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

[jetset]

It looks as if Absolute Poker is using 911 as its main medium for damage control, with a stream of comments addressing various aspects of the crisis and stressing the "Scott Tomm not involved; an in-house hacker; business unaffected by the incident; we don't need to cheat, we make so much money; hacking 'common' in Costa Rican gambling firms etc etc etc

"Scott Tom is one of the original founders. He has played on the site but is no longer legally involved," a spokesperson for Absolute Poker told Gambling911.com."

and

"Hacking is an all too common practice among skilled tech employees of Costa Rican online gambling establishments and rarely is it done to be malicious.

"This employee wanted to prove to us he could do this (see the whole [sic]cards)," a Senior Manager of Absolute Poker conveyed to Gambling911.com."

and

"Like with most US-facing online gambling companies, few if any of the actual principals involved are willing to show their faces or use their real names out of fear they will become targets of US Federal and State investigations into "illegal web gambling". Calvin Ayre, the high profile founder of Bodog.com, has recently shown up on one such list, Gambling911.com learned this week."

and

"Still, Absolute Poker contends that management - either current or former - would have any reason to engage in such criminal activity.

"Absolute Poker takes in so much money, why would any of the owners risk damaging such a successful business by cheating?" the rep points out.

The representative also eased concerns over Absolute Poker potentially having a "run of the bank" as a result of this crisis.

"It's business as usual and payouts are not being delayed in the least."

And it appears that the $500 largesse handed out to AP tournament players is a gesture to compensate their private information being leaked at Absolute Poker in this mess:

"Of major concern to Absolute Poker was the fact that an excel sheet containing confidential customer information had been sent out by an "irresponsible" employee.

"By Saturday, Absolute had started calling everyone in the POTRIPPER tournament and giving them $500 for accidentally releasing their personal information according to a report filed at PocketFives.com."

[Mousey]

"Hacking is an all too common practice among skilled tech employees of Costa Rican online gambling establishments and rarely is it done to be malicious.

FOFLMAO.... this should instill confidence in players! Makes me feel all better...

Edit: Just found the following.....

From 911:

A representative speaking on behalf of Absolute Poker tells Gambling911.com "a super user account does not exist".

From eGaming :

"BREAKING UPDATE
from N 82 50 24 via P5s

Okay, I just got off the phone with someone who spoke to Russ Hamilton, former owner of UB.

Two people will be implicated here, you can probably guess who. One is going to be removed from online poker forever and one is going be removed for a fair amount of time.

I was asked not to post specifics and that AP's statement is going to be detailed and is going to be released Sunday morning."

And...

UPDATE: Absolute Scapegoat? Absolute Poker claims rogue programmer framed owner/executive.

****

Personal observation/opinion... AP has gone from being totally mum to positively manic with verbal tidbits and comments popping up several times a day... these last couple of days, they can't seem to shut up. It is not without purpose.


Edit#2:

Guess who just joined the forum today? Absolutepoker4u
Player? Poker room rep?

[Keyser]

One of the theories/statements floated by AP seems to be that a programmer/employee wanted to prove that their system was vulnerable, and had no intention of profiting from this action. If that was true, why did it take so long for this to be discovered. Wouldn't the alleged culprit had EMailed management the day after the infamous tournament and said something like "See, I told you so, I fixed this tournament by exploiting the vulnerability you claimed didnt exist. Ive proved my point" If they didnt want to implicate themselves, Im sure they could have found an anonymous way to communicate the same message.

If this had really been what happened, they would have known about it relatively quickly. It does not speak well that they even attempted to float that theory.

[jetset]

Excellent points, Keyser.

I guess we have to be reminded every now and again that the owners of establishments like Absolute Poker are not necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer!!

This story floated by AP of an employee risking the poker room's entire credibility in order to "prove a point" to management looks more outrageous by the moment.

[pokeraddict]

Originally Posted by jetset

Excellent points, Keyser.

I guess we have to be reminded every now and again that the owners of establishments like Absolute Poker are not necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer!!

This story floated by AP of an employee risking the poker room's entire credibility in order to "prove a point" to management looks more outrageous by the moment.

It really makes their security department look Mickey Mouse.

BTW here is their statement today.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...gonew=1#UNREAD

It's long but vague. It does not give us any new info as far as I am concerned.

[pokeraddict]

From the release:

As has been speculated in several online forums, this consultant devised a sophisticated scheme to manipulate internal systems to access third-party computers and accounts to view hole cards of other customers during play without their knowledge.

I'm guessing this means spyware got downloaded during an update? This seems to indicate a denial of the super user theory so this is the only thing that makes sense. If you have AP on your computer I guess it is safe to say you have spyware unless I have misunderstood.

[Mousey]

Originally Posted by pokeraddict

From the release:



I'm guessing this means spyware got downloaded during an update? This seems to indicate a denial of the super user theory so this is the only thing that makes sense. If you have AP on your computer I guess it is safe to say you have spyware unless I have misunderstood.

That's what it sounds like to me, Pokeraddict... It would be nice if they'd tell players what files/worms/trojans we should be looking for. AP seems to say a lot without really saying much that's specific, don't they?

And what does this mean?

We have recently uncovered additional accounts used by the consultant that have not been publicly reported. So as to not compromise the investigation, we are not releasing the names of these additional accounts at this time, and will contact these affected customers individually.

[pokeraddict]

I guess it means that they do not want to publicly call out the cheats. It's all obviously BS. This post at 2+2 really breaks up their statement well.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...62&page=0&vc=1

Especially the "AP has not been more forthcoming in providing a timely or comprehensive explanation ".

If players have been infected with a virus AP needs to tell us what the virus is called and what may have been compromised. Obviously they can't since the statement is crap.

[mussy]

According to the latest statement, if I understand it correctly, people who use AP now have malware on their computers? Is that right? How difficult would it be to show that this is not true? It certainly sounds like more lies to me.

If people who currently run AP software log on to the site, is their software updated? Otherwise, how can the hole be fixed? The implication if your software is not updated would be that you still have malicious programs on your computer sending out your hole cards - even if nobody is listening at the other end at the moment. How can that be satisfactory?



EDIT: Or there would have to be a backdoor still there - even worse, perhaps. I'm no expert on computer security, but how can the hole be fixed without an update of the client software? Has there been one?

[SeattleSinner]

I requested from AP some hand histories when this story broke so that I would have some evidence in case I was entitled to a refund. I played some very high limit at AP in the months of July after I won a tournament. Anyway in the hand histories which AP sent me are e-mail address as well as IP address of numerous members. Furthermore does anyone have a list of all the cheating accounts exposed as I think I did play against several of them in the month of July.

Thank You