The 24-Hour Poker News Cyclone

A ton happening over the last 24 hours in the poker world. Glad I’m not our buddy PKRGSSP trying to follow it all!

I mean, I wrote two posts yesterday -- one in which I fretted over my poker skills becoming atrophied the longer my break from cash game play extends (“My Mind Is Going... I Can Feel It...”), the other summarizing poker-related highlights from yesterday’s House hearing (“House Judiciary Committee Discusses Online Poker with U.S. Attorney General Holder”). And I could probably write at least three more today.

One would concern Federated Sports and Gaming announcing both its criteria for membership in its professional poker league and the first 218 players to qualify to participate in its inaugural season’s worth of tourneys, set to begin in August. FS+G Chairman Jeffrey Pollack and Executive Vice President and League Commissioner Annie Duke talked at length about the current status of the professional poker league with PokerNews yesterday.

With Black Friday having caused the cancellation of a number of poker shows as well as the nixing of Full Tilt Poker’s Onyx Cup, the FS+G’s poker league’s prospects for success may well have improved significantly over the past couple of weeks, particularly if those rumors about the FS+G having partnered with a major TV network (CBS?) to cover its events prove true.

Another post could discuss how more signs have surfaced that the Cereus network’s days are numbered -- and that players’ funds on Absolute Poker and UltimateBet could possibly be worth approximately the same as my enormous play money roll on PokerStars (sick brag).

See Bill Rini’s post from yesterday for further details about recent announcements, that internal memo from AP’s Executive Management Team that was leaked yesterday, and a letter to AP’s shareholders. Rini concludes that all of the evidence points to a strong likelihood that “UB players are going to get screwed” when it comes to cashing out.

Haley Hintze did some more “conjecturin’” yesterday, too, noting how that internal memo’s reference to the formation of a “much smaller company that is focused on continuing our non-US operations” could be part of a “ruse to buy time” for the execs to gather up what’s left of AP and hightail it outta Costa Rica.

Incidentally, let me share two bits of hilarity with regard to the AP/UB mess. One is Matt Kaufman’s inspired post from last week over on his blog, Poker Smell, titled “UB Cashout Options Revealed.” Some big grins there. The other I can’t share with you directly, unfortunately, but can only describe.

The panel on QuadJacks spent some time yesterday trying to get through to UB’s customer service. Upon being connected, an automated voice informed them the “estimated wait time” before speaking to a representative would be two minutes. The next notice was the wait would be three minutes (?). Then, two again. Then one. Then three! Then four, then five... on up to seven.

The whole sequence was laugh-out-loud funny to hear, not to mention an utterly perfect emblem of what UB has come to represent, I thought.

Finally, a third post might have focused on recent reports regarding the status of U.S.-based affiliates for both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

I’m not as deep into the affiliate game as some of my colleagues -- I was a little late (and too lethargic) to position myself to grab a slice of that pie -- so I’m not as in touch with the ins and outs of the online poker affiliate story.

It appears, though, as fun (and lucrative, for some) as that story has been, the final chapter is not going to be a pleasant one for the American affiliates, as evidenced by Pauly’s post (regarding PokerStars) and this note over on Rake360 (regarding Full Tilt).

Like I say, any of these topics might have been worth exploring in individual posts. But to be honest, I want to write about other things, including one last Lima story I’ve been trying to get to for a couple of weeks now. So I think I’ll put all of this other stuff aside for now and focus on telling that one, which barring any other late breaking stuff I’ll try to do tomorrow.

Meanwhile, follow them links above if yr curious to learn more about any of these stories from the last day in poker.

Security Leakin’, of SCOOP Speakin’, and C’mon, Everybody We’re Going Streakin’!

Was busy delivering the scoop on SCOOP again last night (and this morning), and so once again am running low on mental fuel this afternoon.

If I did, I might’ve written something about the latest shenanigans at Cereus -- there’s been yet another security issue over there -- but as I say I haven’t the energy at the moment to do so. Just as well, really, as all I’d have to add would be to reiterate my distaste with Cereus, to recommend new players avoid signing up at UB or Absolute Poker, and perhaps to laugh a little at the absurdity of it all.

In other words, to join in the (deserved) piling on.

For those unfamiliar, click here to read the original report over on Poker Table Ratings of the vulnerability at Cereus concerning their encryption mechanism. (There are follow-up pieces over on PTR as well, if you click around.) You might also see UB.com COO Paul Leggett’s initial response to the news, of which he says he’s “very shocked” to learn. And here is UB.com spokesperson and media & operations consultant Joe Sebok’s note on the matter, too -- not posted on his UB.com blog (yet?) but rather over on PokerRoad.

