Full Tilt Shutting Down for Good February 25th

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Full Tilt Poker was once one of the “Big 2” in the online poker world. Starting in 2004, Full Tilt Poker was one of the most popular online poker sites in the world. However, Black Friday changed all that and PokerStars eventually absorbed the company into its empire.

On Friday, the poker world learned that Full Tilt Poker will be officially retired later this month. The software will be taken offline and players moved over to the main PokerStars platform. This is an unceremonious end to what was once considered to be the best online poker site in the world.

Full Tilt Poker To Shut Down For Good February 25th

PokerFuse broke the story on Friday that PokerStars will be retiring the Full Tilt Poker brand on February 25th. From that date forward, players will not be able to access the site. Full Tilt has been operating as a skin of PokerStars since May 2016. The site looked like the old Full Tilt but instead hosted the myriad of poker tournaments and cash games at PokerStars.

According to PokerStars, “Our commitment to improving the PokerStars software and the PokerStars customer experience in recent years has limited the amount of focus and resources we could apply to the evolution of Full Tilt.”

Full Tilt Poker players that wish to continue playing at PokerStars can do so by logging in with their Full Tilt username and password over at PokerStars. Other than getting used to the main PokerStars skin, the games will be the same as players have grown accustomed to.

Shutdown Not Surprising

According to PokerFuse, the shutdown of Full Tilt Poker has been planned for a while now. European players were transitioned over to PokerStars in October 2020. It was a move that has been speculated for a while and something many expected at some point ever since PokerStars acquired Full Tilt Poker as part of its settlement with the DOJ.

Some were surprised that PokerStars revived the brand in 2016, with some assuming that PokerStars would try and grow a separate brand. That never happened as the company has pretty much treated the site as a skin to the main site.

Fast forward a couple of years and a shutdown was seeming more likely as the company started making cuts across the board. Many top pros left the company. Daniel Negreanu left PokerStars and went to GGPoker. Chris Moneymaker left on December 31, 2020, and then signed with America’s Cardroom earlier this month.

The Full Tilt Poker name has been mud amongst many poker players for a while considering the events surrounding Black Friday. PokerStars’ acquisition of the company was akin to the WWE purchasing WCW, except few people wanted to see a return of Full Tilt Poker.

What’s Next for the Full Tilt Software

There are some people questioning whether PokerStars will try and sell the Full Tilt platform to another company. Back in 2016, PokerStars had claimed that they would not sell the software and there seems to be little change in this fact.

However, some have speculated that Full Tilt could be a brand usable in the United States and that PokerStars could sell the brand to another company for a substantial sum. The name recognition would certainly get some eyeballs on the site, but one has to wonder if the history of the site would negatively impact its ability to grow.

For now, it seems that PokerStars is officially burying its only legitimate rival. Full Tilt Poker had an amazing run in its heyday and if the company was better managed, it might still be a top global poker site. Instead, it will now join the likes of Doyle’s Room as a defunct poker room.