PokerStars Go Full Tilt Ahead Pro’s Opinions On The PS/FT Deal

Poker players from all over the globe were asked the following questions regarding the PokerStars takeover of Full Tilt and what it could mean; In your opinion is it good for poker? Is it good for players? How do you feel about it in general? What do you think it will be like when both are up and running again? How will Full Tilt rebrand itself? How likely is it to be a success?

Most were only too pleased to voice their opinion, and this is what they said.

Ben Wilinofsky

I think it’s definitely good for poker and good for the players. In the first place, making sure everyone is reimbursed, casual and serious players alike, is really important. For the casual players, it will hopefully bring back some of the faith they had in online poker. The number two complaint among casual players, after not believing that the game is truly random online, is that they are worried about actually getting their money when it comes time to cash out. While I don’t think returning their funds a year and a half later is going to restore all of their faith, it will definitely be better than never getting their money at all. For serious players, many had large sums of money and percentages of their net worth tied up for a year and a half, and it cost them drastically in both opportunity cost and quality of living. From both groups, it means a large injection of cash into the poker economy that can be put into play at the tables. For both groups, it’s important that they are paid what they’re owed, morally and for the health and reputation of the poker economy.

[When both are up and running again] I think my days will get a lot busier. More tournaments mean more quality opportunities, which means more tables.

The most obvious way Full Tilt will rebrand itself is by removing Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson et. al. They need to distance themselves as much as possible from the thieves in their corporate history. Other than new faces, I expect them to distance themselves as much as possible from the Full Tilt that was called a Ponzi Scheme in the mainstream media. Depsite all that, Full Tilt had probably the best, most recognizable campaigns in poker, and I don’t expect Stars to just give up on the brand’s equity. It’s part of what they’re paying for.

How likely is it to be a success? — This is a tricky question. I think it is most likely to be successful in the hands of Isai Scheinberg. Pokerstars has historically been the best run poker site by a country mile. If anyone can repair the damage, it’s them. But I’m not convinced that people will return in droves to Full Tilt. The first thing a casual player will do when choosing where to put his or her hard-earned money is Google. A quicksearch of Full Tilt has three links related to the dealings with the DoJ on the front page, and the two top related searches are “Full Tilt Poker cheats” and “Full Tilt Poker shut down”. There’s a lot of negative information in the public sphere to overcome before the casual player puts his trust in Full Tilt again. While serious players might understand who’s in charge now and see their funds on Full Tilt as an acceptable business risk, the casual player doesn’t need to meet a minimum threshold for volume. He can put all his eggs in one basket, and I see very few choosing Full Tilt as their basket. And, as the casual players go, so go the serious players.

David Vamplew

In the short term I think the deal is definitely good for poker and for the players. Having another top poker room operating and all the players being paid back is obviously a positive thing. I just hope that there are no major negative effects from what is likely to be more or less a PokerStars monopoly.

I expect that the sites will offer the two best online poker rooms and some of the other rooms may find it difficult competing.

Full Tilt had a strong brand before and I would not expect the new management to stray too far from that. I think that their strategy will be more focused and likely cost a lot less. Full Tilt previously had a seemingly endless marketing budget, sponsoring several TV shows and a lot of pro players. Now I think that will be more carefully managed, especially since competing against PokerStars for business is no longer a priority.

I think that the new FTP will be immediately profitable, I expect a lot of the old players to return. However, there are a lot of costs to recoup from the sale and relaunch and whether PokerStars consider it a success may rest on if this deal helps them do future business in the USA.

Josh Brikis

It’s good for poker because we are all hopefully getting our money back now. We all have this established sort of trust with PokerStars running the online poker world and it’s a good feeling knowing that they are involved and want to continue to be number one going forward.

I am not real sure what Full Tilt will be like compared to Stars once back and running and to be honest I won’t have much of an opinion until the day I can actually sit in my home and play on these sites again which I think could be far down the road if ever.

I think the rebranding just comes with us believing and trusting in Stars having the right people running it.

I feel as if it won’t be a huge success but rather a combining into the Stars software and player pool along with the balances that were there. I don’t see Full Tilt being a major factor anymore and eventually I feel it will just be Stars and the major players in the U.S., who will probably be Caesars and Zynga etc..

I can’t wait to be able to play again though so I hope it happens soon!

