FTP relaunch: long FAQ

An FTP official (Shyam Markus, Poker Room Manager at Full Tilt Poker) answered a lot of questions from players regarding FTP reopening. Here you have it all combined and pasted together.

If you are seriously preparing for the site relaunch, it's a must read.

There is a ton of interesting info like what happens with money from transfers that didnt go through, what happens with your VIP points/ironman medals, uncleared bonuss, if you will have rakeback as previously etc.

First part of questions and answers:
1. When will we be able to log into the Full Tilt Software?

- We're all working hard on getting everything up and running, but we've lost a lot of great employees over the last year and there's a ton of work left to do. Now that the transaction is complete (the official closing date is today), we will definitely relaunch within the next 90 days, but we're probably looking at late October or early November.

2. Anything going to change with existing rakeback accounts?

- The decision has been left to the Marketing and Poker Room departments at Full Tilt Poker, and all of the issues will be considered before a final direction is chosen.

3. Will we be allowed screenname changes?

- At the moment there are no plans to adjust this policy, so Player IDs will not be changing.

4. What happens to all the screen names for US players? Are they recycled? Will players be forced to use them again once you re-enter the US market?

- US players will still be able to log in and play for play money, so their account details won't be changing at all. That means all the Player IDs will be kept.

5. What are your plans on handling FTP points/Ironman medals/loyalty rewards for former US players?

- Generally speaking, US players should only have cash and points in their accounts at this point (Iron Man medals were already converted to FTPs). As we now know, they will have to go through the remission process to claim the cash. I don't have an answer for what will happen to the FTPs.

6. If I'm an American player and fail to apply with the DOJ for remission, will my Full Tilt account balance remain intact if the day comes when Full Tilt is able to operate in America?

- No, you have to go through the remission process.

7. Will FTP have € accounts as well?

- We had planned on bringing out this feature (the option to keep your account balance in other currencies) last year, and we are still planning on it. I don't have any kind of timeline (it's a little difficult to see past the current 90 day deadline at the moment), but I'm confident it will happen.

8. Any plans on bringing back the Full Tilt Poker forums?

- I believe so. It's likely it won't be back up before the site itself is up and running, though.

9. What about the FTP store... I know that most of us had enough FTPs to buy stuff from there and they had some cool stuff, so was just wondering about the store as well.

- The details of exactly what will be available in the FTP store immediately on relaunch are still being worked out, but there will be a store at relaunch.

10. Will FTP open up as .eu thus making it tax-free in a country like Sweden/Finland like PS did?

- We are working on getting a .eu site up and running as soon as possible. We don't know yet if it will be ready in time for the relaunch, but it's definitely coming.

11. What about my FTOPS jacket I have been waiting on for 15 months. Any chance I will receive this in the near future?

- I hope we can clear up these kinds of issues shortly after relaunch. So maybe towards the end of the year if no other issues pop up.

12. What about FTP promotions? There were daily happy hours, 0-deposit midyear and endyear bonus on FTP, frequent rush weeks, etc. Does Stars taking over spell the likely end of promotions on FTP?

- There will still be promotions!

13. Immediately before AGCC pulled the plug, a lot of us were in the middle of clearing the mid-year bonus for which we played consistently 6 months before that.

- The mid-year bonus hadn't been awarded yet (it's based on your Iron Man participation for the first 6 months of the year, and June wasn't over when the site went down). But yes, there will be a satisfactory resolution to the mid-year bonus issue.

14. What will happen to active bonuses? I had just bought the 1.1million FTP's 5000$ bonus with about 3500$ remaining to be cleared.

- If you purchased a bonus and hadn't finished clearing it, you will be refunded your FTPs (on a pro-rated basis depending on how much was left to clear) before we relaunch.

15. What will happen regarding Full Tilt Pros?

- The Full Tilt Marketing department is working on this, and no final decisions have been made yet.

16. Will there be cool promotions like 're-deposit bonuses' to account for the long closure?

- Yes, it's safe to say you can expect some promotions right out of the gate. Of course, I hope there will be cool promotions all the time on Full Tilt Poker.

Second part:
1. Is it true that players will be able to make transfers between their FTP and Stars accounts?

- Everyone agrees that this is a good idea that should happen. There are still plenty of questions about how exactly it will work and how soon it can be implemented. So for now the answer is, "I hope it's true."

2. Will all SnG's resume back to exactly what they were?

- There are no plans to change the tournament structures or payout structures. There will likely be some changes to the overall offering, though. Hopefully for the better.

3. Hiring again soon?

- Definitely. As soon as some job postings go up, I'll be sure to let everyone know (probably on Twitter or something).

4. Will über smart features that exist on either site get implemented on the other?

- That will depend on the plans of the other site. There are definitely a couple of nice little features I've blatantly stolen from PokerStars that should make their way into the FTP client by relaunch. More generally, though, the plan is to compete as much as possible on the software/feature side of things. So I'm sure you can expect a bunch of smart features to make their way to Stars at some point. (New employer slam!)

