How to Cheat at Blackjack is becoming very popular in my mailbox these days. No wonder why: The MIT Blackjack movie is just around the corner and now everyone and his old lady want to hit the blackjack tables for a killing. The big question is, Can Card counting still work with all this publicity out there, and in spite of the fact that every casino pit boss and blackjack dealer capable of sight, sound, or Braille is going to take in this movie, either now or within 6 months from now? Well, the answer is much faster than the question, and it's YES with a capital Y.
Why? Don't forget that card counting has been publicized now for decades. We've seen the famed card counter Ken Uston on TV shows, we've seen Dustin hoffman and Tom Cruise counting cards in another movie those same pit bosses and dealers saw, "Rain Man," and we've heard countless banter about the subject everywhere from the Starbucks in your favorite casino to the Starbucks in Katmandu (is one there yet?). So publicity about blackjack card counting is nothing new and casinos will continue to be just as vulnerable to it after this MIT Blackjack Team movie as they were before any of the geeks on that team were born.
The second most frequent question I've been getting asked lately is if I give courses on card counting. I do, but unless you're serious about it and have the diligence, discipline and bankroll to engage in it, don't get involved. You have to be really good to beat the casinos for substantial sums of money. I, for one, can tell you that.
My page on card counting courses for those seriously interested can be found here.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Blackjack Scams and Cheats Cheating at Blackjack
How to Cheat at Blackjack is becoming very popular in my mailbox these days. No wonder why: The MIT Blackjack movie is just around the corner and now everyone and his old lady want to hit the blackjack tables for a killing. The big question is, Can Card counting still work with all this publicity out there, and in spite of the fact that every casino pit boss and blackjack dealer capable of sight, sound, or Braille is going to take in this movie, either now or within 6 months from now? Well, the answer is much faster than the question, and it's YES with a capital Y.
Why? Don't forget that card counting has been publicized now for decades. We've seen the famed card counter Ken Uston on TV shows, we've seen Dustin hoffman and Tom Cruise counting cards in another movie those same pit bosses and dealers saw, "Rain Man," and we've heard countless banter about the subject everywhere from the Starbucks in your favorite casino to the Starbucks in Katmandu (is one there yet?). So publicity about blackjack card counting is nothing new and casinos will continue to be just as vulnerable to it after this MIT Blackjack Team movie as they were before any of the geeks on that team were born.
The second most frequent question I've been getting asked lately is if I give courses on card counting. I do, but unless you're serious about it and have the diligence, discipline and bankroll to engage in it, don't get involved. You have to be really good to beat the casinos for substantial sums of money. I, for one, can tell you that.
My page on card counting courses for those seriously interested can be found here.
Why? Don't forget that card counting has been publicized now for decades. We've seen the famed card counter Ken Uston on TV shows, we've seen Dustin hoffman and Tom Cruise counting cards in another movie those same pit bosses and dealers saw, "Rain Man," and we've heard countless banter about the subject everywhere from the Starbucks in your favorite casino to the Starbucks in Katmandu (is one there yet?). So publicity about blackjack card counting is nothing new and casinos will continue to be just as vulnerable to it after this MIT Blackjack Team movie as they were before any of the geeks on that team were born.
The second most frequent question I've been getting asked lately is if I give courses on card counting. I do, but unless you're serious about it and have the diligence, discipline and bankroll to engage in it, don't get involved. You have to be really good to beat the casinos for substantial sums of money. I, for one, can tell you that.
My page on card counting courses for those seriously interested can be found here.
Cheats at Poker Often Cheat Elsewhere
Many professional and not-so-professional poker cheats sometimes have to resort to other means of cheating when their operations in poker rooms don't go so well. Can you guess which are the top-10 scams that poker cheats turn to when their poker room wells are drying up? I am going to list them, but with a disclaimer that I have only participated in two of these, which, of course, I am going to...on second thought...not going to reveal!
1) Ripping Off Fellow Poker Players
2) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends and Boyfriends
3) Shoplifting
4) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
5) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
6) Stock Market and Security Frauds
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
1) Ripping Off Fellow Poker Players
2) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends and Boyfriends
3) Shoplifting
4) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
5) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
6) Stock Market and Security Frauds
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
Cheats at Casino Often Cheat Elsewhere
Many professional and not-so-professional casino cheats sometimes have to resort to other means of cheating when their operations in casinos don't go so well. Can you guess which are the top-10 scams that casino cheats turn to when their casino wells are drying up? I am going to list them, but with a disclaimer that I have only participated in two of these, which, of course, I am going to...on second thought...not going to reveal!
1) Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
2) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
3) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
4) Stock Market and Security Frauds
5) Shoplifting
6) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends, and Boyfriends
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
1) Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
2) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
3) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
4) Stock Market and Security Frauds
5) Shoplifting
6) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends, and Boyfriends
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Proteggete i Vostri Casinò!
Proteggete i vostri giochi da tavolo e slot machines. Chiamate Richard Marcus, l'ex miglior baro di casinò del mondo, che attualmente svolge dei seminari sulla protezione dei giochi di casinò. Può anche aiutarvi a proteggervi da tutti i bari di casinò e dai dipendenti disonesti.
CBS' 60 Minutes to Investigate Absolute Online Poker Cheating!
According to poker writer Nolan Dalla, CBS' 60 Minutes TV News Magazine is set to air a segment on the explosion of online poker cheating with emphasis on the Absolute Poker scandal. The last time 60 Minutes aired a poker segment was back in 2005, when it covered the explosion of poker itself. A better terminology for this segment, with all the cheating going on, might be the "Online Poker Implosion!"
Here is the info coming from Dalla's blog:
There was a time when the sight of a 60 Minutes news crew gathered outside in the parking lot was every business owner's worst nightmare.
The prospect of Mike Wallace and his gang barging into the office with cameras rolling was the ultimate in sheer terror. Many lives, careers and businesses have been torpedoed by a relatively brief 17-minute broadcast that just so happens to appear on national television every Sunday night on CBS.
60 Minutes is no longer the power it once was. But it remains the most watched news show on American television. Its influence on our society and culture is indisputable. Popes, presidents, prime ministers and even Roger Clemens have supposedly "come clean" on the one-hour news show.
Now, word is that 60 Minutes' next subject of investigation will be online poker. That's right - in between the current presidential election, $4-per-gallon gas prices, baseball's steroid scandal and a war in Iraq costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, CBS' big boys will be looking into our favorite pastime.
I don't know whether to crow from the rooftops that online poker has now officially arrived on the mainstream media scene (is there any global business that has exploded so quickly, yet gets less attention from the major mainstream news moguls?) or if I should shudder to think this could be a real hatchet job?
Has online poker finally arrived, or is it in line for a hatchet job?
Sources tell me longtime correspondent Steve Croft will be the lead investigative reporter on the story. Plans are already under way for Croft to interview several people at CBS' 57th Street studio headquarters in New York in late March. A 60 Minutes film crew is also expected to be dispatched to Costa Rica - command central for many of the world's largest online gambling and poker sites.
At best, 60 Minutes has a spotty record when it comes to focusing on poker. In 1994, the late Ed Bradley roasted The Bicycle Club Casino in a brutal segment that focused on the government's takeover of the Bell Garden's mega-cardroom. Bradley called The Bike "a sleazy second-rate casino on the outskirts of Los Angeles."
In 2005, Dan Rather did a considerably more positive story on the poker boom. A colleague of mine was responsible for initially pitching this story to a CBS producer and I was able to watch the taping of this segment in person at CBS in New York.
I spoke to Dan Rather in depth during the story. Chris Moneymaker and others who were interviewed came across as terrific ambassadors for the game.
This time, there is serious concern the story will be overly negative. My sources inform me 60 Minutes will focus on the recent Absolute Poker scandal.
For those who may not have heard the news, last year an AP insider violated the most sacred unwritten and unspoken law in all of gaming, which is to make damn sure the game is always run on the square. The thief allegedly stole nearly a million dollars from his unsuspecting victims, who were regular online poker players.
Last time 60 Minutes dropped in on the poker world, Chris Moneymaker and others were great ambassadors for the game. This time, poker may not be so lucky.
In some ways, mass exposure of this creep on 60 Minutes would be absolute justice. A few months spent suffering in Guantanamo would be even more ideal. Trouble is, the casual uninformed viewer of such a segment is not going to differentiate between creeps like him and the millions of honest and decent online poker players worldwide who enjoy playing poker in their own homes.
Indeed, I fear the target is not going to be the creep, or Absolute Poker (which deserves scrutiny) - but rather the entire online poker industry.
If this is indeed the spin 60 Minutes uses, such a story could not come at a worse time. While there is admittedly no chance the federal government will revoke the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006, nor pass any of the pro-online legislation offered by our good friends in Congress within the current legislative session, public perceptions will be shaped for a long time by what is shown and seen by 20 million viewers on 60 Minutes.
I fear the portrait will be ugly - a slimy, unregulated, corrupt band of outlaws operating way outside the boundaries of the law or justice. Never mind that many online sites are publicly traded companies with top-flight managers and personnel, and are strictly regulated within their host countries. Perception and reality are two completely different things.
I talked to my good friend Mark Seif about this bit of breaking news and it came as a total surprise to him. Seif is perhaps the most visible public "unofficial" spokesman and representative of Absolute Poker.
Despite an unwarranted association with the AP incident, Seif says the 60 Minutes piece is a terrific opportunity: "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization)."
As a well-known tournament player in the public eye, people often associate him with the poker site, although (to my knowledge) he has no official title there. I remain utterly convinced Seif had nothing to do with the scandal and was personally embarrassed by the course of events.
The fact that Seif was not associated with the scandal was corroborated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission investigation which concluded a few months ago. Nevertheless, Seif, a former trial attorney always with strong personal views, is the perfect spokesman for Absolute Poker and much of the industry, should he decide to go face-to-face with Steve Croft in front of the cameras.
