Game Ticket, you need to use the standard Buy-In dialog even if you have this option enabled.

G. Preferred Seat Selection: If you prefer a default seat placement other than bottom center, you can now select it under Options->Table Options->Preferred Seat. You can pick a different seat for each table size (heads-up, 6-max, 8 handed, and 9 handed).

H. Rush Poker: Short-Handed Play Improvements: Rush ring games now play faster when short-handed. Instead of always having a full 9-handed table when there are only, say, 10 active players, it will now behave like a Rush Poker Tournament where the tables themselves will be short-handed. This will keep the wait time between hands shorter.

I. Rush Ring Games: Sit Out Next BB: The Sit Out Next BB checkbox is now available in Rush Ring Games.

J. New Advanced Filter Options: You can now filter on the number of starting players in a SNG (so you don't get 4-man Heads-Up SNGs cluttering up your Heads-Up SNG filter, for example). You can also filter scheduled tournaments based on start time (so you can only show tournaments starting between 8pm and 11pm, for example). There is also a new "Select All" and "Select None" option to quickly check or uncheck all filter options.

K. Last Hand History Improvement: You can now delete hands/tables/tournaments from your replayer. You can even do it in bulk (multi-selecting them).

L. Color Code Players Change: It's even easier to give a player a note color when you right-click now. Instead of all of the colors being in a sub-menu, they're right there ready to select.

M. Prize Won Now in "Chips" Column in Tournament Lobby: If a player busts from a tournament in the money, the amount they won now appears in the Chips column of the tournament lobby instead of just saying "Finished." This number also accurately reflects any deal made (denoted with an asterisk).

N. All-in Advance Action: By player request, and it only exists in Super Turbo SNGs (if it's popular we can extend it to scheduled Super Turbo tournaments as well). Use wisely.

O. Absent Heads-Up Tournament Players: If a heads-up shootout tournament is down to only players who are sitting out, those matches will be forced to end so the rest of the tournament can proceed. The players have to be sitting out a reasonable number of hands before this happens, so it should only ever happen in rare cases, but no longer will everyone else in the tournament have to wait over an hour for someone to blind out before continuing the tournament.

P. Rush Lobby Style Searching for all Tournaments: The nice search box at the top of the player list in the Rush Lobby has been extended to all tournament lobbies. So you can quickly search on a name and have that be the only name in the list.

Q. Check/Fold Modification: If you have the Check/Fold advance action checkbox selected and it's checked to you, it used to be that if someone then bet after you (in the same betting round) that you would be forced to act again. Given that it's extremely likely you still want to check/fold, that checkbox is now persistent for the entire betting round. You will still have the opportunity to uncheck the box if you decide you no longer want to fold after the action passes you.

R. Pot Size in Hand Histories: Hand History files have been updated to include the pot size at the start of each betting round.

S. Find Player Improvements for Multi-Entry Tournaments: Instead of highlighting the entry at random (including the possibility of a busted entry), when you find a player with multiple entries in a tournament you will now highlight the entry with the most chips.

T. FTP Odometer Improvement: Last, and certainly least, we found room for an additional digit on the counter!

Some of the bigger items above have more details on the New Features page on the website here:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker/software/new-features (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker/software/new-features)

Some previous questions from the NVG re-launch thread:

1. Will the Inter-site Transfer feature count towards the destination site's first time deposit bonus?

- Yes, as long as it is actually your first deposit. If you are going from FTP->PokerStars, you'll need to write to their support to activate your bonus. PokerStars->FTP will be automatic.

2. Will $500/$1k ring games be available?

- Not at launch, no. If demand is there we'd likely add it, but for now the highest stakes NL/PL tables will be $400/$800 deep with antes. Which still plays pretty big!

3. I was an American when Black Friday happened. I'm heading back to Mexico for FTOPS and I would like to know how early should I go down to Mexico in order to be reinstated before FTOPS?

- The sooner the better. Every case is unique so I don't want to give any real time estimate here. In your case, I would say as long as you provide the required proof of your residence in Mexico, and all of your documents are in perfect order, I'd be surprised if the process took more than a week.

4. Will the bonuses in the store be the same as before?

- Yes, although many more players will have access to them. And they'll be cheaper while the Deal Me In Store Sale is happening.

5. I loved the "I busted a Pro at Full Tilt Poker" T-shirts. Will I still get my 2 shirts I won before the site closed?

- Not anytime soon, but we will give something to anyone who was due a shirt. Either once we start getting physical gear again or we decide to do something else (like some sort of in-game prize).