5. Will US players who have relocated be able to change the location of their accounts, or will they have to make new accounts?

- The plan is that players will be able to change the location of their accounts via the same process PokerStars currently uses.

6. I would like to know my balance. When will support be able to give information about individual account balances?

- I don't have an exact date, but the plan is to have that information available to players sometime before relaunch.

7. Will there be refunds of FTP points spend on purchases, that never arrived?

- That's definitely the plan, yes.

8. Completly forgot all my log in details. Was using the card thing too. Is it easy to get these details back? Or reset my passwords?

- There will definitely be a way to regain access to your account if you've forgotten any/all of your login credentials or lost your hardware token (or phone that had the token software on it). It might not be "easy" in the sense that we'll want to make absolutely sure you are the real owner of the account, but there will be a way.

9. I qualified for Black Card in June. Will I get my card?

- I don't have an answer for this one just yet. Sending out physical cards will be pretty low down on the priority list, but I definitely understand the appeal and credit card roulette implications. I don't expect to have an answer until after relaunch.

10. Do we get rakeback for the week before the shutdown?

- Yes, players who were due rakeback during that last week of June will still get it.

11. Any word on account bans that be implemented across both sites? How do you determine what is an exceptional circumstance? Will you be upturning any cases from the past and reinstate their account?

- I don't have any update beyond what Lee Jones said. It's a complicated issue with many details still to be worked out, but it's everyone's intention to protect the players on both sites as much as possible with a fair policy that makes sense.

12. Are you guys still going to freeze the Iron Man levels for US players? that way if you come back to the states we can pick up where we left off and not go back to month 1?

- The exact plan is still unformed, but we will do everything we can to make sure players don't feel like they've lost out on the value of the Iron Man promotion if and when they can return to playing on FTP.

13. Will the FTP logo still look like your avatar pic?

- I don't know. The marketing and brand guys are still working out all of the details when it comes to questions like that. If it changes I'll change my avatar!

14. Will I be able to use the dog like durrrr, make the smile emotion, and then play spewy thinking I am durrrr and lose all my play money?

- Without question.

15. Can we still call you Doug?

- I'd rather we didn't! Shyam really isn't that scary a name. It's pronounced just like "Sean" but with an "m" at the end instead of an "n." My parents were hippies and got married in India, blame them.

16. I saw that US players will have to do the remission thing and won't be able to keep balances on there. Will it be possible to make transfers instead of withdrawing?

- No, that won't be possible.

17. How's the FTOPS schedule looking?

- I'm guessing the next one will look a lot like the one we were planning for August of last year. So, pretty good?

18. My account was banned years ago because I made a deposit at my friend's account because he couldn't deposit. Is it possible I will get my account back?

- I won't be able to answer specific Support/Security type questions here (or anywhere else). It's likely you're going to have to wait for those teams to be back up and running properly with all player data before you get a real answer.

19. I cant recall if I had any $ in my account when this went down. However I know that I had bought some tournament tickets to The Sunday Brawl with FTPs. What is going to happen to them?

- If you're a ROW player you will still have those tournament tickets in your account on relaunch. If you're a US player they would have already been converted to $.

20, Will FTP continue to deliver completely different gameplay than Pokerstars or will both sites become very similar over time?

- The plan is to remain separate and unique.

21. What changed at FTP headquarters after Stars acquisition?

- There is going to be far more caffeine readily available. And a whole lot more excitement for the future.

22. Are you going to get rid of multi-entry?

- We have no plans to get rid of METs, no. That doesn't mean we won't make any changes to them. I understand the various issues people who don't like the feature have with it, and I've read over the thread with the poll.

23. What if someone had a ROW account before June 29 but has since moved back to the US. I know they are considered ROW but what if they don't have access to those particular bank accounts from ROW and the address for check mailing purposes. How will withdrawals work then?

- It's safe to say nobody knows the answer to that question just yet. Plenty of people are working through all the various issues that are part of this relaunch, and you can be sure that when it's all said and done there will be a process to withdraw any money in your account.

24. Will rush sit and goes and tourneys be still available to play?

- That's the plan, but anything is possible. If we relaunch and nobody shows up to play them, I don't know how long they'd stick around before we tried something else.

25. Will high stakes play money tables still be available

- There are currently no plans to change the play money offerings.

26. When is this DOJ submission process going to happen?

- That's definitely a question for the DOJ.

27. What is going to happen to affiliate deals and accounts? And balances that are still owed on there of course?

- I don't have an answer for this. I'm confident that once the affiliate plan is solidified all of the affiliates will be updated.

