Category: Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker Faces Another Lawsuit

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Full Tilt Poker can’t win for losing, it seems. First one of its leading spokesmen and biggest draws, Phil Ivey, soured to the site, quitting its team of pros and suing the site’s parent company, Tiltware, for $150 million. Now one of its former leading spokeswomen, Clonie Gowen, has revived a formerly defunct lawsuit she had previously brought against the site.

So we know what Phil’s beef with them is. He says he’s upset because the site hasn’t yet managed to give US players the money back from their FullTilt accounts that they are no longer allowed to use or access. So what’s Clonie’s beef with the site?

She says they promised her a 1% ownership stake in the company that they failed to make good on. Had they done as they promised, Clonie asserts, she would have been paid around $40 million that she never ended up seeing. In February 2010 a US district judge dismissed her case, saying it lacked merit. He even gave her lawyer three chances to rewrite the complaint to provide sufficient detail to prompt the judge to change his mind but failed to be convinced by any of the attempts. A recently successful appeal, however, has revived that lawsuit, allowing Clonie to proceed with her case.

Between Ivey’s $150 million claim and Gowen’s approximately $40 million claim, it seems doubtful, were they to both be successful, that Full Tilt players (and former players in the US) would be the ones to suffer right alongside Full Tilt Poker itself, which lacks enough available funds to pay out its own players as it is.

Phil Ivey Lawsuit & WSOP Boycott Raises Fellow Pros’ Ire & Support, Alternately

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By now it’s no big news that Phil Ivey is boycotting the 2011 World Series of Poker. Nor are there many poker fans who haven’t yet heard that Ivey is suing Tiltware, the company responsible for Full Tilt Poker’s failure to refund to its locked-out U.S. players their unused funds and gains. That’s because it’s been all over the press of late, enough so to catch the attention and interest of some of Ivey’s fellow poker professionals, some of whom – like Daniel Negreanu – support his actions and some of whom – like Mike Matusow – don’t.

Let’s start with the pro-Ivey camp, currently headlined by Daniel Negreanu (by simple virtue of him being most vocal about his support.) Of course, Negreanu is sponsored not by Team Full Tilt, from which Ivey also resigned in protest, but Team Poker Stars, a company that already paid back its dislodged U.S. consitutency. Nevertheless, Negreanu has come out in favor of Ivey’s standing up for his values, as has another poker pro, Eric Froehlich.

On the nay side of the debate is Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, who called Ivey self-centered, along with some other epithets we couldn’t repeat in this forum. Agreeing that Ivey’s actions were self-serving is another poker pro Andrew Robl, who said that if Ivey felt so bad for players affected by the situation, he shouldn’t sue the company for the $150 million they owe the players. He should take the example of his fellow former Team Full Tilt pro Tom Dwan who said that if Full Tilt fails to pay back U.S. players the money it owes them, he will do so out of his own pocket.

Full Tilt Poker Puppet Show

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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.

Phil Ivey Fed Up: Sues Full Tilt, Boycotts WSOP

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Just a year and a half ago, Phil Ivey was sitting at the final table of the World Series of Poker, one of the esteemed November Nine. This year, he’ll be sitting out the event entirely, in protest to what he sees as Full Tilt Poker’s unfair treatment of its American-based players. On top of all that, he’s suing his former sponsor, Full Tilt Poker for what could amount to $150 million in damages.

Actually to be precise, Phil Ivey is suing Tiltware, Full Tilt Poker’s provider of software and marketing.

When Black Friday first occured, Phil Ivey came out asking players to have patience with the site as it worked out how to get its American players (now former-players) the money back from their Full Tilt Poker real money accounts. But since that missive, Phil Ivey’s own patience has run out. He now says Full Tilt’s actions have “embarrassed” him.

He says the reason he won’t be playing in the WSOP is because he finds it unfair that many other players who might otherwise be there too cannot be because the money they would have spent on travel and buy-in costs is locked up in Full Tilt Poker’s bank accounts.

Full Tilt Poker, meanwhile, is holding no punches either, calling Phil Ivey’s lawsuit against them “sanctimonious” since he stands to gain $150 million off of his fellow players’ misfortune, suing the site for the full amount that it owes all it’s other American former-players combined.

The reaction to Ivey’s actions in the poker playing community is decidedly mixed.

100% Rakeback Accounts Were Being Sold on Full Tilt Poker

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On a poker radio show earlier this week, poker pro Nick Rainey said that a former employee of Poker Royalty, Chris Porter, had been selling 100% rakeback accounts on Full Tilt Poker for $10,000 up front plus $2,000 per month going forward. Thursday afternoon, Poker Royalty, the company that represents Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan and Doyle Brunson, among others, released a statement about the allegations.

“Allegations surfaced on QuadJacks.com this week that a former Poker Royalty employee, Chris Porter, brokered, rented, sold and/or profited from black market rakeback accounts on Full Tilt Poker while working for our agency.

Poker Royalty has never benefited in any way from a rakeback account outside the scope of a client sponsorship agreement.

Poker Royalty had no knowledge of this ex-employee’s alleged actions.  Please direct any further inquiries into this matter to him.”

Porter was at the time an agent working for Poker Royalty representing Patrik Antonius and others up until a year ago. He is currently employed as the team pro manager for Full Tilt Poker.

Tiltware – Full Tilt Poker Response to Phil Ivey

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Late Tuesday night Phil Ivey took to his Facebook account and his personal website to announce that he was leaving Full Tilt Poker and suing them. He also said he would not play in this year’s WSOP in solidarity of the player’s who have money stuck on Full Tilt Poker and cannot not play in this year’s WSOP. Late Wednesday night Tiltware – Full Tilt Poker issued the following response which to us seems to have been written by someone who was very angry….