If he's interviewed, Seif says he plans to use the scandal to justify precisely why online poker should be legalized and regulated within the United States. He says a 60 Minutes feature is a "terrific opportunity" to generate massive support for legislation that will eventually make online poker legal.
"This is what happens when there is little or no oversight," Seif told me when asked about the former problems at Absolute Poker. "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization). After all, online poker is not going to go away."
Seif's response is admittedly optimistic and perhaps just what the industry needs at a time of crisis. The question is, if 60 Minutes pulls into Mark Seif's driveway and he agrees to an interview, will his words of wisdom make the final cut? And if so, will anyone listen?
Here is the info coming from Dalla's blog:
There was a time when the sight of a 60 Minutes news crew gathered outside in the parking lot was every business owner's worst nightmare.
The prospect of Mike Wallace and his gang barging into the office with cameras rolling was the ultimate in sheer terror. Many lives, careers and businesses have been torpedoed by a relatively brief 17-minute broadcast that just so happens to appear on national television every Sunday night on CBS.
60 Minutes is no longer the power it once was. But it remains the most watched news show on American television. Its influence on our society and culture is indisputable. Popes, presidents, prime ministers and even Roger Clemens have supposedly "come clean" on the one-hour news show.
Now, word is that 60 Minutes' next subject of investigation will be online poker. That's right - in between the current presidential election, $4-per-gallon gas prices, baseball's steroid scandal and a war in Iraq costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, CBS' big boys will be looking into our favorite pastime.
I don't know whether to crow from the rooftops that online poker has now officially arrived on the mainstream media scene (is there any global business that has exploded so quickly, yet gets less attention from the major mainstream news moguls?) or if I should shudder to think this could be a real hatchet job?
Has online poker finally arrived, or is it in line for a hatchet job?
Sources tell me longtime correspondent Steve Croft will be the lead investigative reporter on the story. Plans are already under way for Croft to interview several people at CBS' 57th Street studio headquarters in New York in late March. A 60 Minutes film crew is also expected to be dispatched to Costa Rica - command central for many of the world's largest online gambling and poker sites.
At best, 60 Minutes has a spotty record when it comes to focusing on poker. In 1994, the late Ed Bradley roasted The Bicycle Club Casino in a brutal segment that focused on the government's takeover of the Bell Garden's mega-cardroom. Bradley called The Bike "a sleazy second-rate casino on the outskirts of Los Angeles."
In 2005, Dan Rather did a considerably more positive story on the poker boom. A colleague of mine was responsible for initially pitching this story to a CBS producer and I was able to watch the taping of this segment in person at CBS in New York.
I spoke to Dan Rather in depth during the story. Chris Moneymaker and others who were interviewed came across as terrific ambassadors for the game.
This time, there is serious concern the story will be overly negative. My sources inform me 60 Minutes will focus on the recent Absolute Poker scandal.
For those who may not have heard the news, last year an AP insider violated the most sacred unwritten and unspoken law in all of gaming, which is to make damn sure the game is always run on the square. The thief allegedly stole nearly a million dollars from his unsuspecting victims, who were regular online poker players.
Last time 60 Minutes dropped in on the poker world, Chris Moneymaker and others were great ambassadors for the game. This time, poker may not be so lucky.
In some ways, mass exposure of this creep on 60 Minutes would be absolute justice. A few months spent suffering in Guantanamo would be even more ideal. Trouble is, the casual uninformed viewer of such a segment is not going to differentiate between creeps like him and the millions of honest and decent online poker players worldwide who enjoy playing poker in their own homes.
Indeed, I fear the target is not going to be the creep, or Absolute Poker (which deserves scrutiny) - but rather the entire online poker industry.
If this is indeed the spin 60 Minutes uses, such a story could not come at a worse time. While there is admittedly no chance the federal government will revoke the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006, nor pass any of the pro-online legislation offered by our good friends in Congress within the current legislative session, public perceptions will be shaped for a long time by what is shown and seen by 20 million viewers on 60 Minutes.
I fear the portrait will be ugly - a slimy, unregulated, corrupt band of outlaws operating way outside the boundaries of the law or justice. Never mind that many online sites are publicly traded companies with top-flight managers and personnel, and are strictly regulated within their host countries. Perception and reality are two completely different things.
I talked to my good friend Mark Seif about this bit of breaking news and it came as a total surprise to him. Seif is perhaps the most visible public "unofficial" spokesman and representative of Absolute Poker.
Despite an unwarranted association with the AP incident, Seif says the 60 Minutes piece is a terrific opportunity: "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization)."
As a well-known tournament player in the public eye, people often associate him with the poker site, although (to my knowledge) he has no official title there. I remain utterly convinced Seif had nothing to do with the scandal and was personally embarrassed by the course of events.
The fact that Seif was not associated with the scandal was corroborated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission investigation which concluded a few months ago. Nevertheless, Seif, a former trial attorney always with strong personal views, is the perfect spokesman for Absolute Poker and much of the industry, should he decide to go face-to-face with Steve Croft in front of the cameras.
If he's interviewed, Seif says he plans to use the scandal to justify precisely why online poker should be legalized and regulated within the United States. He says a 60 Minutes feature is a "terrific opportunity" to generate massive support for legislation that will eventually make online poker legal.
"This is what happens when there is little or no oversight," Seif told me when asked about the former problems at Absolute Poker. "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization). After all, online poker is not going to go away."
Seif's response is admittedly optimistic and perhaps just what the industry needs at a time of crisis. The question is, if 60 Minutes pulls into Mark Seif's driveway and he agrees to an interview, will his words of wisdom make the final cut? And if so, will anyone listen?
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A St. Patrick's Day Casino Cheating Story
Those of you who read my book American Roulette know the special relationship I had with my fantastic cheating partner Pat Mallery. You also know that Pat was Dark Irish, and about the only thing he liked as much as cheating the pants off casinos was drinking the pants off anybody who dared to stand in a bar with him. Well, one Friday night back in Las Vegas some years ago also happened to be St. Paddy's Day, Pat's favorite day and night of the year to get, as he put it, cocked up! Before we went out to work the casinos that night, I had to remind him that his cocked-up state sometimes caused us problems. One profitable night at the Hilton, I reminded him, he left his suit jacket slung over the back of a chair in the sports book while we were at the bar drinking. As soon as I realized it, I shot back out to the casino as if a grenade had just rolled under our barstools. I was enormously relieved that Pat's jacket was still there, anyone could have walked off with it. In the right front pocket was $16,000 in Hilton chips we hadn't yet cashed out.
But that St. Paddy's Friday night, we almost weren't so lucky. This time the incident involving Pat's cocked-up behavior in a casino turned into one of those both unbelievable and unforgettable stories.
It was a Friday night and the MGM was our target casino. My other partner, Balls, and I arrived at Pat's apartment at 10 P.M. to find him sufficiently cocked-up (if he wasn't, he didn't move on the tables). Balls drove us to the MGM and we went directly into the sports book. There, I passed Pat $11,000 in chips, two chocolates and a $1,000 in blacks. Ever since that Hilton incident with his leaving the chip-filled jacket slung over a chair in the sports book, I took extreme caution in handling and accounting for chips. I always counted them twice and watched Pat put them safely in his pocket before we left the sports book to cruise the casino.
We made a round through the MGM during which Pat had sat down at only one table, where he made three bets but didn't move because they all lost. Then we went back to the sports book and Pat developed a headache and said he wanted to go home for awhile and rest. We dropped him off at his apartment and returned two hours later. He was feeling better, so we went back to the MGM. In the sports book, Pat was preparing the chips for the move when he suddenly said, "Where's the other chocolate chip?"
"You only had two of them," I said. "One for the move and one for the back-up." I was thinking that he probably thought I had given him three chocolates, which was often the case.
"Well, I only have one now," Pat said, rifling through his pockets.
"What!"
"Johnny (we affectionately called each other Johnny), I don't know what you gave me, but I only have one chocolate chip."
I knew he wasn't kidding as well as I knew that I had given him two chocolates earlier that evening in the sports book. There was no doubt in my mind. I had given him $11,000 in MGM chips; I'd counted them twice.
Everybody searched their pockets but it was useless. I was sure that Pat had lost the chip somewhere in the casino. We retraced our steps through the pits, our eyes scanning the floor, darting to-and-fro, hoping to spot the missing chip. Unfortunately, the MGM carpeting was brown. I placed the remaining chocolate chip on the surface to see how it blended in. More unfortunately, too good. Finding that missing chip on the floor of a large, busy casino, even if it was still there in defiance of probability, was going to be a difficult if not impossible task. The best chance was that maybe Pat had dropped it near the lone table he played at while we were at the MGM the first time. That seemed to all of us the most likely scenario. Pat could have easily lost the chocolate while preparing the move and back-up chips.
I got down on my hands and knees, looking for the chip by the table. I wasn't bashful about crawling around under people's legs, making them feel uncomfortable. A floorman bent down over me to ask what I was looking for. I told him that I had been at the table earlier and had lost a contact lens. He wished me luck and turned away, and I continued brushing my hands through the carpet in search of the chip.
Nothing. It was gone. Some lucky son of a bitch was going to have a hell of a time partying tonight, I thought, walking away from the table. Pat's cocky attitude had finally cost us.
The question of infidelity or dishonesty concerning Pat never entered my mind. Nobody ever held out on anybody. But what bothered me even more than the loss of the chip was the possibility that Pat was thinking I was full of shit, that I had locked up the chip for myself and was taking advantage of his cocked-up state to say that he must have lost it. Later, I learned that such a thought would never have entered his mind either, but at the time, we'd only known each other a month.
