There has been a rapid influx of developments regarding Full Tilt Poker in the past week and most of it is pretty exciting news for former Full Tilt Poker players who have been awaiting reimbursement of their bankrolls. All of the recent events currently point toward Full Tilt Poker being reopened in the reasonably near future under the new leadership of the Groupe Bernard Tapie.

On the 25th of January 2012 it was released publicly that Chris “Jesus” Ferguson was potentially stalling a deal that would sell Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie. The news stated Ferguson was attempting to reclaim approximately 14.3 million dollars that was left in his accounts after Full Tilt was shut down. At the time, it was claimed Ferguson and his lawyer, Ian Imrich, threatened legal injunctions if they were not allowed to recover these funds. Naturally poker players from all over the globe flooded internet forums and twitter expressing rage that someone who has made so much money from his large shareholdings in the company could be so selfish when many players have not seen a penny of their Full Tilt bankroll since April 15th 2011, more commonly referred to as Black Friday.

However since that time, Ferguson’s lawyer, Imrich, has stated publicly that he has experienced “very positive dialogue” with the U.S. Department of Justice and he expects both parties to come to an agreement soon. If this is indeed the case it could very well be one of the last remaining hurdles towards Full Tilt’s return and with that the return of the funds for Full Tilt’s former clients. Imrich also stated that the reports of Ferguson’s attempts to reclaim 14.3 million dollars were false and Ferguson was simply requesting an accounting request of former Full Tilt Poker CEO Raymond Bitar. Imrich further states that in no way will Ferguson impede the sale of Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie.

On January 24th, 2012 the remaining owners of Full Tilt Poker and the Department of Justice agreed to final terms on the sale or forfeiture of Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie. However Tapie has made it clear there is still a decent amount of work to do before any sale would become finalized. Among these tasks lies regaining Full Tilt’s former gambling license from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission or the AGCC. In September 2011 the AGCC revoked Full Tilt’s license claiming the site had lied to or misled AGCC officials about Full Tilt’s financial status. The revoking of the license caused Full Tilt Poker to shut down all operations causing Non-American player funds to be trapped the same way American player funds were inaccessible.

On Monday January 31st, 2012 Judge Leonard Sand dismissed the most of the class action lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker. Along with dismissing this, most all defendants included what was once “Team Full Tilt,” including defendants Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Phil Gordon and Howard Lederer. Ultimately, the criminal charges and the class action lawsuits were dropped for all the accused with the exception of Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burnick, who were the Operators of Full Tilt Poker. The Judge did however leave leeway to allow the prosecution to amend their case, so only time can tell us if Bitar and Burnick will ever be prosecuted or others re-added to the charges.

All of these news pieces combined appear to be very promising for former Full Tilt Poker players, as for the past many months it seemed that only bad news on top of bad news was all that was reported. Many players who had given up on funds from Full Tilt can now look positively to the idea that they may indeed receive their bankrolls in the near future.