You may have seen the signs that Full Tilt Poker has been coming back to life this week, under new management and new ownership. On Wednesday we re-opened the site for play-money action as something of a beta-test of the software. The feedback has been very positive and we're ironing out the anticipated bugs before we launch real-money in many markets on November 6th.

We've also provided access to accounts for former players in many licensed markets - Estonia, Belgium, Denmark and Spain - so those players can now "pair" their Full Tilt Poker account to a PokerStars account, giving them full access to their previous Full Tilt Poker balances.

Today we will open the functionality to French players, allowing them to transfer funds from their Full Tilt Poker account to a PokerStars.fr account. As we've indicated in recent weeks, we continue to face obstacles in Italy so unfortunately we will be unable to provide Italian players with access to their Full Tilt Poker funds by November 6th as we had originally hoped. We continue to work with legal advisers and Italian authorities to resolve this matter, and will be updating Italian players on the progress.

For players in the rest of the world (excluding the United States), we remain on schedule for re-opening the site for real-money play on November 6th, at which time you will have full access to your account and will once again be able to play on FullTiltPoker.com.

For the millions of players who will have access to their funds, this marks the end of a long and emotional roller-coaster ride. We hope this begins a new journey that allows players to enjoy two great poker sites - Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars - with the confidence in the shared ownership of The Rational Group, who will ensure the safety and security of your funds and the integrity of your poker action.

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Eric Hollreiser is Head of Corporate Communications for The Rational Group

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