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What actually happened at Absolute? Were they caught cheating. If so how come the site is still up and running?
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Absolute Poker admitted that an insider cheated players out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, mainly in high stakes games, by playing with knowledge of the hole cards. See
this wiki, although that concentrates on the smoking gun Potripper tournament rather than the larger cash games which were suspicious long before the tournament. Here is
Part 2 of a series of interviews with Nat Arem. Part 1 has some links to past stories on the scandal.
Many players are calling for a boycott of Absolute Poker. I think this is reasonable not because there was cheating, but because
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] There was cheating by an insider or insiders high in Absolute Poker's control structure.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Absolute Poker repeatedly lied about it, and only admitted there was cheating when the smoking-gun evidence was being presented in the mass media (Associated Press, New York Times, USA Today, MSNC, etc.), even though Absolute Poker had the evidence a month earlier.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Absolute Poker has repeatedly lied about minor details, and has not apologized for its past lies, major or minor. This shows a willingness to lie in the future.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Absolute Poker has a bad business reputation. They have had business disputes with affiliates,
with marketers, etc., ... Do you trust them to hold your money?
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Absolute Poker appears not to have the types of security systems other sites have. Even if all of the "bad apples" have been fired (which is not clear), Absolute Poker is still years behind other poker sites on security issues. Even if you don't lose to someone who is cheating by seeing the hole cards in Absolute's database, you still run a higher risk of getting cheated in other ways, such as collusion.
While AP appears to have bought off some sites, I think other affiliates should be using this scandal to get those who currently play at Absolute Poker (and Ultimate Bet, which was bought by Absolute Poker) to switch to other sites.