Full Tilt Poker was originally launched on a budget of $5 million with the slogan: “Learn, Chat, and Play with the Pros.” The team of professionals that launched Full Tilt Poker became known as Team Full Tilt and could be found frequently playing against players at home on the Full Tilt tables. This is a discussion on Anyone ever wonder what the team 'pros' and 'online' earn within the online poker forums, in the General Poker section; Probarly a really vague answer for these and most.
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A pair of poker players and disgraced former online poker executives teamed up to play in the 2017 World Series of Poker $1,000 Tag Team event this week.This is the same pair at least partly responsible for fleecing both recreational and pro players out of hundreds of millions of dollars while at the now defunct Full Tilt Poker.
However, it appears there are far worse crimes one can commit against the professional poker playing community. Fraud and deception may break their bankrolls, but words apparently hurt far worse.
Full Tilt: Learn, chat and play with the pros
The 2000 WSOP Main Event champion and former Full Tilt Poker executive Chris Ferguson and two-time WSOP bracelet winner, Full Tilt founder and former board member Howard Lederer both showed up in Las Vegas to play in the 2016 WSOP after a five-year absence.
Both had pretty much stayed out of the public eye since online poker’s Black Friday on April 15, 2011. That’s when the US Department of Justice shut down Full Tilt, PokerStarsand Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker.
At that time, federal authorities filed charges against the sites’ owners for violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, in addition to laws regarding bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling.
The DOJ also filed a civil complaint. It was later amended against Full Tilt specifically, alleging Ferguson, Lederer and other company directors were running a Ponzi scheme. The DOJ alleged Full Tilt’s board paid out hundreds of millions in player deposits to themselves and other Full Tilt owners.
Ferguson denied the allegations through a lawyer. Lederer did a lengthy interview claiming very little knowledge of the online poker site’s financial situation. Both then disappeared from the poker spotlight.
Lederer and Ferguson kind of apologize, return
Ultimately, the case was largely resolved (although criminal indictments for some of the named individuals are still active). Both Ferguson and Lederer eventually settled their civil cases (more here and here).
PokerStars bought Full Tilt and negotiated a plan with the DOJ to pay back the money to its players. By last summer, most of the money had been returned. Just not by Lederer or Ferguson.
Lederer issued a public statement in 2016 apologizing to the poker community for his involvement in the Full Tilt debacle. He said he was sorry for failing to keep player funds on the site segregated. He then returned to playing WSOP events last year.
Unfortunately, he also refused to make any further comment to the press. Ferguson began playing in WSOP events last summer as well. He flatly refused to answer questions or make any public statements on the matter.
Many members of the poker community seemed rather miffed by the pair’s appearance at the 2016 WSOP. However, the response was ultimately limited to a number of toothless negative social media posts.
On Monday, Lederer and Ferguson teamed up with former Full Tilt shareholder and poker pro Andy Bloch to play in the tag team event. This time around the response was pretty much the same. Several teams involved in the tournament took to Twitter to voice their displeasure. None did much of anything else about it.
Sticks and stones may break your bones
It appears it takes much more egregious offenses to get some pro poker players riled up.
Try writing something negative about poker as a profession. Perhaps tell one of the game’s loudest advocates for social change to keep it down a little. Or, attempt offending the delicate sensibilities of a popular pro.
Certain outspoken members the professional poker playing community will circle the wagons. They’ll attack your credibility and your livelihood. They will attempt to drum you out of the same community you’ve helped uplift and promote for the better part of a decade. In fact, they’ll band together against you and give it everything they’ve got.
Rip them off to the tune of $400 million or more and while you might not be welcomed back with open arms, a weak social media flaming is probably the worst of it. Unfortunately, this segment of the poker world appears to be one place where punishments rarely fit crimes and one that reserves its wrath for the easy targets rather than the tougher ones.
Full Tilt Poker started offering its Knockout bounty tournaments recently, but the site has had prices on the heads of its red-named sponsored pros for quite some time. Players have a chance to win their buy-ins back in virtually any scheduled multitable tournament on Full Tilt through this ongoing promotion — which goes along quite nicely with the bragging rights.
In any scheduled multitable cash tournament with 30 or more entrants, every time a player knocks out a red-named Full Tilt pro, they earn their buy-in back, up to $200. So, if you're playing in the weekly $750,000-guaranteed event on Full Tilt, which sports a $200 buy-in, and you knock out Mike Matusow, Clonie Gowen, and John Juanda, you'll pocket $600 in bounties, in addition to whatever you might win in the normal tournament payouts. There are currently more than 100 poker pros with red-name status on Full Tilt, so the pickings are far from slim.
The player who sends the pro railward also gets a T-shirt sent to them, which serves as further evidence that you've taken out one of the world's best poker players when bragging to your friends.
Card Player is currently offering a Full Tilt Poker deposit bonus to get players started on a pro-busting spree.