(Mods: the correct forum? Also, search showed no existing thread.)
Somebody has apparently stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from other players at Absolute Poker. Discussion here, here, here, here, and here. Youtube recreation of the hands as played here.
A co-worker today was pointing out how easy it is for pretty much anyone to cheat at online poker sites. All you need is a few friends and some cell-phones. Then you all sign on to the same game with one other player (my co-worker said most sites allow people to choose their tables). By working together and co-ordinating the information in everyone else’s hands, you can easily beat the sole sucker at the table and then split up his money afterwards.
Errmm, yeah, but do those dudes manage to score a half million dollars?
No, but they don’t have to invest a few million up front to get a online gambling business established either.
If you look around the table and don’t know who the pigeon is, it’s you.
One of the risks of gamblers take is losing money. Why developing a strategy to turn that risk to your advantage is immoral is beyond me, unless you define ‘moral’ as ‘house wins’.
This is absolutely incredible.
There are constantly allegations of cheaters online. “It’s rigged” is just about the most common post on most online poker message boards. If true, this is one of the biggest cases of cheating, maybe in the history of gaming. And that video is pretty damning.
On 2+2 someone just posted an account summary. Oscar113 Deposited $15. Entered a $15 satellite. Won a seat into a $150,000, then won the $150,000 for $37,500 and hasn’t played a single tourney since.
Here 's one guy’s graphical representation. WHAT AN OUTLIER!!! :eek: VPIP is Volume Put in Pot Percentage. Roughly the number of hands that you choose to play. BB/100 is “Big Bets won per 100 hands”
So basically, if this graph is to be believed, this guy plays over 90% of his hands and wins about 5X as much as anyone else on the site. :dubious: (The poor dude in the lower left probably took a horrible beat 
)
As for the YouTube video…
[ul]
[li]I don’t understand what the deal was with hand #12 (3:22) he’s gotta know he’s going to be re-raised by QQ, AK, and JJ behind him so why doesn’t he just fold in the first place? Was there a delay in his information? Was this cover? Doesn’t come close to exonerating anybody, but it’s strange.[/li][li]Same thing with hand #14. If he can see the cards he knows KK is in the BB, why even bother limping? Hoping KK slowplays?[/ul][/li]
This is all pretty damning evidence if true though. Fascinating.
Either this is a rant on backing off card counters or I think you’re missing the point. Evidence points to these guys not being good. These guys CHEATED. They went OUTSIDE the rules.
You’ve got a funny definition of the word “strategy”.
“Strategy” != “Cheating”
I’m reminded of the Larry Niven story in which Louis Wu makes first contact with a Trinoc. The alien proposes to settle the matter at hand with a coin flip – but is actually using it as a diversion while his allies grab the prize. This is explained as being a legitimate “gamble” because the Trinoc was “gambling” that the human would fall for the trick.
Why would you be so stupid as to cheat in such an obvious way? If the cheat had shown some restraint and not made it so obvious, he could have continued to get away with it for who knows how long? Folding before the flop? Is that ever done?
Ever actually play poker? The house does not win. As a matter of fact the house isn’t even involved. The house takes a rake off the top of the pot as a fee for using their facilities (either online or casino). The house doesn’t care who wins or loses.
Only by good players. Bad players get their strategy from WSOP on ESPN where they only show the exciting all-in hands. Most of poker is waiting. Good players fold about 70% of their hands, mostly pre-flop. You have to know the percentages.
In most hands, players fold until there’s one left and he doesn’t have to show his cards. Maybe he had the hand he was representing with his bets, you’ll never know. What happened here only became obvious after-the-fact because one of the curious players received a hand history that included everybody’s cards. Who knows how long he already has been getting away with it.
That video goes awfully fast, but from what I could tell, he was staying in for the flop and making big bets when no one else made a good hand. Essentially, he was bluffing when other players would be susceptible to a bluff, and folding when they wouldn’t. It certainly looks like he knows what everybody’s cards are.
For those of us who can’t read the links or watch the video can someone summarize how these guys cheated?
Player A is at the table. Conspirator B is an insider at Absolute who has a “superaccount” that allows him to see all of the players’ hole cards and feed that information to Player A. Player A uses that information to get out of hands in which he has little chance of winning and to force players out when they have little chance of winning.
Thanks
What is amazing to me is that the player was so obvious about it. He never folded pre-flop and he never bothered to lose a hand to throw off some suspicion. He folded correctly after the river every time. Seeing every flop indicates a (very) bad player, but this guy played flawlessly every hand.
How did he think he could get away with that kind of play in a $1000 buy-in? Whoever this was, at least in this particular tournament, was not a knowledgeable poker player.
Eh, my stats look like that too.
Just like that! Hell, throw in a few suck-outs and you’d be off the friggen chart.
Really? They fold for example with a two and five off suit before they even know if two more twos and a five would be the flop? I didn’t know that, but I don’t watch much poker. You’re right, that’s not very exciting at all. 
