#FullTilt hearing postponed once again

Well it should not really come as a surprise after the already experienced stalling tactics of FullTiltPoker, but today the AGCC has published a very brief announcement that the hearing will resume on September 19th:

FULL TILT POKER HEARING.
The hearing will reconvene at 0900 on Monday 19th September, 2011. The hearing will be held in the Plaza Suite at the Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel, 18 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TJ.
As before, those wishing to attend are requested to contact the AGCC on +44 (0)1481 825500 or via info@agcc.gg
Full update pending.
5th September 2011

It seems that the further delay was upon request from Full Tilt Poker itself, but remains unclear what 4 days more can change within the current suicide mission and the enormous amount of time that has been wasted so far. The potential investors still remain unknown and this fits to the "progress" over the past few months as well, if at all you can even use this term under these circumstances.

If you really want to bother attending, please make sure to bring pillows with you as well and it would be an even bigger surprise if the media will actually not get locked out again. By the way, does the gg in the email address above mean "good game"? Only time will tell but quite a few people will consider snap calling on any Turn card because they assume another Bluff similar to the last hand dealt on July 26th.

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The #FullTilt Poker Media Puppet Show

I just stumbled over this news and thought I would share it, source: HoldemPokerChat

According to a post on QuadJacks.com the person who has been keeping the poker community informed of what’s going on with US player cash-outs from Full Tilt Poker is none other than Full Tilt Poker PR representative Michelle Clayborne posing as “FTPDoug” on the 2+2 Poker Forums. As source close to Full Tilt Poker claims that “the real FTPDoug left the company a long time ago and they just use the name since he had some credibility on 2+2.”

According to the same source claiming to be very close to Full Tilt Poker, “Ms. Clayborne is/was the personal assistant to Howard Lederer, among other Full Tilt pros. Another source reported in late May that she had also worked closely with Phil Ivey, but that he had since terminated their professional relationship.”

Michelle Clayborne is also said to have written the angry response issued by TiltWare to the announcement by Phil Ivey that he is not playing in this year’s WSOP and is suing Full Tilt Poker.

What exactly does this all mean?

It means that someone at Full Tilt Poker, possibly Howard Lederer himself, has been pulling all the strings and feeding the online poker playing public misinformation for the past 2 months. With the exception of the initial press release by Full Tilt Poker claiming that they are working with the US Department of Justice to release player funds the only information players have received has come from the “FTPDoug” account on 2+2.
Most US online poker players have lost faith in Full Tilt’s ability to pay and as time passes players from other countries are beginning to as well. According to Pokerscout.com Full Tilt’s traffic is now down over 52% since April 15th, 2011.

Now that the “FTPDoug” account has been outed, we have no idea how Full Tilt will try and get a message out to players but we’ll keep an eye out for the next puppet show.

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Ivey vs Tiltware - War of the Roses reloaded?

When I first heard about the press release from FullTilt, commenting on the actions taken by one of their flagships and probably the most recognized poker player right now, it immediately reminded me of a typical marriage and the movie The War of the Roses from 1989. I am just unsure right now who Michael Douglas is and who is taking the role of Kathleen Turner - well, let's just take a look at the two press releases.

Here is a full copy of Phil Ivey’s Press Release:

"For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.


I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm. I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.


My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.


I whole heartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment of players funds and I am angered that people who have supported me throughout my career have been treated so poorly.


I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment."

So far so good, he wants to stand up for the players and won't play until they got their money back. Now if you want take a closer look at the lawsuit which was filed in the District Court of Clark County, Nevada - you can check it out here: Ivey Complaint - You can also follow @oskargarcia on twitter, as he uploaded the copy of the lawsuit.


In a nutshell: Phil Ivey is asking for $150 Mio and the immediate reactions in poker communities and from the Pro's have been very mixed to say the least. Some still believe that he really wants to help players to get their funds back, Pro's such as Mike Matusow and Andrew Robl already commented via twitter or their blogs and highlighted the selfishness of this move.

Let's take a look at the statement from Tiltware from last night:

"Contrary to his sanctimonious public statements, Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is about helping just one player – himself. In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited -- and has declined -- to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site. Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s frivolous and self-serving lawsuit will ever get to court. But if it does, the company looks forward to presenting facts demonstrating that Mr. Ivey is putting his own narrow financial interests ahead of the players he professes to help."

I think Tiltware has taken the role of Kathleen Turner ... I am not 100% sure, but very similar to the movie this can get really ugly and I am not sure if Phil Ivey has done himself a favor because the lawsuits back and forth can only damage the reputation of everyone involved. And if that is really in the best interest of the poker players? FullTilt is trying to raise money to pay back the players because most of their bank accounts are still frozen by the DoJ ... guess they will have to raise more money soon for lawyers as well.

One thing is outstanding and kinda obvious as well though ... FullTilt should really take a closer look on their public relations, because so far they have issued quite a few statements regarding the status of the repayment of player funds, but rhe communication itself was pretty poor and we still have no idea at all what and when it will happen.

To be continued ...

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Pokerpocalypse - To bank or not to bank?

