fulltilt was always the superior site software wise. very happy its going to be back and definitely intend on playing there again

No they didn't. If they did, buying FTP would be a waste of $731 million since it would just divide the PS player pool and not earn them any money.

Edit: You think PS is buying FTP to make it a profitable site and then sell it for more than $731 million in the future? Remember how incredibly hard it was to sell FTP in the first place? Nobody is going to buy it, especially for $1 billion+.

they were paying to get a shot at usa license

When the site will be back, i think that it will be a promotion to deposit on ftp, if we make a transfer from pokerstars, it will be ok for the promotion ?

If in the futur, we can make transfers between pokerstars and ftp, there will be a limit or not ?

source?

i bet "next week"

It's amazing how many things you can get wrong in such a short post.

The $731 million was not only to buy FTP, a large portion of that was for fines to the DOJ. They don't bring these types of cases unless they're confident they can get a few hundred mill out of it. My guess would be $400-$500 mill just for fines. Therefor the cost of buying FTP is considerably less than $731 mill.

FTP was hard to sell because it was a POS company that owed hundreds of millions of dollars and potential buyers weren't willing to pay that much in the state the company was in. Think of people that flip houses. They get a great deal because people don't want to put in the work to fix them up or don't know how. Yet even with the current housing market people still buy distressed properties, fix them up, clear the titles and sell them for a profit. It's not as easy at it was during the boom but still possible for people that know what they're doing. PokerStars knows how to build a world class poker site.

You really believe that after FTP shut down that many ROW players that could still play poker chose to not move their play to other sites with Stars being the biggest recipient of those players? They just gave up poker until FTP chose to return or exclusively chose sites other than stars?

I know an area that used to have 2 bagel shops within a couple hundred feet of each other on the same street. Both had their share of customers and there were loyalties to each store among residents. One of the stores had a fire and burnt down and they didn't rebuild. Did the owner of the other store decide it would be a great opportunity to buy the property and rebuild the bagel store to get those other customers? No. Because people didn't stop eating bagels because their favorite store burnt down. They went to the other store instead.

People who could still play poker in their countries didn't stop playing poker. It's not exactly the same because there are other available sites they could move their play to but PokerStars is a big company and their ability to play players after black friday would make many players feel more secure about playing there.

If PokerStars planned on keeping FTP for eternity they would consolidate operations to save money like most other mergers. Instead they decided to keep both as separate entities according to their statements which is more expensive but makes it easier to sell. To use another real estate analogy... Imagine your next door neighbor was selling his house and the next neighbor down decided to buy it. If the buyer decided to tear down both houses and build a new big one or otherwise combine them you'd know he likely plans to occupy both properties as one. If instead he kept the other property separate and instead made repairs on it then you know the most likely scenario is he plans to rent or sell it.

Even though PokerStars is paying a lot to the DOJ they are in a position where they're likely getting a good deal on FTP. FTP had little money for the DOJ and they DOJ want's to get paid. Selling FTP to PokerStars allows the DOJ to get a little more out of Stars and Stars in turns gets something that can help them recoup some of that money at a later date.

Based on things that came out after Black Friday Stars didn't seem too worried about FTP as a competitor or they wouldn't allegedly work together on dealing with processor issues.

The only way it makes sense to Stars to keep FTP is if FTP was the only company allowed back in the US but the DOJ deal clearly would allow either company to reenter if things change.

Anyway... I don't think this is the proper thread for this discussion.

i just wanna tell you what i told to scout. just keep up the good work

Having finally removed my "FTP discussion thread" bookmark today and not using it to fire up 2+2 anymore is like I've finally over come a crack addiction, for that alone I thank you Pokerstars. I'm not even sure knowing I only have a few months left, maximum, to wait for my money over shadows that.

'appy days

They would never count transfers for a promotion. Deposit means new money going on the site and that mean making a new deposit

But the only depisit bonus FT has had is the first deposit bonus. All the rest where just based on playing.

Yeh ,so they will give you a bonus if you desposit more.It simple really....

If someone already has money on the site to play it makes no sense to incur the extra fees for a deposit/widwdrawall when they would be playing the same amount anyway.

Maybe they would have a reload bonus whereas you deposit new money into your account, I know PS has this type of bonus from time to time. But either way, transfering money to FTP from PS would never count towards a bonus because it is not new money.

general humanity/consideration

...but maybe he really got fired! I hope not

Hi all,

Here's the latest batch of questions I'm able to give some sort of answer to. There is still a lot we just don't know yet, so I apologize for the number of "non-answer" type answers I have to give here. Notably absent are questions about affiliates/rakeback and some US player-specific concerns. I know those are some of the most pressing questions to many of you, and I apologize for not having the answers. Certainly as we get closer to relaunch a lot more will be known.

1. Now that FTP won't relaunch in Denmark, any chance that they will apply for a Danish license in 2013?

- At the moment our entire focus is on the relaunch. Future license plans have not been developed.

2. What about FTP Academy? I had there some serious money in Academy credits.

- The FTP Academy won't be returning at relaunch for both technical and marketing reasons. All Academy credits will be converted to Full Tilt Points (1 Academy credit will be exchanged for 1 FTP). I do hope that we can bring the Academy back someday.

3. Will there still be a link with Cardrunners, so that earning full tilt points credited you with free access to the CR site?

