Wednesday, September 21, 2011

What Is Really Sad About Full Tilt Poker

The latest Full Tilt Poker disaster story has now exploded across the world's media: radio, television, newspapers and soon magazines, and the internet . I am imagine that you and other poker players have been like me, handling inquiries from non-poker playing friends wondering what the heck is going on.
In yesterday's post I listed three links for some of the best sources for news. For the best reaction and blogger analysis, however, I recommend reading today's post at Hammer Player's Poker Blog.

Four months ago, I posted a personal update of my online poker inaction a month after Black Friday. I have read several blogger reports of the latest DOJ actions, and many poker bloggers have mentioned the really sad thing about this (aside from the fact that millions of dollars were purportedly ripped off by some of the biggest names in the poker business): playing at Full Tilt Poker was fun.

I originally played at probably over thirty poker sites in the good ol' days (pre-safe Port Act passage and the freezing of  Neteller funds) before playing my first game at Full Tilt Poker. Yeah -- the cute little icons at Full Tilt made playing there a little more fun.

Over the years, poker blogger tournaments -- at least for the informal blogging network to which I belonged -- almost all gravitated toward Full Tilt. While people complained about the customer service (really the lack of it) at Tilt, withdrawing money never seemed to be a problem. Full Tilt seemed to be the bloggers' friend, occasionally adding in money and tournament entries to our games. Once blogger AlCantHang became employed by Full Tilt, the cashish got even better. WSOP buy-ins, food at the annual blogger gathering, swag -- yes, Full Tilt Poker was okay by me. Some more cynical derided Full Tilt's efforts, claiming that we were "owed" much more because of the cheap advertising Tilt received. Heck, I was just happy to get the freebies, which were all just bonuses in my book. Full Tilt paid for my first WSOP buy-in from a freeroll, so who was I to complain?

Now, however, seeing and hearing how the everyday player at Full Tilt has taken it up the butt from the head honchos there, I just feel sad. I guess it is sort of like finding out that this friend you thought was one of your good buds ended up being a dick and was never really your friend in the first place. You just got played. And that is regrettable.

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