In November 2008 poker babe Cycalona (Clonie) Gowen (in picture) filed a $40 million law suit against the online poker room Full Tilt Poker and thereafter disappeared from the poker scene. Clonie was shunned by an influential section of the poker world for going against what was then a reputed and powerful organization. To make things worse for Clonie the lower federal court of Nevada District dismissed her case without trial.

Clonie’s full name is Cycalona, and not for nothing is she named after a cyclone. Quietly she had appealed against the dismissal and has won a reprieve from a federal Appeals court. The Appeals court ruled that the lower federal court had erred in dismissing Clonie’s claim against Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, and various companies connected to Full Tilt Poker. This reversal could not have come at a worse time for Full Tilt.

Clonie’s complaint was that Lederer and other Full Tilt owners asked her to represent the online poker room as a celebrity player. They had offered her a compensation of 1% of the company. According to the agreement Clonie donned the Full Tilt garb for quite some time. However, they refused to cough up the promised amount. Instead Lederer tried to convince Clonie to settle for $250k, which she refused.

The good news for Full Tilt Poker is that, despite the $150 million suit he filed, Phil Ivey is working to find a solution for their financial woes. The story goes that Ivey located a company known by the name White Knight, which was willing to bail out Full Tilt Poker. They were willing to provide the funds required for paying back the stranded online poker players belonging to Full Tilt, but they wanted a majority control in the company. Bitar and Lederer, the current majority holders, did not accept this condition and the deal fell through. It has been reported that Ivey has boarded a private plane to Dublin to meet Full Tilt executives. Therefore some sort of deal with White Knight could be in the offing. Lederer is apparently holed up underground in Las Vegas.

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