- I don't have an answer for this. My best guess is that this won't be decided until after relaunch, so it's very unlikely you'd see that promo still available at relaunch.

4. Will it be possible to exchange FTPs points (and Iron Man medals) for PokerStars FPPs? Will it be possible to transfer a bonus from FTP to PokerStars?

- No to both. The only thing currently planned to be transferrable using the site-to-site transfer feature (whenever that becomes available) is real money.

5. Will FTP once again release a full-featured version of their software for Mac?

- Yes, the Mac software will still be supported.

6. Obviously, not a priority for the relaunch, but please do consider adding Pineapple to the lineup.

- As long as we're talking Crazy, I'm a fan! I played it some in Oceanside back in the mid-90s and had a blast. I'm old.

7. Is everyone (Belgium, France etc) able to play for play money?

- This question is still being worked on. We hope to offer play money in as many places as we can.

8. So will relocated U.S players outside of the U.S be able to retrieve their account like Stars lets us? Or will we need to make a new account?

- You will not need a new account. The procedure for re-opening your account for real money play will be extremely similar (if not identical) to the procedure currently used by PokerStars.

9. FTP used to have leaderboards each month. When FTP shut down I was second in the high stakes hu sng leaderboard. I was wondering what will happen with these cash prizes?

- The June, 2011 leaderboard prizes will be paid out at relaunch.

10. Are you going to block pokertableratings like Stars have?

- I would think that FTP's data-mining policies will be identical to PokerStars, but I don't think the details have been worked out yet.

11. Are you going to be able to qualify for events like EPT, LAPT, APPT, etc through Full Tilt as well?

- Exactly which live events FTP will support haven't been decided yet. I don't expect any news in this area until after relaunch.

12. I had an 8k wire transfer that never came in, had like 10+ talks with support to get it cleared up and had all the records proving it via email, who should I contact now to finalize it and finally get paid, and when should I do so?

- There isn't someone to contact just yet. All of these issues are being sorted through and Support needs some time to get back up to speed. Give it some time and then write to Support to see if they can give you a timeline for when things might be sorted out.

13. Will we be able to see our transaction history from before Black Friday?

- We intend for everyone to have access to their full transaction history as long as there are no technical or jurisdictional issues that would prevent that access.

14. There were always "hidden" fees for non US players depositing on FTP (converting the £ / € etc to USD would always lose about 2% I believe, and the same for withdrawing) will this still be the case? Or will FTP become more like stars for depositing and withdrawing where all funds are converted free of charge.

- All of these types of policies are undergoing review. I don't have any definitive answer, though.

15. Can we make new accounts on the new FTP or I'm a stuck with my old account which I forget name/password and email for?

- You'll have to use your old account. Support will assist in any way possible to help players retrieve lost login credentials.

16. Will Stars and FTP be run on same servers or will FTP still run on the ones it used to.

- FTP will still be run on the same servers it used to run on.

17. No chance of relaunch in September?

- None. There is simply too much work to do and too many issues to resolve.

18. Will we be given advanced notice of the re-launch time / date?

- I'd say "end of October or beginning of November" is going to be the best advanced notice we'll be able to give for the time being. As we get a lot closer to the actual date we will hopefully be able to give a more precise relaunch window.

19. Will the FT mainstay Fantasy Poker return?

- For sure this isn't something we will decide before relaunch. I'd be very surprised if that decision was made before the end of the year.

20. Any chance FTP/PokerStars will apply to act as the Claims Administrator for the DoJ with respect to the remission of FTP player balances?

- I'm getting a "We can't comment on any discussions with the DOJ" answer to this question.

21. What's happening with fulltiltpoker.fr?

- If we're able to continue offering play money for France, it might remain open for that. Otherwise, it will just go away and all play money players will be moved to PokerStars.fr along with all the real money players.

We are working through all of these issues as quickly as possible, but it's unlikely I'll have meaningful updates every day like I'm sure you all want. I will keep collecting as many questions as I can and answer them when I'm able, so keep them coming.

Will players that have re-located outside of the US and are playing on stars have to go through the whole process of getting verified again, or will FTP be able to use the verification that Stars used to let us on?

This.

Also if we had our account relocated before June 29th will we have to go through the remission process or can we cashout and transfer like ROW?



Was this question answered somewhere already?

Thanks

Thanks for the new batch of Q&A's Shyam.

I understand that alot of the questions are simply un-answerable or lack any in depth knowledge on the topics to give precise answers at this stage. But I appreciate you taking the time to tell us what you do know.

mid october, thanks

This has been answered plenty already; if you were ROW on June 29th you will be ROW now, so you won't have to go through the remission process.

http://diamondflushpoker.com/2012/07...ement-complete

I made an account with Full Tilt over 8 years ago and at the time didn't know about rakeback or how to get it. I argued with FTP Support for two years about making my account get 27% rakeback and they would always indirectly answer my question and never help.

I love FTP software and the games that were offered. I play 6 max super turbos and 25-30% of my profit was from rakeback, eventually I became fed up with FTP Support continually blowing me off and made an account under my brothers name. Since then I became 3x Black Card closing in on 4x at average of 3000 FTPs per day. Will I be able to either a) switch my account details on my current account or b) have everything transferred over to my original account with rakeback, FTPs and all other bonuses?

As a side note to my question, many would appreciate new FTP to go to a pokerstars type rewards system and it would probably be much less work for your staff.

How considerate of you