Hello. I'm an editor empoyed for Poker-Red, the biggest Spanish online poker community and news website.

Yesterday, one of our workers received a phone call from a French magazine, LivePoker, to answer a "survey" while he was at work. The subject of this "survey" was FTP. He has some serious money stuck in FTP.

The French magazine want to know some general data about what he did after FTP was closed and presented him some options to choose regarding cashouts "as there is rumours about FTP reopening soon"

Later, our forums picked up some new testimonials and we prepared this article after further investigation.

http://www.poker-red.com/noticias/re...ull-tilt-poker

The original article is written in Spanish. We have translated it for you (cliffs at the end):



"French magazine LivePoker is running a "weird" telephone survey for Full Tilt Poker players who have mid-to substantial amounts of money stuck in the room.

One of the members of our poker community (Poker-Red, in Spain), a high stakes player, received a phone call yesterday at noon and shared the news with us right away.

Shortly after, through the Full Tilt Poker discussion thread in Poker-Red forums, some other players informed that they had been reached out too.

These are some of questions run by the survey taker at the beginning of the conversation:

What poker room are you playing right now in?
How much money do you have stuck in FTP?
Would you play in FTP again?
What were your usual cashout-deposit habits?

After that, the survey taker would comment on "a spreading rumor" that FTP would reopen within several weeks, and offer the polled three options to get their funds back:

1. Investing part of their funds in company shares. This option had already been weighed as a way to reduce the amount of money needed to relaunch the business. Afterwards, players would be able to sell their shares back to FTP and therefore get all their funds back.

2. Cashout all their account balance with a PENALTY, which would mean a percentage of the whole balance. There is no information on how much this percentage would be.

3. Small cashouts that would unlock throughout time. FTP wouldn't charge anything for a player to recover their funds but it would take around a year.

The survey taker would state that option number 3 would be the one receiving the best feedback from players.

There is no other news on international websites about these series of phone calls. This makes us think Spanish players have been the first target of this survey.

Geographical proximity and the upcoming poker law in Spain might be important matters for Groupe Tapie.

So far, these surveys seem to be directed to mid-to-high stakes players with a considerable amount of money stuck in FTP.

We'd like to point out that a poker magazine has access to high-profile poker players in FTP. When asked about this, they refuse to give any answer and move on with the conversation.

French magazine LivePoker is run by George Djen, founder partner of FullFun Company with Prosper Masquelier.

FullFun is the company Group Tapie partnered with to set up ISPT, International Stadium Poker Tour. They also own a legal French poker room with an ARJEL (french gambling commission) license, PokerExtrem.fr

These are our two main conclusions:

-Either the deal is so advanced that Group Bernard Tapie is already in charge or they have borrowed the whole player database from FTP in order to receive some feedback that would boost their negotiations.
-It seems that Group Tapie does not want an uncapitalized poker room and is browsing options that would allow them to start the whole rake cycle again and get some immediate return on investment."



Cliffs:

-French magazine LivePoker is running a telphonic survey with Spanish players with big money stuck in FTP. Obv, FTP database filtered
-LivePoker's director Georges Djen is one of FullFun founders. FullFun is related to Group Bernard Tapie by co-founding ISPT.
-The players will not be able to cashout immediately. 3 options: immediate cashout with penalty fee, 1 year-span cashout or transform funds in FTP stakes.

interesting... well lets hope things are working out.

wow.. thats insane!

Has to be good news....!!!!!!! this should be an epic thread

Great post.
Thanks for the info

immediate cashout with a penalty. lulz

Interesting for sure, let's hope it's alternative one

Gogogogo. Everyone who hasn't yet, use your one time!
In b4 this is twisted into apocalyptic news.
In b4 thread merge by RJ

So the investors didn"t make up their mind yet??
Not sure how it is supposed to be a good news..
Especially when the potential investors will realize that everybody friggin wants to cash out!

they called me aswell, im dutch fwiw

I heard this a week ago and assumed this was for U.S. players, I don't see how AGCC or anyone else could license them without 100% funding of active (ROW) accounts.

lol who would say no if they asked you if you would play on FTP again if they have all ur money

this cant be bad news.

and hopes have risen once again..

Wow. Ship it.

lol. I'd agree it is good news, but epic thread??

obviously be as nice and respectful as possible if you end up on this phone, although I'd be very surprised if this is actually anything 'important' in the sense that the results of these phone calls will mean jack #$@$.

it is a good sign though. not sure why this thread will be that great!

I think it's too absolute to speak about GBT contacting players, as this is a speculation you make. However I do understand that player's info may have been given through Tapie in order to run a survey about how players feel about different options.
I think this is a good sign, but let's not get our hopes up until something more concrete comes up.

Edit: I would also vote 1-year span cashouts.

sounds like super good news

We couldn't find further reference about this survey being ran in another country.

ArrrInnn. Are you in Netherlands? Was Netherlands stated as your country in your FTP account?

Had some other non-Spanish player been contacted and thought that this could be an scam or have not answered the phone?

Can you elaborate on how you confirmed that LivePoker Magazine was actually taking the survey? How are you sure you havent been leveled? Sorry if this sounds like a silly question.

today i also received that phone call. im from germany.

man this whole FTP situation is really messing with my emotions

At least players are being contacted - which I feel is a good sign.

Now we just need to find out when we can get our $ back and when they are going to possibly re open.

I feel ya dude!
Especially cuz so far with FTP, a bad news has always followed a good one within the next day or so, or vice versa... It's like waves, just hoping the next one won't be a tsunami.

I think EU data protection laws should allow those being contacted to demand to know how LivePoker obtained their personal data, no? Although it may have to be in writing.

They have identified themselves to the players.

No one is going to answer about his funds to an anonymous survey. And most of them have not answered such private questions by the way.

Our colleague, who recieved the call being at our offices, also confirm that the operator identified himself as LivePoker representative.