As I said, was pretty much solely occupied with writing up several different SCOOP events here of late. Here’s how I spent the last 24 hours or so, if you’re curious:

In Event No. 24-Medium, the $109 buy-in Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw event, Buckeye 119 took it down. Team PokerStars pro Pat Pezzin had chips deep in this one, but finished 14th, thereby thwarting my opportunity to have built a headline around the phrase “Standing Pat.” Also some funny chat reported here, thanks to the appropriately-named player Needleking.

In Event No. 25-High, the $2,100 buy-in Stud/8 event, Gunslinger3 took it down, ultimately outlasting Team PokerStars Pro George Lind III to do so.

And in Event No. 26-Low, an $11 NLHE event, *guerillaz* carried the day, coming out on top of a huge, 16,498 player field. Tourney ended on a crushing bad beat for runner-up fysass1881. Post contains an utterly appropriate reference to Frank the Tank’s “We’re goin’ streakin’!” scene in Old School.

Nice little series they’re putting on over there at Stars. Not so little, actually. A decent poker site, I’d say. Definitely a better choice than some sites, if yr lookin’ for somewheres to play.

The UltimateBet Follies (Winter 2009 edition)

A quick search of all my January posts (aside from the 2008 recap ones that came at the start of the year) reveals I have yet to mention the online poker site UltimateBet a single time.

I did make a passing reference earlier this week to the Cereus network -- which includes both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet -- in a post about the Kentucky Court of Appeals having reversed that domain-seizure case. Otherwise, I’ve managed to resist yapping about any of the nonsense we continue to hear about UB.

Decided it time to break that streak today, though, and give a little update. Julius Goat often likes to offer us what he calls “Your Weekly Dose of Crazy.” (Incidentally, the one from this week is especially cra-a-a-a-azy.) Consider this your seasonal dose of UlimateBaloney.

1. The Ultimate Poker Show

Back in November, UltimateBet decided to launch a new weekly poker podcast called “The Ultimate Poker Show.” The show is hosted by a couple of the site’s pros, Annie Duke and Mark Kroon, an adult man who probably wishes he hadn’t chosen that name “P0ker H0” way back when he first started playing online.

I’ve listened to a few of the episodes, including the one on which fellow UB pro Phil Hellmuth came on to tell about that hand of $200/$400 limit hold’em from late December he had lost to “DOUBLEBALLER” but was nevertheless shipped the $5,599 pot. You remember, that was the show where Hellmuth casually (and crazily) claimed “this has happened 100 times,” a statement that didn’t quite jibe with what Paul Leggett (UB’s Chief Operating Officer) had just said over on the UB blog where he claimed UB “never had an issue like this reported previously.”

That conversation (from the 12/28/08 episode of the podcast) also didn’t really fit well with the previous weeks’ crowing about all the great new software updates going on at the Cereus network. As one might expect, while “The Ultimate Poker Show” does include some poker strategy discussion here and there, it mostly serves as a weekly ad for UB, showcasing its pros and promoting various promotions and tourneys happening on the site. In other words, safely skip.

2. New Possibilities for the Multi-Accounter?

More recently, Serge “Adanthar” Ravitch, the New York lawyer who was among that group of cybersleuths who uncovered the cheating scandal at Absolute Poker, made a post in mid-January reporting yet another jaw-dropping software (and security) issue at the Cereus network.

You might recall Ravitch appeared on camera briefly during that 60 Minutes report back in late November. In his reaction to the segment, WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla said Ravitch “came across as one of the most positive faces of the entire segment,” and especially appreciated the level-headed way Ravitch spoke about the scandals “without the hyperbole and apprehension that everything and everyone out there might be corrupt.”

Like me, Ravitch was purposely avoiding writing about UltimateBet on his blog, saying in his 1/15/09 post that he had “no intention of continuing to spend X amount of time every day documenting more Cereus scandal(s) fallout and/or security holes.” But then he pointed us to a Two Plus Two thread that suggested it was possible for a player to log into his Absolute Poker account and his UltimateBet accounts at the same time and subsequently enter the same tournament twice.

This may or may not be the case, actually, although like I say I wouldn’t expect Ravitch to fan the flames without reasonable suspicion. I do recall that prior to the merger of the sites it was apparently possible for multiple users to log into UltimateBet from different locations using the same username/password. (Wrote about that glitch about a year ago.)

