Mu$on has no time for this stuff. I want to write a post that said if you play at Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker or Ultimate Bet at the moment you’re a effing moron. However that wouldn’t make an interesting post, so Mu$on coughed up $41.46 and paid some dude named Mark to write a warning to avoid these sites like the plague. Of course he’s still politically correct (which I told him not be) but whatever. Here is post.
Paid For Guest Post (by Mark)
Since the Black Friday of online poker, when the domain names of the three largest US facing poker rooms were seized and the owners indicted by the United States government, there have been varying degrees of clarity regarding the status funds of players on those sites.
The situation at Pokerstars become clear very early on, as they contacted high volume players by phone on Black Friday and posted status updates poker forums in the coming days. Pokerstars began to return funds within two weeks of Black Friday and the payments have been successfully deposited into US bank accounts.
At the Cereus network the situation is not crystal clear yet, but it appears that the company is in a very bad financial situation and that there is a very high chance players will not receive their funds. It has laid off 95% of staff and rumors of bankruptcy have been floating around, although the parent company, Blanca Games, denies this. Cereus has not communicated with the players, other than through press releases. In addition, the Cereus network has imposed very low withdrawal ceilings for non-American players, suggesting that they do not possess enough capital to payout players.
The situation is the least clear at Full Tilt Poker, where the company has been in communication with customers on a regular basis but has not provided unambiguous information about when and how players will receive their funds. There are a lot of assertions being thrown around the poker world about the solvency of Full Tilt Poker. For example, Tony G has been claiming that Full Tilt just needs a small amount of time to clear things up, but then was accused by Mike Matusow, a Full Tilt pro, of trying to attract attention to his website by creating fake news. An official company statement indicates the need to “raise capital.” Phil Ivey, a prominent poker player with a vested financial interest in Full Tilt Poker filed a lawsuit against Tiltware LLC, the Full Tilt parent company, to free himself from his contract and to faciliate the payment of player funds. The lawsuit was met with condemnation from Tiltware and an assertion that Ivey in fact owed Tiltware money. Very few people know for sure whether Full Tilt will be able to meet its obligations, and the ones that do know aren’t very likely to share the truth with the world.
For players from outside the United States this is a very important situation to keep abreast of. Keeping money in a Full Tilt Poker account definitely exposes players to the possibility of losing the funds due to Full Tilt going bankrupt. Players should not only avoid sites that have been indicted, but should also avoid sites that are currently US facing. There is no one who can give a 100% guarantee that money is safe on any poker site, but the risk of losing your funds on Full Tilt is significantly larger than it is on other poker sites. That being said, Full Tilt continues to be the second most popular online poker site in the world and is successfully processing payments for players outside of the United States. With the absence of American grinders and the migration of non-American pros to less risky sites, the games could be fishier than usual. As long as players know the risks associated with play on Full Tilt they may make an informed decision, but considering that the survival of Full Tilt is up in the air at this point, it might be wise to pick a safer poker site.
Most of the largest 10 or 15 online poker sites are very safe, but for extra security, a site like Party Poker is a very good option. Party Poker has a longstanding reputation in the online poker world and is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (all three indicted poker sites are privately owned). Combine that with the fact that Party Poker does not accept US customers and is the third largest poker site in the world and you have a site that is extremely unlikely to be in serious financial trouble any time soon.