Pauly published yesterday, and even though we’ve got a fancy autofeeder here at Pokerati, I did not … but LOL(ish) … this episode was next in the queue:

2011 WSOP – Episode 8: Eskimo Yes, Jesus No (4:22) – Dan and Pauly try to pinpoint which pros are noticeably absent (Clonie, Jesus, Howard Lederer), while Eskimo Clark sightings have been rampant. They also try to figure out where the old Bat Beat Bar and Lounge went and why its been replaced by a oxygen bar.

For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives.

Clonie Gowen’s lawsuit of course, was the first of what would prove to be many against various Full Tilt entities — at the time dismissed not just by a Las Vegas judge, but by the “poker world” and industy as a whole. Since then the belief that Full Tilt could do no wrong has definitely reversed itself … in American courts as well as the court of public opinion.

Clonie was seeking $40 million as a part-owner of Full Tilt. But my how times have changed … If she does finally get her day in court, certainly the valuation would have to be reassessed … and these days, were an American court to way declare that yes indeed you are an owner of Full Tilt, would that be a win?

Read below for a summary of the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco:

GOWEN v. TILTWARE LLC

CYCALONA GOWEN, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
TILTWARE LLC; POCKET KINGS LIMITED; POCKET KINGS CONSULTING, LIMITED; KOLYMA CORPORATION; TILTPROOF, INC.; RAYMOND BITAR; HOWARD LEDERER, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 10-15468.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Filed June 9, 2011.
Before: KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judge, and BLOCK, District Judge.**

MEMORANDUM*

Because the district court dismissed all of Gowen’s claims, we must accept the factual allegations in her complaint as true. See Telesaurus VPC, LLC v. Power, 623 F.3d 998, 1003 (9th Cir. 2010).

1. The district court correctly dismissed all claims against Pocket Kings Ltd., Pocket Kings Consulting Ltd., Kolyma Corp. and Tiltproof, Inc. Gowen didn’t allege that these companies were alter egos of Tiltware, nor did she plead facts establishing personal jurisdiction in Nevada. See Schwarzenegger v. Fred Martin Motor Co., 374 F.3d 797, 801-02, 807 (9th Cir. 2004); Pebble Beach Co. v. Caddy, 453 F.3d 1151, 1156-57 (9th Cir. 2006).

2. The district court correctly dismissed the claims for breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing against Bitar, Lederer and the individual members of Team Full Tilt because Gowen failed to allege any facts showing that they’re alter egos of Tiltware. The court correctly dismissed the breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent conveyance and declaratory judgment claims against all defendants because Gowen didn’t allege facts sufficient to state a plausible claim for relief. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949 (2009). For the same reason, the court correctly dismissed the unjust enrichment and fraud claims against the individual members of Team Full Tilt. See id. Amendment of the above claims would be futile, so the court didn’t abuse its discretion in denying leave to do so. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a).

3. The district court erred in dismissing the breach of contract and promissory estoppel claims against Tiltware. Gowen alleged that Tiltware promised orally to provide her with a “1% ownership interest” and make distribution payments based on that interest once the company became profitable. She promised to join Team Full Tilt. Taken as true, these allegations are specific enough to survive a motion to dismiss. See Khoury v. Maly’s of Cal., Inc., 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 708, 710 (Ct. App. 1993). The terms of the contract don’t preclude performance within one year, so an oral contract is valid. See Foley v. Interactive Data Corp., 765 P.2d 373, 381 (Cal. 1988). Because Gowen alleged an enforceable contract, the district court shouldn’t have dismissed the claims against Tiltware for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, specific performance and an accounting.

4. Gowen alleged that Tiltware used her celebrity status to promote the Full Tilt Poker brand, and that she was entitled to compensation for such use. These allegations state a claim for unjust enrichment. See Day v. Alta Bates Med. Ctr., 119 Cal.Rptr.2d 606, 609 (Ct. App. 2002).

