Full Tilt Poker Open – 495 Days of Being Closed

After a year and a half of frustration, disappointment and even anger, Full Tilt Poker players finally saw the site re-open on November 6th, allowing them to return to real money play and, more importantly, for those who wanted, to withdraw their money which has been tied up in the site for 495 days.

At around 1 pm European time, Full Tilt Poker opened for business and players were able to make withdrawals and transfer funds to and from Poker Stars accounts. Many players have already taken advantage of the ‘deal me in’ promo which will run for a week from the date of re-launch, and is considered a relatively large offer in the industry.

It seems that players have really missed Full Tilt Poker, and games were in full swing at high stakes tables throughout the day.

Naturally, there were minor problems within the first couple of hours of re-launch, and several cashier features weren’t cooperating. In addition, player to player transfer facilities also didn’t work initially, but Full Tilt is taking it all in its stride and putting these issues down to teething problems.

It is interesting to note Full Tilt Poker’s new Edge loyalty program which offers a maximum 25% rakeback to players who make its highest tier – the diamond level. The bottom rung in this program is the Bronze level, which is not to say that everyone automatically begins at the starting point. Full Tilt Poker has also taken into account players’ activities prior to June 2011, when the site officially went offline, and they find themselves higher than Bronze. To find out their current status in the Edge program, players can access the menu on the site.

It remains to be seen how Full Tilt will complete the festivities by paying back the money owed to US players, and how quickly it reaches an agreement with Italian regulators to facilitate a viable withdrawal process for FTP Italy players.