Absolute Scandal

Well, there's no getting around it, the news that Absolute Poker had a security breach of gargantuan proportions has hit/is hitting the mass media as I type. Those who ensured that Absolute couldn't sweep the scandal under the carpet when they first tried to (about a month ago) have been contacted by ABCnews and ESPN by all accounts. The $hit really has hit the fan.

This has to be the biggest story since online poker was born around 8 years ago, and to be honest a big part of me hoped it would just go away.....unnnoticed by the general public (read: unnoticed by your average casual fish). Selfish I know, but without the casual players, making a living playing poker online becomes all but impossible (certainly for decidely average players like myself).

So many casual players declare online poker to be rigged. Now they'll probably see it in tomorrows press and I strongly suspect that, in the short-term at least, most won't bother to deposit and donate to those players who depend on them so greatly.

Don't get me wrong, Absolute deserve to go down for this (and those responsible held fully accountable) but I just see the online poker world as a whole taking a beating for the actions of one low-life site.

If you aren't yet aware of what I'm refering to here's a reasonably-written summary of events. For the full story you should really checkout this 2+2 thread.

To summarise: It's been proven beyond reasonable doubt (IMO) that certain players at Absolute (possibly employees/owners no-less) could see their opponents hole-cards. Bit of an advantage eh? For non-players you can see just how much of an advantage this is by watching the Tubes of the culprits' (screename: POTRIPPER) "stunning" performance winning a MultiTable Tournament last month. He won approaching $40K in this tournament alone I believe.

It's not all doom and gloom I guess, wise players will stick to those sites that are fully regulated in European jurasdictions for example. Problem is, I'd prefer to play against as few "wiser players" as possible.

Sometimes the world of gaming can be so ugly.