KAHNAWAKE ENTERS ABSOLUTE ONLINE POKER DEBACLE (Update)

19 October 2007

Licensing jurisdiction pledges to have an independent audit


The allegations of impropriety during an online poker tournament at Absolute Poker.com gathered further momentum as the week progressed, with the issue reaching the pages of the New York Times, and a statement from the website's licensing jurisdiction pledging an independent investigation of the affair.

Kahnawake Gaming Commissioner David Montour announced that following the emergence of allegations concerning the propriety of Absolute Poker's operations, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) intends to investigate the privately-held licensee.

In a written statement Montour indicated that the KGC will employ an independent third party, UK-based Gaming Associates, to conduct the audit. It is understood that Gaming Associates is an exclusive testing agency used by the KGC.

"This week's allegations of impropriety have been brought to the attention of the [KGC]," said Montour. "We have appointed experts to conduct a thorough audit of all circumstances, provide findings and recommendations to the commission.

"The audit will not be restricted to examining theories circulating in Internet chat rooms and fora," Montour added.

Among other allegations, GA will undoubtedly have to verifiy documents, and possibly explain how a tournament winner known as Potripper apparently obtained such extraordinarily good results - up to an incredible 15 standard deviations - in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has again reported on the incident, this time in a fashion that suggests there is sufficient controversy to warrant an audit. Author Stephen D. Levitt headlined his op-ed piece "The Absolute Poker Cheating Scandal Blown Wide Open" and noted that a combination of some incredible detective work by online poker players and an accidental (?) data leak by Absolute Poker have blown the scandal wide open.

Levitt goes on to explain that some opponents became suspicious of how a certain player [Potripper] was playing in an Absolute Poker tourney, seemingly aware of what his opponent's hole cards were.

The suspicious players provided examples of these hands, which were so outrageous that virtually all serious poker players were convinced that cheating had occurred. One of the players who’d been cheated requested that Absolute Poker provide hand histories from the tournament, and instead of the usual specific hand history received (perhaps in error) a file that contained comprehensive private information that the poker site would never normally release.

The file contained every player’s hole cards, observations of the tables, and even the IP addresses of every person playing. Levitt comments that such a complete disclosure seems like too great a coincidence, and suggests that there may have been a whistle-blowing elemnet involved instead of a mistaken document being despatched.

Poker players went to work analysing the data in the surprisingly comprehensive file — not only the hand histories themselves, but other, more subtle information contained in the file.

"What these players-turned-detectives noticed was that, starting with the third hand of the tournament, there was an observer who watched every subsequent hand played by the cheater," writes Levitt. "Interestingly, the cheater folded the first two hands before this observer showed up, then did not fold a single hand before the flop for the next 20 minutes, and then folded his hand pre-flop when another player had a pair of kings as hole cards! This sort of cheating went on throughout the tournament."

So the poker detectives turned their attention to this observer, Levitt recounts. They tracked his or her IP address and account name to the same set of servers that host Absolute Poker, and also, apparently, to a particular individual named Scott Tom, who seems to be a part-owner of Absolute Poker!

Assuming that the file sent to the player is correct, Levitt opines ".....an insider at the Absolute website had real-time access to all of the hole cards (it is not hard to believe that this capability would exist) and was relaying this information to an outside accomplice."

Levitt assumes that such conduct could result in prison time for those involved, and predicts that there could be commercial consequences for Absolute if it continues to blow off the allegations (something now corrected with the announcement of an independent audit).

Levitt correctly asserts that online poker is a game of trust — players send their money to a site believing that they will be playing a fair game, and trusting that the site will send them their winnings.

"If there is even a little bit of uncertainty about either one of those factors, there is no good reason for a player to choose that site over the many close substitutes that exist. If I ran Absolute Poker, I would take a lesson from past corporate attempts at cover ups, sacrifice the cheaters, and institute safeguards to prevent this ever happening again.

"The real lesson of this all, however, is probably the following: guys who aren’t that smart will figure out ways to cheat. And, with a little luck and the right data, folks who are a lot smarter will catch them doing it," Levitt concludes.


LATE BREAKING NEWS:

PocketFives received a phone call from Absolute Poker late Thursday night confirming the suspicions of the online poker community over the past month.

The webmaster at PocketFives writes: "While we need to be vague in this post to respect their wishes, we can say that their systems were compromised, and that they are prepared to provide the details in a statement coming shortly.

"Part of the statement will include a plan to refund players affected by this compromise.

"We are extremely relieved to hear this outcome, as our most important goal in all this is to see justice given to those who were cheated in this process. Pocketfives is extremely proud to have played a part in the process of uncovering the impropriety that has occurred. We would of course like to thank all the other parties who played a key role in this process—specifically the folks that have been posting here and at twoplustwo.com."

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa