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 꽁머니Full 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 Electronic Gaming 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.”
Full-Tilt-Poker-FTOPS-IX-Event-18
Event #18 of the ninth Full Tilt Series of Poker was yet another variation on the ever popular No Limit Hold ‘em. This time the format was a $500 + $35 3x Shootout, and it attracted a healthy 662 runners. Once Full Tilt’s guaranteed $300,000 had been included the total prize pool stood at $331,000 – it would be up to the final 81 players to fight it out for the money.
The tournament was hosted by poker’s resident Northern Irish Buddhist, Andy Black. Known as much for his poker expertise as his breakdown and subsequent five year break from the game, it is worth remembering that Andy came agonizingly close to winning the biggest prize of all – finishing 5th at the 2005 World Series. Add to that his 12 WSOP cashes and you can begin to see what a formidable player he is.
The eventual winner of this event was none other that “jobless23″ who’s first place prize of $65,510 means that he won’t need to be looking for work any time soon. In second was the more sensibly named “m_reed05“, who collected $46,340, and in third came the mysterious “zelik”, who took home $33,100.
The highest finishing Full Tilt sponsored pro was Erick Lindgren (65th), who recently shed the mantle of the best player never to have won a WSOP bracelet. Having already won two WPT titles, as well as their 2004 Player of the Year award, it seemed to be a case of when rather than if he would take down his first World Series event. And not only did he claim his first bracelet he also went on to capture the coveted WSOP 2008 Player of the Year award.
All that Zen calm and meditative power must be doing the trick, as Andy Black became one of the few hosts to cash his own event, ending the day in 67th place. The only other Full Tilt pro to end in the money was Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, who added a 76th place finish to his, rather more prestigious, two WSOP Circuit titles.
