With the seemingly imminent disbursement of funds to U.S. players from their Full Tilt accounts, many players, both recreational and professional, will be coming into money that has been unavailable to them for 17 months now. I know that in that time, while never fully writing off the money I have on there, I was also well beyond the point of not counting on that money for anything and not really planning to get it back in any sort of timely fashion.For me, the amount is relatively small, somewhere just under $3,000, and I would expect most players to have somewhere between a couple hundred and a couple thousand. For the few who got caught with larger sums and have a significant percentage of their net worth or annual income tied up on FTP, this is a more pivotal moment. For most of us, the money we expect to be getting back is pretty much found money at this point.
Yes, I had worked hard to earn the money, and a year-and-a-half ago, it factored into my overall financial and bankroll pictures, but by now we have all been forced to move on and deal with the loss or unavailability of those funds even if we weren’t ever willing to accept it as a total loss.
What to do with found money, then? This will vary from player to player, and with different amounts come different possibilities. And of course each of us is in our own particular stage of our personal lives and poker development, but thinking about this caused me to come up with a few ideas to consider as to how to use some of the money you may be getting back from your Full Tilt account.
Many poker players are young and do little to no investing. This would be a good chance to jump-start your investment portfolio and retirement planning without any immediate change to your monthly finances.
Many mutual funds require a minimum first deposit, so using the FTP funds to open up a ROTH IRA with a low-fee mutual fund or index fund could be a great way to do some long-term investing. It is a lot harder to get motivated and do what you want when you only have a couple hundred to start with, but a couple thousand can get the ball rolling.
Do a little internet research on what $100 a month invested over 30 to 40 years in an average performing fund can do and you may become inspired to start investing.
On the poker side, the money could be put right back into your bankroll. While this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do and for many is also prudent, it means you are missing out on an opportunity to try something different without the pressure of being pushed outside your comfort zone. For example, if you are a Hold'em specialist, you could dedicate a portion of your FTP money to playing a new game like PLO or PLO8 without it really impacting your bankroll. Even in a worst-case scenario, you will gain some experience at a different game.If you have been itching to take a shot at a bigger game, but aren’t quite feeling comfortable doing it, take your Full Tilt Poker money and put it toward making the jump, at least temporarily, to a bigger game and see how it goes.
Blowing the money on a short-term buy seems like the worst option to me, but going to a nice dinner with someone you care about or taking your family on a vacation you might not have been able to go on otherwise could be acceptable.
Much like people talk about what they would do with the money if they won the lottery, getting your account balance unfrozen and released from FTP gives you the chance to think about what you would do with money you weren’t counting on. In this case, however, the odds of you getting the money seem to be very good.
Court Harrington has worked on the business side of the poker industry in roles including tournament reporting for PocketFives, radio hosting for PokerRoad Radio, coaching for the WSOP Academy and privately, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities. He also plays in cash games and tournaments. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at Court@CourtHarrington.com.
