BetGameDay----Free $1000 with a 150% Deposit Bonus!!??

[BigBollocks]

SBR,

What is going on here?? Just got this e-mail from BetGameday this morning. I've also gotten a similar e-mail from VIP. The VIP books used to be a totally legit operation with some good lines from time to time. Have they just completely lost it? Are they just going to take in as much money as they can and close it all down? There's no way ANYONE could do all of this and sustain, I think we can all agree on this. Please help me see the light as to what is going on here as soon as possible....

[SBR Lou]

If it sounds too good to be true...

Not worth the risk to me. I like to limit my stress to picking winners and not worrying about some place with extremely juicy offers stiffing me.

[BigBollocks]

I'm with you 100% crazyl. I don't even think I'm going to bother playing with the free $1K at Gameday and free $500 at VIP, much less deposit for the 150% lol. These books have just completely collapsed, and I think we're looking at the final cave-in...

[diglett]

This is nuts. And I don't know if you guys follow poker, but an executive with affiliated nine.com is allegedly a key player in the Absolute Poker scandal.

For the unfamiliar, here are some cliff's notes that I stole from 2+2 forum. The relevant part is in bold.

1) During a tournament played by cheater 'Potripper,' the person who ended up coming second ("Marco") thought he was cheated. He emailed Absolute, and they sent him a hand history file - an XLS file.

2) Marco opened up this file, it seemed all gibberish to him, and he didn't think anything of it.

3) First Absolute Poker scandal blow up - PT screenshots, etc. Graphical representation here: http://www.absolutepokercheats.com/vpipvbb.jpg

4) Fortnight passes

5) In passing discussion, Marco mentions he has this file. He shares it with a few people, including N 80 50 24(pokerdb.com maintainer, maker of The Poker Film, part owner of Bluff Media) who analyses what is in this file

6) Nat (N 82 50 24) & 2p2 poster Snagglepuss discover that this file is a complete hand history for the tournament - showing every table, and all hole cards of every player.

Hand histories here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...e=0&fpart=1
Youtube video of hands being replayed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FczbS7FiWSM

Quote:

Also, for the straight dope on how this we got to this point, check out N825024's blog at http://www.natarem.com/ .





7) In further analysis of the spreadsheet, Nat and Snagglepuss determine that the IP address, user number and email address of observers has been documented.

8) In 7, they determine that an account with user number 363 observes Potripper's table from 2 minutes into the tournament until the end.

9) At the start of the tournament, for the two hands that user #363 is not observing the table, Potripper folds preflop. He doesn't fold another hand pre-flop for 20minutes, when he open-folds with KK held by a player behind him.

10) They also discover another observer, with the same IP (in San Jose, Costa Rica), with a different user number and the email address scott@rivieraltd.com, observing another table for a short period of time.

11) It is speculated that the other observer could be Potripper's user account.

12) It was determined that the domain rivieraltd.com was pointing to a mail server which happened to be on an IP allocated to Absolute Entertainment SA, at Mohawk Internet Technologies' data center.

12.5) Shortly (within an hour or two) after the findings in 12 are posted here, the DNS information for rivieraltd.com is deleted.

13)The IP associated with the observer in #10 turns out to be a residential cable modem registered to Scott Tom, AP's President as of 2005.

14)Mason weighs in on things here:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=12536144&page=0&vc=1

15)Absolute sends an email to one player saying they will undergo a formal audit from gamingassociates.com here:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...06&page=0&vc=1.
AP also claims Scott Tom has not been employed by AP for over a year, although its known that he was involved with AP as recently as 6 months ago, and may still be running the show from behind the scenes.

16) Steven D. Levitt posts about this story on his NY Times blog for the second time:
First post http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.co...-not-to-cheat/
New post http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.co...own-wide-open/

17) The Potripper account belongs to AJ Green, former Director of Operations at AP and Scott Tom's best friend. AJ Green is currently VP of operations at nine.com. AJ Green changed his name from Allan Grimard, and was involved in internat scams before AP.

18) The ABS Poker worker who sent the .xls file out no longer is employed by Absolute.

