Despite Full Tilt Poker’s self-injected dose of financial formaldehyde a year ago, rumors continue to circulate that FTP’s toes are twitching. Earlier this month, we heard that FTP’s Dublin-based tech arm Pocket Kings was hiring new staff, suggesting real progress had been made in the three-way asset acquisition negotiations between FTP, the US Department of Justice, and French white-knight investors Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT). More recently, a few diehard FTP customers who’ve made a self-flagellating ritual of logging into the site every day reported being presented with a notice asking them to upgrade their software to a numbered release suggesting a more recent vintage. Not all users reported similar experiences, but hope remains that FTP is embarking on some pre-relaunch beta testing.
On Tuesday, a sharp-eyed 2+2 forum poster (Gunner171) uncovered two newly registered companies in Malta under the names “Full Tilt Holding Ltd.” and “New Full Tilt Ltd.” Another 2+2 sleuth (Capt36feet) discovered GBT principal Laurent Tapie’s name as director and secretary on an Irish registration for New Full Tilt Ltd., which was incorporated on Feb. 14 with a declared capital of €1m. And a third 2+2 poster (GrassyKnoll63) found Bernard Tapie’s fingerprints on a Russian-made bolt-action rifle in Dealey Plaza in Dallas. (Just kidding on that last one.)
Finally, Spanish poker site Poker-Red.com reported that further details of the GBT-controlled International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) are to be revealed on May 1. For those not in the know, the wacky ISPT concept involves tens of thousands of poker players gathering together in a sports stadium to play each other on tablet-style devices for a multi-million payday. Users who entered their info on the ISPT site were presented with a screen image of, er, something resembling the Emerald City with accompanying text suggesting 30k players would be on hand for the debut event in London’s Wembley Stadium (date still TBA). The May 1 date for details may be significant, in that Laurent Tapie has previously stated that online satellite tourneys would be used to qualify for the ISPT. So will the 2+2 crowd finally get the news they’ve been hoping for on May 1? Frankly, we suspect this is all a leftist French plot to make right-wing US poker players celebrate an international trade unionist holiday. If so, well played, messieurs…