Samuel Chartier

It has to be good for poker in general, I think a lot of people were not trusting online poker anymore, hopefully that can help them change their mind. It will certainly bring back money into the business which is always a good thing, many people had to take a step down or even quit poker just because all their money was out there. It must feel like Christmas for a lot of them.

I expect both sites to be a bit smaller than what it used to be at their peak considering the fact that many will cash out since they probably need money so bad to cover other life expenses.

With Stars running it, I am pretty sure they will find a recipe to make FT work and I expect it to be a success in the long run. Stars has always been the reference in online poker, I don’t see how they would mess up on that big thing.

Xuan Liu

The PokerStars and Full Tilt deal will be immensely beneficial for poker players of all calibers. PokerStars has always been the leading site for transparency and reliability and their purchase of Full Tilt can only enhance both brands. Not only will PokerStars continue to be a savior in the eyes of the poker community, they now have full autonomy to rebrand Full Tilt away from the nefarious image they’ve earned to make a statement to the mainstream demographic that poker companies can be noble and trustworthy. They can now also cater to any demographic the original PokerStars brand did not reach, and it places them in a perfect position to form powerful business relationships with leading brick and mortar casino networks for live online gaming partnerships. This deal will also be a success because PokerStars has a deal with the DoJ to return to the US market, and the currently tied-up Full Tilt money will be returned to players in time to inspire another poker boom after U.S. poker legislation is solidified.

Miikka Anttonen

Obviously it’s great for players, since so many players have so much money locked up, and just releasing those funds will help the poker economy in general. It’ll be interesting to see how it affects poker in general; I’m afraid it won’t be all just good things since PokerStars will now have a ridiculous market share and they can do pretty much anything they want with rake etc.. Personally I feel great since I have money locked up, and I don’t see how the outcome could be disastrous for the poker economy either. I also think that this might speed up legalizing online poker in the States, which would be a massive thing. Basically I don’t think it’s a big deal apart from people getting their money back, but might be the start of a new boom if the U.S. authorities and PokerStars/FTP play their cards well.

I think they will go with a lot of their old branding. Back in the day FTP was known as the cash game site when PokerStars was more about tournaments. I’m sure PokerStars are aware of this, and they don’t want to make it a Pokerstars2, so instead they will focus on bigger cash games. I’m sure they will end up having the biggest cash game tables, and it will become the railbird heaven it once was.

It’s interesting to see how they will handle the part of branding that includes dealing with the site’s past. I personally can easily think of it as an entirely new site, since it doesn’t really have anything to do with FTP except for the name and the software, but I could see people having issues trusting it again. I think it’s going to be a massive decision whether they will include PokerStars in the name/branding or not. If they do, their site will instantly gain trusted status among random players. But then again it will be considered as PokerStars2, which isn’t good for them since it’s harder to get people to play on both. If I was in the branding group of workers, I’d probably go against including PokerStars in the marketing/branding.

I don’t see how it could not be [a success]. I predict it’ll start booming almost instantly, and within a couple of months FTP will be the second largest site in the world.

Melanie Weisner

In my opinion, the ultimate most important thing is the repayment of the players. I believe that PokerStars has done something very good for poker in finally bringing this situation to a close, and coming to a complete settlement with the DOJ that will likely ease the progression of legislation for regulation in the States.

It’s going to be interesting to see what it’s like when the sites are up and running alongside each other. There used to be an inherent rivalry between the sites, but the regulars would play on both sites simultaneously and I believe that that will more or less be the same once it is resurrected. I think what appeals to players about each site will remain intact, and the player options will still feel that way (i.e. it wont feel just like a second Stars site).

I think FTP had a great thing going as far as marketing their brand, and I hope that there are certain things Stars will keep in play due to their popularity (knockout pro t-shirts, FTOPS, etc) but there are definitely adjustments to be made due to current climate. I’m not exactly sure what these will be but I do expect some changes.

I think it’s likely to be a success because so many players loved playing on FTP! Having it back under the control of a company that the community feels that it can truly rely on will really help to bring back the past success of FTP and help make it an anchor for the future progression of poker and legalization in the States.

I will also note that as far as it being good for poker, the interesting thing to watch will be the monopoly that PokerStars now will have on the poker world, and what that will mean for the rest of the smaller sites. It will definitely limit things like competitive rakeback for players etc., but I believe that overall, having the gold-standard controlling a huge part of online poker is long term a good thing and will force any competitor to really bring it, in every way possible.

