Just Poker Talk

• Absolute Poker Hacking - More to the Story

The online world is full of so much about the recent story regarding the hacking of Absolute Poker by a high ranking ‘Consultant’ of Absolute Poker. One prominent Internet rumour is that the Absolute Poker situation has been ongoing for three years. The same Internet posting says the amount of money stolen could be as much a $7 million. Another posting says that Absolute Poker security suspected trouble but was informed it was the owners testing the system and to ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’. Ok so I stole that from the Wizard of Oz but the concept is the same. Everywhere you look are stories about AJ Green and Scott Tom. Pictures of Gambling911.com reporter Jenny Woo with AJ Green the suspected Potripper back in 2005. Jenny felt the need to come out and apologize in this post. I have seen Internet posts calling this Absolute Poker situation the biggest scandal ever to hit the Online Poker Industry. Reportedly ESPN is doing a major expose on the Absolute Poker hacking. ‘Pokergate’ is on so many forums and blogs you could spent way too much time just searching for information on the scandal. The statement sent out earlier this week by Absolute Poker discussed the investigations that are ongoing. Audits are being completed to determine exactly how much money was won by Potripper and any additional suspects. Absolute Poker has promised refunds plus interest to all players victimized by the scandal and the offered $500 voucher if their name was disclosed inappropriately. Again reportedly Absolute Poker is still bringing in $1.5 and $2.0 million a day in gross revenues. The story seems to just keep on going and going with the Online Player community. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger saw all the rumours for the last month but couldn’t believe it. Here are my posts regarding the Absolute Poker trouble.

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• Absolute Poker Releases Statement

Owner of Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, which controls 100% of Absolute Poker, Joe Norton sent out a statement regarding the Hacking of Absolute Poker. Norton informs the recipients of the notice of a ‘Internal Security Breach for a limited period of time’. The breach according to Norton was committed by a high ranking trusted consultant with extraordinary access to security systems of Absolute Poker. Norton continues with the notice to AP customers by telling them that the consultant was immediately terminated.  Norton promises all players that were cheated by the hacker will be repaid for all losses that are traced to the cheating account. Payment to the AP players who lost money will be done after a complete audit by Gaming Associates and a separate audit by Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Finally the statement implies that Absolute Poker will be cooperation with any and all investigations in the future by regulatory bodies.

Reportedly Absolute Poker has already begun two activities related with the release of the xcel spreadsheet with all the players that played in the September 12th tournament IP addresses and email addresses. Absolute Poker has issued $500 payments to any watcher of the tournament that had their email in the spreadsheet. Second all players that cashed will be moved up 1 spot on the final standings and receive the additional prize money. 96 of the 98 players that participated in the tournament will receive a refund of their entry amount and fee for the tournament. Also included will be about 1% interest.  Potripper the id that won the tournament and Graycat another suspect account are not to receive refunds according to Absolute Poker.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger wonders what will happen to people like Mark Seif who has been a player for Absolute Poker for a long time. The web is full of many stories and discussions regarding the AP situation. I will keep an eye and ear open to this story and keep you posted. Here are the two previous posts I had on this event. 1. Absolute Poker is Hacked by Employee  2. Absolute Poker Hacking - More Details Surface

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• Absolute Poker Hacked - More Details

The Online Poker World continues to be abuzz with the Absolute Poker situation. On Friday the story hit the newswires. The story about an Absolute Poker employee that hacked the Absolute Poker system to allow himself to play Hold ‘Em at an online table and see all the other players hole cards. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger has seen the episode referred to as ‘Pokergate’. This is very interesting because large percentages of the online players are well under the 40 years of age needed to recall ‘Watergate’. Here are some more of the details that have come to light over the weekend.

