After being offline since June 2011, Full Tilt Poker relaunched in much of the world Tuesday at 7:00 ET (12:00 GMT). The company, which was acquired by FTP’s former competitor PokerStars, is once again offering real-money gaming on the same Full Tilt platform while making available $184 million in balances.
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'The return of Full Tilt Poker fills a hole in the community that’s been felt by millions of players,' FTP Team Pro Gus Hansen said in a press release. 'A lot of people have been waiting for this day to come and now that it’s here we can all look towards a brighter future.'
The relaunch has been in the works since the Rational Group, operator of PokerStars, acquired the assets back in July in a deal that included the United States Department of Justice. As part of the deal, PokerStars agreed to pay back worldwide customers while forfeiting $731 million to the DOJ, which will be in charge of repayment of U.S. players through a remission process.
Operations actually recommenced on Wednesday, October 31 when FTP allowed players to sit down at play-money tables, view their balances, and transfer funds to their PokerStars account. It was also at this time that Shyam Markus, FTP’s Poker Room Manager, provided additional information, answered questions on TwoPlusTwo, and highlighted the ability to link their account with PokerStars.
Players in segregated markets like France, Spain, Denmark, Estonia and Belgium are unable to play real-money games on Full Tilt Poker at this time, but they can withdraw their balances though PokerStars.
'Full Tilt Poker is now a sister site to PokerStars, whose parent company acquired Full Tilt Poker this summer,' said the FTP press release. 'One of the advantages of the sister sites is a new feature which enables players to quickly and easily transfer cash between Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to play in an even larger selection of games and tournaments and participate in the promotions that interest them most. The two sites represent the largest pool of online poker players in the world, making it possible to offer the greatest number and variety of cash games and tournaments.'
In preparation for the launch, FTP geared up its promotional efforts. They highly publicized the signing of a group of ambassadors known as “The Professionals” that includes Hansen, Viktor Blom and Tom Dwan, who are all expected to fuel the high-stakes action. However, FTP will not be offering the famed $500/$1,000 tables upon launch, so they’ll have to settle with the highest stakes being offered—the still healthy $400/$800 games.
In addition, FTP is 'offering a series of promotions, including $250,000 in freerolls and $300,000 in added FTOPS tickets. A ‘Happy Hour’ promotion allows players to earn double player points ‘around the clock’ and every player will be receiving a minimum $200 ‘Deal Me In’ bonus.'
'Full Tilt Poker is back and better than ever,' said Sarne Lightman, Head of Marketing for Full Tilt Poker. 'We are bringing back to the players everything they loved about the site and we invite them to help us celebrate by joining our ‘Deal Me In’ launch promotions.'
While residents of the U.S. and some other countries are unable to play for real money on FTP, they can still sit down at the Play Money-only site FullTiltPoker.net.
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Full Tilt Poker is set to fully relaunch on Nov. 6, but on Wednesday players were given a glimpse of things to come when the former online poker Goliath opened its doors slightly and allowed players to sit down at the play-money tables, view their balances and even transfer their funds to PokerStars.
The news first broke on the popular Two Plus Two forums when the Full Tilt Poker poker room manager, Shyam Markus, posted in the Internet Poker forum that the game software was available for downloading. Markus also posted links to the upcoming Deal Me In promotion and the Edge rewards scheme that will come into force when the full relaunch takes place.
Cosmetically, the site looks almost exactly as it did on that fateful day when the curtain came down and players were locked out of their accounts, that is with the exception of the new images of The ProfessionalsViktor Blom, Tom Dwan and Gus Hansen on the various screens.
Also new is the “Transfer to PokerStars” button in the cashier, which was inactive at the time of the software going live again, but many players are reporting they have been successful in pairing their Full Tilt Poker account with their PokerStars account and transferring their balances across, whilst others are being greeted with a message stating this feature will not be active until Nov. 6. For those non-U.S. players who have had their balances tied up for 16 months, this transfer feature will feel like a godsend to them, especially those who had large balances or whose balance represented a large percentage of their bankroll.
In the Two Plus Two thread, Markus stated “the next few days are more of a beta test than anything” as the Full Tilt Poker team blow the cobwebs from the software and begin rolling out some new features. Some of these features include an “Add Table” option for heads-up cash game and SNG players that will open a new heads-up table with both players on it to make multitabling against the same opponent easier, new ring game auto buy-in options, and new preferred seat selection.
Since the mini-relaunch, players from regulated markets such as Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France and Spain (but not Italy), where Full Tilt Poker will not be operating in the first instance, have been reporting they can pair their Full Tilt Poker account with their PokerStars account and withdraw their funds. However, players from the U.S. have been greeted with balances of $0.00 when they log in to their accounts, though their Full Tilt Points balances are intact. Players from the U.S. will have to wait until the Department of Justice facilitates the repayment of their account balances.
In the buildup to the full relaunch of Full Tilt Poker, PokerNews will be bringing you all the news, views and reactions to what is a massive day for online poker. Keep your browsers locked to PokerNews.com to keep up to date with the latest goings on from the Full Tilt Poker camp.
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