Cashier update

I got my money from PokerStars today, they came through as advertised.

I also just got this from FullTilt:

Dear twoblackaces, As you are aware, following the recent events in the United States, Full Tilt Poker is no longer able to offer real-money play to residents of the U.S. and its territories. Returning U.S. Players' funds is our top priority. We are working hard to achieve this and will have a further update for U.S. players next week. We have compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions we have received from U.S. players, which may address some of your questions or concerns. The page can be found here: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/us-player-faq Updates will be posted on this page when they become available. Thank you for your patience as we work through the outstanding issues. Kind regards, Full Tilt Poker 2BA

Cashed out from PokerStars

PokerStars is now allowing cashing out for US players. In a pretty telling mark, that this is truly the end for US players, you will need to cash out your entire account balance when you place your cashout request. Wire payments will be available for amounts over $50,000, while all others will get paid out via a direct bank transfer.

I was happy to see that they converted my T$ and SCOOP ticket to dollars, but FPP’s were not. I do expect that they will work something out..

You can login to your PokerStars account and start the process by going to the cashier and requesting a withdrawal.

You can also follow this topic on this twoplustwo thread.

2BA

Quadjacks

I've been tuning into the marathon podcast over a quadjacks from time to time, they've had many interesting guests, and some compelling discussion on the current state of online poker.

Here is a blog by one of the panelist, where he shares some very interesting commentary:

http://www.lawdonk.com/

CK (from BWOP blog) has also been a regular panelist, giving plenty of legal analysis, which has triggered many good discussions.

I have no idea how much longer they will keep it up....you should check them out if you can.

2BA

Poker my pokah

Where to begin? Well for one, I suppose I have all kinds of free time now. Playing online poker did take time a toll on my time, although I tried to play mostly in the evenings. But it was my hobby, and so convenient too. I was and always consider myself a 'casual' poker player. The money I dumped into my hobby, was truly a cost of entertainment. Luckily, I had success, and had some nice scores. The real fun was always in the challenge, and the competition. Whether it was against 3000 other fellow donks, or against my fellow poker bloggers, it was always good times.

On the other hand, I really feel for all those cyber friends and acquaintances that I've made over the years, who were making their living from poker. That extends out to many in the poker media, who I've had the pleasure of reading over the past years, and who's livelihood's are now in jeopardy. Alot of good folks are going to be impacted, and are collateral victims of this mess.

There is plenty of analysis on the current and future state of online poker. I've listed many links in past posts, and I don't think it's hard to keep up to date. But here are some additional thoughts I have, for what it's worth.

As those of you who read my blog know, I had already started to sour on Fulltilt, after being wrongly dinged by a payment processor, which obviously had in some way, been passed my personal banking information by Fulltilt. They never took any accountability and made it my problem to fix. I suppose it was an appropo prelude to Black Friday.

I think we were all in a classic case of denial We all knew 'something' was up, but we just never owned up to it. If we had, we would have stop playing a long time ago. I'm just as guilty as everyone else in this respect.

The allegations against Fulltilt and Pokerstars are grave. Make no mistake, if you've read the indictments, it's obvious that the issue goes far beyond the UIGEA The DOJ has been building their case since way back in 2006, and the proverbial hammer has come down.

Some may argue that the UIGEA 'forced' these sites to undertake the actions that has now led to these indictments. But as we all know, 2 wrongs don't make a right.

Greed is a powerful motivator.....no wonder it's one of the deadly sins.

So for now, it will be occasional play money games and trips to Winstar or Choctaw to play this game I truly love.

As for real money online poker, I'm sure it will be back.

Might be a few years, but it will be back.

2BA

Need a good laugh?

Funny stuff in this epic 2+2 Thread!

2BA

Sunday poker with HeffMike

Great idea Mike!

2BA

DOJ paves way for US Online poker players to get their money

This is some good news.

Note DOJ made this agreement with Pokerstars and Fulltilt. UB is not mentioned, only Absolute, but has not agreement as of yet.

2BA

More Links

Found a site that does a nice job of putting tons of links together, thought I share:

http://pkrgssp.tumblr.com/

2BA

Go Check BWOP's blog on current Online Poker situation

http://bwop.blogspot.com/

Great explanations by CK over her last few posts. As I recall, she is a lawyer and has very insightful views on the current situation with Online poker.

Go check it out!

- Fred

Micros Episode #5 - DOJ inspired!

2BA

Online Poker - RIP

http://www.scribd.com/doc/53107543/Indictment-DOJ-vs-Scheinberg-Bitar-Tom-et-al

Game over......well at least until it's regulated.

2BA

No honor among thieves

http://www.businessinsider.com/boy-genius-online-poker-scandal-2011-4

2BA

Online poker D-Day

http://blogs.forbes.com/nathanvardi/2011/04/15/founders-of-worlds-biggest-online-poker-companies-indicted/

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April11/scheinbergetalindictmentpr.pdf

Hasta la vista baby....

2BA

PMI Update #3

......check out the latest email from Fulltilt:

Hello Fred,

Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker Black Card Support,

Allow me to assure you that Full Tilt Poker did not initiate or authorize the processing of this PMI transaction. Please also be assured that there has been no compromise of any of your personal details or banking information.