5. The district court erred in dismissing the fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims against Bitar and Lederer. Bitar promised over the phone to give Gowen an ownership interest in his company, and Bitar and Lederer discussed Gowen’s purported ownership interest with her at the Golden Nugget Casino. Gowen relied on Bitar’s and Lederer’s promises when she joined Team Full Tilt, but Bitar and Lederer knew that no ownership interest had been or would be given to her. These allegations meet Rule 9(b)’s heightened pleading standard. See Sanford v. Memberworks, Inc., 625 F.3d 550, 558 (9th Cir. 2010); cf. Fanucchi & Limi Farms v. United Agri Prods., 414 F.3d 1075, 1088 (9th Cir. 2005).

6. Gowen discovered her injury in 2007, when she saw other Team Full Tilt members begin to receive the promised distribution payments. She timely filed suit within two years of discovering her injury. See Fox v. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., 110 P.3d 914, 921 (Cal. 2005); see also Cal. Code Civ. P. §§ 338(d), 339.

AFFIRMED in part and REVERSED in part. No costs.

I remember hearing about this “new site” from Clonie way back before they even existed (and the UIGEA was about as unimaginable as Barack Obama). Was looking to see if I happened to write anything that woulda implied a belief in ownership even before Pokerati’s traffic was borne from Google searches for “Clonie Gowan naked”.

I did not find anything resembling contractual evidence, but I did come across this site’s first-ever post … which seems a bit ironic in hindsight. For those wanting to join me in this self-indulgent quest for perspective:

APRIL 21, 2004
ON TILT?
It seems like everyone and their grandmother is opening up an online poker room these days. And why not? Each imaginary table that pops open in the cyberether forms a little vortex of constant pecuniary intake (no matter what’s happening in the game itself). But is the market at a saturation point?

Probably so, but that didn’t stop Full Tilt Poker from going online this week. Despite the competition, I suspect this site — a venture put together by a bunch of top pros (Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, et al.) — will fare well. Haven’t played it yet, but at first glance they’ve upped the graphical interface significantly. And the ability to give your avatar facial expressions … very cool. Could change the online game when you think about it.

Posted by Dan Michalski on April 21, 2004 09:20 AM

Click the links, which are archived.org … bias or not, honestly surprising that the judge wouldn’t give these sorts of old records a look, let alone her attorneys a chance to depose the other defendants about them.

LOL: Is the market at a saturation point?

ALT HED: Kicking myself for not using an affiliate code

Anyhow, bummer for Clonie and selfish-bummer for those of us who were curious to hear what the likes of Chris Ferguson, Ray Bitar, and Howard Lederer had to say about the early formation of Full Tilt under oath in the heat of deposition.

But here’s the judge’s three-strikes and you’re out ruling, with some explanation of why she will not get her day in Federal court. Seems more a matter of legal strategy than the merits of the case to me … but maybe some others with more-than-none law-schooling will weigh in on that.

Her attorneys, Howard & Howard, btw, will have another go in Nevada state court moving forward representing Jason Newitt and that other guy, Hilton Warmback in their similar contract disputes with Full Tilt.

Mostly unrelated, but hey, there’s a video … the day before this ruling came down, Newitt won the PLO/8 tourney and about $17k at the LAPC. Not bad for a guy who may or may not own a piece of Full Tilt:

Full Tilt (specifically Tiltware, LLC, out of California) is not seeking money from her beyond court costs and attorney fees. But they do want a clear declaration that she does not have the 1 percent ownership interest she alleges.

Click here to read Tiltware’s compaint against Gowen, filed on Friday.

So why would they be doing this? Well according to the Nevada lawyers I’ve spoken to, that’s hard to say …

Essentially, they’re looking for the court to rule against her without having a trial. She goes to court again on February 1, for the third and last time, with the court deciding if her Third-Amended Complaint has merits to proceed. But if Full Tilt wins, and the judge says, yeah, sorry, we can’t waste a jury’s time with this … then maybe they don’t win enough?

Why? Because Clonie’s attorneys are also representing two similar breach-of-contract plaintiffs suing Full Tilt in Nevada state court: Jason Newitt … and one other guy we haven’t heard of before — Hilton Warmback.

So if Tilt’s lawyers can get the federal court to declare definitively that she did not have a 1 percent stake … well then obviously she’ll have never have a case in state court. And the grounds for that dismissal should help them in their cases vs. Newitt and Warmback. If she didn’t have ownership, then obviously they didn’t either … but if she did have ownership, then holy fugk, they probably did, too!

