30 May 2008

Cheating follow-up

Yesterday Ultimate Bet released the results of their investigation into the alleged cheating situation. Full text is here. Here's the short and not-so-sweet:

The investigation has concluded that certain player accounts did in fact have an unfair advantage, and that these accounts targeted the highest limit games on the site. The individuals responsible were found to have worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006. Tokwiro is taking full responsibility for this situation and will immediately begin refunding UltimateBet customers for any losses that were incurred as a result of unfair play.

The fraudulent activity was enabled by unauthorized software code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The existence of this vulnerability was unknown to Tokwiro until February 2008 and existed prior to UltimateBet's acquisition by Tokwiro in October 2006. Our investigation has confirmed that the code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators. Gaming Associates, independent auditors hired by the KGC, have confirmed that the software code that provided the unfair advantage has been permanently removed.

If one is to take Tokwiro at their word, and I have no reason not to, they appear to be dealing with this in a very reasonable manner. It would have been nice to have seen a bit more due diligence on their part before buying UB in 2006. And it would have been very smart on their part to launch a full investigation immediately following the Absolute scandal. But I've made more than my fair share of mistakes in the business world, so it's hard for me to be too critical. If they carry through with making cheated players whole and complete all the security tasks they've outlined in the full news release, it would appear they've acted in good faith. I may yet take advantage of that free $100.

Not much happened on The Quest front this week. Tuesday I just felt like taking a break. Wednesday I was in a mood and experience told me playing poker would be setting myself up for mega-tilt. So instead of poker I watched that awful Andromeda Strain remake that was on A&E. Thursday I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up just in time to go to bed. I think I'm becoming my father.

I've been playing with the new Version 3 of Poker Tracker. The tighter integration between PT and the HUD is nice. The couple times I've tried it the display has worked well. The Table Tracker portion could be quite useful, though I'm a bit bothered that it will be a monthly fee add-on and that they haven't settled on pricing yet. Plus, it doesn't work at PokerStars and the details on when it might be working are a bit sketchy. I'd hate to become dependent on a feature and then have it become too expensive.

Tonight is Katitude's $1 rebuy donkament at Full Tilt. Saturday is Dr. Pauly's PLO tourney at Stars. If recent weeks' progression is any predictor, I'm due to win this week. If karma is involved, Change100 will bust me out in a horrible suckout before the end of the first level. Should be fun to see which is stronger.

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