Full Tilt Poker’s player pool was fully integrated into PokerStars on May 17 and the poker platform was officially retired. In the wake of the final closure of what was once one of the largest online poker sites in the world Howard Lederer, a former board member of the now defunct business, has opted to put out a statement through Daniel Negreanu’s poker blog.
Lederer has been a persona non grata in the poker world after the fiasco that followed the U.S. Department of Justice’s actions on April 15, 2011. Players with money in accounts on Full Tilt Poker looked as if they might not ever retrieve their funds after poker’s Black Friday as a result of the site’s failure to segregate player funds from the money used to operate the business. Players only received any form of relief when PokerStars announced that they would buy the company and pay out player’s balances.
Negreanu posted Lederer’s statement and also gave his own commentary, saying it is, “the kind of apology people would have liked to read five years ago.” Lederer’s full statement can be found below. For more of Negreanu’s thoughts on it, check out his blog post which can be found here.
___________________________________________________________________
2.) Select your main hard drive (usually 'C'), 'Program Files', and 'Full Tilt Poker'. If you saved the software to a different location than the default directory when. You installed it, go there instead. 3.) Locate the file called '(Your Player ID)xml'. The text in square brackets will be your actual Player ID on Full Tilt Poker. Jun 10, 2008 RoyalBlack: I have a question - have made new account at Full-Tilt poker, but can't change players ID here because of old account. Is it possible somehow to change it? And if is - how to do it? Cos' haven't taken also those star 50$ and would like to try a game with real money. I believe zzxas to be working for Full Tilt poker. His/Her username is irrelevant because they could easily change it if suspicions arose. Full Tilt Poker Game #4: Table San Pablo (6 max) - NL Hold'em - $5/$10 - 19:56:47 ET - 2015/12/23 Seats: 6 Seat 1: Joeylurrrve ($1,068) Seat 3: fabtel ($449.90) Seat 4: Drew2036 ($931.20).
I am writing to apologize to everyone in the poker community, especially to all the players who had money on Full Tilt Poker on April 15, 2011. When Full Tilt Poker closed in 2011, there was a shortfall in funds, a distressed sale to recover those funds, and a long delay in repaying players. Throughout this period, there was little explanation for the delay, and no apology. Players felt lied to. They trusted the site, and they trusted me, and I didn’t live up to that trust.
I take full responsibility for Full Tilt’s failure to protect player deposits leading up to Black Friday. The shortfall in player deposits should never have happened. I should have provided better oversight or made sure that responsible others provided that oversight. I was a founder in the company that launched Full Tilt, and I became the face of the company’s management in the poker community. Many of our players played on the site because they trusted me.
Even though I was no longer overseeing day to day operations, my inattention in the two years leading up to Black Friday imperiled players’ deposits. My involvement in Full Tilt from 2003-2008 put me in a unique position of trust—a trust that I disappointed by failing to ensure that Full Tilt was properly governed when I stepped away in 2008. My failure to make sure proper oversight was in place when I left resulted in the situation that began to unfold on Black Friday. Players were not able to get their money back for a minimum of a year and a half, and, for many, it has been much longer. I’ve been a poker player my entire adult life. I know the importance of having access to one’s bankroll. The lost opportunity, frustration, and anxiety many of FTP’s customers experienced in the intervening years is unacceptable. I cannot be sorry enough for what happened.
During Full Tilt’s rise, I received a lot of praise. I couldn’t see it at the time, but I let the headlines change me. In the first couple of years after Black Friday I made lots of excuses, to my friends, my family and myself, for why I wasn’t the bad guy or big-headed or wrong. In the months immediately following the crisis, I focused a lot of energy on trying to refute allegations that were factually untrue. I convinced myself that I was a victim of circumstance and that criticism was being unfairly directed toward me instead of others. I was missing the bigger picture.
At a wedding in the fall of 2014, I was sitting with a friend, talking about Full Tilt. I was grumbling about how unfair my lot in life had become. My friend didn’t let me off the hook. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said, “Howard, it doesn’t matter whether you knew about the shortfall or what you did to help players get paid. These players feel like you lied to them. You were the face of the company in the poker community. Thousands of players played on the site because they trusted you. Many pros represented the site because they thought you were in control. And you happily accepted the accolades while falling short of their trust.”
At the time, my friend’s response felt like a slap in the face, but it is clear to me now that it was fair. An apology is not enough, but it is what I am able to offer to the poker community in the wake of a travesty that I should not have allowed to happen. I am sorry.
_____________________________________________________________
Following Black Friday Lederer settled with the U.S. Department of Justice. In exchange for the opportunity to admit to no wrongdoing in the civil complaint that stemmed from Full Tilt’s failures Lederer forfeited at least $2.5 million in cash and assets, including several pieces of real estate property and vehicles. He also handed over the contents of a bank account, although the settlement didn’t specify the amount of the funds in that account. Lederer was paid at least $42.5 million by Full Tilt over the course of his involvement with the company, which he helped in founding.
