Online poker card room
Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online
casino that opened in June📉 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by
the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The📉 Stars Group (then known
as Amaya Gaming Group) in a deal where Amaya acquired all of Rational's assets,
including PokerStars.📉 A statement by Amaya said the takeover would not affect the
activities of Full Tilt Poker.[3] The deal was closed📉 on August 1, 2014.[4]
Just prior
to the close of the purchase, Full Tilt Poker redirected and rebranded its domains from
📉 FullTiltPoker and FullTiltPoker.eu to FullTilt and FullTilt.eu. A company spokesperson
stated the change reflected the fact Full Tilt had "expanded📉 to offer a range of single
and multi-player variations of casino games".[5]
Full Tilt has gaming licenses in Malta
and the📉 Isle of Man.
Games offered [ edit ]
Full Tilt offers both play and real money
cash games and tournaments. Freeroll, satellite,📉 sit-n-go, and multi-table tournaments
take place throughout the day and often included participation from Full Tilt's
sponsored professionals. The site📉 offers the following poker variations in limit,
pot-limit, and no-limit: Texas Holdem, Omaha, and Omaha 8 or Better (a.k.a. Omaha
📉 hi/lo). The site also offers limit Razz, Stud, Stud 8 or better, Draw poker variants
and mixed games such as📉 H.O.R.S.E. Stakes offers ranged fromR$0.01/$0.02 blinds
toR$500/1000 blinds in big bet games and up toR$2000/4000 limits in limit games.[6]
In
early📉 2010, Full Tilt introduced a new poker variation called "Rush Poker" designed to
increase the number of hands a player📉 can play per hour. In "Rush Poker" players do not
remain at a specific table. Instead, they join a pool📉 with hundreds of other players.
Whenever they fold their hand, they are instantly transferred to a new table and dealt
📉 a new hand.[7] Full Tilt Poker also launched Rush Poker Mobile for iOS and Android
devices.
History [ edit ]
Full Tilt📉 Poker initially opened as an online poker card room
with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy📉 Bloch, Mike
Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson.[8]
Full Tilt Poker was launched by parent
company TiltWare, LLC in June 2004📉 and began full operation on July 10, 2004.[9] The
license of Full Tilt Poker was suspended by the Alderney Gambling📉 Control Commission on
June 29, 2011, and revoked on September 29, 2011.[10]
Legal Issues [ edit ]
In late
2008, Full Tilt📉 was sued in Nevada by Clonie Gowen, prominent poker professional and
former Full Tilt endorser. She claimed that during Full📉 Tilt's formative year of 2004,
she was offered a 1% ownership in the company in exchange for her promotional efforts.
📉 The suit was dismissed by a trial court, but later partly reinstated on appeal.[11]
On
April 29, 2009, James B. Hicks📉 filed a civil complaint against Tiltware, LLC (d/b/a
FullTiltPoker), TiltProof, Inc., and Chris Ferguson generally alleging unfair and
unlawful business📉 practices including illegal Internet gaming and violations of the
UIGEA.[12] Hicks sought to prevent Full Tilt from operating its website,📉 soliciting
players, or funding or accepting payments for illegal gambling in California.[12]
On
September 11, 2009, Full Tilt was sued civilly📉 in Nevada by Jason Newitt in the case of
Jason Newitt v. Tiltware; Full Tilt Poker; Pocket Kings Ltd.; Pocket📉 Kings Consulting
Ltd.; Ray Bitar; Howard Lederer. Newitt alleges that he was unfairly fired and that his
distribution payments were📉 unfairly ceased.[13]
On October 1, 2009, Lary Kennedy and
Greg Omotoy filed suit against Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware and several individual📉 members
of Team Full Tilt alleging fraud, libel, slander, false advertising, and
racketeering.[14] Kennedy and Omotoy filed suit following unsuccessful📉 attempts to have
Full Tilt refundR$80,000 which it had seized from Kennedy's and Omotoy's accounts
asserting a violation of Full📉 Tilt's Terms of Service for using "bots". On October 17,
2009, Full Tilt responded to Kennedy's lawsuit by claiming the📉 suit was baseless and
frivolous and stating that it "has never knowingly allowed ‘bots’ to play on its
site."[15]
After the📉 case was removed to the United States District Court for the
Central District of California, on April 26, 2010, Judge📉 Margaret Morrow dismissed the
case with leave stating that Kennedy had failed to "detail many portions of her case
regarding📉 state violations and, in particular, there could be no claim under the RICO
Act. However, as the case was dismissed📉 with leave, Kennedy may re-file the complaint
in federal court if she is able to correct the deficiencies in her📉 original
complaint.[16]
On April 5, 2010, the Financial Times reported that a federal grand jury
in Manhattan was investigating Full Tilt📉 Poker and individuals associated with the
company, including Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, for violations of gambling and
money-laundering laws.[17]📉 Although neither the Manhattan United States Attorney nor
officials with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) would comment on📉 the
matter, it was reported that such an investigation "would fit the federal law
enforcement strategy by trying to make📉 an example out of prominent targets".[17] The
DOJ maintained that online poker violates the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 (Federal📉 Wire
Act),[17] but later changed their opinion on that matter.