Pat said that he had been twiddling with the chips back at his apartment while he was watching TV. Maybe he had inadvertently dropped the chocolate on the plush carpeting of his living room and hadn't heard any noise. Perhaps it was still there on the floor.
We rushed back to Pat's apartment, the adrenaline pumping through my body. I wanted more than anything to find that chip, just for the reason that a breach of trust wouldn't be created by its loss.
"I swear," Pat said with conviction in the car as Balls sped toward the west side of town on Tropicana Avenue, "if that chip isn't on the goddamn floor of my apartment, someone's in a lot of trouble" (he meant the casinos, that he would unleash a battery of moves against them). "You know what, Johnny," he said, looking over his shoulder at me in the back seat, "maybe we're better off if that chip isn't in the apartment."
We arrived and all three of us raced up the stairs to Pat's second-floor apartment. After a two minute search, Pat called out excitedly, "I found it!" But the chip he found turned out to be the other MGM chocolate he had placed mindlessly in the ashtray on the entranceway ledge as we all hurried through the door of the apartment. When he realized the mistake, he threw it against the wall. The roller coaster ride of my emotions—losing, finding and then re-losing the chip—was making me nauseous. We ransacked the apartment but the second chip was nowhere to be found. Pat kicked the sofa he had been sitting on while watching TV and shrieked, "Motherfucker!...Let's go."
We got back in the car and headed a third time for the MGM.
"I don't have another MGM chocolate for back-up," I said.
"I don't give a fuck, Johnny. I don't need any back-ups. They're dead over there at the MGM...Just get me there, Balls. I'm a little pissed off right now."
We cruised the casino looking for an available third base seat. You could see the impatience and aggravation written on Pat's face as he passed along a row of filled-up blackjack tables. He finally found a shortstop position open and made his two-hundred-dollar bet, which lost. He slammed his fist down on the cushioned edge of the table and got up, leaving a bunch of scornful stares behind him. He sat down at another table, lost again, and hollered at no one in particular as he got up in a rage, "I hope yuz all die." The third table he found, I noticed was the same one he had sat down at during our initial round of the casino, before we'd discovered the loss of the chip. He made the bet, which finally won, and moved and claimed super aggressively, perhaps now possessed by the Haverstraw insane asylum demon. He got paid the $5,100, getting us even for the night, and was in the process of playing his bet-back hand of $1,100 when a man sitting at the middle of the table began talking to him as he showed him something in his hand.
"This must be yours," he said to Pat with a slight drawl. "I just found it on the floor." The guy was an older Midwestern type, plainly dressed with an unsophisticated air. Pat didn't even hear him, let alone look at him.
I was looking into the man's hand. There was something brown and circular resting in the palm, the size of a casino chip. My brain needed a few seconds to sort out the message it was receiving from my eyes. It was the missing chip! This country bumpkin had just found the five-thousand-dollar chip that Pat had dropped at that very same table maybe four hours before. I couldn't believe it. That chip had not only been lying there on the floor all that time, but the person finding it was returning it to its rightful owner, as if it were about nothing more than a dropped handkerchief. I doubted that the good Samaritan even knew the value of the chip, despite the fact he had witnessed Pat's claim on the move with the same-colored chip.
I had to go around the edge of the table and notify Pat audibly that the "gentlemen to your right has found something of yours, sir."
Pat took a look at the guy who was putting the chocolate chip in his hand, reached out across the blackjack table and gruffly pulled the man's head toward him and gave him a kiss square on the lips. The man was mildly shocked himself and accepted gracefully the black chip that Pat put in his hand as gratitude. To amplify our joy at recovering the lost $5,000, Pat went on a bet-back streak, winning the next six hands in a row, including a double-down and a blackjack. With all that, he left the table with $18,000 more than when he had sat down. Then he went to another table, did a second move and got paid $5,100 again. Afterwards, in the keno pit across the street at the Tropicana, Pat said, "Johnny, let me ask you something. Do you really think it was a blessing that we found the chip...or would we have been better off if it stayed lost?"
Knowing what the man sitting next to me was capable of, I couldn't answer that question.
I told him so.
But that St. Paddy's Friday night, we almost weren't so lucky. This time the incident involving Pat's cocked-up behavior in a casino turned into one of those both unbelievable and unforgettable stories.
It was a Friday night and the MGM was our target casino. My other partner, Balls, and I arrived at Pat's apartment at 10 P.M. to find him sufficiently cocked-up (if he wasn't, he didn't move on the tables). Balls drove us to the MGM and we went directly into the sports book. There, I passed Pat $11,000 in chips, two chocolates and a $1,000 in blacks. Ever since that Hilton incident with his leaving the chip-filled jacket slung over a chair in the sports book, I took extreme caution in handling and accounting for chips. I always counted them twice and watched Pat put them safely in his pocket before we left the sports book to cruise the casino.
We made a round through the MGM during which Pat had sat down at only one table, where he made three bets but didn't move because they all lost. Then we went back to the sports book and Pat developed a headache and said he wanted to go home for awhile and rest. We dropped him off at his apartment and returned two hours later. He was feeling better, so we went back to the MGM. In the sports book, Pat was preparing the chips for the move when he suddenly said, "Where's the other chocolate chip?"
"You only had two of them," I said. "One for the move and one for the back-up." I was thinking that he probably thought I had given him three chocolates, which was often the case.
"Well, I only have one now," Pat said, rifling through his pockets.
"What!"
"Johnny (we affectionately called each other Johnny), I don't know what you gave me, but I only have one chocolate chip."
I knew he wasn't kidding as well as I knew that I had given him two chocolates earlier that evening in the sports book. There was no doubt in my mind. I had given him $11,000 in MGM chips; I'd counted them twice.
Everybody searched their pockets but it was useless. I was sure that Pat had lost the chip somewhere in the casino. We retraced our steps through the pits, our eyes scanning the floor, darting to-and-fro, hoping to spot the missing chip. Unfortunately, the MGM carpeting was brown. I placed the remaining chocolate chip on the surface to see how it blended in. More unfortunately, too good. Finding that missing chip on the floor of a large, busy casino, even if it was still there in defiance of probability, was going to be a difficult if not impossible task. The best chance was that maybe Pat had dropped it near the lone table he played at while we were at the MGM the first time. That seemed to all of us the most likely scenario. Pat could have easily lost the chocolate while preparing the move and back-up chips.
I got down on my hands and knees, looking for the chip by the table. I wasn't bashful about crawling around under people's legs, making them feel uncomfortable. A floorman bent down over me to ask what I was looking for. I told him that I had been at the table earlier and had lost a contact lens. He wished me luck and turned away, and I continued brushing my hands through the carpet in search of the chip.
Nothing. It was gone. Some lucky son of a bitch was going to have a hell of a time partying tonight, I thought, walking away from the table. Pat's cocky attitude had finally cost us.
The question of infidelity or dishonesty concerning Pat never entered my mind. Nobody ever held out on anybody. But what bothered me even more than the loss of the chip was the possibility that Pat was thinking I was full of shit, that I had locked up the chip for myself and was taking advantage of his cocked-up state to say that he must have lost it. Later, I learned that such a thought would never have entered his mind either, but at the time, we'd only known each other a month.
Pat said that he had been twiddling with the chips back at his apartment while he was watching TV. Maybe he had inadvertently dropped the chocolate on the plush carpeting of his living room and hadn't heard any noise. Perhaps it was still there on the floor.
We rushed back to Pat's apartment, the adrenaline pumping through my body. I wanted more than anything to find that chip, just for the reason that a breach of trust wouldn't be created by its loss.
"I swear," Pat said with conviction in the car as Balls sped toward the west side of town on Tropicana Avenue, "if that chip isn't on the goddamn floor of my apartment, someone's in a lot of trouble" (he meant the casinos, that he would unleash a battery of moves against them). "You know what, Johnny," he said, looking over his shoulder at me in the back seat, "maybe we're better off if that chip isn't in the apartment."
We arrived and all three of us raced up the stairs to Pat's second-floor apartment. After a two minute search, Pat called out excitedly, "I found it!" But the chip he found turned out to be the other MGM chocolate he had placed mindlessly in the ashtray on the entranceway ledge as we all hurried through the door of the apartment. When he realized the mistake, he threw it against the wall. The roller coaster ride of my emotions—losing, finding and then re-losing the chip—was making me nauseous. We ransacked the apartment but the second chip was nowhere to be found. Pat kicked the sofa he had been sitting on while watching TV and shrieked, "Motherfucker!...Let's go."
We got back in the car and headed a third time for the MGM.
"I don't have another MGM chocolate for back-up," I said.
"I don't give a fuck, Johnny. I don't need any back-ups. They're dead over there at the MGM...Just get me there, Balls. I'm a little pissed off right now."
We cruised the casino looking for an available third base seat. You could see the impatience and aggravation written on Pat's face as he passed along a row of filled-up blackjack tables. He finally found a shortstop position open and made his two-hundred-dollar bet, which lost. He slammed his fist down on the cushioned edge of the table and got up, leaving a bunch of scornful stares behind him. He sat down at another table, lost again, and hollered at no one in particular as he got up in a rage, "I hope yuz all die." The third table he found, I noticed was the same one he had sat down at during our initial round of the casino, before we'd discovered the loss of the chip. He made the bet, which finally won, and moved and claimed super aggressively, perhaps now possessed by the Haverstraw insane asylum demon. He got paid the $5,100, getting us even for the night, and was in the process of playing his bet-back hand of $1,100 when a man sitting at the middle of the table began talking to him as he showed him something in his hand.
"This must be yours," he said to Pat with a slight drawl. "I just found it on the floor." The guy was an older Midwestern type, plainly dressed with an unsophisticated air. Pat didn't even hear him, let alone look at him.