28. Any of you guys with money on ftp did receive an email from them?

- No player emails have been sent yet. There are some technical issues to overcome first, but an email will definitely be going out. We want everyone to know what's going on (and come back once we relaunch), not just people paying attention to poker news sites or forums.

29. Some of us also had those cash tickets in play. Whats the status there?

- Ring Game Tickets that were active when we went down will be converted to cash based on whatever value was still left on the ticket.

30. Are there any plans to make a Full Tilt mobile app.

- We actually already had a mobile app. The plan is definitely to bring it back, but it's possible it won't be until after relaunch.

31. What will be the deposit/withdrawal options once FTP opens up? The same as PS?

- We're still working through all of those issues, but the intention is to have the same options as PokerStars.

32. What are the plans for the tournaments that where currently going when the site shut down?

- They were cancelled and paid out according to our tournament cancellation rules. It's essentially a forced "chip chop."

33. Can you speculate as to when ftp or stars will be back for USA players? and maybe tell us the process of things that need to happen for it to happen?

- I can't even begin to speculate, no. I'm an eternal optimist and will likely keep on hoping it's just around the corner for as long as it takes. I do recommend following Rich Muny's (TheEngineer on 2+2) daily action plan to stay involved.

34. Do you know if our player notes will still be there? Im aware they are stored on our own hard drives, i just want to know if they will still be compatible?

- Yep, as long as they're still there on your hard drive they should be perfectly fine when you next log in.

35. How will you go about making the new MTT schedule. Are you going to build it from the ground up? Or are you keeping the same schedule as before and just adding where you see fit?

- The current plan is to return with basically the same schedule we had on June 29th, 2011. There will be some changes here and there, and the guarantees will likely be constantly adjusting as we figure out just how many players we have back on the site, but it will look very familiar to players who knew the old schedule.

36. Shouldn't this thread be in Internet Poker?

- I had that debate in my mind as well. My feeling was this particular thread is more news than poker (and will get more eyeballs here), but once we start having regular updates again those threads will be in the Internet Poker forum.

37. Is there any way a UK player could get some of their bankroll before the re launch?

- No, I'm afraid not.

Third part:
1. Now that FTP won't relaunch in Denmark, any chance that they will apply for a Danish license in 2013?

- At the moment our entire focus is on the relaunch. Future license plans have not been developed.

2. What about FTP Academy? I had there some serious money in Academy credits.

- The FTP Academy won't be returning at relaunch for both technical and marketing reasons. All Academy credits will be converted to Full Tilt Points (1 Academy credit will be exchanged for 1 FTP). I do hope that we can bring the Academy back someday.

3. Will there still be a link with Cardrunners, so that earning full tilt points credited you with free access to the CR site?

- I don't have an answer for this. My best guess is that this won't be decided until after relaunch, so it's very unlikely you'd see that promo still available at relaunch.

4. Will it be possible to exchange FTPs points (and Iron Man medals) for PokerStars FPPs? Will it be possible to transfer a bonus from FTP to PokerStars?

- No to both. The only thing currently planned to be transferrable using the site-to-site transfer feature (whenever that becomes available) is real money.

5. Will FTP once again release a full-featured version of their software for Mac?

- Yes, the Mac software will still be supported.

6. Obviously, not a priority for the relaunch, but please do consider adding Pineapple to the lineup.

- As long as we're talking Crazy, I'm a fan! I played it some in Oceanside back in the mid-90s and had a blast. I'm old.

7. Is everyone (Belgium, France etc) able to play for play money?

- This question is still being worked on. We hope to offer play money in as many places as we can.

8. So will relocated U.S players outside of the U.S be able to retrieve their account like Stars lets us? Or will we need to make a new account?

- You will not need a new account. The procedure for re-opening your account for real money play will be extremely similar (if not identical) to the procedure currently used by PokerStars.

9. FTP used to have leaderboards each month. When FTP shut down I was second in the high stakes hu sng leaderboard. I was wondering what will happen with these cash prizes?

- The June, 2011 leaderboard prizes will be paid out at relaunch.

10. Are you going to block pokertableratings like Stars have?

- I would think that FTP's data-mining policies will be identical to PokerStars, but I don't think the details have been worked out yet.

11. Are you going to be able to qualify for events like EPT, LAPT, APPT, etc through Full Tilt as well?

- Exactly which live events FTP will support haven't been decided yet. I don't expect any news in this area until after relaunch.

12. I had an 8k wire transfer that never came in, had like 10+ talks with support to get it cleared up and had all the records proving it via email, who should I contact now to finalize it and finally get paid, and when should I do so?

- There isn't someone to contact just yet. All of these issues are being sorted through and Support needs some time to get back up to speed. Give it some time and then write to Support to see if they can give you a timeline for when things might be sorted out.

13. Will we be able to see our transaction history from before Black Friday?

- We intend for everyone to have access to their full transaction history as long as there are no technical or jurisdictional issues that would prevent that access.

