Full Tilt Poker — Secrecy and Lies

The latest twist in the tale of the blackest poker saga of all comes as little surprise to those familiar with the company and how it worked. A handful of Full Tilt poker pros and, most surprisingly, PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein, currently owe millions of dollars to the company (see Inside Straight). The situation could have the potential to derail the Groupe Bernard Tapie deal — currently the only game in town which will allow players around the world to be repaid the money owed to them.

Greenstein has been the only player to comment publicly. “I borrowed $400,000 to play on Full Tilt a few years ago, before PokerStars had high stakes games,” he said. “I didn’t pay it back, hoping that some people who owed me and had money on Full Tilt would pay me there so I could use that against the debt. (I’m only owed about $150,000 now). I have assumed when this case is resolved, the DOJ will allow methods for dealing with debt to FTP.”

In a letter to Tapie lawyers he said, “The consensus in the poker community is that all money owed to Full Tilt or taken by investors after the company became insolvent should be used to pay back player’s funds. If I were to make a deal with you it would look like I had turned my back on the best interests of the American players.

“Even though the terms are easier for me if I deal with you and it will fulfill my legal obligation, I have to see how things work out with the DOJ and try to make good on my moral obligation to the US players. I assume at some time in the future the DOJ will establish a pool of funds from Full Tilt’s assets that will be used to pay off some percentage of the player balances that are owed.”

With Ivey, Ferguson, Matusow, Lindgren, Flack, and Benyamine all implicated to varying degrees it’s not yet clear what type of gambit the outing of these players and their debts is but whatever it is it’s dangerous. A debt is a debt but, as Greenstein pointed out, that may be overly simplistic in the case of Full Tilt Poker where shareholders were clearly fronted money to play. The smoke and mirrors continues, the brinkmanship is turned up a notch, and still Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Ray Bitar remain silent.

Mobile Poker Grows Up

The mobile poker revolution is growing apace. With the launch of PokerStars mobile platform in the UK we got a glimpse of the some statistics which indicate just how quickly players have migrated from the traditional PC, Mac, and laptop to hand held devices.

PokerStars said that within one month of launch 10 percent of Italian players played on a mobile device each day while seven percent played exclusively on a mobile device.

It’s no surprise then that mobile poker is the concept du jour and while we broadly welcome the development we must urge caution on security. There are all sorts of new threats to be mindful of when playing poker on a mobile device, including the theft of unsecured devices, so be careful out there. ♠