Doyleism of the Day: "If you put both your feet in your mouth, you won't have a leg to stand on."by Doyle Brunson | Published: Feb 29, '12 
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The deeper you dig into the Full Tilt mess the more intriguing it becomes. I'm being accused of defending Howard Lederer because of a personal friendship in lots of places. I'm not backing down one bit from what I said or what I believe. I have the right to have my own opinion. I'm not saying Howard (and Chris Ferguson) have no guilt, but the degree of the guilt is misunderstood and that there was no intent to defraud anyone. There are four different blogs up at www.doylebrunson.com/news sharing different points of view so everyone can decide for themselves. Would I bet my life everything I say and believe is true? No, but I would bet money most of it is.
It also looks as if people are trying to say there is a feud between me and Daniel Negreanu. That's false, Daniel and I are good friends but have disagreed many times about many things. I've always admired Daniel for saying what he thinks no matter who it offends. But it seems (at least to me) that he sometimes goes over the top and says inappropriate things. Besides his written blog, Daniel has a Vblog on YouTube that is highly entertaining. He has "Daniels Weekly Rant" which is exactly that a rant. I'll watch it every week to get his explosive points of view. If you watched it this week, the dog videos to illustrate his points were really cool.
Back to FT, every reasonable person agrees there is at least a remote chance Howard and Chris knew nothing about the financial problems before Black Friday. Now the big question is why wouldn't the board of directors know? I've been told that FT was a California LLC and the board should accept the financial reports from management. The board was there as an advisory group and had nothing to do with finances except look at the reports. That is my understanding and if it isn't correct, don't all you lawyers out there hammer me about it. There was a seat open on the board that no stockholder wanted. The board could be changed by a majority vote by the stockholders but no one wanted the responsibility of being on the board. So perhaps that is another piece to the puzzle.
If in truth Ray Bitar is the culprit in this mess why is he still running the remnants of the company? Why wasn't he fired right away? Simple answer – Bitar is the only one who knows all the ins and outs of the company, and the company gaming licenses were in his name. Who else knows? Bitar has his name on all of the different corporations, documents, bank accounts, etc. He is probably trying to do his best to make the best of a bad situation. Bitar undoubtedly is under the supervision of lawyers and FT representatives. I spent a couple of weekends before Black Friday playing Chinese Poker with Bitar, Lederer, and Eli Elezra while watching football games. By just listening to the conversation between Bitar and Lederer, it was obvious that Bitar has far more knowledge of FT affairs than Lederer.
Another unanswered question is why did Chris Ferguson choose to leave 40 million dollars in the hands of FT Management? Was it because he thought the company was sound and it was a safe place for his dividends? Or did he leave it because he was a "good guy" and thought it might be needed in case of emergency.
If you are looking for guilt, it for sure comes after Black Friday. To say that FT was washed up at that point and kept taking money from non US players knowing the money was not safe is ridiculous. I know for sure that there were tentative term sheets on the table that would have allowed all the US players to withdraw their money and FT stockholders would retain a small part of the company. If the sign read Jack Binion's Full Tilt Poker and the US players got their money back and FT operated outside the US, does anyone doubt the site would still be operating profitably? There were other rich people looking at acquiring FT also but when a major FT stockholder filed suit against the company, interest waned for the potential buyers. This is where guilt is. Where and when should FT have thrown up their hands and put the company in a distress sale? How do you walk away from a company making millions of dollars every month? This is where in hind sight the major error happened. Bad judgment, greed, reluctance to just give up, etc. That is the crime and to view it any other way isn't logical. So everyone make your own opinion about it.
FT could make a statement like "We are sorry about this and we are working on the best deal that is still available." What good would that do? I like What Bill Rini said in his blog, do a search on YouTube for "don't talk to cops". Ask any Federal officer and see what they say. They would love it if every suspect would give their version of a suspected crime. Another reason there hasn't been a lot of talk is that every potential buyer insists on having confidentiality agreements to prevent details from being known.
The real winners in this travesty will be the lawyers. This could drag on for years and the legal bills will be enormous. Who exactly will pay these bills? If Lederer, Ferguson, and Bitar have to go to trial, then appeals court, etc will they have to foot the expense? Will the stockholders who have been paid millions of dollars help? Most of them have lost that money gambling, living the good life, etc. I guess the answer to that is it's none of my damn business, and actually that is a very good answer.
