Full Tilt Poker’s Chief Marketing Officer, Lothar Rentschler, has announced his intentions to leave the company. While his departure will not be an immediate matter, his resignation will go into effect by September 13 of this year. Rentschler has served as Full Tilt’s CMO since February of 2009, and had previously worked with such large companies as Bacardi and MEC.
Here are some snippets of what he had to say on the matter, according to an email seen by QuadJacks:
“Given the current circumstances, I do believe it is a long overdue step towards the right direction… I do apologize for the inconvenience the current circumstances at [Full Tilt Poker] have caused for you personally as well as for your respective companies. Our hands in marketing were bound and at the end even every communication was stopped.”
But, as their former online patrons could attest, Full Tilt’s problems go far beyond their marketing structure. The company is currently facing a class action lawsuit, a licensing hearing, and a possible purchase from outside investors. The latest news in this department comes on the acquisition front.
Here’s the long and short of it, as reported by Electronic꽁머니사이트Gaming Review: In order for any company to be willing to lay down the necessary cash to buy Full Tilt, they will almost certainly demand a change in management. The former online poker giant is currently negotiating with several parties, hoping to beat their September 15 hearing date with the Alderney Gaming Council.
“Everyone has their eye on that date,” says Jeff Ifrah, a member of Full Tilt’s legal team. “Nobody wants to come to September 15th and not have a deal which is either finalized or close to finalization to the point that it can be shared with Alderney and result in the extension of that date.”
Unfortunately, the only game former Full Tilt users have been playing lately is a waiting one. There is still no word on the millions of dollars owed to players.
“I assume there’s going to be a transition period,” Ifrah continued, “and we hope that it’s not going to take that long to turn the lights back on and begin facilitating player withdrawals and obviously continue playing.”
The Knockout format has been extremely popular on Full Tilt Poker, with numerous tournaments taking on the format, and getting good-sized fields in return. The most popular Knockout event on Full Tilt is the Sunday Brawl, a $240+$16 tournament with a $250k guarantee, held weekly on Sundays. However, for Event #23 of FTOPS VIII, Full Tilt upped the ante quite a bit. The tournament remained a $240+$16 Knockout tournament, but had double the guarantee with $500k, and was a 6-max tournament, which along with the Knockout format guaranteed exciting action.
Roland de Wolfe hosted the tournament, with 3,149 players showing up, increasing the prize pool to $629,800. Not only was there a ton of money for the players lucky and skilled enough to make it deep, but each Knockout was worth $40, as well, creating incentive to play aggressively.
Event #23 wasn’t the best one for Full Tilt Pros, as David Pham had the best finish of them all, busting out 235th for $346.39. Many of the best players online shared the same fate as the Full Tilt Pros, however. Allinstevie was the most notable, finishing in 51st, taking away $1,240.71 plus any Knockouts he had during the tournament. Another notable tournament pro, Wiscomurray finished in 61st for $976.19.
As for the final table, princetendee has had some of the best results on Full Tilt at the final table, with over $60k in cashes prior to Event #23. Unfortunately for him, that didn’t translate into a huge win, however, his 6th place finish for $19,523.80 was his best ever. The biggest money went to elheroe, who outlasted the field after nine hours of playing, taking it all down for $124,020.22.
That is all for Event #23, be sure to check back to FTR Blogs soon for the finale in our coverage of FTOPS VIII!
