Serious Accusations Against Absolute Poker
This has been getting talked about a little in "Poker Complaints" here but IMO this is far more serious and needed attention since I'm sure most or at least many here don't read that forum.
At 2+2 there is a lengthy thread discussing how there are obvious player cheats playing the highest stakes at AP.
Many believe these cheats are Absolute Poker insiders. At the very least the cheating has been going on either undetected or endorsed by AP. The estimates of the money stolen by the cheats run anywhere from $300,000-$700,000.
This is a very serious issue. This is not an "Online poker is rigged" thread. This thread is serious. People have been caught obviously cheating and are either AP employees or AP's security is so bad it took players to bring proof public because AP ignored the many emails about the players. There is ample prof in the above thread that there is cheating.
The accusations are that these players can see all player's hole cards. The many hand histories collected show the cheats have an infinite or almost infinite aggression factor, especially on the river. This means they never or almost never call or check on the river, they either bet, fold or raise. This is the most signifigant piece of evidence. Since there are no more cards to draw for at the river the player that can see hole cards would know whether he can win or not and whether he can knock off the other player on an overbet bluff. It is also important to mention that the reason the AF might not be infinite in some player's Poker Tracker's is because if a player pushed all in then the cheat could only call.
The cheats have never lost a river bet either. They also flop almost every hand unless a big pocket pair raises big preflop. Hand after hand that has been compiled shows that the cheats almost never put money in from behind and almost never called anything. They would either bet, raise or fold.
A few devil advocate's state this player could be on a super hot run. The problem is that the stats are simply impossible. On top of that these players have been seen doing some shady things in heads up games among themselves.
Read the thread for yourself and form your own opinion. If you are not familiar with Poker Tracker and poker terms you may get lost in the talk. This is why I tried to explain some of it here.
I've been very hard on Absolute Poker this year. They have been very dishonest this year with players and affiliates alike. They have also been on a sick spam campaign. Before this incident Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet (AP owns them) have destroyed their reputation in the industry. That is part of what makes them being involved so much more believable.
This story broke midweek and to this point Absolute Poker has ignored the endless emails from players asking for comments. Also AP has spammed 2+2 endlessly this year but to this point has not bothered to reply in the thread to at least try to save some face here.
Although it is obvious to virtually everybody these players were cheats the question remains how involved Absolute Poker is. Were the players employees/management or is the security at AP so bad they could not catch players stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of months, even when players constantly notified them something was wrong? Either way this could destroy Absolute Poker. It is likely to be covered by some if not all poker print media.
With my very negative feelings towards Absolue Poker over their past dishonesty I have tried to keep my opinion out of the above but I will say that I agree with the many players that feel AP is in on this. They have been so dishonest this year it is hard to think they would not do such a thing, especially since they have ignored player emails about it. Even if it is a security breach shame on them for letting it go on for so long. They have tarnished the reputation of the entire industry and maybe destroyed their business.