TOKWIRO STATEMENT ON ULTIMATEBET GLITCH (Update)

26 December 2008

Untimely disconnect blamed

 

The COO at UltimateBet.com owner Tokwiro Enterprises, Paul Leggett, was good to his word yesterday, making an early and presumably interim statement on an incident that saw a $5 600 pot awarded to the wrong player (see previous InfoPowa report)

The statement reads:

"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."

The statement made no reference to other reports of glitches circulating on player message boards. Yesterday (Monday) the Kahnawake Gaming Commission urged any player with a substantiated complaint to come forward with the information so that it may be investigated.

Top poker ace Phil Hellmuth made a brief statement as well, saying that the only time in his life where he had seen one pair beat three of a kind was when he made a big bluff in a poker tournament, and on the current issue due to a software malfunction in online poker.

"I am one of the most watched players on the Internet, and all I can say is that it is pretty obvious that there was no malicious intent and even more obvious that UB handled this problem well. Sometimes these things happen on the Internet. The important thing here is that I continue to have a ton of trust in UB's software and new management team," the poker pro said.

Meanwhile, a Kahnawake Gaming Commission spokesman confirmed that the Commission is closely monitoring the situation and as of yesterday had taken possession of all relevant game and player data, customer service logs, chat logs and all other associated data.