More Absolute shenanigans...this time involvling Phil H...

[Spidey44]

From :

Are You CEREUS?
If you play online poker, you're aware that there have been some... problems... at AbsolutePoker and UltimateBet. You're also probably aware that those two sites recently merged into some uber-entity called CEREUS. It would seem that the merge has not gone as smoothly as AP/UB would have hoped. 2+2 gives us the following thread:



Cliff notes: Playing heads-up $200-$400 limit hold'em, Phil Hellmuth calls down with 2s-10s on a board of Js-Kc-Kh-2h-9c, gets shown Kd-Qh, and somehow collects the pot despite tabling the second best hand.

UltimateBet's COO, Paul Leggett, posted the following to the today:

Earlier today we learned about a poker hand where our system paid out the losing player instead of the correct winning hand. The hand number is #1162170993.

We are investigating this software malfunction as our absolute top priority.

This is the first incident of this kind we have encountered.

We are currently examining the poker system and the application logs in order to pinpoint the cause of this malfunction.
Not exactly confidence-inspiring, is it?

It's odd that Leggett chooses not to acknowledge that the losing player is one of the paid spokespeople for the site. I don't believe anyone would be stupid enough to cheat in this way, but given their recent problems, and by not acknowledging the well-known fact that Hellmuth was the recipient of the mis-awarded pot, UB/AP/CEREUS look like they're trying to hide something.

This isn't the first time a site has mis-awarded a pot. There have been problems in the past with non-hold'em games on sites like BetFair and AbsolutePoker. It does seem to be the first time it's ever happened in hold'em, which could just make it another curious footnote in the strange tale of UltimateBet.

Time will tell.