In September 21 year old Marco Johnson asked Absolute Poker for a hand history of a high stakes tournament he had played previously. Marco felt there were too many weird things happening during the tournament and he felt he had been cheated. Marco finished 2nd in the tournament and was awarded the prize money of $20,000. Turns out that Absolute Poker sent Marco was the complete hand histories of everyone involved in the tournament. The hand histories included hole cards for everyone and every hand, IP addresses and email addresses of all participants within an excel spreadsheet. The winner of the tournament was the online player ‘Potripper’ who won the tournament and the $30,000 1st prize. Johnson turned the spreadsheet over to New York attorney Serge Ravitch a professional poker player who also moderates 2 + 2 Poker Forum.

“In the last hand, he just blew it. He made a gigantic call with 10 high. The chances of winning a hand like that are something like one in 1,000. It was obvious he was cheating,”

Source: ABC News Online

Johnson also provided the excel spreadsheet to a poker blogger Nat Arem who looked at the IP addresses. Arem also discovered that at every table Potripper was at also included another user that other players could not see at the online table. Aren traced the IP address of the observer back to location of the Absolute Poker servers. One last little item and I am not sure of any significance is that Mark Seif was in the hand history provided.

Ravitch the attorney estimated that online players lost between $500,000 and $1,000,000 over a two week period though he informs ABC he can’t be sure when the cheating started.

Absolute Poker has reportedely promised an official statement regarding the hacking and what remedies will be undertaken to reimburse players that were involved. Also Absolute Poker has said that the security glitch in the servers has been closed, though the online community is waiting for the official statement to hear and see the proof. Former Director of Operations at AP AJ Ripper was named in the ABC story as the owner of account Potripper. Additionally an IP address was linked to part owner Scott Tom who AP says has not been involved with the company for over a year. Investigations are continuing to ascertain if these people were involved or if somebody else was using their accounts.

Go to this Just Poker Talk Post to see the recreation of the hand histories and see how easy it was for Potripper to win the high stakes tournament.

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael has played at Absolute Poker, but certainly not at the high stakes tables so I probably never contributed any funds to Potripper.

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• Absolute Poker is Hacked by Employee

An Absolute Poker Employee hacked the online poker site. The employee modified the site and provided the ability for the employee to play on the site and see the hole cards of the other players. Internet forums had been discussing this possibility for almost a month. Previously Absolute Poker investigated the allegations and reported: 

“The result of our investigation is that we found no evidence that any of Absolute Poker’s redundant and varying levels of game client security were compromised. In other words, we have determined with reasonable certainty that it is impossible for any player or employee to see whole cards as was alleged. There is no part of the technology that allows for a “superuser” account, and there is no way for any person to influence the game software to their advantage.”

Source: MSNBC

New York attorney Serge Ravitch informed Absolute Poker that he felt cheating was going on. Ravitch informed MSNBC that Absolute Poker initially denied any cheating had occurred or was even possible. In fact according to the MSNBC story, Absolute Poker found no evidence that client security having been compromised. Absolute Poker went on to say that with certainty it was impossible for anybody to see other players hole cards. Also they said there was no way to modify the Absolute Poker game software to gain any advantage.

Absolute Poker provided hand histories to one of the players that had reported cheating. The hand histories provided hole cards for all the players and IP addresses as well as email addresses of the competing players. MSNBC requested an independent review of the re-created tournament and expert Ray Cooke, ex-head of security at Planet Poker online site, came away convinced that the hacker can see the hole cards. Here is the recreation provided by YouTube.

This video is one of four videos of the recreations. Here are links for the other three.
Absolute Poker two of four
Absolute Poker three of four
Absolute Poker four of four

This week a spokesman for Absolute Poker has informed MSNBC on the condition of anonymity that the hacker was an employee of the company who did it to prove it could be done. The spokesman said:

“This is literally a geek trying to prove to senior management that they were wrong and he took it too far,”

Your ‘Dead Money’ bloggers concern with this hacking is that it will make it more difficult to get the UIGEA repealed anytime soon. Also this will provide fuel for the online poker opponents to keep preventing US players from playing online.

Here are some other Just Poker Talk posts regarding UIGEA.

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