I was looking into the man's hand. There was something brown and circular resting in the palm, the size of a casino chip. My brain needed a few seconds to sort out the message it was receiving from my eyes. It was the missing chip! This country bumpkin had just found the five-thousand-dollar chip that Pat had dropped at that very same table maybe four hours before. I couldn't believe it. That chip had not only been lying there on the floor all that time, but the person finding it was returning it to its rightful owner, as if it were about nothing more than a dropped handkerchief. I doubted that the good Samaritan even knew the value of the chip, despite the fact he had witnessed Pat's claim on the move with the same-colored chip.
I had to go around the edge of the table and notify Pat audibly that the "gentlemen to your right has found something of yours, sir."
Pat took a look at the guy who was putting the chocolate chip in his hand, reached out across the blackjack table and gruffly pulled the man's head toward him and gave him a kiss square on the lips. The man was mildly shocked himself and accepted gracefully the black chip that Pat put in his hand as gratitude. To amplify our joy at recovering the lost $5,000, Pat went on a bet-back streak, winning the next six hands in a row, including a double-down and a blackjack. With all that, he left the table with $18,000 more than when he had sat down. Then he went to another table, did a second move and got paid $5,100 again. Afterwards, in the keno pit across the street at the Tropicana, Pat said, "Johnny, let me ask you something. Do you really think it was a blessing that we found the chip...or would we have been better off if it stayed lost?"
Knowing what the man sitting next to me was capable of, I couldn't answer that question.
I told him so.
Poker Tips Online Poker Cheats Strategy
Poker Tips, Cheats, Poker Strategy, Poker Sytems. Have you ever searched these keywords in an attempt to improve your game? Well, I have checked out lots of the sites that fall under these keywords, and unfortunately, the vast majority of them do not cover tips about how to protect yourself from poker cheaters. There is some mention of these problems when the subject is online poker, but why do these sites vastly omit information on good old brick and mortar poker cheating. For those of you who may not no it, I give daily poker tips and casino cheating warnings and advice on my Poker Cheating and Casino Cheating Tip of the day page. I hope you will stop by on a daily basis for my tip of the day.
Another Remote Online Casino Poker Hack Attack!
This is really becoming a major online casino and poker problem. I first began reporting on these attacks two weeks ago when notified of them by a very astute reader of this blog from Italy. The latest victim of these remote attacks is Dublinbet.com, an Irish online casino operated by the Fitzwilliam Card Club, which is offering live online casino games. The site has now been down for four days! That is an online poker and casino eternity!
Here is a message transmitted from the dublinbet.com support that was posted on a French casino forum:
"Our site is currently under a distributed denial of service network attack
(DDOS) from an unknown source. We are working to resolve this issue, and hope to be back online soon. Please be assured that all data, game systems, and player accounts remain completely secure and private. This is just a severe overloaded network attack, preventing access to our systems and unfortunately is not uncommon for gaming sites to be targets of such activity. We are doing our best to get the site back online as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience."
Cecile
Support DublinBet.com
4 days now!...How many days more do they need to "resolve this issue"? Maybe the
players accounts are no longer "completely secure and private"...Check your bets!
Here is a message transmitted from the dublinbet.com support that was posted on a French casino forum:
"Our site is currently under a distributed denial of service network attack
(DDOS) from an unknown source. We are working to resolve this issue, and hope to be back online soon. Please be assured that all data, game systems, and player accounts remain completely secure and private. This is just a severe overloaded network attack, preventing access to our systems and unfortunately is not uncommon for gaming sites to be targets of such activity. We are doing our best to get the site back online as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience."
Cecile
Support DublinBet.com
4 days now!...How many days more do they need to "resolve this issue"? Maybe the
players accounts are no longer "completely secure and private"...Check your bets!
NEW POKER AND CASINO CHEATING TOP-10 MOVES PAGE!
I have added a new page to my website called "Poker Cheating and Casino Cheating Top-10 Moves. This page details the ten poker cheating and casino cheating moves I feel were the best ever. Some were done by poker and casino cheating teams that I was a part of. Others had nothing to do with me. In order to qualify, the move had to have been repeatedly performed over a period of at least one year, which means certain classic poker and casino cheating moves like the French Cigarette Scam (see my Scam of the Month Page) may have been amongst the best of all-time but did not endure long enough to qualify.
Take a few moments and read about these incredible cheating moves and exactly how they were pulled off. You will surely appreciate the cunning craftiness and military-like precision and discipline that is evident in all of them.
Take a few moments and read about these incredible cheating moves and exactly how they were pulled off. You will surely appreciate the cunning craftiness and military-like precision and discipline that is evident in all of them.
Slot Cheating: Who is the Slot Machine Cheating King?
Who is the world's best slot cheat? Many sports have two great players that are debated about to determine which is the greatest ever. In the slot cheating world, which may be considered a casino sport so to speak, there are two notorious cheaters who vie for the crowning title of "Greatest Slot Machine Cheater Ever." They are Tommy Glenn Carmichael and Dennis Sean McAndrew, better know by his original name, Dennis Nikrasch.
TOMMY GLENN CARMICHAEL was born in July, 1950, and is considered the second best slot cheat of all time. An ingenious inventor, he conspired with an elite group of thieves to bilk millions from casinos. For almost 20 years Carmichael designed slot cheat devices that made it possible for him to steal from slot machines across the Caribbean and the United States.
In 1980, Carmichael was sitting inside his Tulsa, Oklahoma TV repair shop when Ray Ming walks in. He was an old friend living in Las Vegas, and he had something to show Carmichael. Ming had a Bally’s slot machine in his car trunk, and a ” top bottom joint”. Carmichael began his first “operation” with the device, bilking a 5-cent machine at a casino near the Vegas strip, proudly strolling out with $35 in nickels. But Las Vegas had begun replacing the old machines with newer ones, forcing him to the smaller casinos around him. He was caught at one of them and was sentenced to 5 years in jail.
Inside, Carmichael met Mike Balsamo. They agreed to find each other after their release, but when freedom came in 1987, Carmichael found the machines replaced. Bally and International Game Technology had begun rolling out a new high-tech slot and video poker machines, which used microprocessors and random number generator software. Undaunted, Carmichael purchased an IGT Fortune One video poker machine. He invented the monkey paw (slider) made from a guitar wire and spring steel, which he inserted into the machine through the payout chute to trip a switch. This caused the release of coins from the hopper, the bucket holding in the quarters.
By 1991 the slider was useless, owing to the computerization of the machines. Fooling a manufacturer into thinking he was a customer, Carmichael was shown the inside of the latest slot machine. From there, he learned how to beat it. He bought one and in a few days invented a new device – the light wand. The wand was built with a camera battery and a miniature bulb, used to shine into the machine and blind a sensor, causing the hopper to pay out coins. It was nearly undetectable, and Carmichael made a fortune selling it to other cheats, although that money-making idea may not have been a good one in the long-run.
On October 4, 1996, Carmichael was caught with the light wand while escaping from security. He was charged with possession and manufacture of a cheating device, which were later dropped. In 1998 he was arrested of similar offenses in Laughlin, Nevada. The following year in Atlantic City, his luck ran out. The authorities had tapped his phone and recorded conversations with other cheats using his device. Carmichael, with six others, was charged and pled guilty to running an illegal gambling enterprise, serving 326 days and 3 years’ probation. He lost his two homes and was ordered to stay out of casinos. He is now in Nevada's Black Book, officially excluded from the state's casinos.
Carmichael is currently tinkering with a supposedly anti-cheating device, the Protector. He claims that his invention will stop all known cheating devices.
DENNIS SEAN McANDREW, better know by his original name, DENNIS NIKRASCH, was born in September, 1941, and has been called the greatest slot machine cheat in gambling history. He was the mastermind of several different slot cheating rings over a twenty-year period that rigged an estimated $16 million in jackpots, mostly in Nevada and Atlantic City. In fact, officials from the Nevada Gaming Control Board Enforcement Division have stated that McAndrew even threatened the integrity of the entire slot industry.
What brought him down? His nastiness. He was nasty and stingy with those who worked for him, and they eventually turned on him and brought him down in a setup for the FBI.
In spite of all the security precautions taken by casinos to ensure the integrity of their games, in spite of the video surveillance cameras that monitor every inch of the gaming floors, in spite of the personnel that scrutinize everyone and everything that goes on, McAndrew found a way to beat the system. He figured out how to electronically manipulate the computer chips that govern slot machines...the chips that guarantee the random nature of play of the machines and preserve the integrity of the games. With an assortment of high-tech tools, always higher tech than the times, he and his slot cheating teams, usually consisting of a virtual glass managerie of characters, set up jackpots for huge amounts of cash as well as automobiles and other prizes. His method of attack was to have several of his team members serve as lookouts and "blockers," positioning themselves in ways that hindered floor security's vision and even that of surveillance cameras above. With them in place, McAndrew was able to open up the machines and use a computer device to alter the random number generators and rig the jackpots. Then another of his teammates would come along, put some coins or tokens in the machines and "win" the jackpots.
In November 1998, while trying to hit the huge $17 million Megabucks jackpot, McAndrew was set up by his mates and busted by the FBI and Nevada Gaming Control Board agents. Back in 1986, he was convicted for being part of a slot machine cheating ring that illegally won $10 million at Las Vegas casinos. He was sentenced to prison and released on parole in January of 1991. He'd also been convicted for rigging mechanical reel slots in the late 1970s. The slot machines of the 90s were computer marvels compared to their older cousins, and were thought to be tamperproof, yet McAndrew found a way to beat them, too, then had the intestinal fortitude to put his knowledge to work again and again and rake in millions. This guy had balls of stone! Or balls of slot!
