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Absolute Poker Dealt A Cheating Controversy - 10-15-07
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Author: Marc Weinberg
October 15 - The online poker community is up in arms regarding a software breach at Absolute Poker, whereby a user by the name of potripper clearly knew what everyone else's hole cards were at his table. This emerged during a $1000 tournament at Absolute where he made a number of value bets, calls, and laydowns that defied any other explanation bar cheating.
The issues at this stage are not whether potripper was being fed that information (that seems clear to us), but whether the cheater is an employee of the company, if this is not an inside job but the work of a hacker, if it is an isolated "rogue" incident or a software malfunction that many can/may have already taken advantage of, and whether Absolute Poker knew about it or not.
These are incredibly serious accusations that threaten the future of one of the biggest online poker rooms in the world, and we would not report on this matter if it had not progressed way beyond the level of a nasty rumor.
You can judge for yourself by reading the main thread at Pocket Fives.com, which broke the story and has once again proved to be a tremendous ally and asset to the online poker community. The story has already been picked up at other influential forums like 2+2 and poker news sources like Poker-King.com.
Players who competed against potripper in the $1k tourney felt that they had been scammed and one of them requested the hand histories for that tournament. Whether by accident, or in a leak worthy of Deep Throat (the source for Watergate, not the high quality film), an AP customer service rep sent those hand histories with the hole cards of all players exposed!
Now online poker rooms swear by everything holy that no human being can see those hole cards or send them off in an email after the fact unless those cards were shown in the showdown. But the HH sent to the player in question clearly showed that there is a security breach at Absolute.
Those hand histories were a smoking gun of note, but almost pale in comparison to what is now emerging on the various poker forums. There is an ongoing investigation by Pocket Fives that has ascertained the following: during the tournament there was an observer at the tainted table who got there two minutes in and remained throughout. This observer has a very low digit AP user number, suggesting that he/she has been on the site for ages, and could therefore logically be an employee. The IP address was tracked back to Costa Rica, where Absolute's employees are based. Potripper was at that table throughout the tournament and acted as though he could see the hole cards - but could not see the flop,turn, or river, which makes sense if there was a breach.
The hand histories in question are available on page 4 of the threat at Pocket Fives. The information about the IP address of potripper and his likely confederate can be found on page 8 of the same thread. Numerous top online pros like annette15 and jennicide have commented in the thread voicing their shock and dismay about the matter.
There have been whispers in the past that Absolute uses shills, as well as some nasty accusations levelled at one of the signature pros who endorses that site, but this is a super-scandal, which for all the world appears based on facts.
At this point we await Absolute's response. We would advise all our users to suspend playing at the site until their integrity can be assured. This could well be an isolated incident involving one player, and hopefully it has nothing to do with the company as a whole. Absolute Poker must be given a chance to fix this problem and respond to the matter.
However, at this time they have steadfastly denied that there is a problem, claiming that there are no superuser accounts and that no one can see all the hole cards at any of their tables. Their statements to date have convinced no one who has seen the hand histories in question - Absolute Poker needs to take a hard line and admit that there is a potentially catastrophic problem that won't go away simply by lying that it does not exist in the first place.
We will monitor the situation and suggest that you look at the thread in question before you decide whether or not you want to play at Absolute Poker for the moment. The matter must be resolved speedily and in a way that repairs the damage done to their integrity, otherwise many affiliates will certainly find it difficult to promote them in the future.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Pacific Poker Players To Get Sports Betting - 11-06-07
> Barry Greenstein Goes To Bat For Online Poker - 10-31-07
> Absolute Poker Cheating Scam Update - 10-23-07
> Absolute Poker Ends Their Denial And Seeks Help - 10-17-07
> Party Poker Woos Las Vegas Casinos - 10-10-07
> WCOOP Main Event Scandal Brewing At Poker Stars - 10-06-07
> The Hold'em Poker Fallacy - 09-26-07
> James Mackey Wins Big At The 2007 WCOOP - 09-25-07
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