Both Newitt and Warmback supposedly have written contracts for their ownership stakes (.0049 perent and .00143 percent, respectively). But according to the lawsuit against Clonie, no such records have been submitted to the court yet.

Though I don’t know details, Newitt had a state court date on Monday, where the Judge was to consider a motion to dismiss. But to the best of my understanding, that motion got delayed pending some decision related to the Clonie case. Again, not all clear … but we’ll see if we can’t sort through it all in coming weeks.

Newitt, interestingly enough, probably has the strongest case against Full Tilt, imh-not-a-lawyer-o. But it’s the least interesting to Pokerati because, frankly, it’s just a contractual dispute that touches on no “issues” of bots, datamining, or Maxim photo shoots. Part of his case also gets into a personal divorce matter, where he was sued by his ex-wife, a Full Tilt contractor, who may or may not have made claims for her piece of her ex-husband’s (alleged) piece. Damn, that would have to raise a judge’s eyebrow.

Anyhow, blah blah blah … I’ve already said more about all these cases than I intended — because I’m cautious about saying too much since I don’t quite understand the nuances of Nevada legal procedure and wouldn’t want to be like others already declaring Clonie’s case dead.

It’s not. Her federal case may or may not be thrown out for good on February 1. Lawyers tell me it would be highly unusual for a breach-of-contract case to be dismissed at this stage, too … especially considering that at least some semblance of a relationship obviously existed all over the internet.

As suggested by Full Tilt’s most recent legal action … the American-friendly poker company hopes the other cases have to move forward with a declaration from a federal judge that Clonie’s case was thrown out because she definitively and clearly had no ownership shares of the company. But if you think about all the hubbub over pre-trial motions … you can imagine how juicy it might get should any of these causes ever get a full jury hearing.

Most recently, at his own TASER Foundation charity tourney in Phoenix — the biggest high-society charity poker shindig of the year in Arizona — he was there to report on Brandon Cantu’s being shot with a taser gun … Cantu was paying off a prop-bet he lost at last year’s event with Clonie Gowen.

Damn, ouch … but cool … didn’t realize you could bounce back so quickly from those things.

BTW, an extra-funny … @DonkeyBomber was there as one of the “star poker players” who help make the event extra fun for the Big Charity donors who play … but even on his home turf, our favorite business-exec-turned-author-turned-2007-WSOP-POY-turned-struggling-poker-pro is no Layne Flack or even Roy Winston:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/177471.htm

Included on the WSOP celebrity roster for the events are: 11-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth, Layne Flack, Antonio Esfandiari (“The Magician”), Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Kenna James, Erica Schoenberg, Jeff Madsen, Roy Winston, Clonie Gowen, Brandon Cantu, Todd and Pamela Brunson, and Arizona’s own celebrity players, Kevin O’Donnell and Jim Schneider.

Jason Newitt
v.
Tiltware; Full Tilt Poker; Pocket Kings Ltd.; Pocket Kings Consulting Ltd.; Raymond Bitar; Howard Lederer
9/11/2009

Contract action. Plaintiff says he was unfairly fired, and that his distribution payments were unfairly ceased. Defendants then took control of his ownership.

Newitt was the former Tilt employee responsible for inadvertently forwarding Howard Lederer e-mail about Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke (the “freak and very weird dude”) — an “oops” that revealed a little something about Lederer and Bitar’s positions and powers within the Full Tilt money machine. Whether or not this had anything to do with Newitt’s dismissal and the subsequent lawsuit remains to be seen until we get our sneaky little hands on the court documents.

Considering that Texas poker players helped build the third-largest friggin’ casino in the world (literally under a tent in Thackerville, OK) we can take some pleasure in knowing a bunch of Texans kicked butt in The River tourney this weekend and will be sending back home some riches made in El Norte.

WinStar reportedly threw in a $580,000 overlay to make their $3 million guarantee. Not sure about the buy-in details — I think they upped it to $2k? — nor overall results. The best “coverage” has come via 2+2 here, mixed in with some Facebook, Twitter, and direct txt msg buzz. (Thanks KevMath and Harris, as always, for the info!)

