Black Friday. Do you remember

[waterboy73]

I was playing, and was a member of another forum at the time, and logged in there to see the hysteria the DOJ siezure on fulltilt.com had already caused in a matter of hours. That day I learned atfer visiting some forums, that if I didn't log out of FTP client, I could still play! So that is what I did, and the day after black Friday, I binked 4th in a multi-entry $3.30 KO for $420. The real shame, was while at the FT, my computer had wanted to do updates (and I didn't see the popup in bottom right corner of my screen) Then mu laptop shutdown, did updates, and I could no longer log into FTP. I blinded out in 4th. Would have been sweet if my computer didn't do updates, I wasn't booted, and went on to win the $1,000+ for 1st place. On a positive note, I am reviving those winnings from 4/16/11, in my claim for my FTP funds that should be paid tomorrow, 2/28/14. Glad it is finally over for me.

 

[OzExorcist]

Pretty sure I read about it on here first... and then promptly went to double check that it wasn't April 1st. If only it were

 

[TheBigFinn]

My son sent me an e-mail. I miss Full Tilt. Even though it proves the saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely. They finally made good for a couple of grand after 2-1/2 years.

 

[BearPlay]

Yes. We "old timers" will never forget it. I talked about it briefly in my interview. It would be really difficult to explain the psychological and financial effects of that event and its everlasting effects on the US poker market. Even though it happened many years ago, I still find it incredible.

 

[Poof]

I was playing on Full Tilt when all of the sudden ppl were posting here saying they couldn't log on. So I stayed on till bed time, as it seemed as if the site was going down I wasn't sure if it was for maintenance or what. The next day could not log on, but kept faith for about 2 weeks that any day now it would get sorted and be back up and running.

Worst day ever.

 

[arizoney]

oh yea i remember it well. still to this day im not agreeing with the doj and there interpretation with wire act they still havent proved that online poker was against the law. it was a play by the doj to screen and regulate the internet which they are still trying to do without to much success. oh and the loss of money i had that i was never able to recover the funds.

 

[MrPokerVerse]

Read about it first, couldn't log in. Glad was able to recover all funds from FT and PS. Had less than 20 on UB and AP, that is a wash there.

 

[V6mitg6rewh6re]

Yes I remember clearly , I remember that day trying to log in and can't , I also remember not getinf my 250 $ lol , apprantly full tilt mailed me last year about payment and I forgot all my info so I'm screwed lol , I'll never forget Black Friday just like sept 11th

 

[absoluthamm]

Yes I remember clearly , I remember that day trying to log in and can't , I also remember not getinf my 250 $ lol , apprantly full tilt mailed me last year about payment and I forgot all my info so I'm screwed lol , I'll never forget Black Friday just like sept 11th

VERY different from September 11th... smh

 

[Zorba]

It didn't effect me at all, apart from reducing the player pool.

I was playing on Full Tilt when all of the sudden ppl were posting here saying they couldn't log on. So I stayed on till bed time, as it seemed as if the site was going down I wasn't sure if it was for maintenance or what. The next day could not log on, but kept faith for about 2 weeks that any day now it would get sorted and be back up and running.

Worst day ever.

The biggest effect was not being able to play with the Poofster and others in our CC invasions of the $2.20 90 man games we used to play at Stars.




.

 

[TeUnit]

i remember the horror well

tried to cash out all the points and cash i could

hope it never happens again

 

[Leo 50]

I wasn't online at the time but I remember trying log on only to see the DOJ and FBI logos instead and then finding out what happened.

 

[slash407]

i wasnt into poker back then but i always wondered why the poker afterdark show disappeared but now i know

 

[wanderingthehall]

I don't remember exactly where I was, but I know exactly where I was in my progress. I had finally learned what BRM was and had started applying in the last couple months before BF. It was forcing me into really improving my play and I was just starting to show results. I had a really amazing freeroll I was going to be playing that week when I got blocked.

