All Hope Lost

Full Tilt Fantasy Poker

Who sets up systems like this?

I went to Full Tilt Poker and noticed a link to a fantasy poker contest covering the World Series of Poker events running now. Since this seemed to be a Full Tilt event I expected to go to a link that looked like fulltiltpoker.com/contest. However, the link was to contest.blastpromo.com which seemed to be a separate site. But Full Tilt is a reputable site with a stable of poker celebrity endorsers, led by Howard Lederer, and if Full Tilt is involved with this site then it ought to be safe.

And it probably is safe, but they could really make an effort to appear safer.

Anyway, the details of the contest looked really interesting. Pick 15 poker pros from their extensive list and every time one of them made cash in a WSOP event you would get a corresponding number of points. There were a few more details, but that was the gist of it. Fantasy contest top finishers would win entry into freeroll poker tournaments and items, like Full Tilt caps, from the Full Tilt store.

Now, by this time I had already noticed another safety concern. To use the site you had to log in, but did they want you to register a name and password with this new site, or were you to use your name and password from Full Tilt Poker, where presumably you would have an account and a way to transfer money? Even so, it is probably safe since it would be difficult for someone to crack, for instance, a Neteller account number and password.

Interested by the competition, and not overly concerned yet, I looked at the rules. At least into August, while the WSOP is still going on, the rules should still be available at this site. Wait, in the section "DETERMINATION AND NOTIFICATION OF WINNERS" the winner "may be required" to sign, notarize, and fax an affadavit, along with a copy of a driver's license or other government identification, plus a social security number?

Let me put this in terms of what you bet versus what you might win. If you give someone everything they would need to steal your identity: a Social Security number, a photo ID, a phone number, and a valid signature, in exchange you might win a Full Tilt cap? Howard Lederer, are you okay with that bet?

posted by Roboto @ 2:42 AM