Goodbye, Full Tilt: The End of a Poker Era

Context: NEWS article: goodbye-to-full-tilt-end-of-poker-era

This week, poker history turned a page—Full Tilt Poker (FTP) was officially absorbed into PokerStars. From avatars to advertisements, from tournaments to player emotions, the days without FTP will never be the same.

If you feel that FTP was synonymous with online poker a long time ago, that's true. It's been ten years since the harbinger of the FTP scandal—'Black Friday'—when the Obama administration shut down the US online poker market. FTP was a key part of the poker world before that, but now it's about to disappear. Will players miss it?

'Learn, Chat, and Play with Professional Players'

FTP players may permanently migrate to PokerStars, but it's still worth looking back at this industry-changing brand. FTP was the coolest place in online poker, with top-notch advertising, featuring Phil Ivey (while Stars had Negreanu), Gus Hansen (while Stars had Chris Moneymaker), and Tom Dwan (Durrrr) as its icons.

Of course, it also brought problems. Not all of them fell on the shoulders of 'Jesus' (Chris Ferguson), but Ferguson was one of three people caught up in the 'Black Friday' incident, which led to the shutdown of FTP and the US online poker market in 2011. Ray Bitar claimed illness, Howard Lederer disappeared, and Ferguson released that famous apology video. FTP's reputation crashed faster than missing a flush draw on the river.

Why Did People Love FTP So Much?

Many old-school cash game stars were the reason players and fans turned to FTP. It was the hub of high-stakes tables, with each hand often worth tens of thousands of dollars, and millions changing hands. Stars like Patrik Antonius and Viktor Blom built fearsome reputations there that persist to this day.

But it wasn't just cash games. FTP's software made the gaming experience fun in a way that couldn't be replicated elsewhere. You couldn't change the table colors or card back designs to make other platforms look or feel like FTP. FTOPS events were a badge of honor, FTP had a stable MTT schedule, and the popular rapid poker (Fast-Fold Poker) of recent years was born here.

The Scandal to End All Scandals

It can be said that those affected by the FTP Black Friday scandal never truly cleared their names. When FTP was exposed as a Ponzi scheme, it had over $300 million in liabilities. Although PokerStars largely compensated players, the reputation was destroyed overnight.

Bitar's angle was closely watched at the time: reports about his health were mocked by some and accepted by others, cruelly. After being forced to pay $40 million, no one knows what the former co-founder left behind or where he is, but he avoided prison. Others also escaped jail time, and when Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson returned to the WSOP in Las Vegas, poker players reacted angrily, often filming videos insulting these former spokesmen who had represented a much-maligned brand.

It's hard to imagine how far FTP fell, especially if we travel back to its peak about 14 years ago. Former stars like Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Gus Hansen could plead ignorance and get off, while Lederer, Bitar, and Ferguson could never do that.

There will never be another poker brand like Full Tilt Poker—but perhaps that's not a bad thing. In three days, FTP will cease to exist.