Introducing Mr Feft - Former FTP Employee

Nov. 4, 2011, Posted by Mr.__Feft

Mr. Feft is a former employee of Full Tilt (Feft).  Over the next few weeks, he will be telling his stories about Full Tilt and the online poker industry. Mr Feft wishes to remain anonymous.

It was January when we started to realize that all was not well with one of our major payment processors. A task force was set up to deal with the volume of complaints received from players. A decision was made at senior management level to honor the payments. This basically meant that players were free-rolling with FTP money. The more astute players realized this was the case and took advantage of the situation. It was the worst kept secret in the poker world. 

Some high profile players knew about this glitch in the system and took advantage.  Then BOOM, on Black Friday the lights went out. We managed to get the site up and running again but after the AGCC debacle we were dead in the water and in the hole for some very large bread. Stars had the same problem but caught the problem before it had the chance to spread by setting the account balance to a negative figure.  We were wondering if the FBI sabotaged the processor.  All kinds of rumors were flying around the office. We were assured by Ray Bitar that all would be ok. The truth was that we were screwed. We would clock into work every day hoping for some good news. There was no work to be done. We busied ourselves by playing cards, going for walks, screwing colleagues, and drinking. The security guys at night played office golf and watched DVD's. Those guys were sickos. They would gamble on anything. In the morning we could hear them betting on how much a player was up or down. They gambled on diabetics’ blood sugar levels and used to play pitch and toss against the wall at lunchtime.

The cashier guys went drinking. There was always a bottle of something nice in the office. We used to get free candy, soft drinks, and ten cent dinners that would equal a fine dining restaurant meal. Bitar and his crew usually ate lobster! The staff Xmas parties were off the chain! Free booze all day and night, and usually a good old orgy after. Ray Bitar usually made a speech but last year’s was the least convincing. He told some bullshit story about meeting a congressman who asked if online poker was legalized, would jobs be created for him in the state of Texas? Ray apparently told him that all the skilled workers were employed in Ireland. We laughed at the insanity of the man. If I was talking to that congressman I'd lie through my teeth and promise him thousands of jobs. They even had guys flown from Cuba to roll cigars at all parties. Chris and Howard didn't attend the parties but used to show up every so often. Howard used to drink at my local bar. He'd order some mineral water and tell the barman to keep the change for €50! The water cost maximum €2.50. Ray asked the barman one day, how much was the most that Howard had tipped him. When he answered €100 Ray immediately tipped him €200. Ivey and Andy Bloch showed up after Ivey had distanced himself from the site. It was thought that Bloch smoothed things over with Ray. Ray also loaned to players. Usually these loans were never paid back, or only paid back partly. 

--Mr. Feft

ThePoker Farm makes no claim as to the accuracy of these stories.   However, we believe that the author was in a position to know about what he is writing, and so present his story unfiltered.