New Full Tilt is going to be managed by.... FTPDoug, the Baghdad Bob of old Full Tilt!

[Dan Druff]

Sadly, this is not a joke.

Shyam Markus has been appointed by Pokerstars to be the manager of the relaunched Full Tilt Poker. He has since come forward and admitted to being the infamous "FTPDoug" on 2+2, the longtime 2+2 Full Tilt rep, who blatantly lied to everyone regarding the post-Black-Friday situation at Full Tilt.

Here's the article where he admits to being FTPDoug:

http://onlinepokerreport.com/ftpdoug...as-ftp-markus/

This isn't trivial, though. FTPDoug was the mouthpiece for FTP's lies last year, and while he was likely just following orders, it's disturbing and uncomfortable to have this guy as the head of the new Full Tilt.

This thread was posted on May 30, 2011 -- just 45 days after Black Friday:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...-30-a-1045358/

Most notable from the original post, written by Shyam (aka FTPDoug):

2. Is FTP bankrupt?

No. FTP's worldwide business is healthy and, although we've had some short-term challenges, it is operating as normal.

Ugh.

That was about as far from true as possible.

I am willing to believe that Shyam was lied to by Bitar, Lederer, Ferguson, etc., but he pretty emphatically and confidently peddled those lies, and definitely had reason to question their truthfulness as the time.

I don't blame him for what happened to Full Tilt, but I think he was a bit too close to the situation to be leading the new version of Full Tilt.

Pokerstars should have started fresh with someone who had nothing to do with the previous company. This is just going to erode confidence in the relaunched brand.

Basically, they shouldn't let anyone work for new Full Tilt who had any managerial or visible role in the old Full Tilt, aside perhaps from some old red pros who were clearly innocent of wrongdoing.

This is a step in the wrong direction, and I'm surprised that Stars is being so stupid.

[Action]

Sadly, this is not a joke.

Shyam Markus has been appointed by Pokerstars to be the manager of the relaunched Full Tilt Poker. He has since come forward and admitted to being the infamous "FTPDoug" on 2+2, the longtime 2+2 Full Tilt rep, who blatantly lied to everyone regarding the post-Black-Friday situation at Full Tilt.

Here's the article where he admits to being FTPDoug:

http://onlinepokerreport.com/ftpdoug...as-ftp-markus/

This isn't trivial, though. FTPDoug was the mouthpiece for FTP's lies last year, and while he was likely just following orders, it's disturbing and uncomfortable to have this guy as the head of the new Full Tilt.

This thread was posted on May 30, 2011 -- just 45 days after Black Friday:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...-30-a-1045358/

Most notable from the original post, written by Shyam (aka FTPDoug):

2. Is FTP bankrupt?

No. FTP's worldwide business is healthy and, although we've had some short-term challenges, it is operating as normal.

Ugh.

That was about as far from true as possible.

I am willing to believe that Shyam was lied to by Bitar, Lederer, Ferguson, etc., but he pretty emphatically and confidently peddled those lies, and definitely had reason to question their truthfulness as the time.

I don't blame him for what happened to Full Tilt, but I think he was a bit too close to the situation to be leading the new version of Full Tilt.

Pokerstars should have started fresh with someone who had nothing to do with the previous company. This is just going to erode confidence in the relaunched brand.

Basically, they shouldn't let anyone work for new Full Tilt who had any managerial or visible role in the old Full Tilt, aside perhaps from some old red pros who were clearly innocent of wrongdoing.

This is a step in the wrong direction, and I'm surprised that Stars is being so stupid.

Outside of a handful of 2+2ers, I don't think Shyam's role with FTP will impact confidence in the brand one way or another. What percent of the player pool has even heard of FTP Doug? It's negligible. If there was anybody that Bitar and Co. would want to keep in the dark about the problems they were having, the PR guy would rank high on that list. Pokerstars isn't stupid. They did their homework and made a +ev decision in retaining his services imo.

[Dan Druff]

Sadly, this is not a joke.

Shyam Markus has been appointed by Pokerstars to be the manager of the relaunched Full Tilt Poker. He has since come forward and admitted to being the infamous "FTPDoug" on 2+2, the longtime 2+2 Full Tilt rep, who blatantly lied to everyone regarding the post-Black-Friday situation at Full Tilt.

Here's the article where he admits to being FTPDoug:

http://onlinepokerreport.com/ftpdoug...as-ftp-markus/

This isn't trivial, though. FTPDoug was the mouthpiece for FTP's lies last year, and while he was likely just following orders, it's disturbing and uncomfortable to have this guy as the head of the new Full Tilt.

This thread was posted on May 30, 2011 -- just 45 days after Black Friday:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...-30-a-1045358/

Most notable from the original post, written by Shyam (aka FTPDoug):



Ugh.

That was about as far from true as possible.

I am willing to believe that Shyam was lied to by Bitar, Lederer, Ferguson, etc., but he pretty emphatically and confidently peddled those lies, and definitely had reason to question their truthfulness as the time.

I don't blame him for what happened to Full Tilt, but I think he was a bit too close to the situation to be leading the new version of Full Tilt.

Pokerstars should have started fresh with someone who had nothing to do with the previous company. This is just going to erode confidence in the relaunched brand.

Basically, they shouldn't let anyone work for new Full Tilt who had any managerial or visible role in the old Full Tilt, aside perhaps from some old red pros who were clearly innocent of wrongdoing.

This is a step in the wrong direction, and I'm surprised that Stars is being so stupid.

Outside of a handful of 2+2ers, I don't think Shyam's role with FTP will impact confidence in the brand one way or another. What percent of the player pool has even heard of FTP Doug? It's negligible. If there was anybody that Bitar and Co. would want to keep in the dark about the problems they were having, the PR guy would rank high on that list. Pokerstars isn't stupid. They did their homework and made a +ev decision in retaining his services imo.

I half agree with you.

It's true that MOST people signing up for the new Full Tilt will be unaware of Shyam's history as FTPDoug.

However, what are they gaining by putting him in this position? There are countless people with cleaner records who could do the same job just as well. There's no reason to take on that baggage. That's what I don't understand. If they just found some qualified individual without a negative history, the 2+2 community would just say, "Oh, I see a new FTP poker manager has been appointed. Let's hope it goes well this time!", and it would be a smooth transition.

Now this guy is going to be dogged by his history as FTPDoug every time he tries to communicate with 2+2, which is a bad start for a company trying to rebuild its rep.

[Action]

However, what are they gaining by putting him in this position? There are countless people with cleaner records who could do the same job just as well.

His prior experience is what they gain. They're re-launching within 90 days and that's not much time to get somebody new up to speed with everything that his job entails.

[Steve-O]

However, what are they gaining by putting him in this position? There are countless people with cleaner records who could do the same job just as well.

His prior experience is what they gain. They're re-launching within 90 days and that's not much time to get somebody new up to speed with everything that his job entails.

Not to mention that FTP was the #2 cardroom in the world and none of the problems were Markus' fault. He was responsible for the good product they put out. But I mostly agree with Druff. #1 outing him as FTP Doug was just stupid, nobody would have ever posed that question to him. #2 keeping him in place after this is neutral UNTIL sometihng goes wrong and the community starts bringing up the "same old FTP Doug" shit.

[Rollo Tomasi]