Official Absolute Poker Super User Thread

[Jeremy]

EDMC, you have hit the nail right on the head on this one. After seeing all the info and actually reading through all the posts on P5's and 2+2 this weekend, I am quite perplexed.

I can honestly say that my opinions and thoughts on the situation are different now than they were in September when this whole thing started. There is just too much that doesn't add up here. Especially with addition of the email file that was sent by AP support to Waco of P5's. Take away the whole super user account debate, and this in itself presents a substantial breach of security.

From a players perspective, it seems like a simple solution. Don't play at AP anymore. For us affiliates however, it is much more complex. Likewise probably one of the reasons you don't see this being reported on all the major poker portals. Let's hypothetically say that you are a big affiliate and do 30K+ per month in revenue, even more problematic if it's MGR. If you make a big deal out of it on your site and advise players not to play there, AP very well may just end your affiliate agreement for both AP and UB.

I guess it all comes down to the individual affiliates, but many would not want to risk $300K+ per year, nor would they want their big MGR players NOT playing at AP anymore.

I'm not saying that all the big affiliates won't be pulling AP in the coming days. Depending on what else happens this week, who knows.

I am fairly confident however that many of the players or forum members asking the big affiliates such as P5's to completely pull AP from the site don't fully recognize the potential financial implications of losing 100% of their AP/UB income.

Another thing that many are not thinking about is how bad this is for the overall industry. Hoping organizations like IMEGA or the PPA can legitimize online poker is pointless with this kind of shit being circulated. This entire situation is -EV from every angle.

[Darko]

you see, this is one advantage which i think some affiliates miss with the CPA or MGR debate (and why over the past year, i have gone mostly the cpa route).

When im on CPA i feel more in control over the partnership as i can drop the room without any fear of repucusions of them screwing you with your mgr account (i.e when i have large mgr with a room, i feel a bit trapped into promoting them - This also applies to this current AP situation - like Jeremy mentions above about what to do with them).

I have currently dropped all banners and there spot on my homepage top list - i will "prob" remove them from my other key pages also, i just hope and fully expect AP carries on paying (if they do screw some affiliates they would go bankrupt anyways as word would spead instantly and then they would have zero affiliates).

[Beanie]

if you were MGR (or at least rakeback) they would certainly come back to you looking for a new room.

[absentx]

This is an amazing business story!

You guys remember the beef recall from a few weeks ago?

That one recall (albeit a HUUUUGE DEAL) shut down that meat company that had been in business for over 60 years!!

Your business is NEVER safe. I mean look at this, we have an allegation of cheating and serious security problems started on one poker forum, turning into a huge story that could eventually deal a serious, door closing blow to absolute poker.

I think it is in Absolute Poker's best interest to put the kabosh on the politically correct press releases over there and start realizing they better jump on the straight talk express. That way they could salvage some dignity.

[corpfan1]

As a related side note...

I was playing at Full Tilt last night and had AA 3 times in an hour (twice on the BIG BLIND).

Each time, everyone on the table folded. The time with the AA on middle position, I just called and all folded except the big blind.

The flop came AJ3 and we checked all the way to the river (as I was trying to slowplay a bet) and then when I bet on the river he folded as well even though it was a small bet.

Now, I understand fully that this can happen anytime...but...

About 90% of the pots were raised before the flop in that hour of play.

Only reason I really noticed the trends, was because I had the AA hand 3 times...otherwise I wouldn't have really cared.

Weird.

[J S]

does anyone have the p5's link that had the breakdown of each hand history and their thoughts in bold? i think it was jennifear's article but i cannot find it now.

*edit - found it http://www.pocketfives.com/3D299A68-...8FD0A29A2.aspx
plus it has a link to the hands in replay via pfx hand replayer.

[Kyle]

lol, you need to get out more my friend.

Weird is getting dealt pocket 10's 6 times in a row with ongame network. I won each pot too. But even that is written off as a coincidence.

