Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Chris Ferguson, Perry Friedman or Mikey the Monkey My thoughts on this proposal: Well, I don’t have a clue what they are thinking putting a monkey into the Main Event, although many people have already called this year’s WSOP a zoo, so it might be not that far out after all. Lederer also said that the Full Tilt Poker community was not that fond of Ray Bitar, with Team Full Tilt Poker member John Juanda leading an anti-Bitar campaign within the community. He also revealed that Perry Friedman had resigned from the FTP board because he couldn’t approve of Bitar’s policies. Court of Appeal Upholds Dismissal of Suit by Poker Players. Two Plaintiffs Claimed Full Tilt Poker Used ‘Bots’ to Cheat. By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer. The Court of Appeal for this district yesterday affirmed dismissal of a suit by a pair of poker players who claim they were mistreated by an operator of online poker games. Brad Booth drops 42k to “Reap this 1207” in this High Stakes Poker match at Full Tilt Poker. At Cool $300/600 Omaha H/L, Brad Booth goes heads up with Reap this 1207. Reap this 1207 manages to get the best of it by taking in two thirds of the 40 scooped pots.

RE: Yet Another Full Tilt Lawsuit (Bots on Trial)

Case summary

Here’s the actual Kennedy vs. FTP lawsuit, 19 pages, filed by Cyrus Sanai, a lawyer out of Beverly Hills.

And here’s the 2+2 thread from 2007 when the key plaintiff — Lary Kennedy (aka “pokergirl_z” on Full Tilt) — first spelled out her beefs that led to this lawsuit … mostly stemming from a series of heads-up matches against a Full Tilt player known as “TheComplainer”.

Kennedy is the real plaintiff. Greg Omoroy is just a guy who owned another account she used (which is a whole-nother issue altogether). And though they aren’t formally seeking class-action status, they do seem to be laying the groundwork for such a possibility — an aggressive legal play for sure.

Essentially, the allegations are that Full Tilt — with unfettered ability to label a player a bot, confiscate her money, and smear her name by calling her a bot — constitutes organized crime … being perpetuated by Californians against Californians, in violation of all sorts of California business and gaming laws.

They also say that “Playing Against the Pros” is tantamount to gambling against the “house” … there’s an added boogeyman with allegations that Full Tilt is running its own bots on the site … and a new-to-me company gets discussed, too: Verta Enterprises, out of St. Kitts.

On the surface, that seems less shakedown/extortion-y than other California lawsuits against Full Tilt. But the class-action possibilities suggest this suit is really looking for penalties in the hundreds of millions or more — you know, the kind of money the Feds have been collecting from longtime online gambling purveyors looking to get on the USA clean list.

If it turns out pokergirl_z was not a bot — and she claims to have video proof — it could be quite the expensive security goof.

Click below for further breakdown of the suit:

The defendants:
Full Tilt Poker
Chris Ferguson
Howard Lederer
Ray Bitar
Phil Gordon
Phil Ivey
Perry Friedman
John Juanda
Erick Lindgren
Erik Seidel
Mike Matusow
Allen Cunningham
Gus Hansen
Patrik Antonius
Tiltware LLC

The claims:
Fraud
Violations of the RICO Act
Violations of California Business and Professions Code
Unjust enrichment
Libel
Slander

Damages:
Without specifying an amount, they seek compensatory and punitive damages, to be determined by the court upon seeing the evidence of how much money Full Tilt makes.

1. FRAUD
Full Tilt misled her as a customer and did not deliver what they promised.

2. RICO
Racketeering=organized crime. They specifically finger Ferguson and Friedman for running an unlicensed card room.

3. BUSINESS CODE VIOLATIONS
In California, unfair competition and false advertising are illegal business practices … allegedly committed not just against Kennedy, but thousands of players in the state of California — and they’ll need to see the books to figure out just how much money Full Tilt has made from said illegal business practices. Or in other words, Full Tilt being Full Tilt violates the law and deceives the public.

4. UNJUST ENRICHMENT
See above. Claim is that Team Full Tilt got rich in ways they shouldn’t have.

5. LIBEL
Full Tilt postings calling her a bot are false statements that have done her harm.

6. SLANDER
Same as above, covering oral statements.

A timeline of business practices and controversies surrounding Full Tilt Poker (FTP) over the years. Also refer to the current Full Tilt Poker page for all up-to-date information.

• 2004 – Full Tilt Opens

FTP goes live as a online poker room, serving players around the world. A reported $5 million is raised to start the company.

The main players behind the company are Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar, Chris Ferguson, Rafe Furst, Perry Friedman, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, Eric Seidel, Gus Hansen, and John Juanda.

The first five listed above form the original elected board of directors, with Ferguson as Chairman, Bitar as CEO, and Lederer president of Tiltware.

• 2005 – 2006 – Poor Management

Perry Friedman steps down from the board, warning them that the business is becoming too large for the above group to run on its own.

Confirmed by Howard in the Lederer Files interviews of 2012, FTP was operated and ultimated owned as a California LLC with an out-of-date operating agreement crafed for 2003, despite being a Dublin company.

Perry Friedman Full Tilt Poker Tournaments

That was our inexperience, our laziness I guess. – Howard Lederer

• 2007 – Distributions

Full Tilt has a surplus of $20 – $30 million, and begins paying distributions of approx. $5 million per month to its owners. Ferguson was against paying distributions, saying it would weaken the company.

• 2008 – 2009 – Distributions Increased

Distributions are increased to $10 million per month, leaving less than 10% profit retained in the company. Total distributions received included:

1. Howard Lederer – $42.5 million
2. Chris Ferguson – $42 million
3. Ray Bitar – $40.8 million
4. Rafe Furst – $11.7 million

• 2010 – FTP Changes Rake Calculation Method

October 2010 – Full Tilt switched from the dealt method of rake allocation, to the weighted contributed method. This is perceived by many as a ‘money grab’ by many, as it increased rewards for loose, recreational players that were unlikely to have affiliate rakeback.

• 2011 – Black Friday

February 2011 – WSOP bracelet winner Blair Hinkle wins $1 million in an online MTT on Full Tilt Poker. All attempts to withdraw his winnings are denied. FTP was already falling into insolvency two months shy of Black Friday.

April 15th, 2011 – FTP stops offering real-money play to it’s U.S. players, charged with violating the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), bank fraud, and money laundering.

• 2012 – PokerStars Repays Players
  

Full Tilt Poker relaunches under the management of the most trusted name in online poker, PokerStars, and RoW players are repaid their full balances.

However, U.S. players have to undergo a DOJ remission process to retrieve their funds, and affiliate commission owed are lost as New Full Tilt does not assume responsibility for these liabilities. One major affilate site has also filed a lawsuit vs FTP in an attempt to retrieve lost funds.

Related Pages

Perry Friedman Full Tilt Poker Tournament

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