Full Tilt Poker only just relaunched after its DOJ provoked closing in mid-2011, and already the recently beleagured poker site is showing sites of continued beleagurement. First the site traffic dropped off considerably after a well-publicized launch week. And now, the site has announced that it will be dropping its esteemed Red Pros from its official roster.
Prior to the April 11, 2011 closure of Full Tilt Poker, there were more than 200 pro players sponsored by the site, more than 160 of which were simply called Full Tilt Pros. Forteen of the 200+ were core Team Full Tilt members, like Howard Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. About 34 players will called “Friend of Full Tilt” (including actors Mekhi Phifer and Don Cheadle, NFL Hall of Fam football player Emmitt Smith, and Jerry Yang, 2007 WSOP Champ. And 11 players are the Red Pros that this article speaks of. These are players culled from Team CardRunners and includes 6 “Team Limpers” as they were called and 4 members of the notorious Hendon Mob.
This past week, these former Red Pros (i.e. the Team Limpers and Hendon Mob-sters) all received an email from the new manager of Full Tilt’s Team Pro, Dustin Iannotti informing them that the newly relaunched FullTilt will not be continuing their sponsorship deals.
The newly streamlined Full Tilt Pro team dons the new name: The Professionals. And it currently features familiar names Viktor Blom, Tom Dwan and Gus Hansen.
Full Tilt Poker is now owned by the The Rational Group, which is also Poker Stars’ parent company.