Clonie Gowen Suing Full Tilt Poker
November 21, 2008
Clonie Gowen has filed a lawsuit in Nevada District Court on November 14th, 2008, this lawsuit names Tiltware LLC, and Full Tilt Poker as Defendants seeking $40 Million USD in damages over Breach of Contract, Unjust Enrichment, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, and Fraud. This filling came after, she was notified that Fulltiltpoker.com notified her earlier in the week she was being dropped from their roster of players.
The lawsuit encompasses some 20 pages and along with Tiltware LLC & Fulltiltpoker.com there are some high profile co-defendants named including but not limited to: Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Pocket Kings Ltd., Kolyma Corporation and A.V.V. (the later 3 being companies involved in Full Tilt Poker Operations. Judge Robert C. Jones will preside over the case.
Clonie Gowen is a former teen beauty queen in the State of Oklahoma, and well known Professional Poker Player was one of the original members of the well known Team Fulltiltpoker.com roster of Pro’s. The site launched in 2004 by Howard Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson along with others has become the 2nd largest online poker room in the world, 2nd only to Pokerstars.com. Clonie Gowen got her break in the poker world when she made a WPT (World Poker Tour) Final Table in the inaugural season of the show at an event in the Costa Rica Classic. Her next big break came when she won the first ever WPT Ladies Night. However, she has seen a lull in her career in the last few years leading up to 2008.
2008 started off quite quietly for Gowen that was until the summer and the Bellagio Cup IV. Where she won the $5,000 event which netted her an impressive $437,000 USD. This was then followed by her 3rd career win on NBC’s Poker After Dark (PAD) sponsored by Fulltiltpoker.com worth $120,000 USD. That win tying her with Ten-time WSOP Bracelet Winner Johnny “The Oriental Express” Chan. If that wasn’t enough for the teen beauty queen she went down to Tunica, Mississippi for the World Poker Open and took down another $193,000 USD. Those three wins worth $750,000 is quiet impressive and would have one wondering why Fulltiltpoker.com would look forward to cut tie’s with this young lady amid her hot streak.
Gowen declined comment when contacted on the advice of her lawyer, a comment was released by Tiltware LLC:
Tiltware, LLC, has been made aware of the recent filing of a meritless lawsuit by a former Full Tilt Poker endorser — Ms. Cycalona Gowen. All claims have no merit and there are many inaccuracies improperly and unlawfully asserted by Ms. Gowen within her frivolous complaint. Tiltware LLC expects that this lawsuit will be dealt with accordingly by a competent court in due course.”
Gowen claims that as part of her endorsement contract signed in 2004 that in exchange for her endorsing the site she would receive 1% ownership. She states that other than that initial 1% she has been offered no further compensation while other team members where given distribution cheques in May 2007. She however did decline a $250,000 payment from Howard Lederer in November 2007, which she believed to be only a small fraction of what the 1% is worth.
It will be very interesting to see how this case plays out. She has already been removed from the sites list of Pro’s.
Comments
Got something to say?