14. There were always "hidden" fees for non US players depositing on FTP (converting the £ / € etc to USD would always lose about 2% I believe, and the same for withdrawing) will this still be the case? Or will FTP become more like stars for depositing and withdrawing where all funds are converted free of charge.

- All of these types of policies are undergoing review. I don't have any definitive answer, though.

15. Can we make new accounts on the new FTP or I'm a stuck with my old account which I forget name/password and email for?

- You'll have to use your old account. Support will assist in any way possible to help players retrieve lost login credentials.

16. Will Stars and FTP be run on same servers or will FTP still run on the ones it used to.

- FTP will still be run on the same servers it used to run on.

17. No chance of relaunch in September?

- None. There is simply too much work to do and too many issues to resolve.

18. Will we be given advanced notice of the re-launch time / date?

- I'd say "end of October or beginning of November" is going to be the best advanced notice we'll be able to give for the time being. As we get a lot closer to the actual date we will hopefully be able to give a more precise relaunch window.

19. Will the FT mainstay Fantasy Poker return?

- For sure this isn't something we will decide before relaunch. I'd be very surprised if that decision was made before the end of the year.

20. Any chance FTP/PokerStars will apply to act as the Claims Administrator for the DoJ with respect to the remission of FTP player balances?

- I'm getting a "We can't comment on any discussions with the DOJ" answer to this question.

21. What's happening with fulltiltpoker.fr?

- If we're able to continue offering play money for France, it might remain open for that. Otherwise, it will just go away and all play money players will be moved to PokerStars.fr along with all the real money players.


Fourth part:
1. Any plans to make arrangements to help multi-tabling on Stars and FTP at the same time?

- There are no plans for that kind of software coordination, no.

2. What pros are on the shortlist to be Red Pros?

- We'll be keeping that a secret for now. When it's all set there will for sure be an announcement.

3. Is there any way of receiving hand histories from games I have played on FTP before black Friday?

- No hands have been lost. As long as the various Hand History tools are still available (and they might not be right at relaunch depending on what state they're currently in), those hands will be retrievable (by you or Support).

4. Will tables that were purchased with Iron Man medals and named the same as your screenname still be available when the site is relaunched?

- The tables purchased by US players will no longer be there, and we may clean some more up depending on what kind of use they get. But if you purchased a table that gets cleaned up and you want it back to play on, we'll be happy to bring it back.

5. What will be done about the Onyx Cup?

- There are no plans to continue with this series.

6. Can you reinvent the 'kofek'-glitch for some time?

- Hah! I was a big fan of that one.

i wonder how large they willl be when they return, they will prob return as the 2nd largest site next to PS

On September 19 2012 10:55 TalentedTom wrote: i wonder how large they willl be when they return, they will prob return as the 2nd largest site next to PS

arent they the same company anyway ?

On September 19 2012 11:20 maryn wrote: Show nested quote + On September 19 2012 10:55 TalentedTom wrote: i wonder how large they willl be when they return, they will prob return as the 2nd largest site next to PS arent they the same company anyway ?

They are the same company since PS bought FTP, though FTP will run as a separate poker room, with separate player base, promotions etc. Everything is made clear in the first topic.

cant wait to see FTP rise again

14. Will I be able to use the dog like durrrr, make the smile emotion, and then play spewy thinking I am durrrr and lose all my play money? - Without question.

hahahaha

PokerStars = UFC, FTP = Strikeforce.

As a person located in the U.S., I don't expect to play anytime soon, but I look forward to any progress that FTP will be making.

Having to apply with the DOJ for remission, then sit around and wait for a day, if any, where I can actually play again sounds weird to me. If you don't apply for remission, your funds will eventually be lost. How I see it is, I'm telling the government I have funds on there, then not knowing when, if ever, I will be able to withdraw those funds. Maybe it's cuz I don't like the government knowing my business, even though I don't have much money in there anyway when compared to AndrewSong.

My friend told me that he got an e-mail requesting address and photo I.D. verification. Has anyone else non-U.S. received this e-mail from FTP support? Is this going to be a requirement to get our funds? I'm wondering how to contact them in case I'm not properly notified.

Edit: Nevermind, the request actually comes from Pokerstars. So that's why I couldn't find it at first. Everyone else has probably received theirs too by now.

On September 20 2012 15:23 Bejamin1 wrote: My friend told me that he got an e-mail requesting address and photo I.D. verification. Has anyone else non-U.S. received this e-mail from FTP support? Is this going to be a requirement to get our funds? I'm wondering how to contact them in case I'm not properly notified. Edit: Nevermind, the request actually comes from Pokerstars. So that's why I couldn't find it at first. Everyone else has probably received theirs too by now.

There: http://www.liquidpoker.net/news/10550...r_relaunch_under_PokerStars_ownership