Absolute Poker is absolutely rigged. (New evidence, near certain proof its rigged).

[pokeraddict]

One more thing since I don't think this has been posted here yet. A couple of long term posters with AP connections have reported that AP did a couple of other sleazy things that could get them in trouble in the US outside of this.

1. AP took a collection for a charity at the WSOP. AP asked that you make a donation for popcorn. AP ran off with the money and never donated it.

2. AP had a raffle for a new car. An insider at AP "won" the car.

For those that feel that the corruption is only at the top reported thefts like this prove otherwise. AP has had plenty of time to produce proof of where the money and car went.

[Casinomeister]

A donation for "popcorn"? What's that?

[pokeraddict]

At the WSOP they gave away popcorn but asked for a donation to go to an unnamed charity. AP kept all of it according to one of the "detectives". This came a couple of weeks ago and AP has been asked to show what charity it went to over and over, something they have not done.

[SlotsWizard]

They must have donated it to The Human Fund.

[Rollo]

They are obviously still trying to cover this up, at this point I'd guess not so much to try to get in front of the bad publicity although for that reason too, but to simply limit the amount of money they are going to have to pay to cheated players. If it can be proven that this has been going on for years (as the net rumors have it) and need to pay back millions, that could get very expensive and be very messy. Also, how could something like that go on for years without some complicity at the top? Lots of questions.

It seems they first tried to deny anything was wrong and hope it would blow over (which in and of itself makes them deserving of a permant spot on the blacklist - just read their BS statements full of legal wiggle words) however when the statistics came to light that the outcomes were almost impossible to have occured naturally (I beleive the Wizard of Odds said that the statistical likelihood of an outcome like occured in the tournament was like someone hitting the lottery in six states at the same) they couldn't reasonably deny something had happened and went to Stroy 2.

Stroy 2, being floated now, is that a well intentioned developer wanted to point out holes in the system and did some cheating to bring these security flaws to the attention of management. If this were to be believed it would achieve the objective of limiting damanges, relieving management of any responsibility and tying the case neatly off.

It's not going to fly becuase it is just too insulting to one's intelligence. A good intentioned developer would have offered to give the money back, wouldn't have needed to cheat for months upon months, and really wouldn't have cheated players at all... a few hands played in a control group in front of anyone would have done the trick. Someone being able to see hole cards at an online poker room would spread to top management like wildfire - faster than news that asbestos was discovered in the Cornflakes would make it to the management at Kellogg. Gimme a break.

We can expect that Story 3 will be the classic few bad apples argument. I think the main objective now is for upper management to protect themselves and to limit the monetary damages (and limiting the damage to their reputation as a byproduct).

The main counter agrument is that this couldn't have been the management / ownership becuase they are making so much money they wouldn't risk cheating. I don't buy this arguement personally. Why do many wealthy people cheat on their taxes? Traders engage in insider trading? Some people are just plain greedy and unscrupulous on the one hand, and on the other so arrogant that they like to prove to themselves how much more clever they are than the rest of us but most of all becuase they think they can get away with it.

Good show to the net slueths for turning these guys out and the media for turning up the heat. I hope they keep up the pressure until the scope can be proven publically.

[pokeraddict]

AP has said they only keep hand histories for 2 months in a conversation with Mark Seif. I guess $20 worth of dvd's is too expensive or of course that could be done to get rid of evidence too, who knows. Another person has backed up this story. In other words there is no way they have the hand histories to go back far enough to fully investigate this or to give all the refunds.

[Mousey]

Originally Posted by pokeraddict

AP has said they only keep hand histories for 2 months in a conversation with Mark Seif. I guess $20 worth of dvd's is too expensive or of course that could be done to get rid of evidence too, who knows. Another person has backed up this story. In other words there is no way they have the hand histories to go back far enough to fully investigate this or to give all the refunds.

What!?!? That's not good... not good at all (she said, understatedly).

[lojo]

If they're licensed (they are) and the licensing authority does not have the ability to freeze their assets (they don't) and they only keep hand histories for two months (sure... and why?) then... well I'm out of words.

[jetset]

Originally Posted by pokeraddict

The coverups are almost as bad as the cheating itself. The industry would have been a lot better off had they said "An insider breached our system and they have been turned over to authorities" with a full explanation of what went down a month ago. The denying everything when they obviously knew everything and this bits and pieces crap along with the reports of AJ blackmailing them leads one to believe there must be so much dirt there well beyond what has been discovered. You know AP knows where to find these people that are in hiding and they most certainly need to go to jail so AP is involved in harboring these criminals.

I hope this goes as a lesson learned to the rest of the industry that if you have a huge scandal come clean. AP could have saved their reputation had they done so.

Their crisis control is surely one of the clumsiest and most deceptive and obvious yet. I agree that this sort of nonsense does them no credit and instead suggests deeper and perhaps darker conduct.

It does look from their latest statements that they have finally decided to load all of this on the fugitive AJ Green aka AJ Ripper aka Allan J. Grimard....but I sense from their pre-emptive strike that we're going to be hearing from AJ quite soon!

My own perception right now is one of a not very intelligent cover-up with ham-handed damage control that is actually exacerbating the issue.

[jetset]

Originally Posted by pokeraddict

One more thing since I don't think this has been posted here yet. A couple of long term posters with AP connections have reported that AP did a couple of other sleazy things that could get them in trouble in the US outside of this.

1. AP took a collection for a charity at the WSOP. AP asked that you make a donation for popcorn. AP ran off with the money and never donated it.

2. AP had a raffle for a new car. An insider at AP "won" the car.

For those that feel that the corruption is only at the top reported thefts like this prove otherwise. AP has had plenty of time to produce proof of where the money and car went.

This is the kind of greedy mistake that will eventually surface through insiders - management cannot hope to keep everyone on-mission in a deception at this level.