Originally Posted by corpfan1

As a related side note...

I was playing at Full Tilt last night and had AA 3 times in an hour (twice on the BIG BLIND).

Each time, everyone on the table folded. The time with the AA on middle position, I just called and all folded except the big blind.

The flop came AJ3 and we checked all the way to the river (as I was trying to slowplay a bet) and then when I bet on the river he folded as well even though it was a small bet.

Now, I understand fully that this can happen anytime...but...

About 90% of the pots were raised before the flop in that hour of play.

Only reason I really noticed the trends, was because I had the AA hand 3 times...otherwise I wouldn't have really cared.

Weird.

[Justin]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

I am fairly confident however that many of the players or forum members asking the big affiliates such as P5's to completely pull AP from the site don't fully recognize the potential financial implications of losing 100% of their AP/UB income.

If you're a forum like P5's and rely on returning visitors for your revenues, then not pullin AP would be a bad idea. You just lost the trust of your entire forum.

Portals that get all their traffic from search engines and don't rely on repeat visitors can get away with keeping AP. However I would have to question that site's intentions if they continue to promote AP.

My guess is we will never see a response from AP. I'm sure they'll figure within a month this will blow over in most of the forums/blogs and by never admitting to it, they can act like "it was never proven".

[Jeremy]

It's really hard to say what will happen in respect to the bigger affiliate sites taking AP down.

I did write a blog post on it here though. Feel free to comment it if you feel strong either way.

Absolute Poker Super User Account - Implications For Poker Affiliates

[edmc]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

It's really hard to say what will happen in respect to the bigger affiliate sites taking AP down.

Pocket5's:

P5ers,

The past 72 hours have been really difficult for us here at P5s as things have gotten out of hand quickly in regards to the AP super-user situation. We have never faced a situation quite like this before; one of our trusted partners has been accused of serious security vulnerabilities, and the accusations appear to have merit. In fact, when this situation first came to light, our inclination was to dismiss it as another “online poker is rigged” post. However, after careful examination of all the facts presented, it’s just not possible for us to do that anymore.

Thereby, we have decided to indefinitely suspend any promotion of Absolute Poker, including site links, banners, and inclusion of future tournaments in the rankings. Please understand that this is not a conviction on our part; it's simply an acknowledgement that significant and meaningful questions have arisen about the security of their site, and until those questions can be resolved to our satisfaction, we don't feel comfortable encouraging our users to play there.

We're in the process of removing links and promotional materials--most of them are down already. Please be patient while we get this all set.

Looking ahead, we intend to work with Absolute Poker as closely as possible to get all the facts and decipher them from "Internet folk lore." In fact, we've been on several phone calls today with AP trying to find out what they know about this situation and how they’re dealing with it. We’ll continue to press them to try and find out more. They’ve also invited us to have full access to their office and systems, and we’re hoping to be able to use that access to find out more about what went wrong. Anything and everything we discover will be reported here on the site, and hopefully it will shed more light on the situation.

In closing, I'd like to say that we all want what you want---for online poker games to be safe, fair, and trustworthy. We hope that our decision helps us all in realizing that goal.

Best,

--Adam

BonusWhores:

Absolute Poker has been added to the blacklist due to the very high likelihood that cheating was, and may still be going on in high stakes cash games and tournaments, and that this was either perpetrated by someone within the AP organization, or AP has been excessively negligent in their security. In one incident, a master hand history was sent to a player who had grown suspicious about action he witnessed in a $1,000 buy-in tournament from 9/12/07. That requested hand history, presumably sent by mistake, was a master hand history (it contained the hole cards of each player.) When looking through each individual hand of this tournament, it's obvious that one of the players had knowledge of what all players were holding.

The fact that at least one player on Absolute Poker was cheating is virtually indisputable. How they were getting their information to cheat with, and who was giving it to them is a matter of speculation. However, it's obvious that Absolute Poker is not a safe place to play. If you wish to know all the details of this case, we suggest you read this thread.