6. When are hotkeys coming to FTP?

- There are no immediate plans for hotkeys. It may happen eventually, though.

7. Will you be using RSA tokens instead?

- We're definitely sticking with our old hardware tokens for re-launch for any players that already have it. They won't be in the store at re-launch (the store will be virtual goods only), and we have no current plans to go with RSA if/when we start stocking hardware tokens in the store again.

8. Will the mobile digipass apps still be functional?

- Yes.

9. I had 3 Main Event Race Final tickets, as well as 1 Iron Man Freeroll ticket when the site went down...what happens with those?

- The Iron Man Freeroll ticket would have been converted to medals (and then those medals were converted to FTPs). The Main Event Race tickets had no cash value, so nothing was done with those. However, if we ever bring a promo like that back, we'll make sure to do something for anyone who had those tickets and weren't able to use them.

10. Will the 90man KO SNGs be returning?

- Yep, although we'll be monitoring their traffic closely and make changes as needed depending on their popularity when we return.

$5.82

54k ftp points

2 x step 2 tickets  :)

Sigh, security pin on account, sure can remember it, more waiting

tried to download it again and my antivirus wont let me...$26 just sitting there waiting to be played  ;nemesis;

$0.62 5k ftp points

I got asked for card number, sure got the same card.

4 attempts to download it now by someone who really is clueless on a pc other than internet, email and clicking buttons as directed....i could feel the rage building up already...think i will wait for one of the kids to do it for me.

i hope i get my 14 t shirts that i have ordered

Just remembered reading they will credit you the points/$value back

I cancelled my account many moons ago.

Ideas for a new name?

Just downloaded software. Hoofhearted ready for action after November 6th :)

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

17c and a step2 ticket lol

A lot of the links aren't working yet, but the one that does work is the link to the new loyalty scheme.

Haven't had time to read the info yet, but what's the early feedback? (I assume there's a 200 page thread on 2+2 by now!)

Anyone had chance to look into it?

Loyalty scheme goes up to 25% rakeback at top level, and that's not onerous to get to (rake $1k in 30 days or $2.5k over 100 days).

very exciting, everyone on the play money!

shit4nits

ok...my norton antivirus wont let me download the fulltilt software...in easy to understand language can anyone help.

$26 is depending on it!!!

i remembered my pin & password so logged straight in... :)

$50.14
Only had to change password on 1st log in, otherwise no probs

Switch it off.

Oh my lord. Happy Xmas everyone.

I have over 3k missing.

lol you would :)

I won a seat tO a live event in malaga. AccOmodation etc comp was obviously cancelled and I assumed I'd get the mOney as the ticket was in the cashier on doomsday.

Emailed yesterday but receivied nothing back. Fingers crossed.

Confirmed busto account  :D

I had done the same but did it on the .fr account so probably in a tougher spot, was a 1800 euros package on there.

Surely spraggs will post again sometime soon...

YES

T shirts? Sick so sick.

Pads, Barry has just put up on Facebook a link to pokerstategy saying the loyalty scheme is far worse for players now and saw you posted "watch this space" a while back to do with them not entertaining affiliates. Most people seem to be positive about the return of full tilt  but not pokerstategy or their employees. Your company seems to be doing really well, lots of good advertising especially the wsop stuff and some brilliant articles/pieces from top guys so do they really need the revenue from full tilt. They seem to have done well without  since Black Friday.

no t shirts got 28k worth of points but got a chunk back which is nice

wiiiii. Start a diary. "Ho gets a roll. How long will it last?" :)

.

till i the croupier spins 1 or 6>?

just busted my play money account :(

anyone think that the software seems abit sluggish

got my fulltilt.fr monies back just to let you guys know, they freed that up today. 1850 euros i thought i would never see again! Ye boyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Stick the lot on Palace to be promoted, 8/1, can't lose......

Haha. Already have £200 on it and for anyone that is redic for an 11/1 shot! Super, super Ian Holloway!

Not so great now Freedman has moved on mind. Top manager wish him all the best.

+1 sighballs

doesnt work dfasyuigfuybtdsauyfrubasuYARXUY1RFNUYIQTWY¬!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$0 in my account but I have 300 or so points! Wiii

Posted yesterday:

Full Tilt Poker ‏@FullTiltPoker
Our first Deal Me In Freeroll is at 08.05 ET tomorrow, so our real money launch shouldn't be later than that. #FullTiltPoker

Excited for the classic 90 man KO's!

