Years ago, the name Full Tilt Poker was synonymous with online poker gaming. The brand operated for years in competition with PokerStars, only to be shut down during Black Friday in April 2011. Since that time, the brand was taken over by PokerStars parent company and players were repaid funds owed by 2011. By mid-2016, Full Tilt began operating under the PokerStars network as an iPoker skin. Now, it seems the days of the brand are over. The news broke just a few days ago that the brand will be taken offline on February 25.
Details of the Removal
The news first broke via Pokerfuse and PokerStars placed an FAQ section on their site to provide players with details of the removal. This Thursday, the Full Tilt desktop and mobile application along with branding will no longer exist. It will be replaced with PokerStars.
Existing users will be able to move to the PokerStars platform with their username and password from Full Tilt. Players can find information on the process via the FAQ page. Any balances or bonuses that players have currently under their account will be moved and honored via PokerStars.
The shutdown of Full Tilt is an ongoing process, having started back in October 2020 with the closure of the dot.EU site. Players of this site were switched to the PokerStars.EU platform.
On the FAQ pages, PokerStars says that they have a commitment to improve the software of PokerStars and the customer experience. Because of these commitments, it has limited the focus and resources that the brand could apply to Full Tilt.
Over the years, PokerStars has made changes to Full Tilt, including creates a new Mobile NG platform and a new game engine titled Aurora. Keeping up with the upgrades and changes was a burden that PokerStars seems no longer willing to bare.
The site states that PokerStars feels it is time to consolidate brands so that everyone has access to the newest features and games that are offered exclusively by PokerStars.
Remembering Full Tilt
The Full Tilt Poker brand was launched in 2004, just a few short years after PokerStars. Some of the biggest professional poker players in the business helped to open the site, including Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, and more.
For some time, the site was the main competitor of PokerStars, being the second largest online poker room in the world. It offered high stakes action among the best players in the industry along with innovative products like Rush Poker.
However, once Black Friday took place, the brand fell hard. It did not come back until the end of 2012 after PokerStars took over, but never saw traffic return like it once saw all those years ago. Efforts were made to bring the brand back to its former glory, such as creating a new rewards program, but nothing seemed to work.
It is truly and end of an era as we say goodbye to the familiar online poker brand, Full Tilt Poker.
