[PoorSkillz]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Nat, I would have to disagree with the fact that a majority of the fish wouldn't even care. The problem is a majority of the fish still do not even know.

[/ QUOTE ]

I bet you couldn't find an AP table where somebody doesn't spam "AP cheated" at least once every couple of hours.

[ QUOTE ]
The story is not present in the mainstream media at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was *the* headline at MSNBC, made the ABC News front page and was up there at Yahoo. While I had misgivings about giving interviews and trying to be a spokesman, I did it because I thought I'd do a decent job and because I really felt it would make a difference and force AP to cave.

On the one hand, I think I was successful - the media coverage was pretty fair and it *did* force AP to cave. On the other, the aspect of the coverage that made them cave - and don't kid yourself, the mainstream media were probably ~90% of the reason - was the threat of exposure. We still hold that over them, but what we don't have is the threat of a business failure, because it has now been very thoroughly demonstrated that the poker community is in large part made up of lemmings that will never quit AP in an organized manner. Am I discouraged by this? Duh. But at this point, it's time to look for Plan B, because Plan A, the threat of losing tens of millions, turns out to be hollow. I have no problem admitting that in public because they know it themselves.

[ QUOTE ]
Giving in to Absolute Poker, trying to see them (pretend to)become a better company from here on out, is basically telling all the pokersites, "I give up! Go ahead and cheat us, do whatever you want, because there's nothing we can do about it!" I know that you're only doing this because you think there's no possible way of seeing Absolute Poker going down. But don't give up just yet. Because the worst thing that can happen to online poker is to see Absolute Poker survive this scandal, even if they truly become a clean, honest company.

[/ QUOTE ]

Eek. No, by far the worst thing is seeing them survive with Tom at the helm. That, I think we can still easily prevent. Trying to take them down now...for one, I never thought that should be a personal goal of mine or Nat's, because that job is much bigger than publicizing a breach. For another, I do think the company that is left behind is way more honest than the one that was there a month ago. But just as importantly, I have no idea how you'd manage to do that even if the scandal is on the ESPN front page for a full week. It simply never occurred to me that this thing could break as hugely as it did *and 95% of AP would still be there the next day*.

Among other things, I want somebody to go to CR because potentially finding a single clue to Tom being there might be the *only* way that AP would go down now. I don't see another one.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know about the spamming on the AP poker tables, but that's good to know atleast, but I heard that all kinds of chat like that was being banned.
I agree 100% with you that mainstream media is the main asset at taking Absolute Poker down, and that they have been the main reason so far (besides you, Nat, etc.), but I still believe they can do so much more. I know it was a headline on MSN.com for awhile, that's where I first really heard about it. But how long was the headline really there for? A couple hours after I read it, I didn't see it on msn.com anymore. I never even knew abcnews.com existed until I read in this forum there was an article there. When I read on this site that an article was up on yahoo.com, I checked the Yahoo homepage and couldn't find it. And these 3 sources, along with the NY Times blog and the stashed-away ESPN article are the only mainstream media sources I have heard reported on this issue (I'm sure there's a couple others). And sure Cardplayer reported on it barely for like 5 seconds and with such an Absolute spin on it. I still believe most people, outside of these pokerforums, don't know about this and if they do, don't believe it's a big deal. If a mainstream media outlet like ESPN made this a big deal of this issue, it would definitely shape the mainstream's opinion on this matter.

Regarding, the worst possible case for poker, sure it's Scott Tom still running the company. But if Scott Tom is running the company or not, we'll never truly know. According to Absolute Poker, Scott Tom hasn't even been with the company for over a year (correct me if I'm wrong, but Absolute still hasn't retracted that claim) so of course he's not going to be running the company now! So if Absolute Poker is still up and running and claiming they are clean/honest, it is still entirely possible for Scott Tom to be running the company.

I don't disagree with Nat going to Costa Rica, but if AP is willing to pay him to go down there, I doubt he will be able to find anything resembling them not being a clean/ honest company going forward, whether that's the case or not. But, hell, might as well give it a shot!