As the relaunch date of November 6th approaches the announcements from Full Tilt Poker have been coming fast and furious. In addition to mass E-Mails sent to both US and Rest of World players, Full Tilt Poker’s PR guru Shyam Markus has been busy updating the official thread on 2+2 with the latest news and notes as FTP gears up to reopen its doors in less than a month.

The first E-Mail was received by US players, informing them that when the site relaunches they will be able to log-in and view their account, and will be able to participate in Play-Money games on the site. However, Real-Money games will be off-limits, and their accounts will be “read-Only” as they wait on the US Department of Justice to begin the remission process.

Here is a look at the E-Mail sent to US players:

As a player on Full Tilt Poker, you may be aware of the recent settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice (the “DOJ”).

Full Tilt Poker will not offer real money online poker in the U.S. until it is permissible to do so under relevant law.

In relation to your account balance, you will have the opportunity to file petition with the DOJ through a remission process which will be administrated by the DOJ.

In light of the above, only play chip games will be available to Full Tilt Poker players in the U.S. following re-launch, in the first week of November, 2012. Your Full Tilt Points balance will remain intact in your account.

Please note that we are unable to answer queries in relation to your funds – all such questions should be directed to the DOJ in accordance with the procedure to be defined by them.

A second E-Mail was sent to non-US players informing them about some of the structural changes they will find at the new Full Tilt Poker. Perhaps the most important was the announcement that FTP will no longer offer rakeback, replacing the popular deal with a VIP Loyalty Rewards Program that tops off with players an effective Rakeback deal of 25% –the old FTP rakeback deal was for 27%, but was only given to players who joined the site through an affiliate.

Other announced changes included the elimination of the Iron Man program; the elimination of the Black Card program for the time being; and the switch from contributed to weighted rake calculations.

Here is a look at the statement by Shyam Markus on 2+2 regarding the new Rakeback and Rewards Program policy changes:

* Unlike affiliate-paid rakeback, there are no deductions of fees (store purchases, promotions, etc…), so the 25% mentioned above will almost always beat the 27% that rakeback was giving.

* Because the weekly cash payments are now based on points earned, FTPs will now be earned using the Weighted Contributed method instead of the Dealt method.

* The weekly cash payments don’t use up the FTPs earned, so you can still spend them in the store. This means that, depending on how you spend them, points add an additional 4-5% to the program, giving the top level of the new program a giveback of up to 30%.

* Since there are no fee deductions, all FTPs are worth more to former rakeback players than previously, which increases the value of promotions like Happy Hour and Take 2.

* We will have a transition from Iron Man and Black Card to this new program, so long-term players of both promotions will likely get a leg up in the new program from the start.

* The top level of this program is significantly easier to achieve than Black Card was.

* The Black Card store will be changed so that anyone in the new top level can use it. This means that many more players will be eligible to purchase cash bonuses in the store.

* If you qualified for the 2011 Iron Man Mid-Year Bonus, you will still get it when the site re-launches.

* The Black Card program will return (not at re-launch, but eventually) in a brand new way. Expect a little news about that soon.

Tags: Account Balance, Department Of Justice, E Mail, Full tilt Poker, Gears, Guru, Launch, Loyalty Program, Loyalty Rewards Program, Money Games, Petition, Play Money, poker players, Queries, rakeback, Real Money, Relevant Law, Shyam, U S Department, Us Department Of Justice

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2012 at 10:23 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.