It has always been insane he was the primary source of information here all along for almost everyone reporting on it. It is silly.. Who cares what he has to say.. He is completely irrelevant in all of this. Who cares what he says or thinks? He has no knowledge of the people who are actually involved in repaying players and he has no special access. FTP has been on the outside looking in on this deal from the day Tapie got interested. it has always been a DOJ/GBT deal, so I never could figure out why someone would care what a complicit lawyer for the company going under would have to say about it. Nobody was sharing information with him or anyone at FTP. They have always been told the minimum amount they have needed to know for their part in the deal which has always been almost nothing.

It is not surprising though. The DOJ is not talking to anyone and GBT is talking to traditional, established news organizations and not poker websites.

So to be fair it is not like there is any other access for most of us here... That being said I don't know why people get so excited for the next tidbit from someone who knows little more than we do and as each day passes has less access to information than the day before.

FTP was clearly owned by a bunch of clowns so who knows what is going on behind the scenes. We all know this should have been a cut and dry deal but I suspect some of the innocent owners are pissed as hell at the criminals who were running the company because they not only stole the players money, they destroyed their worth in things.

It does seem to be taking forever for this part of the process to go on, but who knows what else is going on and to be fair as it gets closer to christmas things slow down. By the end of next week nothing will happen until the second week of January, most likely.

Not sure why you bolded my quote, I was answering posts where ppl were apparently concerned they had not had email answers for 2 days.

As for the AGCC situation, afaik, those were the critical days when GBT was speaking to FTP. The fact that AGCC had received likely over 1000 emails, etc from players and delayed before they rendered any decisions, kept GBT in the game. Anything that precipitated GBT continuing in this process was a good thing imo.
It sounds like you are under the impression that he is FTP's in-house counsel or something, which afaik is not the case. He is one of many lawyers involved in this whole debacle, each in limited ways, although no others have posted here or opened themselves to questions publicly. As for the statements, iirc, those decisions were made by others.
You''re incorrect in assuming he is the only source of information, but if he didnt answer one of your questions, I'm sure you can email him directly like others do.

People thought FTP was making 150 million a year yet the owners stole 400 million from the players... It is not that much of a stretch to see when the financials don't work out that something shady could happen.

Tapie was always going in on this for the cheap and clearly we know that to be the case now... I have only said it for months while others claimed he would be putting up 500 million dollars to clean this mess... I don't even know if his investment will get much past 200 million. The reality is though, FTP did not make much if any money before, so it is entirely possible the new FTP which has all kinds of issues the old ftp did not have could struggle as well.

I think it is silly for people to deny the thought that because someone involved in the BTG was convicted of fixing games that we should just laugh it off as them possibly fixing a poker site. Of course such lack of critical thinking and concern is why people had 100s of millions stolen from them in the first place, so it is not a surprise to see some of those same people here say there is no chance anyone like Tapie would rig a poker site.

Instead of people stupidly saying that could never happen they should instead be demanding that FTP2 prove their poker site is above and beyond reproach and go beyond what any site has done and prove their systems and games are unimpeachable... but instead people will just say "LOL U R DUMB THEY WONT STEAL FROM US", after someone else just stole from them... well you get the point.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I must play online poker.

So you think Tapie put up some sort of earnest money for all of this? I find that highly doubtful... so I suspect Tapie could walk away any time he wanted if things were not to his liking. Neither FTP nor the DOJ are negotiating from a position of strength when it comes to getting Tapie to make this deal.

If you have some information that Tapie has some kind of penalty or commitment to make this deal happen, please share, but given the nature of the deal, I find that nearly impossible to be true.

What is money to Jeff, he just charges others for his time and travel who just use the money they stole to pay him, so please don't think Jeff is flying around on his own dime. He is flying around on the money stolen from them FTP players dime. Given that he should be answering more emails.

I can pretty much guarantee that GBT is already in for millions in this deal. There have been several documents executed by GBT, and others,(FTP and DOJ) that commit each of them to make the deal if certain contingencies are met.
If GBT were not serious, they could have walked away a long time ago, having invested much less.