1,210 players overall.

The winner: Bobby Hempkins, aka “Shooter” in the Dallas poker boom days. (And now your source for residential real estate in the North Texas area.) $710k win. Nice!

5th place finisher Brian @ZBTHorton provided regular updates from the final table, such as:

8 left, these people suck (4pm)

Apparently tax issues may or may not have complicated chop discussions — though sounds to me that the Chickasaw nation is under similar corporate-legal restrictions as the WSOP.

7th place reportedly went to a guy named Lance. Paid $95k. Sounds like a nice prize distribution (at the final table, at least). Not too flat, not too steep.

Blind structure was supposedly relatively fast, however.

Pros who made the trek for this event included: Clonie Gowen, TJ Cloutier, Michael Mizrachi, Eric Mizrachi, Kido Pham, Terrence Chan, Michael Binger, Men the Master, Allen Kessler, and Dmitri Nobles. The real @EskimoClark was also supposedly milling around.

pic: @EWeE420

Lawsuits are so easy and fun. Well, ask Clonie and she might deliver a different response, but that hasn’t stopped the lawyers in other cases from filing some very poker-centric lawsuits.

Gambling Times Inc. has filed suit against Scott Lazar, executive producer of Deal, the almost-embarrassing poker movie that flopped (pun inevitable) in movie theaters in 2008. According to super reputable tabloid TMZ, Gambling Times Inc. was promised prominent product placement in the film, and for the lack of it is suing Lazar for $1 million, about ten times more than what the movie garnered in revenue.

High Stakes News is reporting that Betfair is suing the Dutch government because new laws there have restricted online gambling and the Minister of Justice ordered banks to block payments to sites like Betfair. While this suit may sound like a long shot, the European Union is already going after the Dutch government because of possible breaches of the EU Treaty regarding gambling monopolies.

In Malaysia, when arrested for illegal gambling, just ask for the “senior discount.” Twelve grandmothers arrested for playing Chinese poker in a private location faced fines and imprisonment for their crime of playing cards, that was until the legally unrepresented ladies asked for discounts in their sentences because of senior citizen status. It worked, according to the Malaysian news site The Star, and they paid their fines.

Finally, Michael Phelps never ceases to entertain. Looking to obtain true degenerate status (always strive to be the best!), the Olympic gold medalist has been cavorting with strippers of late. Not only that, but he didn’t treat them well enough to keep quiet about the get-togethers. Evidently, he’s a solid performer in bed but not so much of a romantic or a one-stripper man. Theresa White has gone to the tabloids and started spilling details that include a rather severe chewing tobacco habit and a serious infatuation with online poker.

Well, Michael, you’re always welcome in the poker world. We may clobber you with interview requests if you show up at the WSOP this summer, but we won’t tell your dark secrets. That’s how the poker media rolls, homie.

PokerNewsDaily followed suit:

With the majority of the case being dismissed with prejudice and only Tiltware, Bitar and Lederer eligible for any further action, Gowen’s lawsuit appears to be dead at this time.

And then PokerNews reported “Gowen Lawsuit Against Full Tilt Dismissed”.

These hedlines are for the most part inaccurate, and at a minimum misleading. Clonie’s lawsuit is still alive … the courts have simply stripped out some irrelevant defendants while considering motions for expedited discovery, and her team has 30 days to amend their complaints around the still relevant defendants, i.e. Tiltware, Howard Lederer, and Ray Bitar. These recent rulings may be considered setbacks, but it’s not like she has to start from scratch to “refile”.

Read the court documents for yourself:

Gowen Motions Denied
Gowen Hearing Vacated

Now granted, these are a little confusing, so Pokerati has made half-hearted attempts to contact attorneys on both sides of the case, and have received no response from either. We’ve also contacted insiders on both sides of the case, whom literally say the exact same thing: “It’s definitely not over”. To be sure, on both sides, no one’s celebrating nor stomping about wildly screaming “Appeal!” bemoaning these most recent decisions.

