In a press release earlier this week, Full Contact Poker announced that it will be shutting down its poker room, transferring all player accounts to PokerStars.com and returning to its original format as a poker forum.

Full Contact Poker founder Daniel Negreanu also announced that he is the newest member of Team PokerStars, a group of sponsored players including WSOP Main Event Winners Tom McEvoy, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker and Joe Hachem.

"Full Contact Poker will cease all poker and casino operations in all countries and return FullContactPoker.com to its roots as a forum-based poker community that features Daniel Negreanu and his popular blog, video diaries and a new video poker school that is in development. FCP players now have the opportunity to shift their FCP accounts over to PokerStars, where they will join over 9 million other players on the World's largest poker site, assuring themselves of a game of poker any time of day."

"The following is a list of very important dates and details on how the transition of players from FCP to PokerStars will happen:

* Monday , June 11 th - The following software functions will be turned off:
o FCP players will no longer be able to make real money deposits at fullcontactpoker.com
o FCP players will no longer be able to make withdrawal requests through Full Contact Poker. However, you will be able to make withdrawal requests from PokerStars once you have initiated your account balance transfer to PokerStars (these account transfer instructions will be detailed in an e-mail message to this address directly from PokerStars on Thursday , June 14 th)
o FCP Casino will be shut down

* Tuesday Morning, June 12 th - FCP poker room on the Digital Gaming Network will be shut down and players will no longer have access to the software.

* Until Wednesday morning, you will still be able to log into your player account to view your account balances and FCP points balance. You will also be able to redeem your FCP points for merchandise in the FCP Store. After Wednesday morning around 9:00 am EST, your FCP points will no longer be available to redeem in the FCP Store, but they will be transferred to PokerStars and converted into PokerStars Frequent Player Points (FPPs). For every 2.5 FCP points you have, you will receive one PokerStars FPP that can be used in the PokerStars store and/or redeemed for tournament entries the same way current PokerStars players are able to redeem their points.

* Wednesday Morning, June 13 th - FCP player accounts will be locked and players will no longer be able to log into their FCP accounts. At this point, all player account balances will be prepared for transfer to PokerStars. (Note: Bonus money balances will not be transferred to PokerStars and will expire.) All currency conversion adjustments necessary to determine a final U.S. dollar value will use the international currency rates posted for June 13th , 2007.

* Finally, by Thursday , June 14 th, PokerStars will send FCP players a welcome e-mail and have a secure web application ready for you to authenticate your account identity and then transfer your account balances.

The welcome e-mail from PokerStars will detail the final transfer instructions and confirm the day and time you may begin this authentication process. We kindly request that you do not contact PokerStars Support prior to receiving this email, as they will not be able to give you any details on how this procedure will work at this time. Once it becomes active, you may also visit the following link to access these transfer instructions https://www.pokerstars.com/welcomefcp "