I don't see any way Tapie has anything to do with that. Affiliates had agreements with FTP. If you want your money you should be pursuing other channels. There is no reason for Tapie to want to get involved in that area whatsoever. He will have his own affiliate channels with his new company.

Problem is FTP has ZERO leverage with Tapie. If FTP starts to get uppity with Tapie, then Tapie can just go back to the DOJ and tell them that FTP is screwing around and this is not going to work, at which point the DOJ can put the squeeze on FTP, or Tapie can walk away leaving FTP with their sticks in their hand and a big old mess they thought they had gotten out of...Tapie has all the leverage with FTP, so I certainly hope FTP is not playing games. Why don't one of Jeff's minions email him and ask him if FTP is playing games. Hard to believe anything else is holding things up right now besides FTP trying to screw things up even more by trying to get some accommodations when they should instead be fellating GBT and praising them for their salvation.

have there been any updates in the past few days? or just continued silence?

nothing but silence.
im losing my hope.again,over and over again.

i still think it's early enough in the negotiations where no news is good news. call me optimistic or call me a realist.

there has been nothing official but this thread has another 250 pages!!

maybe lot of ppl are bored and can not play (thanks FTP) their limits, or they are under money pressure (lot of stories was there) so all they can do is f5 and talk about "opinions" all day long...?
i dont know, but i dont read it usually, i just scroll it up or down unless i can see some www adress which means usually fresh news cuz i can't wait also..;P

yea silence is depressing...
come on - get the news about FTP shareholders voted for sell, or smth in this manner... officially..

There's literally no one who can report anything on this issue and be entirely impartial so I don't know why you think it's insane that Ifrah has been a significant source. As you rightly say we are drowning in ignorance and so I think only DF and Noah, as people who have received privileged information, can comment on whether he has been the primary source so far.

I also think that you calling Ifrah "complicit" continues the implication that you've been pushing that somehow he's remotely sharing the responsibility for the gross mismanagement of FTP. I think you should either offer up some actual evidence or stop that bull****.

Is there really anything wrong with uninvolved shareholders (or employees for that matter) feeling screwed by the people who perpetrated the fraud?

The fact is that we don't know how fast or slow things are progressing right now and a lack of feedback is entirely consistent with how everything has happened so far.

FTP was making great profits especially considering how much money in "costs" was being attributed to nepotistic deals and even after the cost of business of operating facing the US market. It just so happens that Bitar et al's greed far outweighed that success.

Pokerstars has proven beyond doubt that a solid and trustworthy site can cash in the most profit and so that should prove the greatest incentive not to try and run some ridiculously shady site which will already be under greater scrutiny than any other...

I agree that Tapie could back out at any moment but why are you trying to put the spotlight back on Ifrah every ****ing time? He's just doing his job! Except you think he was deeply involved in the fraud right????

FTP having zero leverage is ideal because they'll end up with 0 if they don't cooperate and whatever deal Tapie is pushing will be > 0.

That's why it's hard to believe that FTP is playing some ridic games delaying matters. It seems to me far more plausible that processes are proceeding at whatever pace they can but weirdly enough that isn't the pace that 2p2 would like!!!

But hey, thanks for your insight as ever markksman.

Come on O wise one, tell us what amazing 9-figure businesses you have bought and sold as you've previously claimed. Your insight of business law clearly shows you are someone with vast amounts of exper... hahaha I can't even type this without giggling in real life.

Every time I come back to this thread and read a few posts, it's the same people making the same points and arguing. It's amazing!!!! Not once have I read any significant news. Guess I never learn. See you in a month FTP thread

Check back soon

ok, was gone for 2 weeks... not a single news since then? any infos from ifrah?

So what will the new week bring for us?Will we finally get some good news?Something has to happen soon,let's hope it will be positive.

a few of the more credible posters seem to believe good news is on the way

i am optimistic for now

No way. We're plot-committed to a negative outcome. Fire and Brimstone all the way!

If there's one thing I've learned it's don't tempt the poker gods.

I'm tempted.....
I'm waiting until the 16th december, then we'll hear something i'm sure.

News to come!

by Jeff Ifrah!

He was answering an e-mail from a German pokerstrategy.com member (http://de.pokerstrategy.com/forum/th...7#post10369807)