Is it possible that BG's repayment of the $400K will go directly into paying back the players funds if he deals with DOJ, and that is why GBT is willing to deal with him on the side for less then 100%?

Why else would they try to do a side-line deal with him and take less then the full amount after he tells them he will pay up and is known to be credible?

doesnt make sense.

Keep it positive? We need to shame them into paying back at this point. Everyone was ripped off by FTP, and we are not even sure how much the players owe FTP. Only Tom Dwan offered to give back his sponsorship money while the rest are keeping quiet not to draw attention. This is pretty bad. We need to call the FTP pros on it because they'll pull a Russ Hamilton on us if they think they can get away with it.

I have great respect for Barry G, and I think he will do the right thing. But I am not sure about the rest of the FTP pros. GBT shouldn't offer discounts on the debt. Let them show how much FTP is owed from those players and publicized who paid up and who didn't. With their reputation on the line, I think most of the pros will pay up. What we need is more accountability and transparency.

+1

+1 only fair at this point

Your right. Layne Flack is probably amped up at the opportunity to make a thread next

I have no idea why my opinion that US players ought to be paid in full should cause US players to be unhappy. I'm not concerned about negative opinions some US players may have of me if their disaapproval stems from my opinion that ROW players have as much right to be repaid in full as US players.

You're right that my opinion will have little to no influence on any outcomes. The difference between my opinion and your's or JimsBets' is that mine is informed. My batting average is way better than yours. I can't affect outcomes, but I can predict and have predicted them with better accuracy than you.

BTW, I'm always up for a reasoned discussion. That is not what you've been doing in your several responses to my posts in the last few days. Please stop trolling me.

Containment thread is that way <-------.

And here's the thing Barry. Yah i know you want to do the right thing and make sure US players are paid and it doesnt just go into Tapie's pockets. And I appreciate that. But if Tapie walks away no one gets much of anything. And then its all for not. I dont think you should be assuming Tapie is bluffing on this particular issue here.

Not paying debts is doing the right thing?

I'm impressed.

It is challenging to take responsibility for decisions and difficult emotions in private, much less ultra-public. Seems fair to propose new terms on such a debt, especially if both parties are doing it. Very bold making a statement for repayment of all players even if it can be spun to appear like an obstructionist move.

The bar has been set high.

Barry, you are a good guy

thank you

Fulltilt was a glorified moneymart. Barry G is smart to get an intrest free loan from the Ray Bitar bank of other peoples money.

Firstly, thanks for at least responding to some of the questions and comments.

In your first post you talk about a "moral obligation". Well, the highlighted comments in 2., 3., 5., and 7. lead me to believe that self serving interests outweigh any moral obligations that you may have. Please don't ask me to "cut you some slack" and believe that you are doing anything other than what you think is best for BG. I think it's insulting to the thousands of players that have not seen a dime of their money yet. Particularly when it's quite obvoius that the pros who have been given these ridiculous long-term loans "with no pressure to pay them back", were clearly given them out of player funds.

the robinhood of poker indirectly stole from the people....

Pay ftp . . . Pay that sons of bitches their maneys.

This is so ****ing absurd

We the players, ROW and US, are owed our balances back from FTP

How dare Barry G, after not repaying his debt for over 4 years decide where his $$$$ owed are to go ,,, **** him

I hope all the players that owe FTP $$$$ realise while they are out playing ultra high buy in events that the rest of us had huge life changing occurances depleting our rolls due to the complete cluster**** that FTP became becoz of his and others like him degenerate ways

**** Him and his bull****

Repay your debt so we can hopefully claw back what is owed to us

****ing Scumbags !!!!!!!

Man this sh*t is frustrating to follow. These guys make (or at least did make) so much "easy" money with endorsements. And lets not forget that they were getting these sponsorships to simply do what they do, play poker. They were lucky enough and smart enough to invest some money into Full Tilt years ago and it turned out to be a goldmine for the them. Up until this point, good for them!

They were all over TV advertising to get the recreational player to give Full Tilt a try. Go ahead throw $50 on Full Tilt. Come learn chat and play with the pros or whatever their lame a*s slogan was. Well, obviously many people did give Full Tilt a try and for the most part got a fair, enjoyable poker experience from the comfort of their own home. This company was set up to make these guys rich and I think we can all agree that we knew they were going to get rich or in some cases richer from their involvement with Full Tilt. Again, good for them (no sarcasm there either).

They were in a position to continue to make steady profits for many many years to come. I am not a very naive person, I realized that some of these pros like Ivey and Lindgren probably were borrowing some money from Full Tilt at different stages. These were men (except for maybe in the cases of Matusow and Flack) that were either part of the company that was making great money or trusted by the owners of the company. They were people that the owners trusted to be good for the money and they loaned them some money under the table, no big surprise. Now it hits the fan and these owners who were all over TV wearing their FTP S*it go completely silent! They say that it is on the advice of their lawyers to not talk. Well of course their lawyers don't want them to talk because they took all the players money and lined their pockets and their "trusted friends" pockets, what is their to say, "Sorry guys I took all the money out of the site and I don't intend to give any of it back even though I knew or at least the company knew full well that we have been crediting accounts for many months without actually getting any money from them"

I have a general like for Barry G and think that he is a good man. The 400k that he owes Full Tilt isn't a big deal to me and I don't think it is a big deal to most people who follow the situation. However, Barry you are friends with a lot of these people, how has no one come to the plate and tried to salvage whatever money they can out of the people that owe FTP money? Like someone posted earlier in the thread even if it is just an escrow that you guys still have control over to ensure that it goes toward the players if that is truly the reason for not paying back? These FTP owners and pros go from being all over high stakes poker shows playing with FTP borrowed money (which was actually the players money) and FTP commercials. They take ridiculous dividends in comparison to how much money the company actually has and then the site gets shut down. What now? We messed up with the way this thing has been ran financially big time.

