2008/01/28

Cash out and Boycott Absolute Poker

I'm the first to admit that I've not been 100% on top of the recent occurances in the online poker community. I do, however, manage to catch up in my reading. One of the things that has popped up is the total mess of a so called poker site known as Absolute Poker.

As you may or may not know, Absolute Poker (AP for short, considering I'm increasingly lazy and won't be bothered typing out their formal name) was acquired by Ultimate Bet (UB).

Prior to this acquisition, AP began opening skins (i.e. Vegas 24/7). It was around this time where I pulled my money from the AP realm. Not because they skinned themselves, however... It was in fact because I no longer felt comfortable with the integrity of the poker room.





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I was playing a private tournament, talking to one player... and another player responded. In fact, it seemed to me that this regularly occured. Almost as if the same person could be in the same tournament under two seperate accounts.

I emailed AP support and did not get a response in which satisfied me. As a result, I pulled my money and deleted their software from my computer. I'm not one to complain about the way things run or how a given place conducts business. If I do not agree with how things run or how someone conducts business, I simply do not give them my business. To do otherwise is hypocritical, among other things.

I was convinced their was cheating in their poker room. I presented what I believed to be hand history evidence and the corresponding chat log to support my belief. AP simply blew me off. They did not thank me for my concern, they failed to address my complaint. They left me less than satisfied. As a result, I no longer play there. No more Beer Money for AP from this kid.

Fast forward some time. An unknown player goes deep and wins the AP $100K. A player requests hand history of the tournament to go over a hand that was played. Instead of getting said hand history, he is given the entire tourney hand history, which includes email addresses, account numbers, ip addresses and observers for EVERY HAND in the tournament! What the...?

Long story short, this is far from an oops. This is a ginormous breach of integrity here! How does a support person at AP come accross this? Furthermore, how does a player get ahold of this file? Additionally, can just any player access said info at will?

It turns out, the player in question has ties to AP. It appears to me as if AP has either embraced or enabled cheating of this sort and is choosing to do little, if anything about it.

Had I not boycotted AP some time ago, I'd have done so a million times over right now.

Mike





More detailed info on the AP Scandal

http://loukrieger.blogspot.com/


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