Cycalona “Clonie” Gowen is known to be a gutsy woman. Named after a cyclone, she has caused one in the poker world. Clonie filed a lawsuit regarding her Full Tilt Team Member contract.

Cycalona “Clonie” Gowen is known to be a gutsy woman. Named after a cyclone, she has caused one in the poker world.

Clonie has sued the Full Tilt Poker establishment. On November 14 she filed a civil case in the Nevada District Court against Tiltware LLC, Full Tilt Poker, Pocket Kings Ltd, Kolyma Corporation, A.V.V, Raymond Bitar and her thirteen other teammates at Full Tilt - 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 and Patrik Antonius. In her suit Clonie has claimed breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment and fraud or intentional misrepresentation.

Clonie’s claim is that she was appointed a Full Tilt Team Member in 2004. The terms were that she would be given 1% ownership of Full Tilt Poker for being a celebrity brand ambassador of the online poker room. As a brand ambassador she would represent Full Tilt Poker by wearing the Full Tilt merchandise at public events. In May 2007 all the other members of the Full Tilt Team received the distribution payments due to them, but she did not. When Clonie asked for her share she was turned down. In November 2007 Lederer offered to settle her claim for $250,000. She turned down this offer because it was only a fraction of what she claimed was her due. She pointed out that the company was worth over $4 billion. However Clonie continued to promote Full Tilt Poker as she had been doing all along. Then she was informed that Full Tilt was going to release a press statement informing all that she was no longer a Full Tilt Team Member. Hence she had no option but to file the suit. Clonie is seeking $40 million in damages. As of now this poker hottie is still listed as a member of the Full Tilt team at the online poker room web site and the press statement referred to by Clonie has not materialized.

One of the interesting aspects of Clonie’s claim is that she admits that only an oral contract existed between her and the Full Tilt establishment. There is nothing in writing. Clonie refers to telephone conversations and meetings with the executives of Tiltware in Las Vegas in 2004 in which the terms of her representation of the online poker room were finalized.

Tiltware LLC has responded with the following statement. “Tiltware, LLC, has been made aware of the recent filing of a merit less 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.”