9 cents and 63 FTP..............confirmed depressed!

Is that on twitter ? I don't have a twitter account:(

Not much cash but 145,00 FT points.  From what I can see best value for these is to buy tourney tickets, anyone have any thoughts on this?

yep, you need to get on board!

Dunno why, but had forgotten about Black Card.. guess I got grandfathered in...

(http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x316/SimonG_03/FTP.jpg)

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii just played and lost in 2 rush $4 events and linked account to pokerstars

Lookin to buy law sums of ft money. Holla of you have 500
+ and want to get rid.

that is exactly what i just did.

translation please

Pretty tilting for some reason it saying unable to process visa deposit and transfer from stars was done an hour ago and still nothing through.

it let me create a new password then wont let me log in tttttttttttttttttttttttillllltttttttttttttttttttttttt

Moaned it in , transfers working insaide 2 hours still pretty decent i guess.

got a $500 bonus which is good, but the rest of the rewards package is desperate.  The old FTP package gave you a decent amount back without a huge amount of play.  This is a really bad deal if you don't play much and a bad deal if you play a lot.  So I'm just going to clear the bonus and go.

thge 90s seem dead its the rush turbos prob the way to go

Wiiiiiiiiii my PLO tourney is back on at 6.30pm and it's even got a $2500 gte.

 ;yippee; ;woohoo; ;yippee;

Do they have the daily double tourneys again?

It's almost as though they were never away, 150 players in my tourney, 100 left after the rebuys.

I'm currently 20/100 and the prizepool is $4500+ with $1200 up top.

go on Ralph.

Good luck Ralph, keep us informed, will try and rail you when you Final.

5/47 at this break :)

PS Has anyone seen RobertHM's old password as he can't find it?

Poor session there for both myself and my beloved gooners :(

Still alive though 14/25 with 15 getting paid, I would so love to win this opening event..

Go Ralph

Still grinding 7/13 after a session the old yo-yo himself would be proud of.

ITM

Oh Full Tilt how I've missed you. <3

Also gogo Mrfloppy1!

Great stuff Ralph.

Floodlit final 6/9 :)

gd luck sir

go Ralph, gl mate.

2/6 now but the top four stacks are almost even.

Hanging in there..

Get it won!

Going to try and pull a Karabiner now, 6/99 in the 15k, self boking ftw.

Boo got mullered heads-up, still $800 is a better return than I've managed for a while :)

<3 FTP

A triumphant return, congrats Ralph

This! Well done.

Grats Karabiner!

itm 29/43 now, got 99 in vs 18bb kings co vs sb, grinding a 20bb bowl to try win $7.5k. Time to take off!

Doubled, then got it in for the world 99<A7s, nevermind. Good luck all!

Congratulations Methuselah!


(http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/tikay2/Ralph27.jpg)

Congrats Ralph, good start to the diary :)

Should get you a ticket to the New Library and a half time pie.

Well done, sir.

(http://imageshack.us/a/img266/9804/clipboard01gf.jpg)

Oh FTP support, it's like you've never been away

And yes I know I botched the email blanking out bit, its on my profile anyway.

pua = pick-up artist?

congrats ppl should start pronouncing your name "rafe"  like that racehorse trainer!

I found out that I've got 50 days as a diamond vip, so thats 65% rakeback plus points till the bonus clears so maybe not so bad afterall.

Not sure how you got 65%?

Looks to me like its more like 30% but if I'm wrong, great!  How do I get 65% out of it?  $2.50 per 100 ftps + buying bonuses/tickets (and I'm adding a zero value to freerolls as I cba to play them)

the bonus is worth 40% - ($20 for $50 raked) plus rakeback at 25%?

(was just referring to the initial period with the bonus)

Its good to be back, i love the matrix SnG's.

Full Tilt Poker jumps back into second place on launch day

http://www.PokerScout.com

Apologies if this has been mentioned, but im not being allowed to transfer funds from Stars to FTP. All names and addresses are are the same on both sites and I have passed security tests before. emailed both stars and tilt support with no reply yet.

Was just wondering if anyone else had similar issues?

You have to pair the account through stars cashier I think

It's really simple to pair the accounts, just click on transfer to Stars and it tells you how to do it.

