Would Full Tilt Attempt a Big Bluff Against PokerStars and the NAPT

Word has leaked out that Full Tilt Poker doesn’t want its sponsored pros competing in any tournaments solely sponsored by their competitors, although Full Tilt has since come out and denied this. This had me thinking of why this would be a really bad decision on the part of Full Tilt Poker, and why it would be counterproductive.

The move would likely be made to eliminate any confusion concerning Full Tilt’s sponsored players, and to keep their stable of top pros from promoting a tournament directly tied to their competitors. On the other hand, by disallowing their sponsored players from competing they are essentially giving their competitors 100% market share.

So, instead of poker fans seeing and hearing PokerStars over and over with a smattering of Full Tilt Logos and players scattered throughout the field, fans will be subjected to 100% PokerStars! I don’t see how a move of this kind would pay dividends for the #2 online poker site; televised tournaments are the REASON for sponsoring players!

By allowing their players to compete -and likely do well considering the number of high quality poker players Full Tilt currently sponsors-they could offset, and even undo, PokerStars sponsorship of the tournaments. Imagine the final table, televised on ESPN, with three or four Full Tilt pro; or the headlines when “Full Tilt pro wins PokerStars NAPT event”.

Perhaps part of the issue is that Full Tilt pros use their real names as screen-names on the site. The policy works out very well, since it makes their pros easily recognizable. However, as is seen in this case, they seem to run into an unforeseen issue of their professionally sponsored players being too recognizable, and leaving fans wondering why Full Tilt players are participating in a PokerStars tournament?

This is actually a non-issue in my mind, because as long as they are wearing Full Tilt gear it will be clear where their allegiances lie. Additionally, there are only a dozen or so players who are the faces of the site; most poker fans realize the majority of “Red Pros” are more loosely affiliated with the poker site.

Unless PokerStars and ESPN have come to some agreement that only PokerStars logos are permissible -which seems highly unlikely-there is really no reason to discourage or disallow your players from competing. Which Full Tilt Poker has said is not the case, and their players are free to compete in any tournament they wish to.

The decision would also hurt their sponsored players, most of who depend on continuing success in big tournaments to keep their sponsorships. In the end, a decision of this kind could drive many of the less visible Poker Pros on Full Tilt Poker to sign with other sites that are less stringent in their policies, or even opt to sign with PokerStars who sponsors not only the NAPT, but also the EPT and APPT.

Perhaps the best strategy would be for Full Tilt to say, “We are going to send our players and dominate PokerStars own tournament.” With Full Tilt publicly shooting down the rumor this is a bit of a non-issue, but still worth exploring the pros and cons of such a decision.