60 Minutes/Washington Post report on Internet poker: Behind the great scandal
Imagine how good you'd be at poker if you could see everyone's hole cards.
That's what happened when someone hacked into AbsolutePoker.com and its sister site, UltimateBet.com. (I'm not linking to them because I don't want to reward their behavior.)
The story has been out in the poker world for about a year now, but finally hit the mainstream media. It's complicated, but it comes down to the fear you'd expect from the Internet: It isn't always what it seems.
The Washington Post dug and dug and came up with the answers behind the largest Internet poker scandal ever. CBS' 60 Minutes, which worked with The Washington Post, also reported the story Sunday.
The amazing part is that the work and the persistence the players themselves put into tracking down the cheaters. Read into it whatever you want, but there's a lot of smart people out there playing poker, folks...
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, moved on to "night baseball" and "pass the trash" during a Dr. Pepper-infused midnight game in the 1980s at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and now play in a regular neighborhood Hold 'Em game in Plantation. I have been given the assignment of writing about the gambling life in South Florida casinos for the Sun-Sentinel...which means sitting around watching poker on TV now counts as research.
