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Full Tilt Poker bosses 'are telling truth'

Doyle Brunson claims Full Tilt Poker's owners didn't know what was going on prior to Black Friday

by Alligator Blood PokerJolt February, 22nd 2012
Overall: 5
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Full Tilt Poker could have survived, Doyle Brunson has claimed

Above: Full Tilt Poker could have survived, Doyle Brunson has claimed

Full Tilt Poker could have survived, Doyle Brunson has claimedThe Doyle Brunson Full Tilt letter is six pages long
See pictures of: Full Tilt Poker bosses 'are telling truth'
Full Tilt was run by poker players. And I can tell you for sure that poker players including myself are terrible business men

Full Tilt Poker collapsed without its main shareholders even knowing the company was in trouble, poker legend Doyle Brunson has claimed.

The 78-year-old said he has spoken in detail to Howard Lederer - one of four Full Tilt directors being investigated by the US Department of Justice.

And Texas Dolly claims Lederer and Chris Ferguson may genuinely have known nothing at all about the site's huge financial problems.

In a six-and-a-half page letter to his own website, which has been uploaded as a blog, Brunson claims Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar was in the process of sorting out the mess - when Black Friday hit.

He says: "The bottom line was they [Lederer and Ferguson] were poker players, not corporate executives.

"I can tell you for sure that poker players including myself are terrible business men.

"Why didn't they step in and hire a top professional person to supervise and direct business? No one has ever answered that to my knowledge.

"The site under Bitar's directions started paying the stockholders huge dividends as the business grew.

"If you were a stockholder, would you question the management of a company that was sending you hundreds of thousands of dollars each month?

"I doubt you would, I know I wouldn't, I'd think life is good!"

Brunson continues: "I'm not defending anyone nor am I wanting to persecute anyone.

"It seems inconceivable that the board of directors or some of the major stockholders didn't investigate the affairs of a billion dollar company.

"It looks like Bitar, Ferguson and Lederer are taking all the heat.

"It is widely perceived that Howard Lederer was still heavily involved in running the company even though he retired two or three years earlier.

"I've been in contact with Lederer the last few months.

"When someone I've known for years, trusted and respected looks me dead in the eye and says he didn't know about the financial problems, call me a big old Texas sucker because I will believe them.

"I have not talked to Ferguson but I understand he says what Lederer told me, that they didn't know."

* Read Doyle Brunson's Full Tilt letter in full

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