October 19, 2007

Absolute engulfed in cheating scandal

Allegations of a cheating scandal have engulfed Absolute Poker after it emerged that the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has asked testing and certification company Gaming Associates to carry out an audit of Absolute’s activities for the period in question.

A spokesperson at Gaming Associates would not comment further on the matter only to confirm that it would be auditing Absolute Poker.

Whispers of a possible cheating scam had been circulating on poker messageboards for the past couple of weeks. Footage is available on YouTube of the alleged scam (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FczbS7FiWSM).

Players on Absolute Poker had voiced suspicions of one particular player on the site whose unpredictable style of play had allegedly enabled him to win large amounts.

More importantly, according to some posters on the forums, the player seemed to know what his opposing players’ hole cards are and never made a wrong move.

Rumours of a ‘super-user account’ that has the ability to view opponents’ hole cards began to appear on poker blogs and forums. According to the threads, when Absolute customers requested their hand histories to analyse the patterns of play, they were in fact sent highly sensitive information containing the email and IP addresses of the people playing and observing the games in question. The players then claim to have traced one player’s IP address back to an Absolute Poker domain. Rumours persist that the player is connected is some way with the management of the firm though there has been no confirmation of this.

Absolute Poker has denied any wrongdoing so far but has agreed to cooperate in any investigation about the matter.

http://www.egrmagazine.com/item/2198