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

[DoverPro]

Vegas 24/7 seems to be the same room as Absolute.

So I am assuming the same cheating applied to me when I played the room as a Vegas 24/7 player.

I quit playing both sites when I first heard the news about Absolute. I am signed up for both rooms, although strangely enough I seemed to win at Vegas24/7 a lot, and seldom at Absolute.

[pokeraddict]

VegasPoker247 is a skin of AP. They are owned by others and the biggest difference is that AP does not allow that skin to access the bad beat jackpot tables.

[mussy]

David Sklansky has posted about AP on 2p2. In my view it is pretty much the worst post anybody has made on the subject yet. Perhaps I was just hoping for too much from him.

He clearly isn't moderately aware of the facts, hasn't even bothered to look at the hands on YouTube, or better still in that HH viewer, and seems breathtakingly complacent about the whole situation.

link

[pokeraddict]

I have to agree and I mod at 2+2. His first posts were joking about the whole thing and then they vanished. IMO he does not represent the opinion of 2+2.

[jetset]

TOP ONLINE POKER ROOMS REACT TO ABSOLUTE POKER DEBACLE (Update)

Poker rooms say there is no real-time exposure of hole cards on their sites

Despite the paucity of progress reportage from Absolute Poker on investigations into the tournament cheating scandal that has engulfed the company for the past three months, it continues to be the subject of intense player discussion and media coverage.

After first denying that there was a problem when the player community exposed the cheating, Absolute Poker later admitted that a flaw in its software had enabled a company consultant to view other players' hole cards and win up to $800 000 unfairly. The company's Kahnawake licensing jurisdiction, which has ownership connections to the firm, ordered an investigation into the incident by Gaming Associates, which is ongoing.

This week the respected editor of Poker News, Earl Burton conducted an informal survey of major online poker sites, asking specifically if a reprise of the Absolute Poker debacle would be possible on their sites. Not surprisingly, the unanimous answer was "no."

Burton asked the sites if they had security or software procedures in place to prevent outside players from looking at hole cards, together with policies on employees playing on the sites, procedures for investigating allegations of irregularities and vigilance with regard to "out of the ordinary" play.

"Site staff responded within a few days, and what they said indicated that many of them are concerned about what occurred at Absolute," reports Burton.

Full Tilt Poker replied in an e-mail that went into great detail regarding the site's fraud prevention mechanisms.

"We wish to assure you that keeping our games safe and secure is of paramount importance to Full Tilt Poker," said a company security and fraud spokesman. "Our software was developed on this principle, and we continue to work to ensure this is the case. Due to the potential security risks, we made sure there was no way for a user, internally or externally, to see another player's hole cards in real time.

"We do store hole card information, though not in real time, so our Security and Investigations Team can later review any suspicious or questionable activity. In over three years of dealing cards, there has never been a security breach on Full Tilt Poker."

Full Tilt's security team continually monitors the site for potential issues, too: "We work hard around the clock to ensure the highest integrity and security of our games. Rest assured we investigate any suspicions from our players that someone may be using prohibited software on our site. Our security team is working 24/7 to ensure our players are playing in a fair environment."

PokerStars was adamant that what happened at Absolute could not occur on its site, advising: "We recognize that the online discussion may make some people generally doubt the security of other online poker sites. PokerStars' software was developed under strict security controls. Here are some facts about the PokerStars software and its development.

"In the early days of software development, the concept of having a program that could view hole cards live in order to help testing was discussed. [We] explicitly decided against that idea, specifically to avoid any potential problems like the one that is being discussed in the forums. That decision stands, and no such software has ever been developed in PokerStars software to view hole cards live in real time.

"PokerStars does record all of the hole cards in all real-money hands. This is an important tool to help us investigate fraud and collusion. However, this information is not accessible to anyone until after the conclusion of the hand; it is not transmitted to our database until all action is completed and the pot has been awarded.

"To be clear: Nobody at PokerStars can see or know the hole cards of any hand in progress. Nobody in senior management, none of the software developers, no support representatives. Nobody at all."

He then revealed the method PokerStars uses to manage changes to software, to reduce the risk of it being compromised internally.

"All software updates are reviewed by several people before being deployed. All sensitive changes are also personally reviewed by the chief software architect to help ensure they are stable and secure. In our company history of more than six years, we have had no indication of any breach that would allow anyone to see the hole cards of other players.

"We are aware that there are some programs that claim to make it possible to see other players' cards. We have investigated many of these programs and have not found any that do what they claim to do. Some of them are actually malware programs that compromise the security of whoever installs the software. But mostly they are simply scams; attempts to steal money from people who believe incorrectly that they will get a competitive edge. In truth, they do not compromise PokerStars security.

"We have a large team of Poker Specialists in our Support Team who review all suspicious situations and escalate to the Game Security team if they find anything, which in turn will escalate to the senior management team if any serious problems are found. The security and integrity of our games is of paramount importance to PokerStars."

Absolute Poker's sister site, Ultimate Bet, commented: "Ultimate Bet has been dealing cards on the Internet since the year 2000 and we have implemented strong safety measures to ensure the trust and security of our customers.

"We take the security of our system at Ultimate Bet very seriously. Whenever you access our web site or game any confidential information passed between us is encrypted. Our web site uses secure server technology to ensure that when you perform a cash-out, access hand histories, make deposits etc., your communications are protected using the same technology as online banking sites. All communications between your computer and our servers are also encrypted using public/private key encryption. These keys are changed frequently.

"Please rest assured that we follow up on any wrong playing offenders."

[KellyBlend]

http://www.kahnawake.com/gamingcommission/

Absolute Poker active and ongoing investigation

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission's investigation into the Absolute Poker situation is active and on-going. The Commission's agents, Gaming Associates, are in the process of finalizing its audit of AP's operations and will be submitting a report to the Commission of its findings. The Commission will review this report and decide the appropriate course of action. To avoid the possibility of jeopardizing its investigation, the Commission will not comment on this matter until such time as it has reached a decision. The Commission expects to receive a final copy of the audit report by December 7, 2007.

Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake
22 November, 2007

[petkaymad]

Newb to the site here and happy to have found this site.

In light of all the goings on at AP, do people think users should avoid the Blackjack section of AP as well?

[Casinomeister]

Originally Posted by petkaymad

Newb to the site here and happy to have found this site.

In light of all the goings on at AP, do people think users should avoid the Blackjack section of AP as well?

Avoid them as much as possible. It's not only the software malfunction that is under scrutiny, but their business ethics as well.

And anyone still advertising for these guys has a major screw loose.

[lots0]

Absolute Poker will be hosting a charity tournament on Saturday, December 1 at 20.30ET, to support the ONE Campaign to make poverty history.

Right after I read this, I had mixed feelings... I wanted to laugh... then I wanted to cry and now I just feel disgusted...

Absolute Poker "doing" a charity event for the poor.... Does anyone think this is really going to buy AP respectability after being caught red handed cheating players and then their lame efforts to cover up their cheating?

The advertisement for this AP charity event did not even have a link to www.one.org the organization that AP is supposedly helping out with this charity event. I think most webmasters will understand the import of NOT giving a link to a site your supposed to be helping out...

I guess the ethically challenged management at AP has decided that they can buy forgiveness by tossing a few coins to the poor.

[pokeraddict]

They don't exactly have a great rep when it comes to paying charities in a timely manner either.