Well the thing that makes sense to me is for these people who received so much money, undeserving money, from this company is to start pooling money together and working like hell to sell this company to make the players whole, or as close to whole as they can, and life goes on. No one other than Dwan, that I have seen, has made any effort to put their illegitimate money back into the players hands! No effort at all! They all go silent! Barry comes out and says that he owes Full Tilt but hasn't paid back because others at Full Tilt owe him money. Well these guys seem slimy as hell to me Barry and I wouldn't count on them paying you, just like I'm not counting on them paying me. Regardless, some big names on Full Tilt owing you money is a completely different issue. You took 400k from Full Tilt Poker. You are a smart man and can clearly see that you indirectly and probably at the time unknowingly took 400k from the players accounts. Now you come out with your story once you have been outed by potential buyers of the company. I know you might not have came public to try to "look good", which is good because you really don't right now in my opinion.

I have no ill feelings toward Barry as I think that he is one of the better men in poker. He didn't get us into this mess, it was other people at the top of Full Tilt. I am not even sure I would have done much different from Barry if I were in his shoes. I just am really tilted at the posts along the lines of thanks for coming out with your story Barry. Give me a break, Barry was called out!

I have a five figure amount on Full Tilt and hope to see a percentage of it someday but this whole situation is just ridiculous. Good luck to me and everyone else. Other than the large amounts of money that many people might potentially lose because of this big mess is the lack of trust and legitimacy that the average person is going to think about if and when online poker is legalized (which is more damage that these guys have done to the online poker state of being). I realize that this is just one big rant but I needed it! Again good luck to everyone and to the people at FTP with millions in off shore bank accounts "better late than never to start taking responsibility and doing the right thing!"

honestly everyone needs to relax.

barry owes ftp 400K thats one of the smaller sums and i think in the end barry will do the right thing.

what about our good fellas ivey,lindgren and co. ? they all owe each 2mil. or more and the chance they will pay back their debts are very small so i dont know why all of you making such a big deal out of barrys debt.

Agree somewhat, but Barry’s situation as far as not paying back FTP for years, is not that big of a deal IMHO, assuming there was no agreement about loan term & repayments and if FTP never came after the money. People should not get hung up on this part of what Barry wrote (assuming he actualy pays it back).

The whole "only paying back if the money goes to players" is what I thought was a little strange. Barry just does not get to make that decision. I also would have assumed that GBT are asking for the Money to be payed to FTP once the sale has occurred. Not pay GBT directly now (before they own FTP), that would be stupid.

Are you guys seriously blasting barry here, he had no impact on the the out come of fulltilt. How many people here blasting barry know someone that deposited money yet never had it withdawn from the bank? Barry did nothing wrong wrong here, he was offered a loan and accepted it, period. Fulltilt knew they were loaning him money and they were ok with it. I also think it would be iresponsible for him to pay anyone besides who he barrowed the money from at this point. WHo is to say that if Barry pays tapie that they will buy and or distribute the money?


Cut the guy some slack, this is some thing that shouldnt even be an issue for the poker comunity.

Is a 'small' or a huge debt that much of difference in this matter?

I don't think GBT would ever be able to collect on FTP's debts without actually buying FTP. Ultimately if Barry and the others were to repay GBT it would get back into the players hands as having GBT revitalize FTP is the best case scenario for the players at this point.

I don't agree with you telling people to relax. All the pros (Barry G included) need to pay back their debts to Full Tilt plain and simple. The pros not paying their debts back isn't helping to get players balances paid in full. The longer the pros take to pay back the debts the longer it takes for Full Tilt to launch and pay back its players. Barry G isn't doing the right thing about coming out with this info now when the heat is on him. He should of handled this debt a long time ago and the other pros should of as well. I feel that the pros are only looking after themselves and don't care about the people who have money on FTP and could really use the money. Not paying back gambling debts to FTP is very selfish and not only affects FTP but it affects all the poker players who have money stuck on FTP.

Some of you have some pretty twisted and unrealistic expectations of people.

Barry is not responsible for what happened at FTP, and he doesn't own any shares in FTP and was never paid to represent them.

He had the opportunity to borrow some low/no interest money from a highly profitable company of which he knew some of the ownership and he took it, which is something that is done in by people on a daily basis all over the world.

He says there was very little pressure to repay the loan. How many people rush to pay off their low interest debt? Very few. People borrow low interest debt on a daily basis to buy RSPs, investments, or to pay down higher interest debt and sometimes they keep that debt for years.

On top of that, several people associated with FTP owed him money which would further lower his motivation as it would anybody's. If I borrow 10K from a friend's business and that friend owes me 7K personally, I'm not going to rush to pay him his 10K if I'm having trouble collecting.

It's all logical and if you stop for a moment and consider this in the context of how solid FTP seemed pre-BF I don't see how anybody could judge him for this.

And then FTP went belly up, and things got really messy. The company that he borrowed money from was corrupt and thousands of people got burned. Giving them money when everything is up in the air is totally pointless. Every name that is associated with what happened gets dragged through the mud.

This is life. People borrow money and they trust that the companies they are borrowing it from are managed well. When those companies end up being shady, you don't just fork over 400K checks to lawyers without thinking things through all the way or consider how the companies' former customers may or may not be impacted.

I think Barry has been completely screwed here. Give him a break. Judge him 3 years from now when the smoke has cleared.

+100!!