Please Be Patient

Just a couple of weeks left in 2011. Every other year I’ve kept this blog, this would be the time of year I’d be devoting at least part of my mental energy -- as well as a post or three -- to thoughts of how my online poker ledger was going to add up for the year.

Can’t really say that’s the case this time around.

Since the spring I’ve continued to play for small amounts with money won in freerolls on a couple of sites, but there hasn’t been any serious attention paid to sessions or results -- nor the occasional withdrawals -- that have punctuated previous years.

I suppose I could say -- without even looking up the figures -- that 2011 is going to result in a net positive year for me as far as playing online poker goes. I say that because I remember exactly what I was able to withdraw from PokerStars back in early May, and I know that amount was greater than what I still have sitting over in my Full Tilt Poker account. Or at least what the number is that represents what I should have there.

I wonder how other players will be calculating their FTP money here at year’s end?

The news this week has been that the site’s deal with Groupe Bernard Tapie has moved a step closer to completion, which those of us with money still stuck on Tilt all hope represents another step toward the eventual return of our funds.

According to Subject:Poker, Full Tilt Poker’s ownership voted and agreed to the further transfer of assets to the Tapie group. But several more steps have to be taken before the deal will be completed and the U.S. Department of Justice takes over the business of getting the $150 million or so back to the U.S. players. (The Tapie group will assume responsibility for everyone else.) For more on where things stand at present, see S:P.

Pretty clear that 2011 is going to end without anyone getting back into their Full Tilt Poker accounts. Think back to the afternoon of Friday, April 15. Could you have imagined?

It took me a long time, but I finally removed the FTP icon from my “dock” on my Mac laptop short while back. Every now and then I’d accidentally click the sucker, then watch it enthusiastically bounce back and forth while the program failed to load.

I’d stare at the familiar message that I was “just a few seconds away from playing the most exciting poker games anywhere online,” smirk a little at that added directive to “please be patient,” then cancel the operation.

I enjoyed Pauly’s recent post on Tao of Poker, “Zombie Poker Apocalypse,” in which he meditates on the current status of poker and poker-themed entertainment, specifically televised poker. The scene Pauly describes reminds me of that stupid, bouncing icon... there’s movement, but no life.

I realized yesterday that I’m on a streak of ending posts with “we’ll see”-type statements. Such is the general state of things at the moment, poker-wise, I suppose.

We’re in a holding pattern. Necessarily waiting. For our money. For our game.