After the FBI busted McAndrew in 1998, they agreed in conjunction with Nevada gaming officials to give him a reduced prison sentence in exchange of his secrets. Apparently, they had a lot to learn. They were also very concerned that he may have given his secrets to others, but you can bet his knowledge was the guarded secret of his very own band of thieves. Why would they want to share the technology with others? How he did it was of vital interest to the gaming industry so that they could take precautions to prevent it from happening again. McAndrew apparently did tell authorities that there may be others engaging in similar activity, which may have accounted for other heavy slot losses suffered by the gaming industry over the years. McAndrew is now listed in Nevada's Black Book of persons excluded from the state's casinos.
I guess after reading this, my vote goes to McAndrew!
TOMMY GLENN CARMICHAEL was born in July, 1950, and is considered the second best slot cheat of all time. An ingenious inventor, he conspired with an elite group of thieves to bilk millions from casinos. For almost 20 years Carmichael designed slot cheat devices that made it possible for him to steal from slot machines across the Caribbean and the United States.
In 1980, Carmichael was sitting inside his Tulsa, Oklahoma TV repair shop when Ray Ming walks in. He was an old friend living in Las Vegas, and he had something to show Carmichael. Ming had a Bally’s slot machine in his car trunk, and a ” top bottom joint”. Carmichael began his first “operation” with the device, bilking a 5-cent machine at a casino near the Vegas strip, proudly strolling out with $35 in nickels. But Las Vegas had begun replacing the old machines with newer ones, forcing him to the smaller casinos around him. He was caught at one of them and was sentenced to 5 years in jail.
Inside, Carmichael met Mike Balsamo. They agreed to find each other after their release, but when freedom came in 1987, Carmichael found the machines replaced. Bally and International Game Technology had begun rolling out a new high-tech slot and video poker machines, which used microprocessors and random number generator software. Undaunted, Carmichael purchased an IGT Fortune One video poker machine. He invented the monkey paw (slider) made from a guitar wire and spring steel, which he inserted into the machine through the payout chute to trip a switch. This caused the release of coins from the hopper, the bucket holding in the quarters.
By 1991 the slider was useless, owing to the computerization of the machines. Fooling a manufacturer into thinking he was a customer, Carmichael was shown the inside of the latest slot machine. From there, he learned how to beat it. He bought one and in a few days invented a new device – the light wand. The wand was built with a camera battery and a miniature bulb, used to shine into the machine and blind a sensor, causing the hopper to pay out coins. It was nearly undetectable, and Carmichael made a fortune selling it to other cheats, although that money-making idea may not have been a good one in the long-run.
On October 4, 1996, Carmichael was caught with the light wand while escaping from security. He was charged with possession and manufacture of a cheating device, which were later dropped. In 1998 he was arrested of similar offenses in Laughlin, Nevada. The following year in Atlantic City, his luck ran out. The authorities had tapped his phone and recorded conversations with other cheats using his device. Carmichael, with six others, was charged and pled guilty to running an illegal gambling enterprise, serving 326 days and 3 years’ probation. He lost his two homes and was ordered to stay out of casinos. He is now in Nevada's Black Book, officially excluded from the state's casinos.
Carmichael is currently tinkering with a supposedly anti-cheating device, the Protector. He claims that his invention will stop all known cheating devices.
DENNIS SEAN McANDREW, better know by his original name, DENNIS NIKRASCH, was born in September, 1941, and has been called the greatest slot machine cheat in gambling history. He was the mastermind of several different slot cheating rings over a twenty-year period that rigged an estimated $16 million in jackpots, mostly in Nevada and Atlantic City. In fact, officials from the Nevada Gaming Control Board Enforcement Division have stated that McAndrew even threatened the integrity of the entire slot industry.
What brought him down? His nastiness. He was nasty and stingy with those who worked for him, and they eventually turned on him and brought him down in a setup for the FBI.
In spite of all the security precautions taken by casinos to ensure the integrity of their games, in spite of the video surveillance cameras that monitor every inch of the gaming floors, in spite of the personnel that scrutinize everyone and everything that goes on, McAndrew found a way to beat the system. He figured out how to electronically manipulate the computer chips that govern slot machines...the chips that guarantee the random nature of play of the machines and preserve the integrity of the games. With an assortment of high-tech tools, always higher tech than the times, he and his slot cheating teams, usually consisting of a virtual glass managerie of characters, set up jackpots for huge amounts of cash as well as automobiles and other prizes. His method of attack was to have several of his team members serve as lookouts and "blockers," positioning themselves in ways that hindered floor security's vision and even that of surveillance cameras above. With them in place, McAndrew was able to open up the machines and use a computer device to alter the random number generators and rig the jackpots. Then another of his teammates would come along, put some coins or tokens in the machines and "win" the jackpots.
In November 1998, while trying to hit the huge $17 million Megabucks jackpot, McAndrew was set up by his mates and busted by the FBI and Nevada Gaming Control Board agents. Back in 1986, he was convicted for being part of a slot machine cheating ring that illegally won $10 million at Las Vegas casinos. He was sentenced to prison and released on parole in January of 1991. He'd also been convicted for rigging mechanical reel slots in the late 1970s. The slot machines of the 90s were computer marvels compared to their older cousins, and were thought to be tamperproof, yet McAndrew found a way to beat them, too, then had the intestinal fortitude to put his knowledge to work again and again and rake in millions. This guy had balls of stone! Or balls of slot!
After the FBI busted McAndrew in 1998, they agreed in conjunction with Nevada gaming officials to give him a reduced prison sentence in exchange of his secrets. Apparently, they had a lot to learn. They were also very concerned that he may have given his secrets to others, but you can bet his knowledge was the guarded secret of his very own band of thieves. Why would they want to share the technology with others? How he did it was of vital interest to the gaming industry so that they could take precautions to prevent it from happening again. McAndrew apparently did tell authorities that there may be others engaging in similar activity, which may have accounted for other heavy slot losses suffered by the gaming industry over the years. McAndrew is now listed in Nevada's Black Book of persons excluded from the state's casinos.
I guess after reading this, my vote goes to McAndrew!
Cheating at Blackjack: What's the Best Blackjack Cheating Move Ever?
I am often asked this question. Now card counting is not a cheating move, so I can't consider that, despite the publicity of the Kevin Spacey movie 21 coming out in on March 28. So here is the best blackjack cheating move of all time:
The Blackjack Ten-Oh-Five
In this blackjack chip-switch, for 25 years the bread and butter move of the famous Classon Pastposting Team, one “mechanic/claimer” (MC) walks up to a blackjack table as the dealer is sweeping up the cards after paying and taking bets from the previous round. He places three red $5 chips on the first betting circle to the dealer's right, the position we called 3rd base. As he sits down he places five purple $500 chips and one $5 chip on the layout in front of him, covering them with his right hand in the same motion so that they remain hidden from everyone else in the casino. These are the chips that are going to form the move, which is two $500 chips and one $5 chip on top (thus its name “Ten-Oh-Five,” which correlates to the amount, $1,005), and the three remaining $500 chips that are called “backup chips” and will serve their purpose after the move goes down.
With his left hand, the MC plays the cards, giving the hit and stand signals to the dealer. At 3rd base, he is the last to play his hand, but the first to receive the dealer's attention after the round is finished and all the cards played. This meant that he would be the first paid on winners, the first to have his chips swept on losers. The importance of the 3rd base position was the angle it formed between its betting circle and the dealer's head while the dealer performed the mechanics of paying bets on the layout. The blackjack move could also be done from the other positions, but 3rd base was optimum. Each spot to the right of it made the move slightly tougher.
During the play of the hand, the MC never lifts his right hand off the five purple and one red chip hidden on the layout in front of him. If he loses the hand he simply gets up and goes to another table inside the casino. He cannot make a second bet at the same table because he has been established by the casino as a red-chip player. When he wins the hand, he prepares the move by cutting the top three move chips (two purples and a red) and waits for the dealer’s payoff, which is obviously going to be three red $5 chips. Once the dealer slides the three red chips into the three red chips the MC had bet, the MC's left hand eases out onto the betting circle and scoops up the original three red chips he’d bet, while his right hand lays in the two purple $500 chips with the red-chip capper (chip on top) exactly where the three original chips had been. All in the same motion, the MC’s left hand dumps the three reds removed from the layout in his left jacket pocket, while the right hand chases down the dealer's hand and taps it. As the MC goes into his claim, both his hands are completely empty and exposed palms-up. And now his three purple $500 backup chips are in plain view. The dealer will be shocked by the MC’s touch. No matter how soft, it is reverberating because a player never touches a dealer's hand at the blackjack table. Even a soft touch to the hand is the equvalent of whacking the dealer in the head with a bat!
Then the MC “claims” the move. "Hey!" he says harshly, "you paid me wrong! I bet $1,000 here! You paid me $15. What is this nonsense!" Then with a little flick of his index finger, he kicks the three red chips that the dealer had paid out of the betting circle. This is done to subconsciously urge the dealer to put those chips back in his rack, so when the floorman arrives he'd only see the MC's $1,005 bet and purple backup chips on the layout, and be sold that the MC is a legitimate big player. The dealer follows the cue and puts the three reds back in the rack, then pays the MC two $500 purples and a red, after receiving the floorman’s permission, which is granted as the dealer normally tells him that he simply didn’t see the purple chips underneath the red and therefore took the bet for (what is was) three $5 chips.
The move is very psychologically powerful, as that gentle tap to the dealer’s hand renders the dealer helpless and makes him believe he actually misread the bet, which is physically impossible on a blackjack table.
Then to continue the psychological dominance, a standard “bet-back” procedure is used where the MC changes one of his $500 chips for five black $100 chips, then bets two of those blacks with a red capper on the following hand. This shows more purple action to the floorman and keeps conformity to the odd quirk the MC has of capping large denomination chips with a red $5 chip, moves all subtly laced to prevent the casino staff from becoming suspicious.