19) DanDruff speaks to a "senior" member of staff @ AP Dan Druff's 1st suggestion http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...umber=12545720

A lot of uproar and criticism followed this post from DD, xxxlink

DD's Next Idea http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...umber=12546896

Dan Druff's view http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...umber=12546433

21) Absolute agree to letting KGC audit/investigate them :

KGC Story

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=12548190

http://www.kahnawake.com/gamingcommission/story.asp?show=10

22) Mark Seif plays $1k tourney on Absolute and gets grilled by the rail...but then proceeds to still deny that tourney hands look suspicious and say that Dan Druff is likely to be sued for slander yadda yadda yadda...

23) Associated Press have picked up the story...http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=7229673

24) P5's Admin invited to ABS Poker offices in Costa Rica... Meeting doesn't go as people would have hoped as Absolute still denying a lot pretty much..but P5's possibly letting them off lightly when presented with a great opportunity.
Crossposted Summary

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=12553493

25) AJ Green/Potripper on AP = FATRAISER on Stars
Scott Tom has account at Ultimate Bet under the name of 'PotChopper'

Potchoppers Non-cashes from the DB

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=12554120

26) More Absolute Staff appearing to be 2+2 members :

Quote:

Josem :

I am reliably informed that:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...at=0&User=7262 = RUNNINONMT on UB
That player is Brent Beckley, another major player at AP

his email is brent@rivieraltd.com and from the montana group of people who run ap


Brent also runs the security department at AP.

27) Several other "suspicious" $500 MTT winners were listed but so far, nothing concrete on those, and probably just paranoia.

28) Dan Druff second call from AP was handled by a PR flak and was back to the usual stonewalling and lies.

Dan Druff's 2nd Call with AP

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=12554163

29) Gambling911 picks up the story: http://www.gambling911.com/Absolute-Poker-101807.html

30) P5's gets a phone call saying AP will make a statment saying their system were compromised and they will provide details in a statment coming shortly.

http://www.pocketfives.com/18B87A4F-0F8E-4BB7-A3B8-5729C725E0FA.aspx

--------- history in last thread ----------

31) The interwebs go wild with everyone patting themselves on the back. Many think AP will own up to everything and redeem themselves.

32) Now that both sides have made public statements and talked with news organizations, the story starts hitting the mass media.

"No management involved" story on Gambling911: http://www.gambling911.com/Absolute-Poker-101907.html
The 'geek' defense on MSN: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21381022/
ABC News coverage: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/sto...3752500&page=1

33) While agreeing that the stories are all generally well written, posters immediately point out the holes in AP's story, noting it is ripped directly from the plot of recent big-screen blockbuster Live Free or Die Hard. Other posters point out that we might want to wait until the "official" statement, so as to avoid giving AP more information to concoct a believable cover story.

34) N 82 50 24 and Adanthar state that they have more information on AP, but will refrain (for now) from posting the drama bombs to avoid tipping their hand to AP, essentially allowing them to hang themselves with the rope they've been given. We're definitely playing a game of cat-and-mouse with AP now, and AP is losing.

35) A plea from NLfool:

Quote:
somebody please save all the previous releases from AP and their previous emails to AP players and post it another thread for clarity or the media. There have to be so many lies in it that the public should even be able to decipher.


AP has shown a willingness to try and make evidence disappear. Can someone catalog everything so that their lies are visible to all? Thanks.

36) Mark Seif agrees to have the HHs from his questionable session posted to clear up the issue. Mark and stuckinpgh have requested the HHs from AP.

37) More stories hitting.
Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5225533.html
Cardplayer: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...ecurity-breach

38) AP has started calling everyone in the POTRIPPER tournament and giving them $500 for accidentally releasing their personal information.

http://www.pocketfives.com/71799506-992E-48C2-9EC0-4DABF161EF92.aspx

39) Nat talks to AP on the phone, and they said that they will clean up and go after the person (persons?) who are responsible..

Quote:
So the bottom line is that he said all of the right things and, if he's telling the truth, then I believe that AP will come out of this an improved and effective organization. If he's feeding me a pile of crap then we're right back where we've been for the last month.



40) As of Friday evening, cashouts from AP are still being processed.

[BigBollocks]

Thanks for that post and list diglett, interesting to stuff to say the least. That part about AJ Green and Nine.com is a little unsettling to those with balances there I'm sure. I've also heard Mark Seif's name and character brought into question throughout this whole fiasco, and will be curious to hear what the conclusion is on that. This whole thing appears to be a severe blackeye on online poker and online gaming in general, and I think we're only going to hear worse things before this is all finished. Cheers mate...