More Details On Absolute Poker Flaw (Update)

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Published: Saturday, October 27, 2007 mgowanbo.cc

Why didn't management react to reported flaw following an upgrade?

Absolute Poker spokesmen continued to feed selective details of the cheating debacle to chosen information portals as the week drew to a close, claiming that a software update identified as Version 8.0 and released in August this year contained unspecified flaws despite "...months of coding and design enhancements."

The spokesman went on to tell the information portal 911 that at least one 'high ranking official at Absolute Poker' abused pertinent information provided to him about these vulnerabilities in the online poker room's new software. It would seem that these flaws were reported by an ex-Nine.com technician working for Absolute, but astonishingly nothing was done about remedying the problem.

When allegations of cheating started to spread from the player community in September the immediate reaction of Absolute Poker was to deny the allegations that certain players were able to see other players' hole cards, leading to cheating allegations.

Serge Ravitch, a New York lawyer turned poker player and a key member of the player sleuths who uncovered the Absolute Poker scam, 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."

In its first statement on the allegations, Absolute said, "The result of our investigation is that we found no evidence that any of Absolute Poker's redundant and varying levels of game client security were compromised.

"In other words, we have determined with reasonable certainty that it is impossible for any player or employee to see hole cards as was alleged."

However, with the help of a comprehensive record received from a support worker at Absolute Poker and assistance from other players, especially on poker dedicated expert fora like 2+2 and Pocket Fives, player-sleuths traced the IP address of a mysterious observer at the repetitive winner's table to Costa Rica and determined that the account was an internal Absolute Poker account.

They also cross-referenced an e-mail address used by the observer and found that it apparently belonged to Scott Tom, who they identified as either a past or current official and founder of Absolute Poker. Since then Absolute Poker has claimed that the 'rogue employee' who has been terminated but not formally identified actually set-up Scott Tom, whom they say has left the company.

Tom has dropped out of sight since the scandal broke.

Adam Small, an official with Pocketfives.com, said that he spoke with officials of Absolute Poker on Thursday night and was told that the rogue employee had deliberately used information pointing to Tom.

"What they said on the phone was that it was not Scott Tom ... and that he has sort of framed Scott Tom," he said.

In a statement earlier this week, Absolute Poker said Tom "has not been involved with Absolute Poker for over a year and to the best of our knowledge, information and belief has not had access to any of Absolute Poker's systems, databases or information."

By October, the fast-spreading Internet allegations of cheating led to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission opening an investigation, and Absolute finally admitting that something was amiss and under investigation.

Sources have told 911 that the flaw in Version 8.0 discovered by the Nine.com techie and reported to management was in fact exploited by one or more unidentified individuals within the company to cheat tournament players.

Increasingly portrayed as the villain of the piece, and an Absolute manager who has also disappeared from public sight and hearing, is former Nine.com manager AJ Green aka AJ Ripper aka Allan J. Grimard. 911 has published allegations that Green has a drug problem, and has repeatedly linked him to the scandal.

Mark Sief, a 'spokespro' for Absolute poker who has himself been challenged with cheating allegations in February last year on the 2+2 forum, weighed in to the fight just before the weekend with a startling statement that: "This type of incident can occur on PokerStars and FullTilt.  It can happen anywhere.  But the real issue is how the company handles the situation after the fact." Sief is said to have a minority share ownership in Absolute Poker.

Further allegations raised this week in the affair include player claims that Absolute Poker held charity drives and competitions but never disclosed to which charity the monies had been paid, and failed to respond to questions on the issue. One player offered to pay his returned monies from Absolute to the charity concerned if the poker company would identify it.

The company was also alleged to have asserted in a conversation with Sief that it only held hand history records for 2 months, a contravention of para 245 of page 37 of the requirements of its (Kahnawake) licensing jurisdiction, which demands that records be kept for five years.