Tony G interview about FullTilt and Phil Ivey.

Very interesting interview for QuadJacks Poker Radio.

I looked around the forum and couldn't find it posted, so I hope it is not a repost, if it is please delete, if not enjoy.

http://www.quadjacks.com/2011/06/02/...s-poker-radio/

wow, very interesting interview. I love Tony G, he just says what he wants and doesn't give a flying...

Interesting...

The more I hear and read about this lawsuit and Ivey's action against them,
I am really starting to worry about getting any money back from Full Tilt

It's just a matter of time before FTP falls. The 'black friday' situation clearly showed that its business practices were severely flawed and that player money was not 'fenced', even though they said it was, which is pretty much online poker safety 101.
Now FTP is saying they are trying to raise money so they can pay off their USA players, which clearly indicates they don't have the money. The DOJ has already said they have no interest in keeping player money, but they aren't going to release other seized FTP accounts without a pretty clear indication that it is player and not business money.
Even if you're not a USA player, playing on FTP is a fools choice right now. Your money is not safe there.

I think FTP will muddle through, its too valuable a brand, and both Phil and Tony are right to a degree, but they both have interest in the outcome also... meanwhile got my last payout in 48 hours, and will strip to bare bones after winning the FR tonite!!!

Hey don't try stealing my plan .

I need 30$ to withdraw the rest .

It "was" a pretty valuable brand at one point. But that has changed significantly in the past month.
Consider that weeks later, they have still not paid their U.S player base. They have still not come out with any announcements from "known" representatives. Sorry, but posts by FTPDoug on 2+2 don't count.
Their penultimate 'horse', Ivey, is jumping ship.
They have made statements saying they are trying to raise money in order to pay their USA player base, whose money should have already been protected if it had been 'fenced', which is obviously was not.
The strength of the "brand" relies to a large extent on the faith that players have in the ability of the sites to conduct their financial business in a reputable and responsible way. That is the fundamental strength of the brand, not the fact that they have people like Ivey, Dwan, Antonius, etc.. on their player roster, since those rosters can change overnight. The value of every American red pro on FTP certainly became 'near zero' after Black Friday.
I'll consider playing on Stars still, because their fundamentals are still strong. But as for FTP, apart from some CC games, I can't see myself keeping my business there when the ship is sinking as badly as it is.

wow, I have been listening to another interview, from the same radio, interview is with Nick Rainey, in case you don't know who he is, well, he grinds sng, he had a bet that he can play 15.000 sngs in 31 days, also he has been Patrick Anotnius's tenis coach I believe, and he finished 106'th in the wsop ME in 2010, I didn't google these so not very sure of the data.

anyways, he brings very freaking interesting points, he says full tilt has been selling accounts that get 100% rakeback, the amount for one of these accounts would have been 25k to 50k and he says he payed for his 100% rakeback account with 10k upfront and after that he would have to pay 2k every month for as long as he plays in order to keep the account, also he gives the name of the person that sold it to him, and he says that this person works for Full Tilt.

it is an 1 hour 38 mins interview, here is the link.

http://www.quadjacks.com/2011/06/01/...s-poker-radio/

This guy sais he had to set up about 40 accounts for Patrick Antonius on Full Tilt, and he sais Patrick has won million of dollars on these accounts.

David Benyamine was staked apparently a lot of money to keep on playing online.

I'd go so far as to say that Ivey is telling the truth when he says that he did not know that FT was carrying out illegal activity. I don't think that the company will be a firesale, I believe that the shareholders will replace its board and , of course, Raymond Bitar. With a completely new management team, Full Tilt may be able to rebound since they do have excellent software and tournament structures, as well as a well-known brand name. This isn't the Circuit City of poker, guys its freakin Full Tilt. They have a great product and a loyal customer base. One thing they do need to seriously work on is their customer service...


Tony G also pointed out that Tiltware, LLC has no assets in Nevada, but I think that will only affect the venue of the hearing. Full Tilt deals in intrastate commerce, so they do have a stake in the state of Nevada as well.

This isn't exactly a publicly traded company with 'shareholders' as you describe it. It certainly does have a small group of people in it that are owners/shareholders, but nothing to the scale of a publicly traded company.

An excellent piece of software and tournament structure does very little good if players cannot have confidence in the ability of the site to pay out in a timely fashion. It'd be like being on the Titanic, a fine looking ship, with great amenities, if you ignore the hole in the hull which is causing it to slowly sink.

Their "loyal" customer base has been cut significantly since 'black friday' with the loss of their entire USA player base, which for full tilt, was a sizeable amount of their business. As for the rest of it, Poker Scout, which tracks online poker 'traffic', has shown that Full Tilt has had a 35% drop in traffic overall, and has been losing traffic every week for four weeks straight. Last week alone they lost 7% of their traffic, and this will probably accelerate or at least continue as their inability to pay players causes other players to lose confidence in the site.

They can't continue to lose 3%-7% of their customer base every week like they have been doing, and keep offering the guarantees,rakeback, and other bonuses that they have been offering. That simply isn't sustainable.

One thing you have to remember about Rainey though (not saying he isn't telling the truth), is that he is a ****ing mentalist

How many tourneys ever have overlay? not many that I've ever seen (cept maybe the daily donker)

Most of them typically don't have overlays because they already have been cutting the guarantees in most of their tournies since black friday. They are making alot of them multi-entry ones as well, which allows them to keep some guarantees the same, but fundamentally changes the game as well, since they've basically turned it into a pseudo-rebuy mtt.
My point was, if they continue to lose their customers at a rate of 2%-7% per week, which they have been doing for a month now, then there will be more cuts in the near future, which will further erode their status as one of the 'big three' poker sites.

I'll still be playin' on there..... if it dies.. it dies. But I doubt it will.

How about a rough calculation of profits for ONE day? any rough idea??

More cash than you can shake a stick at.

Super depressing shyt though for sure! (this should prob be linked to that Phil Ivey letter thread).

One of the most famous poker player is Phil Ivey. He is an excellent all-around player with World Series of Poker titles in four separate events. But, in spite of his stardom he is involved in a controversy. Phil Ivey, one of probably the most experienced specialized poker gamblers on earth today, is boycotting this year's World Series of Poker, states Big Lead Sports. After the United States Justice Department's April 2011 rules on online poker, Ivey's group and major WSOP supporter, Player Phil Evey boycotts the World Series of Poker, newstype.com

That's almost a Rocky IV quote you got there! But I agree, I'm not going to be scared into changing poker rooms because of all this.

Ummm - I don't know how much interest you can create in a thread that handles the inability to play poker and/or cash out (at least for US players).

You might consider asking mods to move your post to "general poker" instead - or start a new thread there yourself.

Whatever it is, it is not enough to pay off their U.S player base obviously...nor is one weeks profits...or a couple of weeks profits at the rate they are going.