[Redgrape]

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An explanation for non-poker players:

Across the world, hundreds of thousands of people often take part in games of online poker. These games are typically run by a variety of businesses - businesses that make a long-term profit because of the safety, security and reliability of their games.

Recently, one operator, called "Absolute Poker" appears to have been allowing cheating to take place on their site. In short, it appears that certain player accounts are able to view the supposedly hidden cards of other players. In a game of poker it is impossible to beat someone who knows with 100% accuracy what cards you have!

In Texas Hold'em poker, the most popular form of poker, each player is dealt two cards. These two cards are then combined with community cards to form the best five card poker hand for each player. The best two cards to be dealt are two aces - often called "pocket aces." This is closely followed in strength by a pair of kings, a pair of queens, and so on.

Playing in a recent tournament, the cheaters NEVER made a bet when any of their opponents had pocket kings, pocket aces or pocket queens. This would not be unusual - except that they made a bet on almost every other hand. In other words, they are playing every hand, except when their opponents have one of the strongest possible hands, and they have no possible way to know it (there are no relevant physical "tells" or signs in online poker compared to playing in person).

Due to the way that Texas Hold'em is played, there are a series of rounds of betting on each hand. There is betting when the first two (hidden) cards are dealt, and then after three of the community cards are dealt, and then after the next community card, and then after the fifth and final community card. The cheater's betting patterns on each round are only explainable by someone who can see other players' cards.

For example, on the last round of betting, when all the cards are dealt, one hand is always going to be better than the other player's (sometimes they are tied and are the same, but this is irrelevant here). The players who are cheating always managed to make the right decision at the end. If the opponent's hand was worse, the cheaters would bet or raise. If the cheaters' hand was worse, the cheaters would either fold, or sometimes make a big bluff. Not once did the cheaters call - because if you know what your opponents' cards are, you would never need to call.

Much of the data has been collected and analysed using a computer program called PokerTracker, which is used by many professional poker players across the world. This program records games of poker, and calculates statistics on how players play. Hundreds of hands were analysed, and this analysis revealed:

I can't explain the PT stuff well. If someone else can, this might be a good addition..

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This is close to perfect!