Full Tilt Poker players' long journey towards reimbursement has finally come to its last stop. Online poker rooms are meant to be havens where players can engage in their favorite card games for fun or hopefully for a bit of cash. In a worst-case scenario, sites will shut down, disappear without a trace and leave players wondering where their money is. And as pretty much everyone knows by now, for US-based Full Tilt Poker players, things got a little complicated in that arena a few years ago.

In 2011, Full Tilt Poker closed down its site for players in the United States. The events surrounding Black Friday left countless poker players affected with no place to play and no way to claim their funds. Now, with the final deadline to file a petition for reimbursement having passed, players just need to wait a bit more for their long-awaited refunds.

Claims Process Closed

On August 8, the Garden City Group announced on the Full Tilt Poker Claims site that players would have until September 3 to file a petition for reimbursement from the United States government. Named as the claims administrator for the process, the Garden City Group declared that petitions would no longer be accepted after September 3. So players who hesitated on making a claim are now left without an option as the filing portion of fulltiltpokerclaims.com is no longer available.

Any player who believed they were owed money from Full Tilt Poker was encouraged to fill out a claim and begin the refund process. After filling out a petition and acquiring login credentials, players were able to log into their accounts to verify information. Once personal information, dollar amount owed by Full Tilt Poker, and bank account information were confirmed, the process for receiving electronic payment began.

If a player felt the amount provided by the Garden City Group and Full Tilt's records was incorrect, they would be able to provide evidence for how much they should be reimbursed. Regardless of an issue with the dollar amount, players were still required to file on or before September 3 if they hoped to eventually claim their money. Account histories to check balances are available for request from Full Tilt Poker.

Returning the Funds

The Garden City Group has authorized over $110 million in reimbursement to US players. Several rounds of payments have already occurred this year. On February 28, the Garden City Group issued over 27,500 payments totaling $76 million to petitioners. In June, $14 million in payments was issued to over 3,200 petitioners. A handful of smaller rounds of payment took place as well.

Throughout the reimbursement process, the Garden City Group limited who could submit a petition or be eligible during a round of payment. One notable group that was left in the dark was the professional players of Full Tilt. Though held to the same deadline as everyone else, professional players, Red Pros and other players sponsored by Full Tilt were finally able to file a claim for their funds.

According to the claims website, the professional players were "able to submit Petitions for Remission to recover the portion of their account balance that is not attributable to compensation provided by FTP or Affiliate revenue." These players will only receive money they earned through rakeback playing poker. Any money they are owed by Full Tilt through affiliate programs or any other deals will not be eligible for reimbursement. Refunds to professionals is expected to happen later this year.

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