Every once in a while, when a situation comes up which is truly fitting, I will also go into that 'shock and outraged' mode. I was actually reading some of the posts on 2+2, when this thought came to mind.
Funny that it took me a month + to self acknowledge that it's truly how I felt. I don't think I was alone in thinking what a great site FullTilt poker was to play on. I really really liked the site for many reasons. Pokerstars on the other hand, was a site I played on, had pretty good results, but it was always a vacation from Fulltilt.
Tilt did alot to create a great atmosphere for it's players. They did alot of promotion and were not cheap about it. But like any great salesman, the facade they created, masked problems and issues behind the scenes. They were good at it, and were seemingly getting away with it....but was not to last forever.
It is like what happens to criminals that get away with their crimes for years and years....we've all seen it, eventually time catches up with them. They get snug and conceited and comfortable, and then it all comes crumbling down. Just look at the Onyx cup as an example of where they were heading.
So at least for me, there is nothing FullTilt will ever be able to do, to get my business back, short of sending me a big check as an apology. But that will never happen.....I mean, I'll be happy if they just give back the money they owe to their U.S. players. FWIW, I think they will, but don't hold your breath. WSOP is a couple of weeks away, and many players were counting on getting their rolls to play. So if they haven't return the monies by then, it will create another shit storm on top what's already piled up.
It's ironic that as good as they were as selling themselves, they were equally as bad at the PR handling of this situation.
One other thing about the sponsored pro's. You know that was another pretty nice marketing gimmick....'play and chat with the pros'......the stable of which had grown dramatically. We don't know what was happening behind the scenes, but at the end of it all, I suspect we will find that these pro's were just employee's. I've seen comments by many on forums and the podcasts who would love to hold them accountable, but I don't see it that way at all.
Team FullTilt is another story, and I think most have always seen them as part owners of the company. But even if they were, we don't know what kind of voting and or say they had on the operations. I think I will reserve any judgement, until or if that ever comes to fruition.
I got an email from the CEO of Black Chip Poker, because I had signed up, but not deposited. Black Chip is on the Merge network. Dusty Schmidt aka Leatherass, has a pretty nice deal if you decide to put money on Merge. Lessons/Books/Rakeback, alot of incentives, and there are other skins of Merge which are also offering, and apparently successfully signing up U.S. players, as their numbers have been on the rise.
But as I sent in my reply to Scott Brown (BC CEO), I really hate the software. It's horrible. The usability is horrendous, and it's leaps and bounds behind what most players are use to from Tilt and Stars.
Now there will be die hards that are jonesing for real action poker, and they may put up with the crappy software.... But I will not.....seems silly maybe, but the 'experience' is part of the allure of playing for me.
Anyway, I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep the blog alive, since my poker playing is ziltch, and going out and playing live will be very infrequent. I am toying with the idea of heading out to the WSOP, but I have a bunch of personal and business commitments, that are making those chances slim...but will post if I do, and maybe I can finally meet some of you guys in our little corner of the poker blog world.
2BA
3 comments:
The whole situation is sad. Such a huge operation with so much potential to come tumbling down in an instant.
But really, this could have been the best thing to ever happen for us. Maybe in 5 years we can be making 5 times what we were with our "hobby".
Who knows? Best of luck to you in whatever else you do. . .
Well, most of the issue is
1) Stars paid out so quickly, partially because of their requirements to segregate player funds, partially because they ran a tighter ship, and
2) FTP's communication has been atrocious at best. But, I've always viewed FTP as more incompetent than criminal in the first place.
If Stars' moneys were still in limbo, and we were on a NetTeller payout timeframe of months, there would be a lot less FUD floating around and players would be a little more patient.
But as soon as Black Friday hit, I wrote off playing for money on Stars/FTP ever again - because they will never ever be back in the U.S anyway regardless of what happens.
Been playing a bit on Merge, and I don't think the software is all that bad compared to what BoDog was like - but it certainly doesn't make me want to play on their site.
So c'est la vie.
It would be cool to finally meet in person. I'm keeping my blog going. I'll still be playing live occasionally. I still like to think and write about poker. My feeling is it will be back and when it does, this little hobby will be profitable again.
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