After BF I lost some more money trying to find other sites to play on that I just didn't take seriously. It took a year and a half before I got back on track, and the opportunities just aren't as good. Fewer promotions, fewer players, fewer games. The upside is that I discovered the world of poker forums. That made up for everything I lost and has helped me become the player I am now.

 

[JLuv81]

I woke up and went online to check social media like any normal day. I found out when I logged in to 2p2 and immediately logged onto Stars and Full tilt just to see the now infamous DOJ seize letter.
A bit off topic but I wonder what would've happened with full tilt had black Friday never happened. We didn't know what was going on till then so I'm curious.

 

[wagon596]

I'm not sure what I was doing,, I get up late, so it may have already happened. When I did find out, it was like losing a family member. As some of you know, I'm disabled, 68 years old and live alone, so poker is my life. It helps pass the hours of each day and that's okay... still have some sites to play at. Later

 

[JLuv81]

I'm not sure what I was doing,, I get up late, so it may have already happened. When I did find out, it was like losing a family member. As some of you know, I'm disabled, 68 years old and live alone, so poker is my life. It helps pass the hours of each day and that's okay... still have some sites to play at. Later

And you live in Texas so you cant play live. That sucks.

 

[PlayedYou73]

I do remember trying to login to FTP after building my bankroll to $150 or so from freerollin...only to get locked out after. Ugh

 

[fordman427]

I tried to log on to Full Tilt and got the message

 

[Mase31683]

I remember logging in and getting that message. I thought it was another joke, because just a couple weeks prior for April Fool's day they put up a message pretending the FBI confiscated the page then there was a redirect at the bottom saying "April Fool's!" or something to that effect.

Then called lots of friends freaking out...those feels

 

[wanderingthehall]

So, I really hate to admit this, but I think Black Friday helped me develop my skills, strategies, etc. When I lost the ability to safely and easily deposit money I learned to focus on freerolls. It pushed me into discovering all the poker forums and private freerolls. Instead of a series of min deposits, I now have a series of min withdrawals that are all from freeroll winnings. If we ever get the good sites back, I'll be better off because of it.

 

[pokertroll]

I remember how pissed off I was seeing the DOJ Message all over my favorite sites I haven't player on any great sites since then plus my interest in poker reduced over 80 percentepsi:

 

[pokertroll]

A Lot of Pro Poker Players retired and lost Sponsorships plus a few suicides of online poker player came to light in online articles

 

[TheCol]

Im not really sure what I was doing on black friday but do remember trying to log on to Fulltilt and seening the FBI warning. Then tried to get on UB and the same FBI warning there too. Then I was getting kind of worried about the money I had left on those sites, thinking well there goes that money. Im glad I only lost about $200 combined on both sites. I cashed out 4k a month before black friday.
Just glad there were a couple of sites to still play on. But do miss the big tournaments on Fulltilt. Especially the weekend tournaments on Fulltilt. They were big compaired to the tournaments we have now. Americas Card Room has a 1 million tournament coming up in December which is a plus. I havent played in a big tournament like that since Black Friday. I will definitely be playing in that one.

 

[Shumkoolie]

I remember that day pretty well. I had just got home from work, fired up Full Tilt, but did hear about the DOJ takedown, so I went to the fulltiltpoker.com website and saw the logo, and the same applied to Stars and UB. I am in canada so I was not affected, but the US players that were still on there obviously did not have their software client updated, so they stayed as long as they could before they too were no longer able to login.

I think it was probably a day or two later when I saw no more US players playing. Things really dried up and then FTP went down so it was just Stars for me.

Definitely not a great day for online poker as a whole but there were people making their voices heard (QuadJacks did a marathon broadcast), other poker podcasts had their own specials as well. There were a lot of angry people who felt like the government had gone too far. I still feel like they have but in hindsight, I think that it was necessary and maybe in the long run, this will be for the best.

Time will tell of course, but I still think that the US government is stupid anyway, not just on this issue, but others as well.