I'm in the same boat as most FT customers. I had 28k on FT, my son Todd had 30k and my daughter Pam had 5k. So that is 63k of Brunson money that is in dire jeopardy. For those people that say that is a drop in the bucket for me should see my bank statement and look into my lock boxes and see the empty rubber bands. While I'm not going to starve to death, the economy knocked the hell out of my finances. Do I think the Tapie deal to buy FT will happen and we will get our money back? No, I don't think so but where there is life there is hope and the deal isn't completely dead yet.
I don't intend to keep talking about all the FT problems. I have probably said too much but I still feel I have the right to express my opinion. If you have different ones, fine, go write your own blog. Nothing but a confession from the accused parties will make me change my mind. But I'll try to keep an open mind.
My thanks to my Twitter followers who for the most part have been supportive of my right to give my opinion. To the forum posters who seem to be mainly a bunch of retards waiting to blast anything or anybody, please take a long walk off a short pier.
To the people who called me all those bad names and threatened me with physical violence - Caution: Don't bring a baseball bat to a gun fight!
May the flop be with you!
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Comments
Grunch
11 years ago
Doyle, for what it's worth. Although I do disagree with some of what appears to be your sentiment, I defend your right to state your opinion. You've said that you're done talking about this, at least for now, so I'll respect that and leave well enough alone. As far as I'm concerned, you've had the last word.
Grunch
11 years ago
Doyle, you have every right to express your opinion. My opinion may differ from your in some respects but as you suggest, this is, after all, your blog -- not mine or anyone else's. As far as I'm concerned, you've had the last word.
VirginiaBob
11 years ago
hey Doyle.
Im a friend of your son Todd but i have never had the chance to meet you in person. Sorry about your money being tied up on full tilt. I also have several thousand dollars tied up there. I strongly support your right to state what ever oppinion you have, not withstand if i agree with it or not. I have allways enjoyed reading your posts. If I can make it up to Todds tournment this summer I hope to meet you in person. Todd has my e-mail (im not going to post it here, not that old or dumb as of yet) I would love to be able to get an e-mail from you. I have and always will be a friend of the Brunsons. Todd and I mostly communicate about the stock market allthough I will see him in aruba later this spring. good luck
VirginiaBob
adbuster2375
11 years ago
No matter whether or not you have money locked up on Full Tilt you should be outraged.
Why? The Department of Justice has seized $331 of US poker players money already from Full Tilt. Where is it?
They have not announced any plans to pay this money back. Doyle is right, the lawyers will eat away at this balance and us players can kiss our funds goodby. Nobody is going to buy this trainwreck...they will litigate the hell out of it and then all the money will go poof.
I'm out 72k. I've called the DOJ office in NY five times over the past 6 months to see if they are formulating a payback plan.
The public affairs officers have told me they will release no information and that I should stop calling.
We pay the salaries for these idiots with our taxes and are getting royally &*%#ed by them.
Call the DOJ, thank them for their hard work and tell them you want your money back: (212) 637-2600
The DOJ's website says it "leads the Nation in ensuring the protection of all Americans while preserving their constitutional freedoms."
What a bunch of bull@#$%.
kcher
11 years ago
Doyle,
With all due respect your opinion is just your opinion. In my eyes your trying to defend somebody that had a hand in one of the most heinous acts that poker has seen. In the wake of this whole mess it's about time that somebody from FT stepped forward and tried to do the right thing for all of it's players that had money tied up (something that should have been done a very long time ago). At this point the right thing to do is for Howard, Chris, Ray and anyone else that has made the millions of dollars from FT is to give it all back to the players......and that would just be to save face. Whether or not they knew anything about the financial state of FT will only make the crime worse. Why should these guys get to keep all of these millions of dollars that doesn't deservedly belong to them? If a drug dealer gets an unsuspecting person to deliver a package and that person gets caught....guess what, that person gets jail time so it doesn't matter if Howard or Chris knew anything because their hands was in the jar. If the site doesn't have the money to pay back it's players then Howard, Chris and the others don't get to keep the player's money's and all that money should be given back (or as much of it as possible). Next time you speak Howard tell him to stop the sob stories and put the player's money where his mouth is!
THEJOEF
11 years ago
And the Hustle continues !!! Please with this defending of FT and its owners. Yes you have a right to express your thoughts but so do we. You are a poker player and other then the respect that a man has for another man, you don't get extra because your a poker god. These guys 100% knew the score,they got caught holding the bag. If not for black friday im sure they would have been ok but it happen and they are fucked. I cant believe the way people bow to gamblers and hustlers . There is nothing respectable about spending your life in a casino and on the felt.
