Cheating at
Absolute Poker? The evidence
suggests yes!
It started with a
tournament ($1,000 buy-in) where it came
down to two players and one, the
innocent using the name CrazyMarco,
check-raised all in with a flush draw
(no other help on the table for either
party, not even a high card) while
holding a 9h,2h and he gets called by
player called POTRIPPER holding a Tc,
9c. The ten high, no pair, no draw held
up to win the tournament.
Naturally CrazyMarco
was suspicious and as such requested the
hand history from Absolute. An excel
file was received along with a statement
from the poker room that they had done
their own investigation and found
nothing wrong. CrazyMarco assumed since
Absolute Poker had already investigated
that there was no reason for him to
bother opening the excel file and if
you've ever reviewed the hand history of
a tournament you may understand his
reluctance to have ventured into the
mix. We'll come back to this in a
minute.
One month later (Sept
2007) there was a ruckus about some
Absolute Poker players having the
ability to see other's hole cards and
players as a group began calling and
emailing AP, demanding investigation
into the play of those in question. The
questionable play happened in the
highest staked tables and it is
guestimated that over a million dollars
was stolen by superuser accounts.
Absolute Poker
responded to the demands by stating they
had done an investigation and found
nothing out of the ordinary aside from
players just getting lucky. Here's part
of their official response to
allegations of cheating.
quote:
The result of our investigation is
that we found no evidence that any of
Absolute Poker’s redundant and varying
levels of game client security were
compromised. In other words, we have
determined with reasonable certainty
that it is impossible for any player or
employee to see hole cards as was
alleged. There is no part of the
technology that allows for a “superuser”
account, and there is no way for any
person to influence the game software to
their advantage. We base this finding on
a thorough security check on a
technological level, coupled with a
thorough investigation of hand histories
including those that did not go to a
showdown.
unquote:
Those making the
accusations felt certain the players in
question were cheating but of course
nobody could provide definitive proof
without seeing those player's hole
cards. AP was totally unwilling to make
public either the player's names or the
hand history of their play which leaves
little room for doubt about the
reasoning behind protecting the privacy
of thieves, there must be connection to
the poker room.
Meanwhile the guy I
started with on this story, CrazyMarco,
reads in a poker forum about the
cheating and decides to check the hand
history that had been sent to him from
Absolute. To his, and I would imagine
everyone's surprise, all the player's
hole cards were also included in the
hand history. Scary stuff considering
Absolute made an official statement less
than twenty-four hours later saying they
did NOT have access to hole card
information. You can watch the hands
played out on a video:
cheating at Absolute Poker video click
here.
*Note: if you watch the video ... well I
was both bored and sickened. It made me
sick to sit there and watch this poster
child for eating your young, continually
beat players with better hands. It was
also boring unless you're really into
watching a cheating game of poker being
played.
Here's what Absolute
Poker claims, quote:
-
”We spent extensive
resources thoroughly investigating
and analyzing our players’ claims.”
-
The result of our
investigation is that we found no
evidence that any of Absolute
Poker’s redundant and varying levels
of game client security were
compromised.
-
”we have determined
with reasonable certainty that it is
impossible for any player or
employee to see hole cards as was
alleged. There is no part of the
technology that allows for a
“superuser” account”
-
”We base this
finding on a thorough security check
on a technological level, coupled
with a thorough investigation of
hand histories including those that
did not go to a showdown”
unquote:
24 hours later it was
proven by the investigating players
that:
-
If you looked at the
hole cards you'd immediately
recognizing that POTRIPPER had a
superuser account (could see all
hole cards).
-
Absolute Poker knew
about the cheating and tried to
cover it up.
-
Absolute Poker never
planned to say anything nor repay
the players they allowed to be
cheated until it became financially
smarter to repay those players whom
are going to be squeaky wheels.
I'll let you come to
your own conclusions but it boils down
like this: there are two major poker
rooms on the net, each having
allegations that players are cheating by
seeing other's hole cards. Both poker
rooms are owned by the same person who
is the former Chief of the Kahnawake
Tribe. Who run the Kahnawake Gaming
Commission that licenses both poker
rooms. Further is that Joe Norton, the
former chief in question, is considered
by many to be one of Canada's most
notorious characters of organized crime.
Absolute Poker did finally pay the
players who lost to the cheaters (that
are KNOWN, there could have been many
more with superuser accounts that were
smart enough not to be so obvious).
However their concern to do the right
thing came only after they had done
everything possible to avoid word of the
cheating reaching the public.
Questions about the legitimacy of
Kahnawake Gaming Commission.
For more about
Ultimate Bet
cheating players.
If you want to read the whole sixty
pages of discussion (that was last time
I was there, its probably near 100 pages
by the time you read this, but if you
want to read the whole thing:
click here.
