I haz a poker hobby!

lol I remember back when I used to bitch at people doing what novel said and getting crushed starting tables since the only people who'd start with me were the sickos. Luckily FTP gave the fish free money to dump to me and I run hot enough to make up for it.

yes, one year of blood and tears at pokerstars.

What do you guys think? Is it almost gametime???

* FTP hiring
* Someone on 2p2 (high post count) gets job at FTP customer service and says he starts on April 30th
* Some sources (probably unreliable) saying FTP will have lots of added $$$$ to tourneys

Obviously not getting my hopes too high. I have been traveling forever and ready to go home to grind my FTP BR back in the form of a bonus (no way they let me cash it all out).

If they never come back, oh well I can give online poker one more try now that Zoom Poker is up and running on pokerstars. The only question is will the games have passed me by after only 6 months?? I don't know.

Either way, pretty sure we will know soon if FTP comes back up. After that, just hoping the DOJ pays Americans IN FULL. Its been a brutal wait. I definitely wasted part of my life just on stand by waiting. But I also moved on this year by returned to my former job and assumed the money was gone. I know it doesn't seem like it by this post, but trust me I did move on with my life. However the recent events have given me some hope.

You have just fulfilled every single one of my secret dreams of opening up this forum and reading how i get my money back in full if this post comes true. That being said, I don't feel crazy good about getting 100% of my money back being a US player. But some money back... i think its getting close to being a certainty considering it looks like FTP deal has actually gotten done.

Hope this is resolved before I die lol pray...

Way to jinx us.

This is pretty positive. After they said they were opening in late march and nothing happened, I wasn't holding my breath. But if someone is going to start paying him april 30, that's a really good sign.

In before we find out the dude just said that because he wants to sell his FT roll.

It'll be interesting to see what the "repayment" terms for the row players will be. And I'm hopeful the doj pays us within a year.

I don't see why they wouldn't pay us in full. They would have the money. If they were going to shaft us, I think it more likely they give us nothing than them giving us say 50%.

If I had to make a prediction from what I have read, U.S. will get 50-80% in 6-12 more months and ROW will have full access to their money when site re-opens sometime in May.

Don't know if you guys have seen the latest supposed leaks about the re-launch it certainly seems like they have got some kind of info from somewhere but how much they have embellished it to make some headlines is anyone's guess.

http://www.pokerq4.com/new-full-tilt-poker-cash-games

http://www.pokerq4.com/full-tilt-pok...ch-tournaments

http://www.pokerq4.com/ftp-relaunch-...ents-continued

lossback instead of rakeback is a pretty interesting concept dunno how I feel abut it right now.

if i had to guess id say 100% US player debts paid out to doj and ROW player balances will be there upon opening but with withdrawal restrictions.

lossback seems like a usesless idea and probably fake. the site would actually need to lose money on these fish at the small and midstakes games for the $ amount to make an impact. but if they can create a program the fish like then great

At first I thought loss back was a huge rip off but, loss back seems like it can be win-win. It's because money to fish eventually gets back to the better players, and there's a multiplier effect... A dollar to fish generates more rake than a dollar to a winning player. So FT could theoretically offer more rake back to the players and make more money at the same time.

I'm practice tho, it would surprise me if FT didn't just pocket the money.

Sparky, what makes you say US players will only get 50-80%? I'm assuming the DOJ will take some withholding, but as long as you paid taxes on it, you should get most of the taxes back.

My guess would be they use money seized on BF plus money GBT pays for assets which comes to roughly 60% I think

How much are the US players owed? How much money was seized by DOJ? What do you mean by adding GBT money equals rough 60%? How did you arrive at that 60% number? I thought whatever DOJ seized is more than enough to cover all US players?

Sparky just trolling, bros.

idk why the whole "if you paid taxes on your winnings etc" keeps coming up. I FULLY intend on paying taxes on whatever % of my 34k I get... but to assume that we're supposed to pay taxes on that money this year without knowing if we'll ever get it is absurd to me. I mean what are we supposed to do? Pay the 8-10k on my 34k (or whatever it is) and then if I never get the 34k then im **** out of luck for another 8-10k?

Not to mention the whole area of paying taxes on online winnings is a pretty grey area anyways. I presume unless you've been making regular high 5 figs or low 6 fig withdraws over the past two years, as long as you pay the taxes on whatever money they give you, you'll be fine.

This is just my 2 cents though. Not sure if I'm way off in this mindset or not.

It's not a gray area at all for the times we could cash it out. When you were able to cash it out (it's called constructive receipt) you pay taxes as you win it. The law's super clear about that.

I said seized on BF not seized leading up to that date. Just my opinion but I just don't see the govt handing over everything they seized and walking away with nothing. Don't forget DOJ wanted 1billion in fines, that number will obv come down but not to zero and the $$$ has to come from somewhere my guess is seized funds.

So lets say money owed is 150 mill, total money seized is 300mill, money seized on BF is like 10-30mill I think, money from GBT is 80 mill.

So that gives something like 250-300mill for fine and about 90-110mill to repay players. Just my 2c I have no concrete evidence to suggest this is how it will play out.

I think ROW will have full access to their funds as soon as site opens though, just can't see any other option for GBT.

hmmm scratch what I said they only seized 160mill over the years, that means they only have about 240mill to cover 150mill of balances and a reduced billion dollar fine. I cant see DoJ being happy with less than 10% of what they filed for.

I bring it up, because i don't think most people file the way you are "supposed" to. Theoretically if you had been filing the way you were supposed to, you would have waaay overpaid on your taxes. It's because as you win (not as you cash out, as Zach mentioned), you are supposed to pay estimated taxes quarterly. So by April 15, you "should" have paid taxes on all winnings thru march 31. Meaning your entire FT roll would have been money you already paid taxes on. But the fact that so few people have actually bitched about how they overpaid taxes in the threads tells me that no full-timer really pays their taxes. . (or at least files estimated taxes like they are "supposed" to. Of course you may have a good reason for not filing estimated taxes. But had you done the "right thing" you would have gotten boned harder. So I don't think anyone is going to give anyone a hard time on taxes.

Looks like FT has some kind of gaming license hearing early next month.

Sparky, does GBT even have the 200mil to pay out the ROW players? It seems kind of stupid for them to risk having a mass exodus of cash outs, when they need the volume of former players to get the site going. That's why I don't think the cash will be readily available, and will only be available on a play-thru basis.

The most they will do is cap cash outs at like 5k a month or something but that is pretty unlikely imo. GBT shouldn't care much if people cash out, they need people to start depositing way more than they need to worry about people cashing out, only people with real money on site is the regs they will come back as soon as the fish do. I predict lots of incentives to deposit and not withdraw, but I don't think there will be any kind of play through requirement before you can cash out.