With those forfeitures in mind and this apology made, has Lederer even begun to mend the bridges burned by the Full Tilt fiasco and his failure to take responsibility for the site’s mismanagement?
“The choice to accept his apology is a personal one,” says Negreanu. “For what its worth, I personally believe the apology to be genuine.”
Genuine or not, Lederer likely has a long way to go before he is able to play in poker’s biggest events without facing hostility and contempt.
In a blog article earlier this month, Full Tilt Managing Director Dominic Mansour highlighted a number of changes to the site's ring games designed to 'bring the fun back to online poker' and 'make the site more exciting.'
Those changes were instituted today as players who launch the Full Tilt client are prompted to update the software to the latest version. Once the update is complete, the changes to the ring game lobby become apparent.
Gone are the long list of individual tables, traditionally the view used by the vast majority of online poker sites, and instead are in groups of tables. The lobby is still sorted by stakes, number of tables and buy-in sizes, but players can no longer choose their seat as the new software automatically finds a random open seat and places them in it.
If we wanted to be serious about trying to fix a broken poker economy, we had to find all of the biggest issues and either really solve them, or remove them.
Taking to the Full Tilt Blog, Mansour explained that the site would use the same system found in live poker rooms.
'When a player arrives at a live card room, they tell the poker room manager what game they want to play and the poker room manager will take them to a table with a free seat so that they can start playing straight away,' said Mansour. 'As players join and leave the live card room, the poker room manager brings new people together to create new tables, and moves players from short-handed tables to ensure every player has the best possible experience.'
Another major change is the removal of all heads-up tables. Mansour highlights the fact that the heads-up games were being adversely impacted by the process known in the industry as 'bum hunting,' where more experienced players prey on weaker players and refuse to play similarly skilled opponents.
'Firstly, heads-up games were being adversely impacted by the minority of experienced players who targeted ‘weaker' opponents rather than take on all challengers. Secondly, new players who tried out the heads-up games found it intimidating and confusing.'
According to Mansour, this discouraged many players and kept them from heading back to the virtual felt. 'In short, heads-up ring games just didn't form part of a healthy poker ecosystem, which made our decision to remove them easier.'
Full Tilt Poker Online
Answering to the comments and concerns expressed by many regulars at Full Tilt on the popular poker forum Two Plus Two, Full Tilt Poker Room Manager Shyam Markus said that the decision to remove the heads-up tables has been extensively debated within the team before it became operative.
'It wasn't a decision we reached lightly. All of the suggestions were discussed. Lots of ideas that weren't suggested were discussed. We had a full specification all written up for the direction we wanted to take the heads-up games,' Markus explained.
'The problem was that nothing changed the fact that the more new players play heads-up, the less likely they are to continue playing. If we wanted to be serious about trying to fix a broken poker economy, we had to find all of the biggest issues and either really solve them, or remove them.
'It's not going to be a super popular decision, and it's absolutely possible we've made a mistake,' Markus continued. 'But for now it's the decision we feel has the best chance of helping to turn around some of the biggest problems we face and return to growing the site.'
Also removed from Full Tilt's cash game offering are the nosebleed stakes plus all stakes of Stud, Draw and Mixed Game tables. The maximum stakes available are now $10/$20 for No-Limit Hold'em, $15/$30 for Fixed-Limit Hold'em, $10/$20 for Pot-Limit Omaha and $2/$5 for Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Low.
Full Tilt's newly appointed Player Ambassador, Marc Kennedy joined the discussion and welcomed the changes, hoping the new strategy will once again innovate the poker industry.
'There are obviously going to be people who don't like some or maybe even all of the changes, that is always going to be the case when you have a major shake-up,' Kennedy commented. 'I think these are good changes and they are just one piece of the puzzle. There is some really cool stuff on the horizon.'
Kennedy hinted also at an all-new VIP program to be rolled out in the near future and praised Full Tilt's tendency to look for new ways to grow its online business.
'They are trying some new things and Full Tilt has never been a company that is scared to try new things. If they don't work they try something else. I like that mentality. Of course, sometimes this means that you are going to make mistakes, but sometimes you may also end up reshaping the entire industry as it happened with Rush Poker.'
The previously mentioned plans to alter the rake structure and rewards system were not included in the new software release, but PokerNews understands these changes will be deployed in the coming weeks.
What do you think off the new Full Tilt changes? Let us know in the comments box or on Twitter @PokerNews.
Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
Tags
Online PokerCash PokerFull Tilt PokerPoker BusinessPoker PlayersRelated Room
Full Tilt
Comments are closed.