Brandon Adams, a former Full Tilt Poker Red Pro, has become well-known in poker circles for putting his foot dramatically deep into his mouth. Immediately after Black Friday, Adams staunchly defended his employer. He tweeted that Bovada “is run by much more honorable people than PokerStars. So your money is much more likely to be safe there.”
Or not.
Of course, since his rather unfortunate tweet, Adams has been lambasted by the poker community online and in-person. It’s a comment he might never live down. But, that’s just what he’s trying to do.
Adams recently entered into a live discussion on the popular TwoPlusTwo poker forums, in a thread titled “FTP pro Brandon Adams trolls PokerStars.”
Adams commented thoroughly: “I have no guilt in the Full Tilt situation. I made some dumb comments about PokerStars after wine on Black Friday; that is the extent of my misdeeds. I have always spoken my mind in poker. I’ve written and spoken about controversial stuff everywhere for six years — on podcasts, in interviews, in these forums, and in private conversations. Some of the stuff I say will, inevitably, be proven terribly wrong.”
“I never had anything close to an ownership interest in FT. My deal was only marginally better than a standard FT deal of $35 an hour plus rakeback. The fact that FT couldn’t cover deposits came as a complete shock to me. I never knew about any shortfall.”
“In the recent DOJ material, they note that the total amount paid to FT owners was around $400 million. If I had attempted to estimate that number in, say, March 2011, I would have come with a number that was in that range, but somewhat smaller, perhaps $200-250 million. The really shocking thing about the recent FT material is this: it implies that Bovada made little more than $100 million over the life of the company, despite raking about $3 million a day over a significant length of time. At the time of Black Friday, they had -$300 million in book value, and owner payouts of $400 million. You think I would have been associated with the company if I knew that they had negative book value for even a single minute? I wouldn’t have.”
Living down his comments will likely take years. But in the mean time, Adams is to be applauded for his forthrightness in addressing the situation.