Christian Harder

I think it’s a great deal for everyone. Full Tilt was in a world of hurt and I think this was by far the best chance for Full Tilt players to get paid. I’m very happy about it.

I’m very curious to see what will happen, I think Stars is going to keep FTP very similar to what it was before Black Friday… But who really knows?

I think people will get behind FTP because they know Stars is behind it. Stars is obviously by far the most trusted and best poker site so I don’t think players will be hesitant to play on FTP.

Eoghan O’Dea

Overall it’s very good for poker, particularly poker players. Everybody gets paid which is the main thing and people will have a little more faith in the online scene again. On the negative side PokerStars will have a bit of a monopoly on the market now.

Both sites are going to be pretty similar I guess. You’re going to be able to transfer money freely to both sites so you’re probably just going to see a lot of the same players.

I don’t think they’ll put that much effort into rebranding the site. They’ll probably wait and see how things go for them in America first.

Danny Ryan

I think the PokerStars and Full Tilt deal will ultimately be good for poker and the players, as well as PokerStars. Although there will likely be both good and bad results of merging the two companies, I think the good that it will do for the community will far outweigh the bad. The game selection available online should increase with the new launch of the PokerStars owned FTP because there will be more to choose from with another large site operating again, and also because the 700 or so million dollars worth of player refunds being returned should help increase the cash game action and tournament prize pools I’d assume.

I think it will be cool when both sites are up and running, because you’ll be able to hand pick the exact types of tournaments or cash games that you want to play from out of a bigger pool of options. More selection will be nice for the players.

I think the new launch of FTP under Stars ownership is most likely going to be a success, although we’ll see how big of an operation Stars wants to turn it into.
Maybe they’ll want to keep it medium sized to secure market share, but not be equal to Poker Stars. Stars should do a good job of rebranding FTP under a more favorable and respectable light, as they will pay back players promptly I assume, and are a very well run and managed company. It’ll depend a lot on how much money and time they decide to invest on FTP. It’s a smart business move from Star’s standpoint to scoop up some of it’s biggest competition, and a higher percentage of the market, but hopefully they don’t increase rakes as a result of having major control of the online poker market.

I just really hope this acquisition and deal made between FTP, PokerStars, and the DOJ helps get online poker fully legalized once again in the United States so those players can play online as well, and so I can play from where my family lives more often. It seems like this could be a step in the right direction.

Nick Abou Risk

I think the deal is certainly good for poker! There’s a lot of money that will be making its way back into the poker economy. I think it’s also good for players who like to have selection between different software. I’m very happy about it myself as I love the software and have friends who work at FTP. I just hope that PokerStars maintains good intentions as they’ll soon have an essential monopoly over the online poker world.

I think that FTP will quickly become the number two site (in terms of volume) and it will stay that way for a while. I think the other sites will continue to suffer and dwindle.

How will FT rebrand itself? — I’m not sure. I’m curious what the plans are for sponsored pros and VIP rewards.

It’s very likely [that it will be a success] I think. Like I said, I think Stars will be number one and FTP will be number two.

Dan O’Brien

Clearly it’s good for poker that everyone is getting reimbursed. Hopefully, the U.S. Government does the right thing and returns the money they’ve snatched as soon as possible. We are, after all, supposed to be the freest country in the world.

I’d love to see Stars in the States but it sounds like it’ll be a while unless we come to our senses and stop electing people who disregard civil liberties.

I’m actually surprised that FT plans to continue as a going concern. Its reputation has been irreparably damaged in my opinion. However, if they are able to rebrand with the backing of Stars and can get some players on the site, I’m sure they could get back into the swing of things again. I’d give FT a 30 percent success rate.

Martin Jacobson

The poker community all over the world took a big hit as a result of Black Friday and FTP literally stealing players funds. Now it looks like PokerStars are on their way to solving both issues while making one of the best investments they could ever make. Even though I personally didn’t have any money on FTP when they shut down I’m excited that $300 million is going back into the poker circulation and we’re getting one step closer to re-opening the American market.

I’m very curious to see how PokerStars will rebrand FTP and make it successful, yet not more successful than PokerStars. I hope they will treat it as if it were a competitor rather than having monopoly over the online industry as this could affect the players in a negative way. As long as they play their cards right and give players what they want (online action with great benefits) I think FTP will be even more successful than before the scandal. ♠