I have asked myself many times “What is really happening within the walls of Pocket Kings/Full Tilt Poker?”
I do believe is what is inside that matters, not just what appears to be.
What's left of Full Tilt Poker: the software, the intellectual property (some bright people turning grey by the day) and a once triumphant brand living on its past glories. The inept way in which the management treats their staff, contractors & the pros is mirrored in how they are handling the players and their money. I was with the company for quite a while, until recently, when any remnant of loyalty was stolen away.
Pocket Kings - Full Tilt Poker is on its knees. A decease has it in its grip and it is keeping it on its knees; greed, arrogance and dark management practices pushed it down to the dirt.
The headquarters of Pocket Kings Ltd – parent company of Full Tilt Poker are controlled in fact by 3 individuals who have made sure over the past years to get close to Ray Bitar and feed him what they wish him to hear not what he needs to hear, gaining power by feeding his insecurities in a variety of ways. They act not only as a filter for employees, restricting direct contact to Ray Bitar but also make sure that the whole board of executives and the rest of the management get only well crafter information, customized to these 3 individuals' personal benefits. The end result is that they are a law onto themselves. Pocket King as a company, cannot grow to new ideas or to a proper corporate structure as the scale over took their abilities and thus they went into aggressive defense to cover up their own lack of ability and creativity.
Caroline Lynch, head of HR is well known for her sharp tactics, harassment even in the rest rooms… and is incredibly unskilled in any people management, I’m sure upstanding HR professionals would cringe upon review of her actions. Commitments are always verbal and then denies when looking for follow up by action or in writing. One of her claims to fame is how she will storm into your office, after having your access to your computer blocked and threaten you with dismissal because you challenged a HR's communication process in an attempt to add value. It only takes a quick google search to find out more details about the results she's achieved after her poor performance in Pocket Kings.
PocketKings/Full Tilt Poker's HR department has no credibility or respect from anyone anymore, it seems to always be making the most ridiculous moves, causing each day more and more harm to the moral of the employees and to what is left of the reputation of Pocket Kings.
It was already a challenge to attract good qualified people to apply for positions badly needed when the company was at its best, long before Black Friday, due to the sad and well deserved reputation HR had already claimed, but hopefully nobody else allows them to treat them unfairly. They need to learn that no matter how much money they or the company might have/had it gives them no rights to ignore people's rights.
In this crisis times I would urge the official government organizations to keep a close eye on what HR at Pocket Kings might have in mind... Seriously.
Now, with their silence treatment, where the whole staff is prohibited from communicating any information to players, pros, creditors or in fact anyone at all from outside the company, regularly reminding their staff of the confidentiality clause in their contracts - it's the way it rolls, each opportunity, another threat to make sure they don’t forget who they are dealing with - it’s getting worse and worse every hour, the company is in crisis and the staff are threatened that if the look to get alternative employment in the industry they have developed with the secure the families future they will be sue for all they have. Recently also the employees who left to a well known Irish site received solicitor’s letters to stop them from attracting people to join with them.
Pocket Kings has lost over 120 employees since Black Friday so far, they left because of complete lack of confidence in the company, and this number doesn't include the international staff that was actually laid off recently. Most of the remaining staff has one thing in mind quite clear, if these three individuals are not managed aside/out when the new investor steps in, along Bitar, they’re leaving. It was mentioned by the CTO, also close friend of Caroline Lynch, that the management was more than likely not changing. This alone pushed a number of employees to pack and leave to a secure job away from this ridicule - there is no better word to describe it.
There has been no communication about the situation and the future of the staff apart from three short emails telling nothing, and the correspondent threats reminding information confidentiality, the moral is on the floor, uncertainty is huge, people have families to feed, bills to pay, and there is absolutely no communication, no respect, and this is well known to players and staff alike, but the management doesn't seem to see anything beyond their own pockets. If there is a deal on the table, if they are in fact close to finalizing a deal, why are they allowing employees to leave doing absolutely nothing to retain anyone? Internally, people are sitting at their desks in disbelief. There is always a reaction, a threat, never an initiative, never reassurance.