Unfortunately, we have recently been made aware of a technical error on the part of one of our previous banking partners. After a thorough investigation, we have learned that this bank had erroneously and incorrectly billed a batch of transactions that originated from Full Tilt deposits made in July of 2010. This bank had inadvertently submitted these payments to a processor known as PMI. However, PMI has never been authorized to handle FTP customers.

We have since been assured that any accounts that were erroneously charged by PMI will be refunded. If you have not been refunded for any transactions billed by PMI, we kindly request a copy of a bank statement showing these charges so we can investigate further.

Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us.

Regards,

Andrew
Full Tilt Poker Black Card Support

I am pretty shocked that their legal dept has authorized this communication. If PMI was never authorized to process transactions, then it follows logically that my personal information - specifically my banking information - is absolutely not secure. And neither is yours.

If this was a technical issue, then why the same recurring error 4 months in a row???

But here's the million dollar question.....since they now know this was an issue, have any of you out there receive an email from Fulltilt notifying you of this issue, and asking you to check your bank accts? Wouldn't that be the right thing to do here?

To date, from what I've read on the forums, all the impacted players (who have noticed) have had to take the initiative to get their money back....there has been no refund made to anyone who hasn't put in a claim.

2BA

PMI update #2

The credits hit my bank today. In fact, they hit me 4 times, I had missed one. I'm glad that they did it without hassle, but obviously you need to take the first step. I don't believe they had it 'in process' as they claimed, and only my contacting them is what got me the credits back.

Now that the credit's have applied, I'm going to close my bank acct and all the headache's that come with doing that. But at least I'll have piece of mind.

I am convinced that Fulltilt is fully responsible, and by basically not taking any accountability, has shown me that they don't care about their players.

Outside of some blogger events, I doubt you'll see me much on FT anymore.

2BA

PMI Update

I finally got a hold of this company calling the 8888758035 number. Miraculously, they had already 'flagged' my account, and was sitting with their Risk group. She put me on hold, and when she came back, she said that the 3 charges had been erroneously process. And that the credit's had already been processed, and should hit my bank within the next 3 days.

Sounds like great news, but the reality is after reading 2+2, is that others had the same experience. I've also seen posts where impacted folks have indeed been credited by PMI.

I should know in the next few days if I get mine as well.

What a great scam. And the way I see it, Fulltilt is and should be held accountable. How else did PMI get our 'secure' info? and up until now, they are pulling a Poncius Pilate. Not cool and unacceptable.

Bottom line is, that anyone who was charged by these people, will have to call them, or their bank in order to get this reversed. So anyone who doesn't, most likely because they are not aware, will be screwed. Everyone should always be auditing their accounts, but the reality is that most don't. And of course, this crooked payment processor, will pocket that cash.

Spread the word.

2BA

Fulltilt email response

Here's another email I just got from their black card support:

Hello Fred,

Thank you for emailing.

I can confirm that Full Tilt has never contracted with, or used a third party processor called PMI.

We never initiated, nor authorized, the processing of any PMI related transactions. We have attempted to contact the PMI +1-888 number to get more information for our legal team, to vigorously defend these allegations and investigate this matter further.

So far, we've been unsuccessful in determining the source of how these transactions were wrongfully processed. We recommend that you contact your bank and dispute all transactions related to PMI 8888758035. As stated, they were never authorized nor processed by any of Full Tilt?s processors.

Should you have any further enquiries, please dont hesitate to contact us again.

Regards,

Paula
Full Tilt Poker Black Card Support

Unreal! How completely unacceptable is that!

2BA

FullTilt Compromising it's Players Bank information

This will be a huge ding on online poker, and I'm telling you this issue has impacted me first hand.

A former FTP payment processor has gone bad and is stealing from the bank accounts of Full Tilt depositors.

READ this thread at 2+2 discussing the matter. The company in question is called PMI 8888758035 and FTP has acknowledged the fact PMI did do work for them. Players report PMI began "double-charging" their bank accounts in January. PMI would then go on to change the name on charges to bank statements to "PMI SALE".

This response from Fulltilt is completely unacceptable:

"We can confirm that Full Tilt Poker did not initiate or authorize the processing of this transaction. For further details on this charge, please contact the processor in question PMI 8888758035 As this charge did not originate from Full Tilt Poker, we also recommend contacting your financial institution should you wish to pursue the matter further. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused."

Like most of you, I only keep an operational amount of money on Fulltilt/Stars for obvious reasons. I too back in November made some deposits, and had reported this issue to Tilt about double charges on my account, which didn't hit until the end of Feb and March. Considering I am a supposed VIP, on their Black Card Program, their response blows my mind. I have been a faithful customer since the beginning, but this is the straw that is breaking the camels back.

I should have done this from the start, but now I'll be forced to close my bank acct, and get another one exclusive for online poker. This will be a major pain in the ass, but I have no other choice. This has had a very sobering effect on my online poker playing habit, and I don't think I'll be playing anywhere near the volume or the stakes I have before. I won't go back to that until online poker is regulated in the US, and therefore at least have some of peace of mind that we aren't getting ripped off.

So.....If you made Full Tilt Poker deposits in the Fall of 2010 (and into 2011) :

CHECK YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS PEOPLE!

2BA

Micros episode 4

2BA