“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.”

There is much more to this who saga and we will continue to work every angle in the hopes of finding out exactly what is going on. Much that has been reported is opinions and speculation on Ivey’s finances and contract with Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Bank Accounts NOT Unfrozen

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Last week we posted a story about the US Department of Justice releasing some Full Tilt Poker funds so that US players could be paid. As it turns out this is not true. Holdem Poker Chat along with most poker news outlets based the story on an article on eGaming Review Magazine which turns out to just be a lie.

The Public Information Office of the US Attorney’s Office has said that no funds have been released and that if any such action should be taken that it would be followed up by a public filing from their office.

Full Tilt Poker still has not repaid US players and the only announcements have come from low level PR spinners. Full Tilt Poker Pro Phil Ivey has announced that he is suing Full Tilt Poker software provider TiltWare and will not play in this year’s WSOP.

Some Full TIlt Poker Accounts Unfrozen

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According to a report on eGaming Review, some Full Tilt Poker bank accounts have been unfrozen by the US Department of Justice to faciliate player paybacks. According to the report most of the funds seized on April 15th belonged to Full Tilt Poker which is something most in the poker community where beginning to figure out when Full Tilt couldn’t pay players. Over the last couple of weeks rumors had been going around that Full Tilt were trying to sell off part of the company in order to raise money to pay players in the US.

Here is part of what was posted by eGaming Review:

The Full Tilt source explained this resulted from players’ poker balances being credited with money held in bank accounts seized by authorities before Full Tilt itself had been made aware of the seizures. “Because of the broad-sweeping nature of the Black Friday seizures, you had a seizure combined with a backlog and this has resulted in millions which all of a sudden became owed,” the FTP source said.

“Normally Full Tilt would cover that and take that loss, but because all their banks got shut down there was no way of doing that until recently when the government agreed to unfreeze the [Bank of Ireland] account,” he said.

We hope that this means that players will soon get paid and be able to make it to Las Vegas for the WSOP which begins next week.

Full Tilt Poker Series Goes Ukrainian

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Full Tilt Poker is taking their live poker series to the Ukraine, with three newly scheduled tournaments offering up a total guaranteed prize pool of about $1 million. With the full support of the Ukranian Sport Poker Federation behind it, the inaugural Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker Series will take place July 24 – 31, September 18 – 25 and November 18 – 27 in the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev. Buy-ins for these three events range from $1,500 to $2,500 but satellites are running now at Full Tilt Poker offering seats in these events for as little as nothing.

Freeroll satellite qualifiers into the Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker Series started on May 1, 2011 and run three times daily, at 14:00, 17:00 and 20:00 MSK. Each event’s player pool is capped at 1,000. From each of these events, the top 100 players will move on to a weekly freeroll final taking place every Thursday at 19:00 MSK. From each of these final round freerolls, 5 players will win seats in the next scheduled live event in Kiev.

Besides winning seats in these first-ever Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker Series events, satellite winners will also receive live poker lessons from Full Tilt pros Vitaly Lunkin and Nikolay Evdakov.

The first two events on the schedule have $1,500 buy-ins while event #3 is being considered the Grand Final of the inaugural Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker series and therefore has a $2,500 buy-in.

Best USA Online Poker Sites – Pokerstars and Full TIlt Poker Alternatives

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With the departure of Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker from the US online poker landscape you may be left wondering where everyone is playing these days. A handful of poker sites have begun to stand out and make a name for themselves. We’ll break down a few today and let you know why they’re on the rise and what the best alternatives are for former Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker players.

The Merge Poker Network is growing the fastest but you may be surprised to know that it is not their flagship site Carbon Poker that is leading the way. The rising star for the Merge network is Lock Poker due to unique promotions, an ultra sleek design and a 200% up to $1200 deposit bonus. Another Merge skin that is growing rapidly is RPM Poker. If we were to list the top Merge skins in order it would be Lock Poker, Carbon Poker and RPM Poker. Keep in mind that while all three share most of their tournaments and all the cash game tables. Each also runs their own unique promotions. These poker sites are all 100% Mac compatible.

Also on the rise is Bodog Poker. This is no surprise as Bodog is an established site with a great reputation for customer service and successful deposit methods. They not only offer a Poker room but also a full casino and sportsbook. The 110% up to $1100 deposit bonus on Bodog is great as well. If you’re primarily a cash game players, there are two things to keep in mind if you decide to play at Bodog Poker. First, their Mac version is not a full version of the software. Second, Bodog limits the amount of tables you can play.

If you’re looking for a no download instant play poker site then there is only one we can recommend and that is Luvin Poker on the Everleaf Network. Everleaf is a small network that is also growing rapidly as of late and may by the end of the year be a real contender. While there are several sites on the network we at Holdem Poker Chat only endorse Luvin Poker because we love their customer support and they offer players a nice 100% up to $1000 deposit bonus.

Last week we came across a real gem of a poker site on the Cake Poker network. Sports Interaction Poker is a cake poker skin that accepts eChecks as a deposit method. As far as we can tell they are the only online poker site serving the US that has this as a deposit option. If you’re a former Pokerstars or Full Tilt Poker players, I’m sure this is great news for you. Our top poker sites on the Cake poker network are Intertops Poker and Cake Poker.

You can find more information on all these poker sites and full reviews by visiting our USA Poker Sites page.

We’ll continue to monitor which online poker sites continue to serve the US and adjust our rankings accordingly. For now we feel that the poker sites listed above are the safest and most promising for all US poker players.