This move had a whopping payoff rate of over 95% and was also done with $1,000 chips underneath $25 chips and $5,000 chips underneath $100 chips. And the amazing thing about it was that with each step upward in denomination used, the payoff rate only increased! In fact, 151 moves using two chocolate-colored $5,000 chips under one black $100 chip were paid consecutively without a single “miss!” That is $9,800 profit a pop!
The Blackjack Ten-Oh-Five
In this blackjack chip-switch, for 25 years the bread and butter move of the famous Classon Pastposting Team, one “mechanic/claimer” (MC) walks up to a blackjack table as the dealer is sweeping up the cards after paying and taking bets from the previous round. He places three red $5 chips on the first betting circle to the dealer's right, the position we called 3rd base. As he sits down he places five purple $500 chips and one $5 chip on the layout in front of him, covering them with his right hand in the same motion so that they remain hidden from everyone else in the casino. These are the chips that are going to form the move, which is two $500 chips and one $5 chip on top (thus its name “Ten-Oh-Five,” which correlates to the amount, $1,005), and the three remaining $500 chips that are called “backup chips” and will serve their purpose after the move goes down.
With his left hand, the MC plays the cards, giving the hit and stand signals to the dealer. At 3rd base, he is the last to play his hand, but the first to receive the dealer's attention after the round is finished and all the cards played. This meant that he would be the first paid on winners, the first to have his chips swept on losers. The importance of the 3rd base position was the angle it formed between its betting circle and the dealer's head while the dealer performed the mechanics of paying bets on the layout. The blackjack move could also be done from the other positions, but 3rd base was optimum. Each spot to the right of it made the move slightly tougher.
During the play of the hand, the MC never lifts his right hand off the five purple and one red chip hidden on the layout in front of him. If he loses the hand he simply gets up and goes to another table inside the casino. He cannot make a second bet at the same table because he has been established by the casino as a red-chip player. When he wins the hand, he prepares the move by cutting the top three move chips (two purples and a red) and waits for the dealer’s payoff, which is obviously going to be three red $5 chips. Once the dealer slides the three red chips into the three red chips the MC had bet, the MC's left hand eases out onto the betting circle and scoops up the original three red chips he’d bet, while his right hand lays in the two purple $500 chips with the red-chip capper (chip on top) exactly where the three original chips had been. All in the same motion, the MC’s left hand dumps the three reds removed from the layout in his left jacket pocket, while the right hand chases down the dealer's hand and taps it. As the MC goes into his claim, both his hands are completely empty and exposed palms-up. And now his three purple $500 backup chips are in plain view. The dealer will be shocked by the MC’s touch. No matter how soft, it is reverberating because a player never touches a dealer's hand at the blackjack table. Even a soft touch to the hand is the equvalent of whacking the dealer in the head with a bat!
Then the MC “claims” the move. "Hey!" he says harshly, "you paid me wrong! I bet $1,000 here! You paid me $15. What is this nonsense!" Then with a little flick of his index finger, he kicks the three red chips that the dealer had paid out of the betting circle. This is done to subconsciously urge the dealer to put those chips back in his rack, so when the floorman arrives he'd only see the MC's $1,005 bet and purple backup chips on the layout, and be sold that the MC is a legitimate big player. The dealer follows the cue and puts the three reds back in the rack, then pays the MC two $500 purples and a red, after receiving the floorman’s permission, which is granted as the dealer normally tells him that he simply didn’t see the purple chips underneath the red and therefore took the bet for (what is was) three $5 chips.
The move is very psychologically powerful, as that gentle tap to the dealer’s hand renders the dealer helpless and makes him believe he actually misread the bet, which is physically impossible on a blackjack table.
Then to continue the psychological dominance, a standard “bet-back” procedure is used where the MC changes one of his $500 chips for five black $100 chips, then bets two of those blacks with a red capper on the following hand. This shows more purple action to the floorman and keeps conformity to the odd quirk the MC has of capping large denomination chips with a red $5 chip, moves all subtly laced to prevent the casino staff from becoming suspicious.
This move had a whopping payoff rate of over 95% and was also done with $1,000 chips underneath $25 chips and $5,000 chips underneath $100 chips. And the amazing thing about it was that with each step upward in denomination used, the payoff rate only increased! In fact, 151 moves using two chocolate-colored $5,000 chips under one black $100 chip were paid consecutively without a single “miss!” That is $9,800 profit a pop!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Full Tilt Poker Top-10 Safe Online Poker Room
To see current safety ratings, click here.
FULL TILT POKER is experiencing a boom in traffic lately due to their big deposit bonus, television advertisements, and sponsorship deals with some of the biggest names in poker. Besides their advertising front, this site is very professional and offers some very nice promotions for new customers. Their software is original and players at all different levels can make a good profit on this site. I have not seen any evidence of serious cheating since I've been monitoring this site. Both collusion and bot play have been well below the industry average, and Full Tilt Poker has never appeared on my list of unsafe sites. For my complete review of Full Tilt Poker, click here.
FULL TILT POKER is experiencing a boom in traffic lately due to their big deposit bonus, television advertisements, and sponsorship deals with some of the biggest names in poker. Besides their advertising front, this site is very professional and offers some very nice promotions for new customers. Their software is original and players at all different levels can make a good profit on this site. I have not seen any evidence of serious cheating since I've been monitoring this site. Both collusion and bot play have been well below the industry average, and Full Tilt Poker has never appeared on my list of unsafe sites. For my complete review of Full Tilt Poker, click here.
How to Cheat At Poker: Now it's Trojan Cheats
TROJAN VIRUS USED TO STEAL FROM ONLINE POKER PLAYERS
We have all heard of the Trojan horse, both in the Homer's classic "Odyssey" and in today nefarious cyber underworld. I have written numerous articles on these dark corridors through which passes much of the online poker and casino cheating crime wave. The cyber Trojan horse is an evil piece of software designed to do serious damage to its unsuspecting victims. And according to 4Flush.com, it is now attacking online poker players:
Have you ran your Virus Scanner Lately? Recently, after finding a Trojan horse virus on her computer, a 4flush.com staff member began paying a bit more attention. The virus in question could not be removed by any of the virus scanners we tried, however, it can apparently be removed manually. The infected computer was put out to pasture, and the matter dropped. Until another of our computers became infected. We looked a little more into the matter, not wanting to put to many more of our computers in that already crowded pasture, and found a story on Tech Radar that claims online poker players are some of the ripest targets there are when it comes to thieves using Trojan viruses to steal from computer users.
A professional online poker player was attacked by someone he would play against regularly online. And we’re talking about professional players, and big money. Hundreds of thousands of euros on the table at a time,” Says Mike Hyppönen, chief research officer at security software company, F-Secure .
The story tells of a professional poker player, one that wins on a regular basis, going on a bad losing streak. He got no action with his winning hands, his bluffs were raised or called, his bankroll was quickly deflating. That player had accepted a tool via an download from another player, the tool was designed to calculate odds, but what the unnamed professional poker player did not know was that the tool also came with a Trojan virus, allowing the other player, the player that originally sent the odds calculator to cheat.
With just a click of a button the cheating player was able to see a screen shot of his opponents computer. On a side note, it would seam a new online poker room has opened, perhaps to have a little fun with the search term, Bet Trojan comes up first when you’re looking for poker and Trojan’s in a Google search.
We have all heard of the Trojan horse, both in the Homer's classic "Odyssey" and in today nefarious cyber underworld. I have written numerous articles on these dark corridors through which passes much of the online poker and casino cheating crime wave. The cyber Trojan horse is an evil piece of software designed to do serious damage to its unsuspecting victims. And according to 4Flush.com, it is now attacking online poker players:
Have you ran your Virus Scanner Lately? Recently, after finding a Trojan horse virus on her computer, a 4flush.com staff member began paying a bit more attention. The virus in question could not be removed by any of the virus scanners we tried, however, it can apparently be removed manually. The infected computer was put out to pasture, and the matter dropped. Until another of our computers became infected. We looked a little more into the matter, not wanting to put to many more of our computers in that already crowded pasture, and found a story on Tech Radar that claims online poker players are some of the ripest targets there are when it comes to thieves using Trojan viruses to steal from computer users.
A professional online poker player was attacked by someone he would play against regularly online. And we’re talking about professional players, and big money. Hundreds of thousands of euros on the table at a time,” Says Mike Hyppönen, chief research officer at security software company, F-Secure .
The story tells of a professional poker player, one that wins on a regular basis, going on a bad losing streak. He got no action with his winning hands, his bluffs were raised or called, his bankroll was quickly deflating. That player had accepted a tool via an download from another player, the tool was designed to calculate odds, but what the unnamed professional poker player did not know was that the tool also came with a Trojan virus, allowing the other player, the player that originally sent the odds calculator to cheat.
With just a click of a button the cheating player was able to see a screen shot of his opponents computer. On a side note, it would seam a new online poker room has opened, perhaps to have a little fun with the search term, Bet Trojan comes up first when you’re looking for poker and Trojan’s in a Google search.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Ultimate Bet Nionio Scandal Widens According to Kahnawake Gaming Commission
According to 4Flush.com, the Ultimate Bet online poker cheating scandal is creeping up on the notoriety scale to the point of sharing the top rung with its sister site, the even more notorious Absolute Poker. All this has fallen in the lap of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, whatever that means! Firstly, I wonder about the Kahnawake Gaming commission. What exactly is it? If you break down its name "Kahn--awake," you notice that the last three syllables of it (if it is indeed pronounced kahn--a--wokee) spell the word "awake." But what really makes the name funnily ironic is the first syllable of the name, "kahn." Do you know what "kahn" means in an ancient tribal language? No, I didn't think so. But it means "never." So if you go a little out of your way to translate "Kahnawake," you come up with the definition "never awake!" And it seems that is what this so called online gaming commission is!
