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Cycalona „Clonie” Gowen sued Full Tilt Poker

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | Poker rooms | No Comments

Cycalona Gowen, better known as Clonie Gowen, has sued Full Tilt Poker and the various people and companies associated with Full Tilt for the sum of $40 million dollars. The list of defendants is impressive. First, there are the various companies like Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware LLC and Pocket Kings Ltd. Second, Clonie Gowen sued also the founders of Full Tilt, Howard “The Professor” Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and all the equity holders in the company, including Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius.

Clonie Gowen claims that the defendants are guilty of a number of things, including Breach of Contract and Unjust Enrichment. In 2004, she had the opportunity to become a member of Team Full Tilt Poker. She was offered a 1% stake in the company for represent and promote Full Tilt. Till now, she says, this stake is not paid. The problem is, that she had no written contract. It was only an oral agreement. Therefore it is likely difficult for Clonie Gowen to prove her statements.

Nevertheless Full Tilt Poker will do anything to keep this case out of court. If this case would go to court, all the associations between the poker pros and the various companies written above will rise up. This will be very interesting for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US government agency responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement and the worst case for Full Tilt.

If we hear something new about this case we will update this post. So stay tuned!

Tags: full tilt poker

Eli Elezra admits multiaccounting on Full Tilt Poker

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 | Poker rooms | 1 Comment

Yesterday, I found an interesting video on tinypic.com. In this scene, Eli Elezra announced in front of Howard Lederer, who is a co-owner of Full Tilt Poker, that he has 17 accounts on Full Tilt. Please note especially the non verbal efforts of Howard Lederer to quieten Eli Elezra (at second 18).

Although the most online poker rooms, e.g. including Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars und PartyPoker, doesn’t allow multiaccounting, this practice seems to be usual among the poker pros. In August 2008, Brian Townsend was found to be playing under multiple account names on Full Tilt and PokerStars. Also Guy Laliberte admits that he has several accounts on the most popular online poker rooms. For a poker pro, it is surely difficult to get action at the online poker table when they use their normal nickname. But in my opinion, a poker pro should be able to handle such a situation.

The question is: Should the online poker rooms allow multiaccounting or should they punish or expel the pros, who break their terms of service? What do you mean? I’m waiting eagerly for your comments.

Tags: full tilt poker, law