As an example, this situation describes clearly how they function: Pocket Kings always had a good restaurant, sometimes food was a bit OTT but hey, no complaints.
Now, after Black Friday, things changed dramatically, and for the last couple of months in particular, lasagne was the regular dish. Still nice, but what felt like a spit on the face of everyone queuing to get lasagne.... once again... was to see an entourage of kitchen staff, carrying trays of fancy food passed everyone's noses. Literally! Sometimes as sick as lobsters, all for Ray Bitar and his gang. This made people particularly angry, they brought the company to the embarrassment that is now, we got the pasta, they still got lobster!!! Sick. Worse for the poor kitchen staff carrying the tray, it is not about the food, it's about the complete disregard and ignorance about people management what's so Disgraceful.
Now, apparently there is no food service anymore. Would this be the case for all employees?
Or the summer ‘family day’. A big bask that rained for most of the day. There were 2 small marquees to keep the employees and their kids dry, and a third one, much bigger with silver service and windows just for the top brass that had just 3 of them sat and drinking when their staff and kids got soaked? And those three people were… yes, exactly.
If Caroline Lynch ever gets a job again, whoever hires her is either incredibly blind or wants to send a company to the cleaners! And won't pay the bill either.
But all of this has been overseen by the expert eye of Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, unclear position for many... but described as “very powerful within the company, be careful not to upset her”, she is in fact a director, the only registered Irish director of Poker Kings LTD and Pocket Kings Consultancy alongside Ray Bitar. Customer service and affiliates team, unsurprisingly, are two of the disastrous teams she directs too... Apart from an operations management position.
The fact is, with her, just as with Caroline Lynch, employees are very careful of what they say or how much information they give them because IT WILL be used against you if necessary.
But the most dangerous piece of this puzzle is Gil Coronado. I recently read a post on a website where he was accurately described as “Ray’s lieutenant in arms’. Gil is amazingly, getting away with all sort of questionable behavior!!! The murder of the Full Tilt Poker Brand, the mismanagement of the player’s funds and operation accounts neglecting to keep them segregated and the abuse of power being him who’s really behind Deirdre, Carline Lynch and HR’s despotic politics towards employees and the restrictions on player communication.
Gil Coronado is the CFO of the company, the financial advisor or Ray Bitar. He has, needles to mention, absolutely no respect from anyone within Pocket Kings, seen for what he is, unprofessional, completely inept at his job and one of the main people responsible for the fact that Full Tilt Poker has not being able to return the money to the players! He is the C.F.O for goodness sake!!! And hasn’t stepped down after what they’ve done to the players??? It’s beyond anyone’s comprehension.
A well known fact is that any investor with the minimum self-respect for their own reputation and hoping to make a profitable investment needs to make sure they get rid of this lot. If they don’t, the players should never trust the site again, if there’s still anyone out there that would ever do.
Until a couple of months ago, not sure if this hasn’t changed, he kept an exotic lizard in his office, bottles of champagne and a setting that was more that of a night club than a respectable CFO’s office.
It says it all...There is no respect; it's just a laugh, a game... Pocket Kings needs a serious change in management, at the moment it’s a joke and a laugh at the face of all the players and employees who trusted them.
There is, in fact, not much hope; the company is more than likely closing down soon. But if Pocket Kings ever had a chance, even by rebranding, it would have been only a small bit of flapping in the mud with that bunch of unskilled individuals driving it.
Looking forward to the reactions... will they be able to convince the developers to write good reviews and attack negative statements like they used to now?
It won’t be a case of looking in to see how to find a solution; it will be a case of attacking who spoke.
R.I.P Full Tilt Poker - it was good while it lasted, but the poison got you in the end…
So long!
