UltimateBet - Absolute Poker Scam

[wangpoker]

It doesn't surprise me. Korean has a very good share of world virtual game market. There are a few world-class studios in South Korean. Compared to MMORPG virtual games, online poker development isn't difficult.

[jetset]

ANOTHER ULTIMATEBET INVESTIGATION

Poker ace had losing hand....but won!

Another controversy at online poker website UltimateBet.com surfaced over the weekend, resulting in Hand #1162170993 becoming a much discussed topic on the respected poker forum 2+2, where the details of the hand were posted. In essence, it appeared that although poker ace Phil Hellmuth mucked his hand, he was still awarded a $5 599 pot.

The trouble started early Saturday morning when international poker pro was engaged in a tense game with a player using the nick "Doubleballer." Despite having the weaker hand, Hellmuth was awarded the pot on completion of betting, triggering a complaint to management. UltimateBet officials, no doubt sensitised by the site's past cheating scandal, were quick to acknowledge that there was a problem, and promised an immediate and thorough investigation.

With no hard information yet available, the speculation is that the incorrect decision may have been the result of a technical glitch in the newly upgraded Cereus poker network software (see previous InfoPowa report) UltimateBet and its sister Absolute Poker are the main operational components of the newly launched network.

Paul Leggett, the COO of Absolute and UltimateBet owner Tokwiro Enterprises reacted quickly, too, writing on his blog: “Earlier today we learned about a poker hand where our system paid out the losing player instead of the correct winning hand. We are investigating this software malfunction as our absolute top priority. This is the first incident of this kind we have encountered.” He went on to advise that that the system and all relevant application logs were being examined in an attempt to track the fault down.

Exchanges between "Doubleballer" and Hellmuth, who promotes UltimateBet, later revealed that the site planned to credit the former with half the value of the pot - $2 300. There was no further information available when InfoPowa went to press this morning.

[RobWin]

Originally Posted by jetset

ANOTHER ULTIMATEBET INVESTIGATION

Poker ace had losing hand....but won!

Another controversy at online poker website UltimateBet.com surfaced over the weekend, resulting in Hand #1162170993 becoming a much discussed topic on the respected poker forum 2+2, where the details of the hand were posted. In essence, it appeared that although poker ace Phil Hellmuth mucked his hand, he was still awarded a $5 599 pot.

The trouble started early Saturday morning when international poker pro was engaged in a tense game with a player using the nick "Doubleballer." Despite having the weaker hand, Hellmuth was awarded the pot on completion of betting, triggering a complaint to management. UltimateBet officials, no doubt sensitised by the site's past cheating scandal, were quick to acknowledge that there was a problem, and promised an immediate and thorough investigation.

With no hard information yet available, the speculation is that the incorrect decision may have been the result of a technical glitch in the newly upgraded Cereus poker network software (see previous InfoPowa report) UltimateBet and its sister Absolute Poker are the main operational components of the newly launched network.

Paul Leggett, the COO of Absolute and UltimateBet owner Tokwiro Enterprises reacted quickly, too, writing on his blog: “Earlier today we learned about a poker hand where our system paid out the losing player instead of the correct winning hand. We are investigating this software malfunction as our absolute top priority. This is the first incident of this kind we have encountered.” He went on to advise that that the system and all relevant application logs were being examined in an attempt to track the fault down.

Exchanges between "Doubleballer" and Hellmuth, who promotes UltimateBet, later revealed that the site planned to credit the former with half the value of the pot - $2 300. There was no further information available when InfoPowa went to press this morning.

I'd like to know why they were only going to credit him with half when he clearly won it...this is the very reason that I quit playing online poker almost two years ago...hell you can't trust any of these online poker sites...

[pokeraddict]

Here is another one. A player sitting out was awarded a pot:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...3/#post7768520

It appears this has been confirmed by others that have grabbed the hh or were datamining.

[pokeraddict]

And another from that thread. Player waiting for big blind is awarded part of the pot and it appears to be confirmed by a replayer at Tableratings.com.

***** Hand History for Game 1165551082 *****
$100.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, December 22, 01:55:25 ET 2008
Table MANOR AVE (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 5: ZERO TO HERO ( $263.55 USD )
Seat 1: MIKEP03 ( $40.00 USD )
Seat 2: DIRKY83 ( $230.36 USD )
Seat 3: NOGR ( $30.70 USD )
Seat 4: SPLITYAWIG ( $351.20 USD )
DIRKY83 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
NOGR posts big blind [$1.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ZERO TO HERO [ 8d 8s ]
SPLITYAWIG folds
ZERO TO HERO raises [$3.50 USD]
DIRKY83 folds
NOGR folds
ZERO TO HERO wins $2.50 USD from main pot
MIKEP03 wins $1.25 USD from main pot
ZERO TO HERO wins $1.25 USD from main pot

(MIKEP03 just sat down and was waiting to post the BB in case that's not clear)

[DarkMage]

Call me a idiot but I still play the blackjack at AP and UB....I absolutely love it! and have made withdraw's NUMEROUS times year after year with 0 problems. I will never touch the poker room however.. but I do see around 50k people on UB and 25k on AP so a lot of people still trust them..

[Keyser]

Originally Posted by RobWin

I'd like to know why they were only going to credit him with half when he clearly won it...this is the very reason that I quit playing online poker almost two years ago...hell you can't trust any of these online poker sites...

Ditto. Why only half?

[pokeraddict]

but I do see around 50k people on UB and 25k on AP

They are the same room.

[jetset]

Originally Posted by Keyser

Ditto. Why only half?

Perhaps it was simply a holding move - I believe he has now been paid the whole amount.

These further software glitches surfacing are obviously a hammer blow to Cereus as well as AB and UB, and the best you can say about the situation is that Tokwiro seems to have learned the hard way that a knee-jerk denial that anything is wrong is the worst way to go.

Hopefully we'll see something soon from COO Paul Leggett, who always has a lot to say when he's trying to limit damage to these apparently screwed up operations.

[jetset]

Official interim statement from Paul Leggett, COO of Tokwiro, advises as follows:

QUOTE:

On Saturday, December 20, 2008, two players DOUBLEBALLER and PHILHELLMUTH were playing heads up at a 200/400 table on UltimateBet.com.

DOUBLEBALLER won hand #1162170993. The software malfunctioned and awarded the losing player PHILHELLMUTH the pot, instead of the actual winner DOUBLEBALLER.

After learning of the incident, we credited the player the correct prize to his account. We then began an investigation into the malfunction. We have now completed our preliminary investigation into the software malfunction regarding an incorrect payout in hand #1162170993 on the CEREUS Poker Network.

We have concluded that the malfunction occurred because the winning player disconnected from the table at the precise millisecond when the software was awarding the pot, in conjunction with the "player's state" data being cleared from the memory cache.

There is a prevention system in place designed to protect hand results against disconnections. However, after conducting an extensive source code analysis, we found logic in our code that we have enhanced to further ensure this malfunction cannot reoccur.

UNQUOTE

A KGC spokesman has confirmed that the Commission is also investigating, and yesterday took possession of all relevant game and player data, customer service logs, chat logs and all other associated data.

Phil Hellmuth has also made a statement reiterating his trust in UB, which he promotes and commenting that suggestions that he was part of an alleging cheating manouevre are malicious and unfounded.

No comment was made on the other reports of glitches which surfaced in the wake of the Hellmuth-Doubleballer incident.