Team Full Tilt Gets Bigger

 Recently Full Tilt Poker announced an exciting addition to their roster of pros. Patrik Antonius was also introduced by Howard Lederer before the final table of event 1 of the World Series of Poker as the newest member of Team Full Tilt. Full Tilt Poker has a loaded roster of professional cash and tournament players. Being known as a “red pro” grants the player certain privileges and perks. However not all the benefits are equal and now all professionals are equal. Generally Full Tilt has broken the pros down into a few different categories. Some red pros are part of the Friends of Full Tilt, others are Full Tilt Pros, and last but not least there is Team Full Tilt. So what are some of the differences and what does it mean that Patrik Antonius is a member of Team Full Tilt?

 All of the pros have signed nondisclosure agreements so much of this article is speculation based on what some of the pros have said or referenced. Friends of Full Tilt have some type of sponsorship and are comprised of poker personalities. Their name is in red and they get a custom avatar. There are likely limits on how many tournament entries will get paid for by Full Tilt. The Hendon Mob and Team Cardrunners, while having separate categories are still Full Tilt Pros. This category of player consists of live and online as well as cash game and tournament players. Full Tilt Pros have some live tournament entries paid for provided they wear Full Tilt logo and when playing online they get 100% rakeback. Team Full Tilt is composed of 14 players and they include the biggest names in poker. Not much is known about what sort of deal they have for playing but they are the owners of FullTiltPoker.com. Patrik Antonius is the latest, and probably one of the last members to join based on Howard Lederer’s comments at the press conference.

Team FullTilt.com members range in experience, fame, and wealth, so what separates them from the rest of the other professionals? The original members of Team Full Tilt own shares in a company that owns Full Tilt Poker. Most of them got in on the ground floor and probably had to provide some of the initial rounds of financing or provide use of their image to help promote Full Tilt. Based on interviews with Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer and others, it is clear Team Full Tilt all have at least some shareholder interest. In a recent interview Matusow said if he had invested more money in Full Tilt he would never have to work again for the rest of his life. Full Tilt Poker was originally formed in California before moving to Ireland so this article assumes the laws of California or Delaware were used when the company that owns Full Tilt was formed as a LLC. 

LLC stands for limited liability corporation and can created by filing the articles of organization with the appropriate state office. The owners of the LLC are technically called members and use an operating agreement. The operating agreement is critical and lays out the obligations of each member. The members of LLC’s are free of personal liability for any debts of the business and retain the tax benefits of a partnership. Members, while free of personal liability for business debts, are still liable for their own wrongdoing but are safe from vicarious liability for contractual or obligations.

Now that Antonius has some ownership stake in Full Tilt Poker you can expect that he will be playing online exclusively there. From a player standpoint not much will change except there may be more action from new players that join because of Patrik’s name and action. The next time you load up Full Tilt keep an eye out for the newest member of Team Full Tilt.