Cheating at AP, updated cliff notes

[DonKaleone]

I translated the Dutch article into English. I have no clue who this author is, but clearly this guy is a speculative moron...

Dutch article here


Former head caught after online poker fraude
By: Marten Blankesteijn

Fraude in the land of poker: the former director of one of the largest pokersites made sure he could see his opponents hole cards.

Is my opponent bluffing or does he have really good cards? Are my cards better? Bet money or not?

These are the essential pokerquestions Scott Tom never had to ask himself. The former director of AbsolutePoker.com, one of the largest pokerrooms on the internet, programmed his software in a way he was able to see his opponent's hole cards. This obviously plays a lot easier.

The snowball started rolling after CrazyMarco, an online pokerplayer, got eliminated in an AbsolutePoker tournament with a thousand dollar in price money (another indication this author isn't well informed, DK) due to a 'crazy call' by a player calling himself Potripper. The latter had some awful cards, which meant the odds of CrazyMarco having a better hand were huge. When his opponent proceeded to bet a lot of money, Potripper had no choice but to fold his hand. However, he didn't. He called and noticed his ten high was "accidentally" better than Marco's nine.

This caught some suspiscion. CrazyMarco asked the tournament officials a print of Potrippers playing behavior. With a band of befriended pokerplayers he analysed IP-adresses, e-mailaddresses and playing habits. After several weeks it turned out that Potripper was nobody else than Scott Tom, former CEO of Absolute Poker. With the help of a simple trick he was able to see all the player's hole cards as well as playing in the tournament at the same time.

How often Tom profited from his selftaught method and how much money he earned isn't clear at this point. Another question is whether pokersoftware of similar websites has this potential as well. In a market where an estimated yearly 1,5 billion dollar is at stake, it would be extremely lucrative. Another pro: the chance something like this leaks out is small. Tom got busted by taking a decision that was too obviously based on information he knew in advance. People who are a little smarter than this and lose their occasional pot will become rich. Very rich.