Stacker3
11 years ago
$300 Million Sccident?
Howard is no angel. His "Business Strategy" landed him in jail in the 1990's.
Money was placed on account in Good Faith by the players and was STOLEN!
Where is it and who's got it?
To hear Doyle explain it, he makes Howard "the theif" Lederer a victim.
I've lost all respect I've had for Doyle.
clunker
11 years ago
The DOJ did not seize 331 million Over a 5 year span it seized about 158 million of which 115 million was seized in the 5 yrs. prior to black friday. This 115 million was already redistributed back to people or used for expenses. The only money left in DOJ is about 45 million seized on black friday.
Yeti-Lee
11 years ago
Well first you pissed off people in defending FTP which is your right to do, but now you're going to get crucified for not only continuing to defend FTP but for using the word "retards". Damn Doyle maybe get somebody to proof read your blogs before you post them.
Ronin555
11 years ago
Dear Mr. Brunson,
I agree with you that the people who have been attacking you here are mostly "retards." They just want to stomp on anyone who expresses an opinion other than Lederer and Ferguson are twin disciples of satan.
Best regards!
THEJOEF
11 years ago
I guess if we don't agree with Brunson we are retarded. The guy hits the lottery thanks to Chris Moneymaker and all of a sudden he's important. We are so sorry that the stream of easy money has all dried up Dolly but maybe Jack Binnion can stake you again. We would ever attack people that spend the time to read your kiss ass blog and waste time responding . Ive always enjoyed your words of wisdom not because you know something about poker but because you have lived through what must have been a very tense and stressfull life. I wish you well but please throw us a bone and don't always think we are the mark in the game .
Sam Rothstein
11 years ago
HEY CRY BABIES IF U DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOUR MONEY THEN GET A REAL JOB THAT IS LEGAL WHERE THE MONEY GOES IN YOUR ACCOUNT AND DOESN'T GO BACK OUT ONTO A WAGERING TABLE U FKG MORONS> GET A REAL JOB AND STOP YOUR CRYING ABOUT LOSES YOUR ILLEGAL GAMBLING MONEY ON COMPUTER WEBSITE U FREAKIN TARDS. DOYLE IS RIGHT U'RE ALL RETARDS
1Acehigh
almost 11 years ago
GO AWAY...
biggreg64
11 years ago
Doyle let's assume the didn't know it was player's money that they received.
Well now that they know and are honorable (laugh) then put the money
back in the player's account.
vortexx
almost 11 years ago
Phooey! Yo heck with this. I hope you and your family are o.k. and well.
1Acehigh
almost 11 years ago
Doyle wants It his way or NO WAY right GODFATHER of POKER, LMAO that's such a JOKE. Slim was more the Man than you were/are. Just like when your prck of a son made the FT on the stud 8 last wk and you go In the booth, the guy ask ya, so Doyle Slim just passed away, do you have any Slim stories you could share with us. Your EGO BIGGER than your son's arse say's, I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT SLIM. You could of just said, well I don't want to take away from Todd's time etc etc... but yea Slim will be missed, I'll share some Slim stories later W/E. The way you handled that, show's your EGO filled BS. Have to bring this up, a few yrs ago your son Todd for Halloween dressed up as THE SHYT, OMG dreesed up as THE SHYT. Apple DON'T FALL FAR from the TREE In the BRUNSON FAMILY, UH DOLLY.
1Acehigh
almost 11 years ago
OH yea DOLLY, If I remember back when the FT story broke and RUMORS were Jack Binion maybe buying FT AFTER the lawsuit was dropped, on your twitter you said I KNOW FOR 100%, JB HAS NEVER INTENDED to buy FT. I know you're wanting too THROW a FT STOCKHOLDER UNDER THE BUS for reasons we won't go INTO @ this time, but YOU WANT TO PILE IT ON a CERTAIN FT STOCKHOLDER and that's 100% for sure.
PokerStars_uk
almost 11 years ago
Trying to get away from all these caps lock arguments and posts.
Enjoyable read, if there is any update on this story, could you please comment link it. Thanks
DIBS
over 9 years ago
This jiggly overweight out of shape Card Hustler is one of the city's most epic scammers. Im stunned that people are suprised and upset that The Texas FOLLY would defend a bunch of fraudsters. After all, he is their Godfather.