A pretty interesting story has developed in the poker world over the weekend as apparently poker player Clonie Gowen has brought a lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker for breach of contract.
She's basically claiming that for the past four years that she has been a sponsored Full Tilt Poker Pro, she's been doing so under the assumption that she holds a 1% ownership of Full Tilt Poker as well as Tiltware who provide FTP's software. She has promoted the website (wearing FTP patches etc.) for no other compensation besides this 1% stake of ownership.
She claims that back in May of 2007, all FTP members received distribution checks except for her. She demanded this compensation and was refused.
Then in November of 2007, Howard Lederer presumed CEO of FTP offered her $250,000, which she refused claiming she was entitled to a lot more than that.
Without coming to an agreement, she continued to represent Full Tilt Poker until November 11, 2008 when she found out FTP would be issuing a press statement claiming she was no longer a Full Tilt Pro.
And now she's filed the lawsuit under which she estimates Full Tilt Poker's value to be around 4 billion dollars, therefor she is suing the company for a whopping $40 million, her 1%.
It's definitely going to be interesting to see how this plays out. If in fact she did own 1% of the company, one would think some sort of written contract would exist, which would give her a pretty solid case.
Another point of interest is the people named as co-defendants in the lawsuit. It shines a bit of light into the ownership of the company. Names included are Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, among many other top pros.
PokerStars top pro Daniel Negreanu has not shyed away from giving his opinion on the lawsuit. On the message boards of his website FullContactPoker.com he has expressed his outrage at what Clonie Gowen has done and strongly believes that Clonie Gowen has never owned any part of Full Tilt Poker.
"She has gone absolutely ding bat crazy and is making things up. There is no freaking way they'd offer her 1%, no freaking way. This feels more like ex-girlfriend extortion than anything else. I really hope she doesn't get away with this, luckily I don't think she will.
What an idiot. I hope she ends up with what she deserves: nothing. She's ruined herself with this move. I'll never speak to her again, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Clonie has officially lost her mind and is probably going to end up with nothing, broke, and out of poker within the next two years. It's over for her. Good riddance."
Definitely some strong words there from Kid Poker. Like I said though, it's going to be pretty interesting to see how this plays out although personally I believe this is going to end up getting settled out of court and with a nondisclosure agreement that will leaves us all simply speculating.
Link to lawsuit.
Link to 2p2 thread.
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