Online poker cheating blamed on employee
AbsolutePoker.com says ?geek? hacked system to prove it could be done
In a case that illustrates the perils of online betting, a leading Internet poker site said Friday that a hacker exploited a security flaw to gain an insurmountable edge in high-stakes, no-limit Texas holdem tournaments ? the ability to see his opponents? hole cards.
The cheater, whose illegitimate winnings were estimated at between $400,000 and $700,000 by one victim, was an employee of AbsolutePoker.com who hacked the system to show that it could be done, said a spokesman for the company, who spoke with msnbc.com on condition of anonymity.
?This is literally a geek trying to prove to senior management that they were wrong and he took it too far,? he said.
The Costa Rica-based company, which is controlled by a parent company owned by members of the Kahnawake Mohawk tribe in Canada, issued a statement later in the day acknowledging the breach and promising to refund all money, including interest, to players who were victims of the scheme. It also promised a "comprehensive statement ... providing more details of the findings" would be issued soon.
The spokesman said the employee did not withdraw any of the money from the accounts that were used in the scheme.
?We acknowledge a significant internal security breach whereby a resource who was infinitely knowledgeable about the system was able to get into the accounts in question. He played on those accounts and he saw hole cards,? the spokesman said.
?We have closed that security breach and we have identified a very serious issue internally as far as communications flow and we?re resolving that, ? he said.
Lawsuit and criminal charges possible
The spokesman said the company also was contemplating filing a lawsuit and criminal charges against the employee.
While peeking at an opponent?s hole cards was likely to bring a hail of lead in the Old West, the group of wronged players in this case was initially rebuffed by Absolute Poker when they aired allegations of apparent cheating on the 2+2 poker forum in late September.
In a series of postings that soon spread to other poker forums, the players said that some players using the aliases ?Graycat,? ?Potripper,? ?Steamroller? among others appeared to have superhuman powers at the poker table. Several players who had encountered the suspect players in games from mid-August through mid-September said they played with wild abandon, always seemed to know when to raise and fold and were winning at an inconceivably high rate.
Serge Ravitch, a 27-year-old New York lawyer turned poker player who was among the first to level cheating charges, said the company?s response to the initial posts was ?essentially to stonewall and deny any cheating had ever occurred or that the described events were even possible.?
Many players also were initially skeptical, though that sentiment largely melted away when players posted a re-creation of a tournament (requires registration to view) involving ?Potripper? on the Internet.
The re-creation, also posted to Youtube, was based on a ?hand history? that Absolute Poker sent to one of the complaining players, but which contained far more information than the hand histories usually available to online players. This one showed all players' hole cards, rather than just those of the requesting player, and included a great deal of private information, including IP addresses and e-mail addresses.
Two independent experts who examined the re-created tournament record at the request of msnbc.com came away convinced.
CONTINUED: 'He can see the cards'
AbsolutePoker.com says ?geek? hacked system to prove it could be done
In a case that illustrates the perils of online betting, a leading Internet poker site said Friday that a hacker exploited a security flaw to gain an insurmountable edge in high-stakes, no-limit Texas holdem tournaments ? the ability to see his opponents? hole cards.
The cheater, whose illegitimate winnings were estimated at between $400,000 and $700,000 by one victim, was an employee of AbsolutePoker.com who hacked the system to show that it could be done, said a spokesman for the company, who spoke with msnbc.com on condition of anonymity.
?This is literally a geek trying to prove to senior management that they were wrong and he took it too far,? he said.
The Costa Rica-based company, which is controlled by a parent company owned by members of the Kahnawake Mohawk tribe in Canada, issued a statement later in the day acknowledging the breach and promising to refund all money, including interest, to players who were victims of the scheme. It also promised a "comprehensive statement ... providing more details of the findings" would be issued soon.
The spokesman said the employee did not withdraw any of the money from the accounts that were used in the scheme.
?We acknowledge a significant internal security breach whereby a resource who was infinitely knowledgeable about the system was able to get into the accounts in question. He played on those accounts and he saw hole cards,? the spokesman said.
?We have closed that security breach and we have identified a very serious issue internally as far as communications flow and we?re resolving that, ? he said.
Lawsuit and criminal charges possible
The spokesman said the company also was contemplating filing a lawsuit and criminal charges against the employee.
While peeking at an opponent?s hole cards was likely to bring a hail of lead in the Old West, the group of wronged players in this case was initially rebuffed by Absolute Poker when they aired allegations of apparent cheating on the 2+2 poker forum in late September.
In a series of postings that soon spread to other poker forums, the players said that some players using the aliases ?Graycat,? ?Potripper,? ?Steamroller? among others appeared to have superhuman powers at the poker table. Several players who had encountered the suspect players in games from mid-August through mid-September said they played with wild abandon, always seemed to know when to raise and fold and were winning at an inconceivably high rate.
Serge Ravitch, a 27-year-old New York lawyer turned poker player who was among the first to level cheating charges, said the company?s response to the initial posts was ?essentially to stonewall and deny any cheating had ever occurred or that the described events were even possible.?
Many players also were initially skeptical, though that sentiment largely melted away when players posted a re-creation of a tournament (requires registration to view) involving ?Potripper? on the Internet.
The re-creation, also posted to Youtube, was based on a ?hand history? that Absolute Poker sent to one of the complaining players, but which contained far more information than the hand histories usually available to online players. This one showed all players' hole cards, rather than just those of the requesting player, and included a great deal of private information, including IP addresses and e-mail addresses.
Two independent experts who examined the re-created tournament record at the request of msnbc.com came away convinced.
CONTINUED: 'He can see the cards'