3. Bad Mouth UB, Lose Yr Cabbage

Another thread on Two Plus Two caught my eye a week or so ago, one in which a poster was sharing the terms of service for the recent UltimateBet Online Championship series. Apparently, if one were to enter any of the UBOC tourneys and cash, one was subsequently restricted from saying anything critical of the site or risk losing one’s winnings.

The rule (part of Rule #18) specifically states that “UltimateBet® may cancel or terminate the UBOC and/or may cancel or terminate the awarding of any Prize(s), and cease distribution of any outstanding Prize if... A Prize winner commits embezzlement or theft against or from UltimateBet®, commits any public act of disrepute, publicly disparages UltimateBet®, or commits any other act that diminishes or that may diminish the value of UltimateBet® or any one or more of its brands.”

So be nice, y’all, if you happen to have won anything on UltimateBet. (Clearly I now have yet another reason never to play on the site!)

4. More False Promises

Finally, just a quick update on the status of my request to UB to send me all of my hand histories from the very brief period when I played on the site. You might recall back in December I posted about having heard Annie Duke claim over on the PokerRoad podcast that as part of UB’s efforts to make “everyone whole,” the site would “send anybody who requests it their lifetime hand histories.”

I was actually surprised to hear that, since a couple of months before I had made such a request to UB and was told then that “due to the amount of information, we are not able to send you all your hand histories.”

Incidentally, regarding the voluminous “amount of information” to which UB refers, I went back and looked up just how many hands we’re talking about here. A little over 1,200. That’s right. How many man-hours you think it takes to recover that heaping pile of hands?

I wrote UB again on 12/16/08, referring to Duke’s claim, and received a response telling me that yes, in fact, they could send me all of my hand histories, “however, because it is a lot of information we will need to look for that information in our server, this process could take up to 2 weeks.” I wrote back to thank the support person and to say that would be fine.

Two weeks passed, and I heard nothing from UB. So I wrote again (on 1/3/09), asking what was up. I got the automated response telling me my email had been “forwarded your email to the appropriate department,” but heard nothing further.

Send another message into the void on 1/19/09, and haven’t heard back. Clearly the claim made by Annie Duke that UB will send anyone their hand histories is a bunch of applesauce. The site disappoints again and again and again.

Wait a minute, what’s this? Looks like just this morning I received an email from Absolute Poker? Let’s see here...?

“$10 waiting in your AP account.”

A Provocative Pair

Interesting juxtaposition of poker stories here at the start of the week.

First Absolute Poker and UltimateBet announced in a press release issued Monday they’ve finally joined their player pools and launched that Cereus poker “network.” You remember. Bigger, badder, better.

Hard to read the presser without smiling here and there at the many unintended ironies. For example, the first line states “It’s being hailed as a totally new online poker platform, but for players at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, there will be a lot of old familiar faces at the tables.” Of course, there are at least a few “old familiar faces” players most certainly do not want to see at the tables. Potripper, NioNio, Russ Hamilton, et al. (Rim shot.)

There’s more in the release about how the whole project took over 12 months to develop and how the combined player pools means Cereus “has instantly become the industry’s third largest online poker network.” Will certainly be interesting to see what sort of numbers Cereus attracts. I’m seeing a report over on PokerScout about the launch. They are saying that players began filling tables within an hour of the new software going online last night, and now traffic “appears to be headed toward a peak of some 4000 real money ring game players, close to the expected sum of traffic from the two sites when they operated independently.”

PokerScout also notes how some are already complaining about the new software on the forums, in particular the UltimateBet crowd, since it looks like the big change was to make UB look more like Absolute. I personally never liked the UB software much, but some were devoted, it seems, and thus the complaints.

Now my buddy Mark over at Plan3tGong makes a good point about the Cereus launch giving the hyperbolic “haters” a chance to relaunch their own network of negativity directed toward AP, UB, and those who choose to promote ’em. He’s right to say there isn’t much constructive in further demonizing those responsible for the cheating and attempted cover-ups, not to mention those not responsible (i.e., affiliates) who have suffered a kind of collateral damage here.

Still, I’m not seeing how anyone faced with a choice between playing at, say, PokerStars, or the new AP/UB hybrid could possibly be all that encouraged to play at the terrible twins’ site given the huge differences in the sites’ relative safety and service.

The Cereus launch story reads a bit differently, perhaps, thanks to that other story from yesterday, namely, the news that 60 Minutes plans to air (finally) that segment on the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet insider cheating scandals this Sunday, November 30th. Had a reader email me this screen shot of the 60 Minutes’ “Up Next” page yesterday (thanks, Adam):



That summary is intriguing, suggesting as it does that a focus of the piece will be the “mostly-unregulated” nature of online poker, thus implying regulation is warranted. One gets the sense from the summary -- and a clip from the segment currently being shown over on the CBS site -- that an idea will be to present the online poker world as a veritable (if virtual) “Wild West” sorely in need of some sort of oversight.

