The Full Tilt Online 꽁머니 환전 Series continued yesterday with another met guarantee in a game with dwindling popularity, especially online, Stud Hi. 581 people bought in to Event #5, a $200+16 tournament to make a prize pool of $116,200 with almost 27k going to first place. The final table was mostly void of recognizable names except for FellKnight who has been a winning online tourney player for quite a long time now. FellKnight made a good run at the top prize but eventually ended up giving way with a very respectable 2nd place finish. Congrats to all 64 players who cashed especially the final 8.
The 9th Full Tilt Online Pokers Series continued yesterday with Event #2, PL Omaha H/L Bounty. Full Tilt always seems to come up with new tournaments for their series’ to keep people interested and this event is no exception. The $240+16 buy-in PL Omaha H/L event with 40 dollar bounties brought in 1,138 players for a total prize pool of 227k.
As usual, many big names were left at or around the final 9 and the biggest name fell victim to his own aggression, MattG1983, when he exited in 11th. The final 9 was still a tough bunch of players, however, and included such tourney poker mainstays StuMan123 and Teledonk (aka Telefonkiosk) and canibetnow. A great story ended up emerging as Teledonk came into the final table as the short stack with only 120k as opposed to the chip leader DNcrew who had 675k, but Teledonk did not give up, picked his spots well and ended up taking down the whole tourney for $51,210.
Overall, Event #2 was a very entertaining tournament and FTOPS IX continues to roll along and attract big numbers in terms of entrants and prizes.Resignations, Overhauls at Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker’s Chief Marketing Officer, Lothar Rentschler, has announced his intentions to leave the company. While his departure will not be an immediate matter, his resignation will go into effect by September 13 of this year. Rentschler has served as Full Tilt’s CMO since February of 2009, and had previously worked with such large companies as Bacardi and MEC.
Here are some snippets of what he had to say on the matter, according to an email seen by QuadJacks:
“Given the current circumstances, I do believe it is a long overdue step towards the right direction… I do apologize for the inconvenience the current circumstances at [Full Tilt Poker] have caused for you personally as well as for your respective companies. Our hands in marketing were bound and at the end even every communication was stopped.”
But, as their former online patrons could attest, Full Tilt’s problems go far beyond their marketing structure. The company is currently facing a class action lawsuit, a licensing hearing, and a possible purchase from outside investors. Th latest news in this department comes on the acquisition front.
Here’s the long and short of it, as reported by Electronic Gaming Review: In order for any company to be willing to lay down the necessary cash to buy Full Tilt, they will almost certainly demand a change in management. The former online poker giant is currently negotiating with several parties, hoping to beat their September 15 hearing date with the Alderney Gaming Council.
“Everyone has their eye on that date,” says Jeff Ifrah, a member of Full Tilt’s legal team. “Nobody wants to come to September 15th and not have a deal which is either finalized or close to finalization to the point that it can be shared with Alderney and result in the extension of that date.”
Unfortunately, the only game former Full Tilt users have been playing lately is a waiting one. There is still no word on the millions of dollars owed to players.
“I assume there’s going to be a transition period,” Ifrah continued, “and we hope that it’s not going to take that long to turn the lights back on and begin facilitating player withdrawals and obviously continue playing.”