A large part of this piece was put together this summer at the WSOP. The buzz from everyone that interviewed with them is that it is going to make online poker look VERY bad. The term used was "hatchet piece". It's going to be focused on the Absolute Poker scandal which is a pretty incredible story when you get all the details. I was following the threads on 2+2 as it was developing and it was like a live soap opera: every day the shit just kept getting thicker and crazier.
Let me sum up the essentials of the story as best I can.
There was an account named Potripper that seemed to have an uncanny ability to play every situation to perfection no matter what. A well-known online player named Marco Johnson took 2nd to Potripper in a big tournament on AP one weekend where the last hand was so ridiculous that everyone was left wondering. (Marco semi-bluffed [not having the best hand, but a draw that could make a winning hand] all in on an 9 high flush draw and got called by a Ten high flush draw and T high won)
Marco requests his hand history file from AP but instead of sending him just his hands they send him a file that shows everyone's hole cards. This was a complete accident and Marco didn't realize what he had until a month later. He gave the file to people that could interpret it better and they publicized it so EVERYONE could see that Potripper was a superuser.
So the question became who's behind the account? This is where all the drama started because you had all these internet "detectives" on the message boards that kept getting more and more damning info that it was someone INSIDE THE COMPANY. Turns out the owner Scott Tom (young rich frat boy ) was in on it, but his friend AJ Green who he had left in charge while he was away was the person playing the Potripper account.
The best part to me in all the drama that ensued was that Absolute Poker issues a press release in response to the allegations saying "We've conducted our own personal investigation and there is no way that anyone can see hole cards." 2+2 naturally responds saying we're not idiots and this hand history file is damning evidence that it is possible so stop lying. Turns out AJ Green was the author of that release so he was covering his own tracks!
My understanding is that in the end Green cut a deal to where his name wouldn't be released in return for information so who knows if it will come up in 60 minutes. But after everything I read about him and Scott Tom they both sound like grade-A douchebags. It's just a shame that they're in Costa Rica so they'll never really receive justice for the million bucks they stole from their own customers.
Now the big scandal is on Ultimate Bet where previous ownership seems to be involved, including a former Main Event champion Russ Hamilton. This one's apparently even worse because it involves nearly 4 million and has been going for much much longer. Check out this article if you're curious for more detail. This post has already turned longer than I intended. :)
By the way I updated the last post so that you can actually SEE my hands. Didn't realize the converter wasn't showing them if they didn't go to showdown. Ooops. I'm sure that was GREAT reading. LOL
No comments:
Post a Comment