The consequences are not fully visible yet and the agreement between Pokerstars, FullTilt and the Department of Justice to regain the right to use their world wide .com domains went through pretty quickly. American players are now able to log into their accounts on both sites again and can access the cashier to request a withdrawal. This has currently been disabled at Pokerstars to “prepare the technical solutions and formulate the plan and processes required” to allow Americans to cash out their balance.

The same deal would also be available for AbsolutePoker and UB, however despite pop up notifications on both brands Americans are still able to log in and play for real money. Today, AbsolutePoker released the following statement:

“Absolute Poker has retained Blank Rome LLP as United States counsel to provide legal advice in relation to civil and criminal matters filed in federal court in Manhattan and made public on April 15, 2011. Absolute Poker is aware that on April 19, 2011, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into separate agreements with FullTilt Poker and PokerStars. These agreements concern the use of the respective www.fulltiltpoker.com and www.pokerstars.com domain names. The US Attorney, in a press release dated April 20, 2011, stated that the government is willing to enter the same agreement with Absolute Poker and UB.

“At this time, Absolute Poker’s top priority is, and must be, the refund of balances to its and UB’s US players. However, given the far-reaching consequences of the US Attorney’s actions for Absolute Poker and for the entire poker community, Absolute Poker believes that the responsible course of action is to review with its attorneys the relevant court filings before taking any action."

“Absolute Poker believes that the US Attorney shares the view that refunds to US players are an immediate and pressing concern, and Absolute Poker wishes to make clear that it wants to work cooperatively with the US Attorney to safely and efficiently return its players’ funds. To that end, Absolute Poker’s counsel has initiated communications with the US Attorney’s office and plans to continue proactively advancing those discussions."

“Further information and timely updates will be provided to Absolute Poker/UB’s players as we move forward.”

In the meanwhile, an article at The Australian revealed, that Australian banks have been handling payments to overseas-based online poker sites that have been illegally taking up to a $1 billion a year. Whilst this might be legal for gambling sites outside of Australia, it is prohibited for Australia itself since 2001 already. The potential profit for local companies was probably too tempting though and part of this business was also FORMER Brisbane IT tycoon Daniel Tzvetkoff, who’s  company Intabill allegedly processed more than $500 million worth of illegal online payments through US banks.

It has been reported that he kept the names, bank details and addresses of up to 500,000 customers of online poker websites – considering that he has turned into an informant for the FBI and Department of Justice during the current investigation and provided these details, we may not have seen the end of the allegations yet. At least the situation has somewhat calmed down after the agreement from PokerStars and FullTiltPoker with the DoJ and hopefully soon, American players will be able to cash out their funds from the poker sites.

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Doomsday at Online Poker: Update

As a lot might panic at the moment after the shockwave yesterday, I thought I would give a little update what is going on and what happened in the last few hours.

Link to the press release from the DoJ: DoJ press release Scheinberg

More Info about the person that "delivered" all the info: Daniel Tzvetkoff

First of all, they are not after the players, just after the poker sites itself for those illegal bank transactions - poker itself is not illegal and you are allowed to play online. The player funds are on separate bank accounts, for example Europeans do not have to fear that there funds are not safe. But the bank accounts with US traffic are most likely frozen at the moment and the upcoming days and weeks will show what direction this dilemma gonna take.

Pokerstars is not on the .com domain anymore and switched to .eu, all American players have been booted from the real money tables and the cashier / p2p is also frozen right now. If you are from the US, the automated updated will fail and you have to reinstall the software from the following URL: http://www.pokerstars.eu/ - the normal update for non US accounts and IP addresses still works.

Same goes for FullTilt, they also had a quick update and are now linking to the .http://co.uk domain, players got booted but I seen a few "survivors" that have been lucky so far and are still playing in a long session. It is only a matter of time though before they will also get booted. Same scenario as Pokerstars though, new domain for US to redownload: http://www.fulltiltpoker.co.uk/

Concerning AP and UB (yes, UB is now also seized), they didn't switch to non .com domains yet and it also seems that as US player you can still login and register for real money games (as of 10.00 server time on April 16th 2011). But p2p transactions have been disabled by now - same here, it is only a matter of time until players will be booted.

It might even be the case that all american IP addresses get blocked and that nobody from the US will be able to access any of the "gambling" sites - but this is yet to be confirmed and would be the worst case scenario. Most likely all withdrawals will be put on hold or denied, but this doesn't mean the poker sites want to steal your money or that it will be lost. They want to avoid a mass panic and need to settle down after yesterday's shock - right now, nobody really knows what will happen in the next few days.

Update as of April 16th 10.00 EST: It was possible to initiate a cashout at AP / UB from a non US acc (Canadian in this case).

Of course we are trying to keep you updated, but unfortunately given the circumstances and everything what happened in the last 24h, we might not be able to have any control over the situation and can only wait.
Please do not try to "dump" your money on AP / UB to non US players, you risk to have all accounts locked! The best advice is to log into your accounts and take a screenshot of your cashier, in this case you at least have evidence of how many funds you had when all this started.

There are a lot of tweets going back and forth on twitter right now, if you have an account there you can stay up to date if you check out the following accounts:

@Kevmath
@Pokerati
@oskargarcia
@GamingCounsel
@GaryWise1
@ckrafcik
@grange95
@scarlet_lv
@markgahagan
@bjnemeth
@ftrainpoker
@taopauly
@hardboiledpoker

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