See the Full Tilt adverts are back on tv again, anyone else think it's a pretty bad idea that it mentions the fact it's back, most new customers won't no anything about what happened but will question that now, or just me ?

yep i did all that at the beginning. got a reply from ftp saying to try again

1/11
in a 26$ rush turbo 6 max


GOGOGO

Gogogo da Ho  ;cheerleader;

ty playing like a turd

Full Tilt Poker Game #31349128690: Turbo $8K Guarantee (Rush) (243602121), Table 7 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:43:46 WET - 2012/11/08 [18:43:46 ET - 2012/11/08]
Seat 1: notorious p (170,301)
Seat 2: malganus (264,839)
Seat 3: nador82 (124,440)
Seat 4: Don_Pokee (333,136)
Seat 5: Fredinho1337 (320,848)
Seat 6: Persian-out (394,436)
notorious p antes 1,000
malganus antes 1,000
nador82 antes 1,000
Don_Pokee antes 1,000
Fredinho1337 antes 1,000
Persian-out antes 1,000
Don_Pokee posts the small blind of 5,000
Fredinho1337 posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to notorious p [Ks Kc]
Persian-out folds
notorious p raises to 20,000
malganus folds
nador82 has 15 seconds left to act
nador82 folds
Don_Pokee folds
Fredinho1337 calls 10,000
*** FLOP *** [4h 6s Tc] (Total Pot: 51,000, 2 Players)
Fredinho1337 checks
notorious p bets 15,300
Fredinho1337 has 15 seconds left to act
Fredinho1337 raises to 299,848, and is all in
notorious p calls 134,001, and is all in
Fredinho1337 shows [8d Ac]
notorious p shows [Ks Kc]
Uncalled bet of 150,547 returned to Fredinho1337
*** TURN *** [4h 6s Tc] [Qc] (Total Pot: 349,602, 2 Players, 1 All-In)
*** RIVER *** [4h 6s Tc Qc] [As] (Total Pot: 349,602, 2 Players, 1 All-In)
Fredinho1337 shows a pair of Aces
notorious p shows a pair of Kings
Fredinho1337 wins the pot (349,602) with a pair of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 349,602 | Rake 0
Board: [4h 6s Tc Qc As]
Seat 1: notorious p showed [Ks Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: malganus folded before the Flop
Seat 3: nador82 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Don_Pokee (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Fredinho1337 (big blind) showed [8d Ac] and won (349,602) with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: Persian-out folded before the Flop

Rigged.

Ul mate but a great run wp.  Out in 6th or was there still 11 left?

out 6th
only 470
2.8 for first :'(

you will be one if the few profitable players since the launch tho. Email them about sponsorship ;)

im gonna apply now since kelly kim has left. my slot is available!

chip leader in a 4$ tourney 3 figs for first!

Are you just playing the Rush tournaments? If so how many tables do you play at one time?

i reg for a schedule of normal tourneys and top up with rush ones. when i get bored.

Once i get sucked out I unregg everything

normally play around 9 tables

FTOPS XXI schedule:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/promotions/ftops/schedule-results

1k Multi entry 1 day comp. God I missed you

Only 2 entries allowed :(

ME sure is a good thing for the games in general [ ]


Cant believe that with Stars in control they are keeping that shit, have they forgotten it was only implemented to suck as much rake as they could out to plug the black hole.

I like multi entries on the rush turbo tourneys and the super turbo tourneys

Loads of bad regs who are backed enter 6 times in a 1k instead of 1. Seems fine to me!

Longterm sustainability might be an issue but since noone else cares about that then you might as well join the dog eat dog world

yeh rofl ldo

it made sense when they were brassic and had stolen everyones money.


tis pretty dumb to think 1x fish 6x reg is going to give a good balance to the field. increases the prizepools, so all the regs have more chance to win it. so bad for the games in the long run. but yeh as you say no one gives two shits about that so lets screw it for all we can get!

Maybe because your assumption is wrong?

Ive bubbled like 4 comps since the revival

has anyone played on the FR one?

Why risk their brand name sinking their money into a site they don't have much control of?

edit obviously for the industry health in general but why bring it back.


loving the 'your money is safe' tagline in the cashier now too.

They have complete control its just MET were not there to rip of the punters on a sinking ship. They were there because the players wanted them.

What is this place. Cant win a hand

What happens in a multi entry if both your entrys make it to the final table? not a worry of mine may i add id be lucky to make 1 final table!

Stacks combined and finishing spot paid.