settle down there brohemian no need to get all hateful

http://wickedchopspoker.com/confirme...ll-tilt-poker/

don't be to excited. No sources again.

Plz Stars buy Full Tilt and then sponsor "The Micros" as well! God, I miss this show!!

Was the last sentence necessary? They could've ended the statement with the first one, if they weren't involved in this deal they'd probably say "we have nothing to do with this".

Make sense?

This post explains why countries like everyone in the EU and the United States can carry trillions in debt and everyone just sorta rolls over and takes it.

You can be happy about people getting their money back and still be concerned about the monopoly that will be created. 98% of people with a brain understand that not everything on this planet is black and white -- love or hate. I suspect most people are generally pleased but have seen, or have been educated on what happens historically with monopolies.

NOT a monopoly people, dominant market share. Think Apple and the tablet market.

Pokerstars knows exactly what they are doing. They didn't wait for last minute to go after FTP for no reason. They are the most successful online poker site, because, their management team is just plain good in what they are doing. It is obvious, to me at least, that such a big business deal will not be dealt with in public.
In the end it'll all work out...at least, for now, lets be positive about the situation.

When they say FTP and Stars are back online, thats non-US right?

Stars vs. Party vs. Cake vs. Bovada vs. Merge hardly seems like a monopoly imo.

Just because stars has the best site and most customers, doesn't mean that it's a monopoly...just means it's the best site out there right now.

Just thinking about what an amazing ( and quite expensive ) PR move that would be if PS bought FTP . Seeing lots of countrys regulating onlinepoker and " having this big online site who stole tons of $ " storie hurts the whole onlinepokerindustry alot , and might result in banning onlinepoker in some countrys or make it very expensive regulating ( germany f/e ) . Could be very profitable short to mid-termish , just for PS itself .

And getting rid off the DOJ shouldnt be that bad either .

They should buy cereus too and pay out all the players charity ftw

Correct,

however since both are settling with the DoJ both sites will be able to re-enter U.S. markets upon regulation.

Your logic disconnect comes after your second sentence. Everything you wrote before that, does not necessarily lead to the last.

As a brand, PS has infinitely more value than FTP at the present time. Owning the FTP and operating a poker site under the FTP name, do not mean the same thing at all.

And GBT operating an FTP-branded site, and PS operating an FTP-branded site, also do not mean the same thing whatsoever. GBT needed branding benfits to realize, because it did not *already have* the most trusted brand in online poker sites. PS does.

Ron White was right.

The forfeiture allegation was $1.5 billion for Stars.

I think we had real reason to believe that a GBT-operated FTP2 would be on an equal footing with operators like 888 and Party if/when it came time to allow international sites into a future, licensed US market, because they themselves didn't operate illicitly in the US, they only purchased the assets of a company that did. (Aside: personally I don't believe any international licensing will ever happen due to US protectionism, but the sites are obviously hoping for it, and they probably know more than I do.)

It would make some sense that another buyer of the remains of FTP would be in the same circumstance. It becomes a little weird if it's Stars, but I expect that FTP-under-Stars will operate as its own company and have a reasonable chance of getting the benefit of the doubt. While the DOJ has the power to insist on a no-operations-in-the-US clause in their agreement, they can't actually give anyone permission to get licensed. Whether any existing operator is allowed into the US is all up to the licensing authority, whether that's Congress or the individual states, and who knows what they'll do.

I think it's very likely that Stars is doing this in anticipation of a potential future in which they are not allowed into the US market, but a new company that purchased the FTP assets would be. How likely that future is is a ridiculously complicated question. I expect Stars has an estimated probability, and it doesn't have to be terribly high for this deal to make sense.

But they would be the monopoly in regards to setting par for the course. I'm going to exaggerate here ...... Stars with that type of audience size wants to make the rake 25% lets say, Merge or any other of the current online poker rooms are not large enough to make a stand against that and create a control to where Stars would not be able to do that to the player pool without major ramifications....as of now....if the landscape is going where we all think it is going...Stars is going to be the monopoly and the players are going to have to keep there fingers crossed until a new site can gain momentum and be considered a competitor to Stars.

Wat? I should be happy DF is misleading people with her "inside knowledge"? okay sir. My point sailed right over your head. Do you need me to spell it out?

Ok, I only read the first 100 posts or so, but seriously, LOL@ all the guys complaining about a monopoly. WTF do you think they've had for the past year? Absolutely nothing will change in that regards. Nothing will change regarding legalization, and if casino or states or whatever open up shop, nothing will change

How exactly has she been "misleading people with her inside knowledge?" please provide proof of any points you make

Did you read any of her posts? omg....

The fact that PS brand is golden doesn't change the fact that the FTP brand still has supplementary value, especially if the US market opens up again. Consumers aren't rational, especially in the gambling market, and so having two powerful brands mgiht end up being a very good idea. And again you're ignoring that the cost of buying FTP is marginal to different settlements PS would could with the DOJ.

we need something official. the waiting game is killing me.

You're somewhat close here, so I'll expand. (promise this will be my only "monopoly" post as there are too many already and people are giving this way too much attention as it is). The only way I see this becoming an issue is if say stars decides to increase the rake from 5-10% while also increasing the cap say a $1. They do this because well...they can and people don't have many other options. Of course, other sites wouldn't dream of doing this for the fear of losing players from their already small player pools, but once Stars ups the ante, then other sites will follow because Stars has set the bar that much higher.

Currently the only thing that other sites can offer to keep players that Stars doesn't is lower rake/rakeback. They'll still offer better rake structure, but it'll be higher than the current rate....again, if this all happened.

And. I'm. Done.

Statements like this aren't exactly convincing anyone. Show me proof and give solid examples

To be fair I think just about everyone, including GBT ,thought the deal was strong. Think PS snuck up on Tapie and showed the DOJ it's muscles (bank statements) and everything changed nearly overnight. Wow what a ride