Its hard to believe that Black Friday was almost a year ago. It is such a historic moment in the history of poker, everybody remembers exactly where they were when those FBI warnings went up.
I was at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham working on the PartyPoker Big Game. Lots of well known pros were there, including Tony G, Sam Trickett, and Mike Matusow. I'm doing a column about it this weekend.
Share your stories, where were you on Black Friday?
It being a Friday, I had just gotten back from the pub. I logged onto Twitter and saw everyone going mad. I joined in the madness. Even as a non-US player there was a bit of panic from my end because there was a lot of fearmongering going on all day.
Interestingly enough, I did know at the time that FullTilt were doing business where they we're not supposed to - and I remember considering how providing online Poker services to Americans could be possible without any action being taken, following the recent changes in the laws there - where there was much publicity.
I remember my brother telling me about it, I was un-involved completely in any Poker at that time, although he was heavily - so although it was quite difficult to grasp the magnitude of FullTilt going down, it was clear to me as an outsider, that this news would have a huge impact on the on & off-line Poker communities - I also believe there we're some mainstream reports about it in various delivery formats.
For my brother and me, there was always a huge element of mistrust between us and FullTilt, with the site itself being staked by american money from an outsider point-of-view, which contributed his reasoning for starting as well as successfully progressing with, his own poker career on PokerStars - and this point was always the conflicting with the reasoning that so many people had put their trust and money into the site.
As for my physical location - I was in work at the time, and funnily enough worked next to an ex-industry professional who was a poker dealer for a long time on cruise liners followed by casinos in various locations, hence why this was a big point for discussion for us that day, and thinking back, probably the reason I started taking more interest in the subject and community of poker as a whole.
I remember such actions from the DOJ to FullTilt being speculated some time in advance by my family members who enjoyed such topics for discussion, as well as speculation about what affect mass-withdrawals would have among other things.
Overall, given the context the company was in at the time, I find it really surprising how many people in the poker community still had funds in their FTP accounts and it really puzzles me to this day - because even from discussions I had as someone not involved in Poker to a great extent, it seemed like a big enough risk having your money on there, to make you cash-out.
Just some thoughts Barry - really looking forward to the article!
I got a phone call off a friend saying "Stars and FTP have just been seized by the DoJ, get your money out now". I was on the way to see a band play and already half cut, so I continued on with getting pissed and looked at it the next day ♦
Originally posted by Wriggers
I got a phone call off a friend saying "Stars and FTP have just been seized by the DoJ, get your money out now". I was on the way to see a band play and already half cut, so I continued on with getting pissed and looked at it the next day ♦
Quality, my favourite post of the week by far.
I was on the beach as it was my day off. However, I had to work the day after and as you can imagine not the easiest of days!
Called some friends and told em to withdraw. Then went to the club to party since I withdrawn few days ago and didn't give a fuck. 
i were in toilet trying to drop a deuce when suddenly wild guy appeared and shouted "nooo black friday" thats pretty much what happened
Originally posted by BarryCarter
Its hard to believe that Black Friday was almost a year ago. It is such a historic moment in the history of poker, everybody remembers exactly where they were when those FBI warnings went up.I was at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham working on the PartyPoker Big Game. Lots of well known pros were there, including Tony G, Sam Trickett, and Mike Matusow. I'm doing a column about it this weekend.
Share your stories, where were you on Black Friday?
I don't remember, cuz i'm european 
Originally posted by TilTmuch
i were in toilet trying to drop a deuce when suddenly wild guy appeared and shouted "nooo black friday" thats pretty much what happened
i just hate it when the wild guys appear in my toilet
I was moving. My ISP dropped the ball for a month and I didn't even know about Black Friday for another 2 weeks.
I had done an allnighter and was on PS when I saw "full tilt lagged?" or something thread on here...
wasn't happy with some of the information that was coming to the surface 
I was at university, got bored and checked my blackberry and twitter was blowing up. I put the books down and just kept reading twitter for the rest of the day watching everybody go nuts.
I was at home, very very tired and emotional. 'bout it really, it didn't have a huge effect on me.
Not sure about black Friday. But the day FTP went down was my 21st :(.
Great birthday pressie that haha ♠_mad:
I was in the washroom taking a dump like the rest of the cowards like Ferguson,Lederer,Bitar and all the other idiots who have put a big black mark on poker.Poker wont be the same for a long time and will take alot longer than people or players think to recover.Johnny ACES Cabral
I was out drinking beer when my sister called me that there is something going on with poker and the FBI is involved (she is not a player but she read sg on a news portal) ♦ 
So I rushed back home from the bar to check out what's really going on. Nobody really knew and the forums were going crazy!