On April 15, 2011, the DOJ
unsealed an indictment, dated March📉 10, 2011, against two of the owners / employees
(Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtnick) of Full Tilt Poker, along with📉 some of the owners /
employees of PokerStars and Absolute Poker.[18] The defendants were charged with fraud,
money laundering, and📉 violation of United States federal gambling laws, and certain
domain names for the sites were seized by the FBI.[19][20] The📉 Full Tilt Poker homepage
was reinstated six days later on April 20, 2011.
On September 20, 2011, the DOJ accused
certain📉 Full Tilt principals of defrauding poker players out of more thanR$300 million.
The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of📉 New York filed a motion to amend an
earlier civil complaint to allege that company directors Chris Ferguson, Howard
Lederer,📉 Rafe Furst, and Ray Bitar operated what the DOJ claims was a Ponzi scheme that
allowed the company to pay📉 outR$444 million to themselves and other owners, which
included other famous poker players.[21][22] Jeff Ifrah, a lawyer for Ferguson, denied
📉 the allegations, suggesting that the issues may have been the result of mismanagement
rather than malice.[23][24] Bitar surrendered to authorities📉 on July 2, 2012, to deal
with the civil and criminal case that is pending against him in New York📉 .[25] On April
15, 2013, Bitar reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to criminal charges,
and was sentenced📉 to time served and ordered to surrender his assets, rumored to
include various homes andR$40 million in cash.[26]
Full Tilt Relaunch📉 [ edit
]
PokerStars, having acquired the assets of Full Tilt as part of its settlement with
the DOJ, reopened Full📉 Tilt Poker on Nov. 6, 2012[27] to players from most of the
world. Customers from the United States could not📉 either sign up for new accounts nor
play from their existing accounts. The new Full Tilt Poker remained a standalone📉 site
with its own software and player pool separate from that of PokerStars.
On August 1,
2014, Amaya Gaming Group completed📉 the purchase of Rational Group, the owner of
PokerStars and Full Tilt, forR$4.9 billion.[28] Both poker sites continued to operate
📉 as separate entities until May 17, 2024. On that date, the user base of Full Tilt
gained access to the📉 global player pool at PokerStars, and the old Full Tilt platform
was retired.[29]
Ex-members of Team Full Tilt [ edit ]
Full📉 Tilt's team of
professionals was an integral part of the company's marketing strategy, its slogan
being "Learn, Chat and Play📉 with the Pros." "Team Full Tilt" was composed of fourteen
noted professionals who played regularly on the site and were📉 considered full-fledged
members. In addition to Team Full Tilt, several other pros were "Full Tilt Pros," who
were sponsored by📉 the site but were not full-fledged members made up of two teams,
CardRunners and The Hendon Mob, there were also📉 an additional 164 "Full Tilt Pros" and
41 non-members made up of authors, celebrities, announcers and commentators, they were
known📉 as "Friends of Full Tilt" whose names were also highlighted in red text on the
site. Paul DeRosa was last📉 added.
Full Tilt was a major sponsor of the Formula One
racing team, Virgin Racing.[30][31] It also sponsored a driver in📉 Formula D Joon Maeng
along with the Bergenholtz Racing crew, as well as Taylor Barton Racing[32] and the
Sydney Roosters📉 of the National Rugby League.[33]
Full Tilt on television [ edit ]
Full
Tilt Poker is or has been the principal sponsor📉 of a number of poker television
programs, including:
