Hard to miss
Shortly before the turn of the year, a new cheating scandal involving players at GGPoker was uncovered. Fortunately, it didn't appear to be widespread or last nearly as long as the “superuser” frenzy at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker over a decade and a half ago, but it was still concerning. GGPoker now claims to have closed the security gap and ensured that those scammed get the lost funds back.
As was the case with the UB/AP scandals, poker players are on the TwoPlusTwo poker forum have tracked down the fraudster and published their evidence. The questions concerned a player named “MoneyTaker69,” who not only won at statistically impossible odds, but also won some very unlikely hands. For example, calling an all-in on the turn in a cash game with J-2 offsuit on a board with AQ-7-6 (two clubs). His opponent had 5-4 crosses.
MoneyTaker69 didn't even try to hide his scam either, especially because the VPIP (voluntarily putting money into the pot) rate was alarmingly high. It was hard not to notice, and MoneyTaker69 didn't seem to care.
Not as bad as superuser, but still bad
It seemed like the poker world had another superuser on its hands, but after an investigation, GGPoker said that was not the case. The person was cheating, but luckily it wasn't as threatening as a superuser.
According to GGPoker, the fraudster was “able to customize his own gaming client” and “derive all-in equity by exploiting a client-side data leak vector.” The online poker room said MoneyTaker69 never had access to opponents' hole cards, game servers or server data.
The security flaw, somehow related to the thumbs up/down table reaction feature, allowed the player to see all-in stocks, making it seem like they just used those probabilities to make decisions that often seemed crazy.
“We sincerely apologize for the incident, which has left many poker players concerned about the integrity of the game and undermined their trust in GGPoker to provide the best poker experience,” GGPoker said in a statement Blog entries. “We take this incident very seriously and continue to work hard to ensure we do not disappoint poker players. Additionally, we are actively recruiting to double the size of our technical security team and enlisting the help of reputable security experts to ensure online poker is safer than ever.”
The poker room also said that MoneyTaker69's scam resulted in $29,795 in winnings, which will be refunded to affected players. Rankings and payouts for tournaments the individual has participated in will also be adjusted.