In the meantime, to help us understand, Pokerati has brought in an independent, poker-savvy legal expert from a neighboring state to help translate:

Let me break this down into 2 parts:

1. What was the precise order of the Court on the motion to dismiss? I don’t know. The docket only reveals as follows:

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS – Motion Hearing held on 4/27/2009 before Judge Robert C. Jones. Crtrm Administrator: K. Goetsch; Pla Counsel: Robert Rosenthal; Def Counsel: Walter Cannon; Court Reporter/FTR #: A. Bareng; Time of Hearing: 10:35a.m.; Courtroom: 7D; The Court shares inclination to grant the dismissal and seeks arguments of counsel with respect to which parties the Court ought to allow amendment. Arguments of counsel are heard. The Court advises that it will issue its written decision GRANTING the 72 MOTION to Dismiss, and allowing amendment as to certain of the parties. (no image attached) (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF – KXG) (Entered: 05/01/2009)

The written decision is not yet available (at least for me to review online). But that highlighted sentence — no matter how you slice it – clearly means the case is not over. The court said it was “allowing amendment as to certain of the parties.” Quote those Minutes of Proceedings – it’s docket entry 103 (enclosed; entered May 1, 2009)

2. What do I *think* was the Court’s order and why do I think that?

I think the Court’s order was to grant the motion to dismiss with prejudice as to everyone except Tiltware, Bitar, and the Professor, against whom the motion was granted without prejudice (and with leave to amend).

I think that was the order based on a combination of (a) the above reading of the minutes of the docket and, (b) trusting Gowen’s lawyers’ description of the ruling in their motion for reconsideration. The relevant part Gowen’s motion is the first sentence here:

Your hypothetical you write below is not unusual – you can sue defendants x, y, and z, and defendants x and y win their motion to dismiss with prejudice and are out of the case for good, but party z only wins the motion to dismiss without prejudice and with leave to amend. The case is not over as to party z – plaintiff gets another bite at the apple, so to speak, if a timely amended complaint is filed.

It is technically accurate to state that Gowen’s case has been dismissed. That’s true. The case was dismissed. But it is misleading to state that the case is over. The dismissal as to certain defendants was without prejudice and Gowen expressly has the right to try again against those defendants. And a smart plaintiff lawyer – given the defendants’ briefing and the Court’s decision – will often try to (if possible) plead around the issues that led to dismissal in the first instance. In other words, you don’t just get another bite at the apple; you get a bite at the apple *knowing* what the defendants’ and Court’s views are on the previous version of the complaint, which is helpful. ((We just wrapped up a case where prior counsel lost two rounds of motions to dismiss; we stepped-in; filed a new, third amended complaint, defeated the next motion to dismiss, and eventually settled; it’s all salvageable, depending on the facts))).

http://www.aintluck.com/clonie-gowens-claims-dismissed-against-full-tilt/

UPDATE: And that “more info” is that someone misread a legal document and pressed “publish”. LOL! If I had a dime for every time I did that I’d have at least a nickel! … April 27th still the next relevant legal date.

Otherwise, all is well in my bracket. Got the 4 3 other matches right — Farha d. Cunningham, Eastgate d. Bloch, Lindgren d. Lederer, Elezra d. Chan. Alas, we will not be seeing Gowen vs. Lederer deep, which Ali Nejad reminded us yesterday woulda been great for poker, because it probably woulda been followed on Court TV.

CORRECTION: I guess I changed my pick on Chan vs. Elezra / didn’t go with my gut. Of course Eli was gonna win.

If you wanna follow a little more play-by-play, take your pick:
CardPlayer.com
PokerNews.com
PokerListings.com

Flipchip for really good photos.
Audio stuff TK at PokerRoad.

And it’s still not too late to get in on the bracket-picking action … though points scored on matches already started won’t count in the end. We’re doing this with our forum friends at PokerRoad. Show who’s boss.

UPDATE: Yang defeats Gowen! Boo Jerry Yang! Makin’ us rankers eat it!

I actually asked this question in mid-December — how has the current economic climate affected the poker economy? — to all my bestest poker pro friends and any others whose email addy I pilfered off someone else’s semi-spam. Because you know, there aren’t too many professions where the “players” carry around the equivalent of a car in their pockets and keep a house in their Bellagio box.

