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.

[Markuzi]

Translated the article from the Dutch newspaper for those who dont speak dutch. Thanks to Microsoft Word for correcting my crappy english.

Edit: Damn you DonKaleone [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

__________________________________________________ ___

Poker gate: Cheating in Poker is a lucrative business
Former CEO caught after online fraud

Fraud in the land of poker: Former CEO of one of the biggest online poker sites made sure he was able to see his opponents cards.

Is my opponent bluffing, does he really have good cards? Are my cards better? To bet or not to bet?

Those are the questions Scott Tom never had to ask himself. Former CEO of Absolute Poker.com, on of the major poker sites online, programmed his software in a way he was able to see his opponents cards. Very easy to play that way.

[Known story about CrazyMarco’s 9-high losing to Potripper T-high]

CarzyMarco got suspicious of the call. Together with some of his poker friends he analyzed Ip-addresses, email-addresses and playing habits. After several weeks Potripper turned out to be Scott Tom, former CEO of AP. By using a simple trick he was able to see his opponents’ cards and meanwhile be playing against them.

It’s still unknown how many times Tom used his self invented method and how many dollars he earned. Another question is if software of other poker sites contain the same possibilities. It would be very lucrative in a market with a trade volume of 1,5 billion dollar a year. Another advantage, the chance of being discovered is very slim. Tom got caught by taking decisions that were too obvious. Play a little bit less obvious and get rich, very rich.

[whangarei]

[ QUOTE ]
I've noticed people are saying that perhaps POTRIPPER was just "lucky" or had an "unorthodox" style of playing and that it simply was his night that night,and I know that these people aren't leveling, they're being serious.

The truth is, if ANYONE doubts that POTRIPPER can see the hole cards of other players in that tourney, watch the video. If that doesn't make it blatantly obvious...May you always sit at my table.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[DonKaleone]

Amsterdam > Den Bosch Markuzi [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Wilco666]

[ QUOTE ]
Amsterdam > Den Bosch Markuzi [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
And Utrecht is lazy. I was hoping someone else would do the dirty job of translation. Thanks, guys.

[Phil153]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know anything about Dutch law, but in most countries that's a successful lawsuit. Can't believe a paper would print that.

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know anything about Dutch law, but in most countries that's a successful lawsuit. Can't believe a paper would print that.

[/ QUOTE ]

a) not a lawyer

b) in many western jurisdictions, there's a pretty strong defence to stuff printed in the context of fair discussion about stuff in the public interest.

[nhWPjstUnLKy]

holland is crap

[gabbahh]

[ QUOTE ]

They are insistent that it is not possible for any account that has this ability and no way for anyone to receive other players' hole cards during a hand.

[/ QUOTE ]
It is impossible to know this. Even if AP tested all accounts manually, they still can't be 100% sure a superuser account exists.
Maybe a super-user accounts behaves and looks like a normal account, until you modify its settings.

[ QUOTE ]

3) At least part of these investigations will be conducted by representatives of the online poker community, possibly including representatives of PocketFives.com, 2+2, and/or Bluff Magazine.

[/ QUOTE ]
Investigate what? All source code, which is usually badly annotated? Good luck understanding the inner workings of the code? All compiled code? All user-accounts? All test-accounts? Investigate my azz.

The only smoking guns are the Potripper account, and account 363. The Potripper account is prolly a regular account, so nothing to find there. And account 363 SHOULD be deleted/modified to a regular account => nothing to find there too. So the investigation will clear AP for sure!

[ QUOTE ]

They believe they can prove that it's not possible to do what people are alleging, as well as that it was never possible in their system.


[/ QUOTE ]
How? Please teach me something about programming, security, reverse-engineering, servers and databases I don't know!

It is often possible to prove that something exists. It is not possible to prove that something doesn't exist. Esp in this case.

[ QUOTE ]

5) They weren't able to talk about account 363 at all. Their stated reason for this was that they haven't finished altering the account, and clearing its database transaction history.


[/ QUOTE ]
FYP

AP DIAGF!

[TobyClarke]

[ QUOTE ]
Tuesday Meeting at AP Office:

5) They weren't able to talk about account 363 at all. Their stated reason for this was that they haven't finished investigating the account.

[/ QUOTE ]
By saying this, they're basically admitting (once again) that something shady has indeed been going on. If 363 was a "normal" account, belonging to just another poker player, then they wouldn't need any particular investigation on it, would they? The fact that they need to "investigate" this account clearly tells that it is NOT a usual account.

Good luck to AP in trying to say that nothing happened, after having made this kind of statements ..