Rumor regarding PokerStars Full Tilt deal ends with positive news

According to his Twitter account, James Barnes “was previously one of the start-up founders of Pzyche.com, legal Counsel at PartyGaming as well as roles within BBC & FIFA’s marketing agency.” This may be a fairly innocuous job description, but early Wednesday evening he became the talk of the poker world when he Tweeted the following:

James Barnes‏@JamesBarnesEsq

Pokerstars folds on FTP deal. Never real deal, just bluff to prevent Tapie from bringing FTP back to market – great bargaining chip with DOJ

DOJ have rejected proposal by Isai to have civil charges dropped. He’s worried about jail time. Pokerstars have gone all-in! Will DoJ fold?

@_tizzle I’m afraid I can’t divulge source or go into detail, but I stand behind it. And TBH not entirely surprising! ‪#FTP ‪#PokerStars

Fortunately for players awaiting payments from Full Tilt Poker, the tweets by Mr. Barnes have been denounced as false by several very reputable people, including the head of the PokerStars Marketing Department, Eric Hollresier, who is the first PokerStars employee on the record validating that PokerStars is indeed in talks to purchase Full Tilt Poker. Hollresier’s statement came via ESPN’s Andrew Feldman who tweeted the following, which Hollreiser himself retweeted:

Andrew Feldman‏@AFeldmanESPN

The Head of Corp Communications for @PokerStars @erichollreiser says the Twitter rumors of PS folding on the FTP deal is “false”

There was no reason given for James Barnes tweets, but a quick run through his Twitter history shows he has been extremely pessimistic about the chances of the deal happening, and perhaps he read too far into this week’s motions to dismiss filed by Full tilt poker owners Rafe Furst, Howard Lederer, and Chris Ferguson, and a similar motion to dismiss filed by PokerStars. These motions have seen experts come down on both sides, some saying they are a positive development while other feel they are a negative development.

So it appears that a potential deal between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker is still in the works, which is very good news considering the inundation of court filings, motions, bail hearings, surrenders, and the usual gossip and speculation we have had to deal with over the past week or so.

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