Where did you guys find out that GBT was willing to pay only 100$ per player? This can't be right....

no thats wrong, they would pay out 100$/player and the rest of your money would be a part of a payout plan essentially...
http://diamondflushpoker.com/2012/04...ct-vs-fiction/

Although I'm sure you're right there, to me this doesn't seem to justify an investment of several hundred million dollar.
There is a lot of risk involved.

the only reason anyone would buy full tilt is because he is forced to do so by a third party to settle some kind of indictment.

The only third party that could do that would be the DOJ. I have never seen DOJ get involved in the business free market to force one company to buy a defunct competitor as part of a settlement of civil or criminal charges. A purchase of the software only, at a highly discounted price, makes sense. It could be licensed to American casinos wanting to enter the intrastate business. Anything that brings along obligations to former players is hard to understand as a business deal and, apparently, DOJ wants that to be part of any deal.

Just out of curiosity, if this deal actually goes through, what do you think will happen to those players who are banned from PokerStars? Will they still be able to play on Full Tilt, and also, do you think the new Full Tilt will run satellites to PokerStars sponsored events like the EPT, LAPT, APPT, etc.?

My story is that I (permanently) closed my Stars account a couple of years ago because I ultimately wanted to change my screenname and start with fresh stats by re-opening a new account a few months later (I got the idea because I heard that others had done this, e.g PurplePills and a couple of others I can't remember). My plan was to save up some cash and deposit it later when I open my new account. Bad idea, big mistake, I know. It’s in the past now.

When the time came to open a new account, Stars immediately closed it and I've had countless e-mails back-and-forth with them for over a year but to no avail. OK, I understand their policy and I guess I've lost my right to play under my own name forever. At least that time though, Full Tilt still existed and was a very good second choice. So, I eventually let the whole Stars thing go. Now with this deal up in the air, I am a little bit hopeful (because of the possibility of being able to qualify for EPT, LAPT, etc again) but at the same time a little worried that I’ve now maybe lost my privilege to play on FT as well because of their new owners.

I would imagine(and hope) that if Stars buy FT, they will operate them separately under different licenses and therefore Stars-banned players wouldn’t be banned from FT.

^ Doubt they'd close an already existing FTP account. But you probably couldn't sign up if you hadn't already.

I think it would be more interesting in regards to fulltilt since it seems like they were closing accounts and confiscating money at a much higher rate. Likely to help pay for phantom deposits but maybe it would be like a system reset and everyone starts fresh. Hard to say but I think Pokerstars would err on the side of the customer. FTP was accused of doing a lot of fishy things and I think PS would try to distance themseleves from any FTP issues. Howard would of course be banned though

This has been answered ad nauseum, but basically, PS is doing this as part of a larger deal to settle its civil suit with the DOJ right before individual US states start opening up. They're looking to come out of this not only having acquired their potential largest competitor in the rest of the world, but to in the process, buy off the DOJ's approval to partner with a US casino to re-enter the US market.

It's a massive power play that all but guarantees that PokerStars will both remain the dominant player in the world and be able to grow back into the US as US casinos start throwing their resources behind competing sites.

Buying out FTP is also absorbing their biggest competitor. If they don't buy the software, the competition will surely make an offer thus allowing another site to have rush poker as well as better gameplay

Count me in as yet another skeptic.

Does the DOJ really care enough about U.S. citizens to force this to happen? Couldn't they benefit more from just pocketing a huge fine from Stars which would in turn allow for successful re-entry into U.S. market when the time comes?

I hope I am wrong but it could be just another huge smokescreen imo.

Not possible to be forced to buy them to settle some kind of indictment. They would ahve good terms to sue DOJ for that. But maybe
PS offered to buy FTP and settle the player deposit issue and so on. Remember, GBT was the last straw really in terms of investors to pick up FTP. If PS doesn t buy them, there is no one left, atleast that we know of

I would imagine they would be seperate companies, and you would be good to go on FTP. Th eonly cases I think they would stop someone was if they were caught cheating or other more serious things.

It is interesting why you wanted fresh stats

Sick... Thanks for the link, viva la Pokerstars!

Young and stupid lol

I cared too much about having a "perfect" resume on OPR and other online tracking sites, for staking reasons. Up to that point I played for fun and didn't take poker seriously. Then I won a package to the LAPT Grand Final in Argentina in '09. I cashed in a side event, and took down two tourneys in Paris as well on that same trip (2 month long trip). I started taking tournament poker more seriously, read the Harrington on Hold'em series, a couple of other books and participated more in forum discussions. When I got back to Vancouver, I came in 4th twice in a row in a $300 live tourney for $3k and $4k. I went down to Washington state to play a $300 tourney at Tulalip casino and came in 3rd for $4.5k.

So I felt that my new attitude towards poker deserved a fresh start on Stars even though I had a +ROI mainly thanks to that $7,500 LAPT qualifier package win. I didn't just go and immediately close my account, I did a little bit of research and found out that others did the same thing because sometimes people felt like they ran bad on an account (stupid reason but whatever) and then closed it so they can re-open a new one later.

Anyway, my main reason was still the screenname though. It was that of a soccer player's name. Don't know why that was so important for me that time... I'll even take "PinkGirlyGirlGirl" now

That you are not a poker pro...

um ok?? why because I spelt article wrong??...havent worked since I was 20 started with $10 and now play $10-$20 with over a 40k roll?? ...that wasnt the point of my post either you judgemental idiot

I had a dream Shaq and Shawn Marion were doing slow motion flips on the bed next to mine in a luxury hotel suite. So FTP deal is almost ready.

If FTP comes back I suggest a handle like "Iamnumber3"

IF we don't have to keep our old FT names, I'll use that one. You have my word... unless a better one comes to mind

and didnt that chinamaniac say something about how he would put money that an announcement at the end of this week or something? So someone has some sources that are wrong....

why whats wrong with igaming post? they were the first to break alot of poker gaming news that ended up being true

whos chinamaniac....I would never believe it if it was someone on here....igaming post is a legit company with alot to lose if they were wrong, they've been right in the past and often were the first to report things

Deleting those posts - please don't use url shorteners on 2+2. Thanks.