The clip begins with segment host Steve Kroft’s voice intoning “We should tell you that this $18 billion industry is illegal in the U.S., but the ban is almost impossible to enforce, since the internet sites and the computers that randomly deal the cards and keep track of the bets are located offshore, beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement.”

But that doesn’t stop “thousands of mostly young men” from playing (Kroft continues). I said way back in March (has it been that long?!) when we first heard rumors about a 60 Minutes exposé that those of us who play online poker should welcome such scrutiny, not fear it. And I still feel the same way, although I suppose I share the trepidation of some regarding how the mainstream might misinterpret statements like “this $18 billion industry is illegal in the U.S.” Yes, it is illegal to operate a site, but, as we all know, it ain’t illegal for us to play. (Most of us, anyway.) But how will most viewers hear that line on Sunday?

More specifically, will the 60 Minutes story negatively affect traffic over on the new Cereus network? Probably depends partly on exactly how the story is told, although my hunch is the report won’t have that much of an impact on AP & UB’s numbers, mainly because we Americans are still (realistically speaking) somewhat limited when it comes to our choices for online poker.

I’m guessing the story won’t be affecting most of you reading this blog. You’ve made your decision already about AP/UB, one way or the other.

As have I.

UB & AP Think Makeover Gives Them a Do-Over

Like most of you, I saw yesterday’s presser from the “management” of online poker sites Absolute Poker and UltimateBet announcing “the upcoming launch of CEREUS: a new poker platform that will integrate the customers and features from both poker rooms, instantly making CEREUS the third largest online poker network.”

First read the news over on Pokerati. Dan’s headline to his post -- “AP and UB Merge to Form Criminally Questionable Supersite” -- initially gave the impression that we were reading some sort of lampoon in the style of The Onion (or Melted Felt). But apparently this is no joke.

Sounds like the idea here is not to form a single site, actually, but rather to share the player pools between AP and UB. Thus, as is the case with other networks that feature “skins,” players will (I assume) only be allowed a single account on both, but will have the option of which interface to use.

Aside from the dozens of puns that spring to mind (“Are they Cereus?”), I just have three initial reactions to the news:

(1) Damage control.

What we are seeing here is not unlike what the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was doing earlier in the week with its much-belated statement regarding the UltimateBet scandal. Despite appearances, said the KGC, we weren’t “doing nothing” with regard to UB. Rather, its “investigation... has yielded a number of key findings which, within the next several days, will enable the KGC to issue its decision on the appropriate steps to be taken.”

That 60 Minutes exposé ominously looms in the near future, and both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet stand to lose face when that feature finally airs. When that day comes, all of those associated with both AP and UB will want to have positioned themselves in such a way as to appear to have responded correctly to the scandals. A new network with a new name affords new titles for those running the show, enabling them (perhaps) to distance themselves even further from all that unpleasantness everyone keeps going on about.

(2) People are buying this?

I see an enthusiastic announcement over on Pocket Fives about the merger. Bluff Magazine also thinks it’s just the cat’s pajamas. (P5s continues to operate as an affiliate of UltimateBet, while Bluff is still an affiliate of both Absolute Poker and UB.)

Applesauce, of course. The reasonable response to such news is serious (I said it), deep-rooted skepticism. The idea that two online poker sites, both of which permitted insiders to exploit breaches in the sites’ integrity in different ways, could somehow be expected to manage the task of creating a unified, trustworthy network between them is frankly beyond belief.

(3) How futile.

What a half-baked, facile attempt at rebranding. Really. Something likely dreamed up by the same underachieving ad execs who thought putting Phil Hellmuth in a general’s uniform in order to recruit dupes to join the “UltimateBet Army” was clever.

Over on UltimateBet, we read that “the strongest online poker community is about to get CEREUS.” Over at Absolute Poker, word is “the future of online poker is CEREUS; bigger, badder, better...” Only those utterly ignorant of online poker could possibly be convinced that AP and UB together comprise “the strongest online poker community.” And perhaps some segment of that group responds positively to hollow (yet alliterative!) phrases like “bigger, badder, better.”

No telling where it all will lead. Can’t help thinking, though, that somewhere down the road -- perhaps not that far -- we’ll be reading about “Cereus missteps” and “Cereus problems.”