The online poker room Absolute Poker is under serious investigation after being accused of cheating. It seems that during an online tournament players were amazed at the absolute luck of one of their competitors.
A certain player seemed to constantly know what the opponents’ hole cards were. Hole cards are cards which are dealt to the player face down so that no other player can see them. The suspicious players provided examples of these hands, which were so blatantly obvious that virtually all serious poker players were convinced that cheating must have occurred.
The amazement grew when the runner-up requested a hand history from Absolute Poker. A hand history is information about who had which the cards at a given table. What he ‘accidentally’ received, however, was an Excel file that included the complete hand history for every table and every card in the tournament. Plus the IP’s and e-mail-addresses of people observing the game.
You could argue that that Absolute Poker itself was now serious out of luck because the Excel file seemed to indicate that an observer of this game was non other than the part-owner of Absolute Poker. It also shows how the cheating would have transpired: an insider at Absolute Poker’s site (the co-owner) had real-time access to all of the hole cards and was relaying this information to an outside accomplice (the winner of the tournament) thus ensuring that the prize money wasn’t going to an outsider.
Absolute Poker is now under scrutiny and being audited by an Indian gaming commission in Canada. "We have appointed experts to conduct a thorough audit of all circumstances, provide findings and recommendations to the Commission," said David Montour, chairman of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. As a license holder of the commission, the online poker site is obliged to adhere to the commission’s rules and rulings.
Excellent idea this independent experts. Which organisation have they asked to do this audit? The FBI? Nope. The Serious Fraud Office? Nope. No, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has hired the auditing firm Gaming Associates to investigate Absolute Poker.
Maybe Gaming Associates is truly independent and have employed some very good auditors but this cheating, if true, could seriously damage the entire online gaming industry. The outcome of this in-depth investigation should be without any doubt whatsoever and the guilty should be harshly punished. So, why didn’t they use the services of a renowned auditing firm?
The Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake is an Indian reserve that offers licenses to Internet-based online poker rooms, online casinos, and online sportsbook sites and is a substantial player in that business. This business is all about trust and Absolute Poker has now been shown to be untrustworthy. Therefore it’s still all about money. Your money.