Phil Ivey sits out the WSOP

The after-effects of Black Friday, the 15th of April, where the Department of Justice, acted to shut down a number of online bingo sites are still being felt. It was felt that there was some good news recently when the DoJ announced that the sites could pay-out to customers who had money sitting in their accounts. While this was not ideal, the fact that any players affected by the situation would have money back into their account was at least seen as a positive step. Players who had funds with PokerStars found that they were refunded but this was not the case for players who had funds sitting with Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt struggling to raise funds

The company released a statement saying they were looking to raise funds in order to be able to provide money to players who had money with them. The company then took the opportunity to criticise the DoJ and to distance themselves from the current situation. However, that is of no real comfort to any poker player that is missing out on playing because a large amount of money is sat with a company that is unable to pay out. This is something that many poker players will not forget and there is an immediate bad piece of publicity for Full Tilt surrounding their treatment of poker players.

It is easy to say that Phil Ivey is one the most recognisable names in the poker industry and he has seen his popularity rise alongside Full Tilt Poker. This is because the site has been a key sponsor of the player and he has regularly played while wearing the logo of the site. This means that many people associate Ivey with the site so anything which places the company in a bad light may well see people placing Ivey in a bad light as well.

Phil is out of the WSOP

This is clearly not the case and Phil Ivey has taken steps to show how disappointed he is with the actions of the site and with the way they have let down poker players. Ivey has announced that he will not be attending the WSOP this year because he would not feel right playing at the event. This is due to the fact that many poker players will find themselves being unable to attend because of the actions of Full Tilt, so there is a strong level of solidarity being shown by Ivey and his fellow poker players.

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