American Full Tilt Poker players can now make claims

On Wednesday, 887 days after Black Friday, American players were finally able to submit a claim for their Full Tilt Poker balances.

The wait has been a long one for many players, some of whom had six-figure balances locked up by the government. But this week the process of retrieving those funds finally began.

The Garden City Group (GCG), which is handling the remission process, e-mailed eligible players on Monday and Tuesday a letter outlining the process and access codes to log on to a site to claim their balances.

On Wednesday afternoon, www.fulltiltpokerclaims.com began allowing players to log on and fill out claims.

The process was a simple one; it took a mere three minutes to complete. There was a bit of a hiccup in the beginning when the system said my "petition number" was not valid. But the poker Twitterverse informed me that I needed to put a zero at the beginning of the number, and it worked like a charm.

I was pleased to see my balance was $52.04, nearly twice what I was expecting. Black Friday occurred in the midst of one of Full Tilt's most popular promotions: Take 2. The promotion offered players who earned at least five FTPs playing Rush Poker or multi-tabling in nine out of 10 days a $25 bonus. The promotional period still had a few days to go when Full Tilt shut down its American business, so they said they would pay all the players who were on pace to meet the promotion's requirements (even though they clearly didn't have the money to do so).

After confirming that GCG had the correct balance, I provided them with phone numbers, a mailing address, my social security number and my banking information. I had to then certify that I should not be excluded from the remission process and add a digital signature.

All-in-all, it was a pretty painless process. I will be happy to have my $52.04, and I'm sure that the poker economy will be quite a bit healthier once players who have five- and six-figure balances returned to them can bring that money back to the felt.

The deadline to file a petition for remission is Nov. 16, 2013. If you have not received an e-mail from the GCG, but believe you are eligible for remission, you can create a new petition if you are able to provide supporting documents.