Anyway, apart from the morning's comedy, 4flush.com says that the online poker industry as a whole has made a stand. Following the first incident of cheating, online poker rooms and the Kahnawake Gambling Commission, who in the opinion of many (me included) poorly mishandled the first case of cheating in poker rooms, are in this newest case of cheating poker players showing a united front.
On January 12th Ultimate Bet learned of a poker player who’s numbers just did not add up. NioNio a player on the popular poker website was showing irregular winnings, some suggested that a player could not have numbers that high unless he was playing with an unfair advantage, perhaps something similar to the case at Absolute Poker where certain players had access to their opponents hole cards.
On January 12, 2008, UltimateBet was alerted to allegations that a player with the online handle “NioNio” exhibited abnormally high winning statistics and was accused of having an unfair advantage during play. These allegations were made both directly to UltimateBet by concerned players and the KGC, and indirectly through several web forums. The allegations also included reports of suspicious activity concerning the deletion of the NioNio account and other accounts that may have been related to this scheme.
There is another similarity between this story and the one we watched unfold at Absolute Poker a few weeks ago. In both cases it was not the software or security that unfolded the cheating scandal, but the high stakes poker players themselves. Additionally, there is an unamed ‘expert’ mentioned in the Ultimate Bet press release, players are asking why the ‘expert’ or at least his position is not being disclosed.
Though according to industry experts, it took some time for representatives of Ultimate Bet to come forward with a statement. It has been months since the issue was originally raised in popular poker forum 2+2.
Only one account has been fingered in these cheating allegations, the account of NioNio, primarily a high stakes cash poker player.
“UltimateBet is in regular communications and contact with its regulatory authority, The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), and will continue to cooperate fully with that body.
“UltimateBet is determined to complete a full and thorough investigation. We pride ourselves on providing a safe, secure playing environment for our customers. The investigation has proven to be extremely complex and, therefore, has been more extensive and taken much longer than initially expected. We continue to aggressively pursue the matter and will communicate the findings of our full investigation to our regulatory authority and to our customer base as soon as practicable.”
And do you all remember the post that WSOP bracelet winner Brett Jungblut made on the PocketFives poker forum last November. Jungblut, posting as "gank" (I wonder if he chose that name because it rhymes with "skank" and that's how he felt about online poker cheaters), wrote the following on PocketFives, claiming he had inside information from an employee at Ultimate Bet:
"Well, I guess I have become the reporter everyone trusts to talk about what goes on behind the scenes while protecting my source's identity, as I have been contacted by and had a long conversation with an employee at UB who wished to shed light on the company. Again, I will protect my source and not be releasing his/her name to anyone, ever.
I will list the all the important points from the conversation as best I can.
1. It is possible to have upto 25 usernames registered to 1 players name on UB, they know about this and are ok with it as a company.
2. If someone does have multiple accounts, even if they are registered to the same name and use the same IP address, they are permitted to play at the same table, cash games and sitNgos and tournies. UB knows about this, and are OK with it.
3. Although my source is not sure if hole cards could be seen during the hand by a superuser account, my source does know that as soon as a hand is over with, UB personell has access to see everyones holecards even those that didnt go to showdown. This has been used by some UB higher ups at times while they were playing. Not a direct form of cheating, but definitely an unfair advantage if the person has access to this while playing.
4. A higher level executive was fired not to long ago, because her 19 year old son, who she got a job at UB, was caught cheating games at the UB office. It is unclear to my source if holecards were able to be seen during the hand, but it is a possibility. He definitely was cheating customers somehow, maybe a cobination of the above things mentioned at the very least.
edit: Another close, reliable source has just talked to me and told me "the woman's son had"administrative access" which let him see hole cards." and that the source "wouldn't besurprised if administrative access still exists" The person went on to say "there's also evidence that at least a couple months agoAJ (Green) was overseeing day to day operations"
5. "Someone" was brought on board by UB to help clean up the site. He figured out the problem was that they were using a version of the software from 1998 that had security holes in it(i.e. no security firewalls were/could be put in place) that couldnt be fixed without a complete overhaul of the software, which was estimated at costing 6 million dollars. UB decided it was not in their best interests to upgrade the software.
6. My source also voiced their concern for my safety for vocalizing these points.
I bring this to light because I feel that this is the important stuff that our community needs to be aware of."
Well, all this sounds credible to me.
Anyway, apart from the morning's comedy, 4flush.com says that the online poker industry as a whole has made a stand. Following the first incident of cheating, online poker rooms and the Kahnawake Gambling Commission, who in the opinion of many (me included) poorly mishandled the first case of cheating in poker rooms, are in this newest case of cheating poker players showing a united front.
On January 12th Ultimate Bet learned of a poker player who’s numbers just did not add up. NioNio a player on the popular poker website was showing irregular winnings, some suggested that a player could not have numbers that high unless he was playing with an unfair advantage, perhaps something similar to the case at Absolute Poker where certain players had access to their opponents hole cards.
On January 12, 2008, UltimateBet was alerted to allegations that a player with the online handle “NioNio” exhibited abnormally high winning statistics and was accused of having an unfair advantage during play. These allegations were made both directly to UltimateBet by concerned players and the KGC, and indirectly through several web forums. The allegations also included reports of suspicious activity concerning the deletion of the NioNio account and other accounts that may have been related to this scheme.
There is another similarity between this story and the one we watched unfold at Absolute Poker a few weeks ago. In both cases it was not the software or security that unfolded the cheating scandal, but the high stakes poker players themselves. Additionally, there is an unamed ‘expert’ mentioned in the Ultimate Bet press release, players are asking why the ‘expert’ or at least his position is not being disclosed.
Though according to industry experts, it took some time for representatives of Ultimate Bet to come forward with a statement. It has been months since the issue was originally raised in popular poker forum 2+2.
Only one account has been fingered in these cheating allegations, the account of NioNio, primarily a high stakes cash poker player.
“UltimateBet is in regular communications and contact with its regulatory authority, The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), and will continue to cooperate fully with that body.
“UltimateBet is determined to complete a full and thorough investigation. We pride ourselves on providing a safe, secure playing environment for our customers. The investigation has proven to be extremely complex and, therefore, has been more extensive and taken much longer than initially expected. We continue to aggressively pursue the matter and will communicate the findings of our full investigation to our regulatory authority and to our customer base as soon as practicable.”
And do you all remember the post that WSOP bracelet winner Brett Jungblut made on the PocketFives poker forum last November. Jungblut, posting as "gank" (I wonder if he chose that name because it rhymes with "skank" and that's how he felt about online poker cheaters), wrote the following on PocketFives, claiming he had inside information from an employee at Ultimate Bet:
"Well, I guess I have become the reporter everyone trusts to talk about what goes on behind the scenes while protecting my source's identity, as I have been contacted by and had a long conversation with an employee at UB who wished to shed light on the company. Again, I will protect my source and not be releasing his/her name to anyone, ever.
I will list the all the important points from the conversation as best I can.
1. It is possible to have upto 25 usernames registered to 1 players name on UB, they know about this and are ok with it as a company.
2. If someone does have multiple accounts, even if they are registered to the same name and use the same IP address, they are permitted to play at the same table, cash games and sitNgos and tournies. UB knows about this, and are OK with it.
3. Although my source is not sure if hole cards could be seen during the hand by a superuser account, my source does know that as soon as a hand is over with, UB personell has access to see everyones holecards even those that didnt go to showdown. This has been used by some UB higher ups at times while they were playing. Not a direct form of cheating, but definitely an unfair advantage if the person has access to this while playing.
4. A higher level executive was fired not to long ago, because her 19 year old son, who she got a job at UB, was caught cheating games at the UB office. It is unclear to my source if holecards were able to be seen during the hand, but it is a possibility. He definitely was cheating customers somehow, maybe a cobination of the above things mentioned at the very least.
edit: Another close, reliable source has just talked to me and told me "the woman's son had"administrative access" which let him see hole cards." and that the source "wouldn't besurprised if administrative access still exists" The person went on to say "there's also evidence that at least a couple months agoAJ (Green) was overseeing day to day operations"
5. "Someone" was brought on board by UB to help clean up the site. He figured out the problem was that they were using a version of the software from 1998 that had security holes in it(i.e. no security firewalls were/could be put in place) that couldnt be fixed without a complete overhaul of the software, which was estimated at costing 6 million dollars. UB decided it was not in their best interests to upgrade the software.
6. My source also voiced their concern for my safety for vocalizing these points.
I bring this to light because I feel that this is the important stuff that our community needs to be aware of."
Well, all this sounds credible to me.
Monday, March 10, 2008
How Poker DNA Will Protect Against Cheating Online
Well, the latest in how to cheat at online poker is of course the Ultimate Bet scam. Reading about online poker cheating is becoming much like the "Ho-Hum Daily." But now there's something interesting on the horizon that may contradict some of this rash of online poker cheating. It's something very reminiscent of fighting crime in the real world: DNA. That's right, "Poker DNA" may soon be here to protect us from at least one major form of online poker scamming that has become quite prevalent recently.
Computer hackers have been trawling the online poker rooms "phishing" for sensitive player information by way of phony e-mails. Once they've attained it they put it to immediate use: log in as a player whose identification codes they've pilfered and play against an accomplice, intentionally dumping his chips to the cohort until the account is emptied. This is the hackers' form of online chip dumping.
But a professor from the University of Buffalo and his colleague have come up with a method to combat this problem. They are working on systems to monitor individual play, examining specific traits to each player. They claim that no two poker players play exactly alike, sounding much like the individuality concerning fingerprints and DNA. They say it's establishing a player "DNA" unique to each player.
The industrious pair, Roman Yampolskiy and Venu Govindaraju, are building databases containing information such as how often a player bets and raises, when he tends to do either, the relative amounts of those bets and raises as well as his fold ratio during the play of thousands of hands and at all points of those hands. With all that data, they claim, a unique player profile can be customized for every player in the world.
