We haven't won yet: latest (10/19) cliff's notes on AP scandal

[NoSoup4U]

There is an ugly story in the San Jose Mercury News

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Sure, Buzz has gotten caught up in the poker craze. But we've never plunked down our online cash. Just old-world that way; never felt like we could trust things to be on the up-and-up.

Now we know why. As analyzed by the Freakonomics blog at nytimes.com, the site Absolute Poker is being investigated in Canada regarding a tournament in which a player didn't fold a hand pre-flop for 20 minutes, then suddenly folded pre-flop when his opponent had pocket kings. When he stayed in hands all the way through, it was with suspiciously weak cards that were somehow good enough.

Some of the player's opponents requested a log of the tournament, and when they got it, they discovered that an observer was watching all of the hands the player played. The observer's IP address was traced to Absolute Poker and one of its owners. The implication is that somebody was looking at all players' hole cards.

So, if the illegality of playing doesn't sway anyone, this should.

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