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Full Tilt Players Out of PokerStars’ NAPT?

In what is shaping up to be a bit of a power struggle in the online poker world, it looks like Full Tilt players might not be allowed to play in the PokerStars-branded North American Poker Tour.

According to a recent story by ESPN.com poker writer Gary Wise, Full Tilt is apparently telling its players not to play in the upcoming NAPT event at the Venetian this weekend, including the $25,000 high-roller tournament.

Here’s some of what Wise wrote:

There’s been plenty of news recently regarding Full Tilt Poker guarding its player-brands from events controlled by other rooms. According to one member of the poker industry, waves were created when FTP pros were told to not play in Victory Poker’s charitably-inclined Trash Talk Championships. You also won’t be seeing any of the big FTP stars on Party Poker’s Premier League when it eventually broadcasts overseas. Now we’re hearing word that you won’t be seeing red pros at the North American Poker Tour stop at the Venetian this weekend. That’s the same NAPT that’s sponsored by PokerStars.net and which signed a broadcast deal recently with ESPN.

This story from Wise was in the wake of an internet radio show earlier this month — “The Poker Beat” over at pokerroad.com — where some of these rumblings were first starting to surface.

For the most part, the big boys of the online poker world have played nice when it came to live play. PokerStars, which hosts tournaments all over the world, would allow players from other online poker rooms to wear advertising “patches.” That included Full Tilt pros.

More than the idea that a few pros might not play in one upcoming event, it’s worth considering the larger implications for a policy like this.

– Will this be a policy that escalates throughout the online poker world? Will all poker rooms start limiting where there pros can play (i.e. PokerStars and UB.com not playing in PartyPoker events, etc.)?

– How will the players react? Players like Phil Ivey probably aren’t going to react very well to Full Tilt telling them where they can and can’t play on a regular basis. Could some players jump ship on their current brand to join one that gives them more freedom?

– On a related but tangential topic, will Full Tilt assert itself in the live poker scene? Right now PokerStars continues to steam along, creating tour after tour, to increased success. One wonders if FTP will get into the game as well.

One has to imagine that limiting big pros’ appearances based on brand affiliation would end up hurting the game’s popularity long term, by watering down the stars in each field (short of the World Series of Poker, of course). It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

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