Then when a poker player's "DNA" is registered, play significantly deviating from his profile can be flagged as suspicious. Only one hour of play is needed to identify players with 80% accuracy, say the software writers, and the more play recorded, the higher the accuracy.
Naturally, there are skeptics challenging the utility of the system. Unpredictable play is essential at the highest levels of poker, they say. Jonathan Schaeffer, head of the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group and an expert on the effectiveness of online poker bots, says, "If you are predictable, you can be exploited. Strong players try not to be predictable."
Furthermore, the DNA software could be used in place of a bot, using data to create a profile for opponents and thus cheating in predicting other players' hands. Yes, it gets increasingly complicated. Heightened security when players log-in might be more effective at preventing identity thefts than software detection, but nevertheless, this new wave of poker-cheat-busting DNA sounds interesting to me.
Computer hackers have been trawling the online poker rooms "phishing" for sensitive player information by way of phony e-mails. Once they've attained it they put it to immediate use: log in as a player whose identification codes they've pilfered and play against an accomplice, intentionally dumping his chips to the cohort until the account is emptied. This is the hackers' form of online chip dumping.
But a professor from the University of Buffalo and his colleague have come up with a method to combat this problem. They are working on systems to monitor individual play, examining specific traits to each player. They claim that no two poker players play exactly alike, sounding much like the individuality concerning fingerprints and DNA. They say it's establishing a player "DNA" unique to each player.
The industrious pair, Roman Yampolskiy and Venu Govindaraju, are building databases containing information such as how often a player bets and raises, when he tends to do either, the relative amounts of those bets and raises as well as his fold ratio during the play of thousands of hands and at all points of those hands. With all that data, they claim, a unique player profile can be customized for every player in the world.
Then when a poker player's "DNA" is registered, play significantly deviating from his profile can be flagged as suspicious. Only one hour of play is needed to identify players with 80% accuracy, say the software writers, and the more play recorded, the higher the accuracy.
Naturally, there are skeptics challenging the utility of the system. Unpredictable play is essential at the highest levels of poker, they say. Jonathan Schaeffer, head of the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group and an expert on the effectiveness of online poker bots, says, "If you are predictable, you can be exploited. Strong players try not to be predictable."
Furthermore, the DNA software could be used in place of a bot, using data to create a profile for opponents and thus cheating in predicting other players' hands. Yes, it gets increasingly complicated. Heightened security when players log-in might be more effective at preventing identity thefts than software detection, but nevertheless, this new wave of poker-cheat-busting DNA sounds interesting to me.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Bodog is Top-10 Safe Online Poker Room!
To see current safety ratings, click here.
BODOG POKER offers players who sign up a great 110% bonus on their initial deposit, up to $500. An instant 10% cash bonus will be awarded upfront and for every 10 Bodog Poker Points earned in the following 30 days, players will be awarded $1 of their bonus. The bonus is released as a lump sum after the first 30 days. Players earn up to one Bodog Poker Point per raked pot and three Bodog Poker Points per dollar in tournament fees. I have not seen any evidence of serious cheating since I've been monitoring this site. Both collusion and bot play have been well below the industry average, and Bodog Poker has never appeared on my list of unsafe sites. For my complete review of Bodog Poker, click here.
BODOG POKER offers players who sign up a great 110% bonus on their initial deposit, up to $500. An instant 10% cash bonus will be awarded upfront and for every 10 Bodog Poker Points earned in the following 30 days, players will be awarded $1 of their bonus. The bonus is released as a lump sum after the first 30 days. Players earn up to one Bodog Poker Point per raked pot and three Bodog Poker Points per dollar in tournament fees. I have not seen any evidence of serious cheating since I've been monitoring this site. Both collusion and bot play have been well below the industry average, and Bodog Poker has never appeared on my list of unsafe sites. For my complete review of Bodog Poker, click here.
UltimateBet talks about NioNio online poker cheating scam / Bodog is Top-10 Safe Online Poker Room!
It's no secret that UltimateBet is controlled by the same corporate entity as Absolute Poker, so, as expected, they are quick to mend any damage caused on their site by the alleged cheater using the handle "NioNio." The last thing this company needs is another major scandal, as the Absolute Poker scandal was the biggest in the history of online poker cheating. An article by PokerKingBlog.com gave the latest details about UB's public statement:
UltimateBet Makes Public Statement Regarding "NioNio" Allegations:
UltimateBet released a public statement today regarding the allegations that UB player "NioNio", and possibly others on the site, may have had some sort of an unfair advantage while playing on UltimateBet.
In a statement that was released on 2+2, UltimateBet says that they were alerted on January 12th, 2008 that a player with the handle of "NioNio" was "exhibiting abnormally high winning statistics" and was "accused of having an unfair advantage during play". According to their statement, several players complained to both UltimateBet directly and the KGC.
Obviously, in light of the Absolute Poker scandal, people are taking these kinds of allegations very seriously now, especially given the fact that UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are controlled by the same corporate entity. There was some fairly compelling evidence posted on 2+2 that certainly warranted some investigation, especially considering the company that was involved.
UltimateBet goes on to say that they "immediately launched an extensive inquiry" involving "an independent third-party expert" to review hundreds of thousands of suspect hand histories.
Apparently the "third-party expert" found that the hand histories were suspicious enough to warrant an "expansion of the investigation".
"NioNio" seemed to operate in mid to high level No Limit Hold'em cash games on the site, and completely destroyed his competition to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars before disappearing from the site.
People want to know:
1) Did "NioNio" have some sort of an unfair advantage over the other players at the site?
2) If so, what was this advantage and how was it implemented?
3) Were there other accounts involved?
4) What happened to "NioNio", and who controlled this account?
Apparently the investigation will be finishing in another 2-3 weeks, so we will have to wait until then to receive some more information.
In the meantime, we are going to educate ourselves regarding this situation and hopefully post more on the matter in the near future.
Is this Superuser-Gate Part 2 in the making? If something shady did in fact occur, what will UltimateBet do about it? There are some players that lost a very significant amount of money to "NioNio". We'll have more on this story as information becomes available.
BODOG POKER
To see current safety ratings, click here.
BODOG POKER offers players who sign up a great 110% bonus on their initial deposit, up to $500. An instant 10% cash bonus will be awarded upfront and for every 10 Bodog Poker Points earned in the following 30 days, players will be awarded $1 of their bonus. The bonus is released as a lump sum after the first 30 days. Players earn up to one Bodog Poker Point per raked pot and three Bodog Poker Points per dollar in tournament fees. I have not seen any evidence of serious cheating since I've been monitoring this site. Both collusion and bot play have been well below the industry average, and Bodog Poker has never appeared on my list of unsafe sites. For my complete review of Bodog Poker, click here.
UltimateBet Makes Public Statement Regarding "NioNio" Allegations:
UltimateBet released a public statement today regarding the allegations that UB player "NioNio", and possibly others on the site, may have had some sort of an unfair advantage while playing on UltimateBet.
In a statement that was released on 2+2, UltimateBet says that they were alerted on January 12th, 2008 that a player with the handle of "NioNio" was "exhibiting abnormally high winning statistics" and was "accused of having an unfair advantage during play". According to their statement, several players complained to both UltimateBet directly and the KGC.
Obviously, in light of the Absolute Poker scandal, people are taking these kinds of allegations very seriously now, especially given the fact that UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are controlled by the same corporate entity. There was some fairly compelling evidence posted on 2+2 that certainly warranted some investigation, especially considering the company that was involved.
UltimateBet goes on to say that they "immediately launched an extensive inquiry" involving "an independent third-party expert" to review hundreds of thousands of suspect hand histories.
Apparently the "third-party expert" found that the hand histories were suspicious enough to warrant an "expansion of the investigation".
"NioNio" seemed to operate in mid to high level No Limit Hold'em cash games on the site, and completely destroyed his competition to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars before disappearing from the site.
People want to know:
1) Did "NioNio" have some sort of an unfair advantage over the other players at the site?
2) If so, what was this advantage and how was it implemented?
3) Were there other accounts involved?
4) What happened to "NioNio", and who controlled this account?
Apparently the investigation will be finishing in another 2-3 weeks, so we will have to wait until then to receive some more information.
In the meantime, we are going to educate ourselves regarding this situation and hopefully post more on the matter in the near future.
Is this Superuser-Gate Part 2 in the making? If something shady did in fact occur, what will UltimateBet do about it? There are some players that lost a very significant amount of money to "NioNio". We'll have more on this story as information becomes available.
BODOG POKER
To see current safety ratings, click here.
BODOG POKER offers players who sign up a great 110% bonus on their initial deposit, up to $500. An instant 10% cash bonus will be awarded upfront and for every 10 Bodog Poker Points earned in the following 30 days, players will be awarded $1 of their bonus. The bonus is released as a lump sum after the first 30 days. Players earn up to one Bodog Poker Point per raked pot and three Bodog Poker Points per dollar in tournament fees. I have not seen any evidence of serious cheating since I've been monitoring this site. Both collusion and bot play have been well below the industry average, and Bodog Poker has never appeared on my list of unsafe sites. For my complete review of Bodog Poker, click here.
Proteja Sus Casinos!
Proteja sus juegos de mesa y sus máquinas de azar. Llame a Richard Marcus, el ex-mejor tramposo de los casinos del mundo. Hoy Sr. Marcus dirige seminarios para enseñar a los dueños y gerentes de los casinos a evitar ser timados y evitar que los agarren de tontos. El habla espagñol con fluidez.
Protégez Vos Casinos!
Protégez vos jeux de table et vos machines à sous. Faites appel à Richard Marcus, l’ancien meilleur tricheur du casino au monde, qui aujourd’hui donne des séminaires de protection de jeux du casino. Il peut bien vous proteger contre toutes les pertes des tricheurs et les employés malhonnêtes. Il parle parfaitment Français.
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