For over a year the most rediculous gossips/assertions/futilities have been made here and now there is really big news and everybody is gone.

All gone to the BIG NEWS thread

Wow.. U must have just got here today because u were pretty much wrong on everything...

But still good news for all it looks like so cheer up

I posted that this thread will be a ghost town as soon as really BIG NEWS hit. I think GBT pulling out of the deal IS fairly worthy of a NEW thread DUCY? Come on over and lets watch everyone post their ass off for a few days!

Last post was for three dee btw. Best wishes

126 pages in half a day. I could read a good book in the same time. I guess you had to be there from the beginning. I think I stay in this desolate desert.

So guys I was reading this:
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/0...tars-12516.htm
what really caught my eye was (in bold)
--
April 24, 2012 14:45 p.m. PDT:PokerNews caught up with GBT attorney Behnam Dayanim Tuesday afternoon and asked him some follow-up questions regarding the statement.

Read more: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/0...tars-12516.htm

How long do you think it would have taken for GBT to repay players?

What we had agreed to do was 1.) Reinstate player balances immediately so players could use their balances on the site, and 2.) We said we would allow for a withdrawal of those balances over a period of time that would depend on a number of factors. The overwhelming majority of players would have been paid back within a year — a substantial majority of them immediately. Only a few of the large balances would take longer.

--
So, maybe its even good that deal was terminated

you're doing it wrong

I guess you posted this one before reading the rest of the thread.

Ever hear the expression: look before you leap?

so glad to be on the verge of never having to check this thread or see it near the top of NVG again

He was right after all!

Given what he said precisely that has some interesting implications.
GBT pulling back now was just part of the big plan.

LOL @ tapies plan to pay ROW players

absolute joke

Just came from the big news thread. What a mess.! Lol... Everyone is still arguing with each other. It must be in poker player's nature

Tapie was going to pay people back in 5 years. If they had anything left after deductions or inactivity.

Ya that is an ABSOLUTE JOKE

Essentially they would have been stealing. If accounts were inactive for a period they get hit with 5 % penalties per month??? COMICAL

Also you would have to deposit and play. Basically you would have to slave for them to see your money.

What happens if a guy has 2 or 3 million on there but can't find action? He just gets screwed?

Basically they would have put up 60 million and freerolled to victory

Even though I am a U.S. player and would have been repaid **** THEM

And Tapie kept mentioning that Stars will be dominating the market and it is sad? Who gives a **** who owns the market? They will pay

WOW, I guess I didn't know that. WHAT A JOKE! Good thing stars stepped up to the plate!

I would have raged so ****ing hard if that deal went through and those plans were put in place after waiting so long for my money. I'm talking serious orangutan on heat with 50 other males in the cage type of rage.

The GBT negotiations basically ended pretty much as I suspected all along.

I said the sticking point would be making ROW players "whole"

It was obvious GBT didnt have all the money for this deal.

A huge red flag was them going after mostly uncollectable Pro money.

94% of accounts probably includes a lot of accounts with a few cents of balance. Don't be fooled by that nonsense statement.

The biggest 6% of accounts could be as much as 30-40% of ROW money owed.

I think having Stars takeover is by far the best scenario possible.

Am I too late to be the first one to offer an apology to HDemet?

Harry, you were right about Tapie all along, perhaps even more right than you thought you were.

Harry consistently said that Tapie had no intentions of investing $300M+ for FTP, my response was that the entire deal could be done for less than $200M, but now we've learned that he was only actually willing to put up $60M (to DOJ) + $16M (initial withdrawals) - $40M (released frozen accounts) -$25M (secured from one investor) - (as much money he could raise selling shares to additional investors) - $16M (loans he wanted paid back from Pros).

By my calculations, his plan had him walking away as the majority owner of FTP having actually secured a profit just for brokering the deal.

Edit: I should also take a moment to apologize to those Pro's who refused to negotiate repaying their loans with Tapie. Sorry Barry et al, you guys were apparently doing the right thing.

He had the money, he just didnt want to use it.

Tapie is a business man first. He has no allegiance or real love for the game itself. He was going to do what all good private equity investment firms wouldve... which was to buy FTP at a ridiculously low cost-- be it borrowing money and putting in 20 of his own, finding other investment partners, w/e. Just get his foot into the door to get FTP operating again.

Then he wouldve just restructured the company, pay himself and his partners consulting and management fees from whatever profits they were generating. He wouldve done this to the max and then he then just load up the company with debt (all the while keeping his and his partners' hands clean) to keep the company barely afloat. At some point, he wouldve recouped his initial investment between the consulting and management fees, other profits, and loading up the company with debt.

Once he recouped his initial investment he probably wouldve just walked away because the company would be so debt ridden that bankruptcy was near.

Tapie's whole grandmaster plan was to just get the company running again. Once he got it running and showed that it was profitable, he would start loading up the company with debt from banks or other investors. It is a business plan. He had no interest in paying back players outright. That's a 20 year plan to recoup your investment.

tapie still lost a few millions in all of this right?

3 months ago I told people he probably has put 10 million into this (easy imo) and I was laughed at.

He's paying a top ass law firm to negotiate with the DOJ. Can you imagine what that hourly is?

He commissioned a global telephone survey

His management team spent thousands of man hours researching, projecting, etc in the discovery process

i can keep going and that was 3 months ago...
i mean, 10 million easy imo

Thanks man..I appreciate the info...It probably looked like I was trollin lol...I just haven't logged on or read about the latest news for about 6months until yesterday. Thanks again.

negative 5 million dollar. (try again)

A lot of us were shouted down when we dared suggest that the only way this deal made financial sense was if the ROW players were screwed over by some 3X rake deal just to withdraw.

As it turns out that is EXACTLY what Tapie intended to do but wasnt allowed to by the DOJ

By charging the players rake to withdraw he was basically using player money to buy FTP rather than his own.

We as players dodged a huge bullet here. Tapie would have been nothing but hassle in my opinion.

If Stars takes over as reported I am pretty confident we will be paid without penalty as US players were paid shortly after BF.