Absolute Poker responds to charges of insider cheating

With charges of insider cheating and security breaches still swirling around Absolute Poker, Absolute's owner attempted to set the record straight Sunday by releasing a statement addressed to its players.

"The integrity of our poker system was compromised by a high-ranking trusted consultant employed by AP whose position gave him extraordinary access to certain security systems," said Joe Norton, the former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and the owner of Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, which holds a 100% interest in Absolute Poker.

"Like you, I have not been happy that during the initial stage of our investigation, AP has not been more forthcoming in providing a timely or comprehensive explanation on this matter, giving rise to anger, suspicion, and concern on the part of our valued customers," the statement read. "I hope that our customers can appreciate that this remains an incredibly complex and sensitive issue, and I want to give you my strongest possible assurance that we will be as forthcoming as possible on how this breach occurred and what we are doing to remedy the situation."

Norton, who is currently traveling, has agreed to answer questions from Casino City via e-mail. They'll be published here as soon as they're available.

The situation that Norton speaks of began about a month ago, when complaints began to surface that there were "superuser" accounts that could see the hole cards of all the players at a table during a high stakes poker tournament at Absolute Poker.

According to forums on TwoPlusTwo.com, the complaints started when "Potripper" enjoyed a prosperous, yet unlikely, string of fortune during a poker tournament, at one point going 20 minutes without folding pre-flop. A player by the name of "crazymarco" got suspicious and e-mailed Absolute Poker to request an XLS file of the hand history. As is the standard, Absolute Poker complied.

But what crazymarco received was far from the standard hand-history file. In addition to hand histories, it revealed the hole cards of each player and IP addresses and user details of both people at the table and those observing.

Further investigation revealed that "Potripper" folded his first two hands at the table in question, but once observer No. 363 arrived at the table, "Potripper" didn't fold another hand before the flop for 20 minutes with the implication being that somehow No. 363 was using a super user account and relaying all of the hole cards to "Potripper." Making matters worse, the IP of No. 363 was tracked back to a person by the name of Scott Tom, who Absolute Poker has confirmed is a "former member of Team Absolute Poker."

Norton's admission on Sunday that the security breach at the company was a "horrendous and inexcusable offense" came eight days after Absolute Poker announced that it had conducted an "extensive investigation" and "to the best of Absolute Poker's knowledge, information and belief there was no security breach." In that same statement, dated Oct. 12, Absolute Poker said that an "internal investigation determined that it is impossible for any person, device, program, script or other means to see hole cards."

Currently, both the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and a third-party auditor, Gaming Associates, are conducting investigations. AP announced that it would make the results of these audits public upon completion.

 http://www.casinocitytimes.com

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Isn't it funny with poker how sometimes things just go right and other times everything goes pear shaped. I'm not one of the people who sign up tothe view that online poker is rigged, nor am I overly superstitious, but one thing that is hard to explain is these runs.

 Sometimes every hand holds up or the flop hits, other times your aces get cracked by non other than 72OS with a 2 paired flop.  When these runs start, they aren't on a site basis, they seem to happen over various poker clients, so this kind of dismisses the rigged theory. As for superstition, well I never walk under ladders and always cross my fingers before a flop when i'm all in ( as well as clenching my butt cheeks )

 I've read somewhere that poker is a combination of both luck and skill, I would definitely add another to this small list, confidence. Each bad beat knocks the confidence, this in turn leads to minor, but crucial alterations in the way hands are played.

For example, consider these two identical situations pre-flop, where you are in the big blind, getting dealt AK suited, with two callers including the small blind.

When confidence is high, a reasonable sized raise follows and it's (more times than not) taken down there and then.

When confidence is low, the inclination is to put in a timid raise or even check to see the flop first. When the flop hits A 5 9 (rainbow), the AK is then looking unbeatable, a large raise then follows, only to find someone limped with A5, A9 or a pair of 5's. This is then seen as a bad beat, but in reality, a large raise pre-flop would have ( hopefully ) seen off the hands.

 So, when confidence is low, there is a tendency to underplay big hands or sometimes overplay to avoid the bad beat.

Given this theory then, when on a high, it should always stay there because everything is being played about right. Well no, because what tends to happen then is over confidence kicks in. Instead of "normal" pre-flop raises, calls with pocket aces or small double raises creep in, in an attempt to get the most out of them. This kind of play can only lead to bad beats and start the confidence plummeting back down again.

I'm not saying the above applies to all, it's definitely true with me and my play and one reassuring explanation to why these runs happen. I find it a more credible explanation than the alternatives, albeit simplistic.

Anyway, confidence is on a high at the moment after two final tables in the first two league matches. Confidence isn't overly high either because in the process GetCrunkho has beaten me up badly a couple of times on the final table ! Think i'd have preferred two rounds with Mike Tyson instead.

So instead of wishing everyone good luck, maybe it's more fitting to wish all, "good confidence" instead. 

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