Phil Ivey made huge waves in the poker community yesterday when he announced that the rumors were true: he’d be skipping this year’s World Series of Poker in order to show solidarity with the players who are unable to afford their buy-ins due to Black Friday withdrawal freeze outs. He also attracted plenty of attention with the announcement of a lawsuit against Tiltware, Full Tilt Poker’s parent company, which appeared to be an attempt at retrieving player funds.
It didn’t take long for Tiltware to respond, and what an angry response it was. Michele Clayborne, a Public Relations representative for Full Tilt, released the following statement to media outlets earlier this morning:
“Contrary to his sanctimonious public statements, Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is about helping just one player – himself. In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited — and has declined — to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site. Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s frivolous and self-serving lawsuit will ever get to court. But if it does, the company looks forward to presenting facts demonstrating that Mr. Ivey is putting his own narrow financial interests ahead of the players he professes to help.”
Ivey filed the lawsuit (which seeks damages of over $150 million) with the Clark County, Nevada District Court. It’s unclear exactly what those damages are for, since Ivey’s statements in the suit maintain that he doesn’t believe Full Tilt to be violating US laws. His odds look good based only on the composition of his legal team, led by David Chesnoff. Chesnoff has previously represented Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Shaq, Mike Tyson and Lindsay Lohan.
Ivey’s fellow Full Tilt team members have remained largely silent regarding his announcement with the exception of durrrr, who described Ivey’s Facebook statements as “awesome.” He said that he feels comfortable playing in the WSOP since he plans to refuse his income from Full Tilt unless the site plays back players in full.
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