Background Story     Jump to the Hands Analysis (evidence)   Jump to Scapegoat?

     It was nearly two in the morning on September 13th. After almost 5 hours of grueling play, two players are head-up on the final table of a $1000 buy-in NL tournament. "Crazy Marco" posts a $4500 big blind, a small token of his $214,260 in chips. He is dealt a 9♥2♥. His opponent limps, and Marco checks to see the flop. It comes 4♥ K♦ K♥, Marco hits a flush draw. He checks to his opponent, who bets $9,000. Marco calls. The turn is a 7♠. Marco again checks, his opponent bets $13,500. A weak bet for a $27,900 pot, Marco decides to *pounce*. He pushes his remaining two hundred thousand in chips. Only a slow rowing boat, or perhaps a set, could possibly call his bluff. Against the latter he still has the hearts outs on the river. He expects his opponent to fold.

     He was wrong. His opponent calls. Marco is covered, this could be the end of it all. The river is a 5♠, no heart to save him against the set. He was wrong again. His opponent turns up 10♣ 9c♣. No pair, no draw, his opponent plays the pair of Kings on the board with his 10♣ kicker against Marco's 9♥. Marco's bluff had been called out, in what must be one of the best reads in online poker history.

     Or was it? This last hand — in fact his opponent's play during the entire final table — had left a bad taste in Marco's mouth. He felt cheated. After reading some online forum posts suggesting foul play, Marco requests a tournament hand history his heads-up play against POTRIPPER, the opponent who had read him like an open book.

     Absolute Poker responded with a huge Microsoft Excel file. Marco initially disregards the file as convoluted gibberish. Controversy continues to build on internet poker forums 2+2 and P5s. Eventually, Marco decides to take another look. This time he shares the file with some poker community experts, and it finds its way to N 82 50 24.

     It turns out this Excel file contained not only the hand histories for the entire tournament, but also contained the hole cards for all the players, a crucial element in detecting fraud or collusion. It soon became apparent that Absolute Poker had provided a goldmine of information, exactly what anyone would need to prove or clear any allegations of foul play.

Viewing the play of POTRIPPER ESPN-style (courtesy of PokerXFactor), with hole cards for audience enjoyment, it becomes painfully apparent that Absolute Poker had given away indisputable evidence of what may be the biggest scandal in online poker history.

Watch the evidence for yourself.

Part II
Part III

     Player POTRIPPER displays an uncanny ability to read his opponents' hands. He never fails to raise when his opponents have weak hands, and he check/folds when his opponents hit strong hands. He is a genius, a lucky bastard, a psychic, or a cheater.

     Our hand by hand analysis examines the indisputable evidence POTRIPPER was able to see his opponents hole cards preflop. What's very concerning is that despite the preponderance of evidence, Absolute Poker stated they found no credibility to the claim after analyzing the same data and more.

     Then the scandal turns into a full blown conspiracy theory. POTRIPPER is alleged to be none other than A.J. Green, former Vice President of Operations for Absolute Poker. An observer who stayed within him throughout the entire tournament is traced to Scott Tom, former CEO of Absolute Poker, whose email address was traced to a server within Mohawk Internet Technologies' data center (Kahnawake Gaming Commission), an IP address delegated to Absolute Entertainment S.A.

Internet Address and Email Trace Data

     After further denials from Absolute Poker, finally they admitted in a meeting with Adam Small of P5s that their system was compromised. Without releasing further details to the online poker community, the manage to get MSNBC to publish a very carefully spun article shifting all blame to a rogue programmer, and claiming evidence pointing to Scott Tom was a "frame job".

     Until that minute the headlines were along the lines of 'owner/executive and former VP of Absolute Poker caught cheating'. But this news was limited to the online poker community (2+2, P5s and several blogs). Suddenly the mainstream media picks up the story, but all the headlines are uniformly consistent, 'Geek’ blamed for online poker cheating'. How convenient.

“This is literally a geek trying to prove to senior management that they were wrong and he took it too far”

I believe this answer is bullshit, and here is why...

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