Responding to Phil Ivey’s recent attack on Full Tilt Poker and his announcement that he will not be taking part in this year’s World Series of Poker in empathy with those who can’t take part due to lack of funds, the online poker room has hit back with its own statement, calling Ivey “sanctimonious” and accusing him of enriching himself at the expense of others.

The statement opens with the fiery words: “Contrary to his sanctimonious public statements, Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is about helping just one player – himself”. The statement then accuses Ivey of actually owing the company quite a large sum of money, which he does not mention in his own original statement.

It then continues: “In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited — and has declined — to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site. Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s frivolous and self-serving lawsuit will ever get to court. But if it does, the company looks forward to presenting facts demonstrating that Mr. Ivey is putting his own narrow financial interests ahead of the players he professes to help.”

Ivey’s lawsuit was filed in Nevada this week, demanding $150 million, which, it claims is the amount due to US players. Ivey claims in the lawsuit that he was never officially told by Full Tilt that the US DOJ informed the group that their actions violated US gambling laws.

A robbery during a high stakes poker game in Louisiana last month was the result of an inside job, the police say. Three men, who were regulars at the home where poker games took place for several years, have been charged with eight counts of robbery.

The robbery took place on February 17th at the home of Glenn Ubelhor who regularly held games in this basement with a group of around ten players. Ubelhor said that armed robbers entered his basement, held the players at gunpoint and took off with over $8,000 in cash.

One of the player recalled: “Thirty minutes into the game, we just look up and I noticed a masked gunman walking into the room. At first, I thought it was a joke, but quickly realized that it wasn’t.”

It didn’t take long for the robbery victims to realize that this was an inside job. One of the men in the game had alerted the robbers about the most appropriate time to make their move and they had grabbed the cash and valuables at an optimal time in the evening.

The police were alerted and in a short while Ronald D. Walter, Michael B. McTier and a third man were arrested. The money and illegal substances were found in their apartments.

Eric Ivey, one of the players at the high stakes poker game said: “It makes you realize the inherent dangers of playing at home games. It really does.”