Ferguson Tilting Possible Full Tilt Deal; Poker Memory
Is Chris Ferguson Holding Up Bernard Tapie/Full Tilt Deal?
By Earl Burton
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According to a report from one of the most reliable sources of information regarding the ongoing Full Tilt Poker fiasco, poker professional Chris “Jesus” Ferguson could potentially be holding up the deal between the site and Groupe Bernard Tapie, a deal that may bring the beleaguered online site back online.
Subject: Poker, who has provided many of the details regarding the GBT/FTP deal, reports that Ferguson is allegedly holding up any further movement over the deal because of money that he put towards the site following “Black Friday.” According to S:P, the former World Champion accepted just under $60 million from Full Tilt since 2007, which he put into different bank accounts under the Pocket Kings, Ltd., umbrella. Although he withdrew and spent about $45 million of that money, what Ferguson is looking for is allegedly the remainder, $14.3 million, after a rather ill-advised move.
According to the S:P report, Ferguson allowed that $14.3 million to go back into the Full Tilt accounts to take care of expenditures by the company post-Black Friday. While allowing this money to go back to FTP, Ferguson allegedly felt that this “good will” gesture would put him at the front of the line as a potential owner under the revamped Full Tilt Poker, in whatever form. This, however, would prove to be wishful thinking.
Negotiations with the U. S. Department of Justice by Groupe Bernard Tapie have allegedly resulted in the federal authorities approving the deal for GBT to buy Full Tilt Poker, but with a caveat: that none of the current ownership of Full Tilt Poker be allowed to have even partial ownership of the company post-deal. This is the current hang up, according to S:P, and it could be some time before there is a compromise made.
Ferguson and his attorney, Ian Imrich, have requested an accounting of the Full Tilt books and, as of today, have not received this accounting. S:P reports that Ferguson and Imrich have threatened to file lawsuits to create a “constructive trust” (a trust set up by the court to benefit a party that has been wrongfully deprived of its rights in business dealings) and to file for injunctive relief against Full Tilt Poker. These actions would potentially delay the plans for Groupe Bernard Tapie to take the helm of the Full Tilt ship, delaying payment to potentially thousands of players around the world (U. S. players, under the deal with the government, would be paid by the Department of Justice).
Subject: Poker appropriately ends this discussion by stating, “(We) would like to make it clear that we have no reason to believe that the above threats (by Ferguson and his attorney) have in any way been successful in stalling or impeding the (GBT/FTP) deal.”
As expected, the backlash in the poker community has been fervent and, for the most part, entirely against Ferguson and his attorney. On the Two Plus Two forums, poster ‘Carthac’ stated, “I really want to react with a rational response to this, but what can be said of his actions besides of them being pure greed. This man not only shamed himself with FTP, put 100′s of millions of dollars of player money in jeopardy because of his extremely dishonest, greedy, and immoral actions, but now he wants to stand in the way of possibly recuperating and refunding his customers because of personal monetary issues from his former company? What complete scum of the earth.”
On the Pocket Fives forum, poster ‘maxtinder’ says, “Chris Ferguson should be extremely embarrassed that he plays poker,” while another poster, ‘emptypockets,’ writes in his post, “Just lost all respect for Jesus…no pun intended.”
This is just the latest is what has turned out to be a Shakespearian tragedy for what used to be the second largest online poker site in the industry. As of now, there are hopes that Groupe Bernard Tapie is still involved in the purchase of the assets of Full Tilt Poker, but each day that goes by without closure only incites the ire of the online poker community even more than it already has reached.
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History in the Making – Poker Memory
by Steve Badger
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“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana
Santayana’s well-known bit of philosophy is widely regarded as true. Thomas Huxley took it one step further, saying that history itself was the result of people not knowing history!
When it comes to poker, people will debate which skills are the most valuable to a player: psychology, math, salesmanship, whatever. While it may not be the single most important thing to have a solid grasp of, having a good sense of history and an ability to learn from history is a vital skill for a player to master.
TJ Cloutier is a great tournament poker player with numerous skills. Many people consider his greatest skill to be his ability to remember pretty much everything about anyone he’s ever played against. Whether that’s his best skill or not, he is terrific at it. A couple years ago at an Omaha tournament at the Bicycle Casino, TJ and I were in a pot together with another player. We all checked on the turn, with me in last position. Holding AK45, I had bet an AK9 flop, and they called. When an A came on the turn, I made the nut hand, with no chance of being drawn out on (there was no straight flush possible). I forget what came on the end, but I got two or three bets out of the other player on the river. TJ folded. One player commented about me getting action on the river by checking the turn. We were close to the money and TJ was down near the felt and a little cranky, which lead him to do some educatin’ at the table. He merely said: “He [meaning me] likes to do that [check the nuts in last position on the turn].”
I was struck by that comment a few ways and have thought about it a lot since. Firstly, I didn’t like him educating my opponents. Second, I didn’t like the fact that I had ever done anything predictable enough to be memorable like that. Then third, I marveled at the fact TJ picked up on this little tendency of mine. One amazing thing was, even though in the prior five years or so we had played many times before, I am pretty certain this was only the third time TJ had seen me make this “check the nuts” action (simple little action that it is). We played different games for many hours spread over several years, but somehow prior to this he had noticed I did this move, and now seeing it the third time he used the phrase “he likes” to do that. And it’s true! I liked to do that! Heaven knows I almost never get a hand strong enough to do it with, but when I did it, I liked doing it — meaning I liked doing it as a profitable move. (I also like having the nuts!)
It’s just remarkable to me that anyone would be able to consciously draw a conclusion about a play I did maybe nine or ten times in five years! Other players may also have noticed that I did this play, but 99% of my opponents surely didn’t. The type of player I am, if I check in position on the turn with a coordinated board, my opponents almost always bet into me on the river. So the fact that I may have missed a few bets from players like TJ was surely more than made up for by the misplays I got from other players.
We all notice things about our opponents. Many of these things lead directly to our making or saving money. If, like TJ, you notice a bazillion little things like this, and are able to remember all that stuff, the cumulative amount of money earned from knowing player’s histories is going to be quite a lot.
Since I first started playing flop games in Northern California, I’ve kept a personal “database” on any player I’ve played with enough to recognize. I even thought of selling this database when I moved to Southern California! Unfortunately it was too much of a pain in the butt to do that because it’s all in my head.
A good memory is invaluable in poker, but I’m talking about more than just mere memory. I’m talking about history. Poker is a complex mass of pot situations and player tendencies. It’s not just “what” somebody did that you need to remember, but the “why” and the “how” and with “who”. Just like in history, where all events are in a context (Napoleon didn’t just wake up one day and decide to invade Russia), useful poker information about your opponents needs to be observed and remembered in the proper context. If the job were to just remember one person, it would be easy. But the job involves at least several people (a home game), or a couple hundred people (middle limit players in Connecticut or San Jose, for example), or literally hundreds of players (lower limit games in Los Angeles).
The more history you have to learn, the tougher the job. But the more history you do learn, the more money in your pocket.
