While the charges of fraud and cheating that are swirling around the world of online poker this month will come as a shock to many, those who knew about the comings and goings at www.absolutepoker.com in 2007 probably won’t find it all that surprising.
In a little-reported story, captured exceptionally well in this article by Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt, it seems that there was some serious cheating going on at the high-trafficked site.
The story went like this: last year, a group of observant individuals noticed some odd behavior coming out of one of their fellow players. In fact, he was making ridiculous bets that seemed to indicate he knew what everyone’s hole cards were. They asked for the player’s hand history, but instead got a data file filled with private information about other players – the kind of data the Absolute Poker would never release to the public.
Whether or not that information was sent accidentally, or by a concerned whistle-blower from within the company remains to be seen. But what quickly became clear from the data was that whoever had that information knew, in real-time, all the other players’ hole cards!
An even bigger shock came when the IP address where the information originated was traced back to one of the founders of Absolute Poker. It was a complete violation of the trust between house and player, but yet the site carried on, and only a select few knew of the incident.
So while many will continue to gamble millions at the offshore facilities, these recent stories should provide a measure of caution for anyone who puts their faith (and bankroll) in a “House” they can’t see.
Read the full story here
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