I got only one response (I see how it goes Tom and Clonie) … from Daniel Negreanu (whom frankly I hardly know):

I don’t think it’s affected the poker community all that much yet, outside of the tournament circuit which is seeing a decrease in numbers that I think it directly tied to the economy.

I’m not sure I fully agree with him, but I can say that these don’t sound like words coming from a guy who’s going broke, as PokerNews has insinuated.

Anyhow, click a sidebar bubble and vote. I’m curious to know how off-table circumstances have affected your action on the felt.

We’ll have the podcast version up here, too, as soon as it’s recorded.

Show starts in 5 minutes.

UPDATE: Podcast ready …

The Poker Beat
5 Feb 2009

via PokerRoad

Those interested in reading the case can read the amended complaint and her motion for expedited discovery over at Scribd.com:

Amended Complaint
Motion for Expedited Discovery

Donkey Bomber, btw, went into Day 2 with 8,000 chips (they started with 45k) … and is still hanging on, now with 20k.

200 players left. Average stack is about 110k. BTW, field size this year was 497, compared to 664 last year. But by no means does there seem to be a shortage of any periphery play at Bellagio.

Click here to follow the tournament action.

UPDATE: Tom is out.

Also, a WPT video update, where we learn it snowed in Las Vegas today (or at least in Summerlin), Daniel Negreanu doesn’t like to tip valet parkers, and apparently now he drinks again (didn’t he go straight-edge at some point?):

The November Nine — historic simply as it pertains to the conclusion of a single not-so-little tournament that seems to be the barometer for all things related to the poker industry.

Midnight Rule-push for UIGEA Regs — we’re just one of 100 single-issues affected by the Bush administration’s attempts to party it up like frat boys and trash the joint before checking out … but regardless, it means we have a whole bunch of additional clean-up to do.

60 Minutes/Washington Post Exposés — whether it’s determined to be fair-and-balanced good-for-poker coverage or a damning hatchet job hacked with a double-edged blade of lies … the Thanksgiving weekend stories represent the official exposure of the online poker biz, hairy warts and all, to the non-poker world.

Clonie Gowen vs. Full Tilt Lawsuit — a loyal soldier turns on her poker-biz commanders, with attempts to air grievances in American court threatening to bring the multibillion-dollar operations of a super-private jurisdictionally challenged business into the public domain. While FTP reps actively petition the Feds to let them open these books but only if they can pay extra taxes, the former Full Tilt covergirl arms herself with a taser gun and takes aiming at a Red Pro.

Formation of Cereus — the two most scandal-ridden online poker sites officially join forces to create a recovering cheater supersite, flooding their own tables with “refund” money to keep the action moving.

Plug Pulled on PokerBlog.com — hardly the biggest deal in the bigger picture … but PartyPoker’s apologetic canning of Dr. Tim represents a new fiscal reality facing even the most legitimate of online poker sites and their workers.

Introduction of HB 222 in Texas — Take 2 on trying to bring the game that had everything to do with the creation of an $18 billion industry (subject to all the hubbub above) back home where it belongs.

All this, of course, is going on in the midst of a major lawsuit related to internet authority in Kentucky — where unprecedented government action has shaken up/down the online poker industry, forcing noticeable shifts in business ops and resource allocation. Clearly:

I wasn’t there nor have I spoken to either of the principals, but reliable sources say it was a simple lasts-longest bet (at a Phil Hellmuth charity event for the Taser Foundation for Fallen Officers, at Fort McDowell Casino in Arizona) with the winner getting to tase the loser.

Um, OK.

As you probably know, these high-society fundraiser tourneys don’t exactly have the best blind structures. But they do have great gift bags, which at this event apparently came with gift certificates for taser guns. At one point Cantu supposedly had Clonie out-chipped like 5:1 … and she was getting really nervous. But he took a few bad beats and soon was out. So now Clonie gets to zap Cantu with 50,000 volts at the time and place of her choosing.

UPDATE: The authenticity of this report has been confirmed.

ALSO: Tase-Mania … and award-winning story on the greatness of high-voltage, police-force shocking.