Pocket Fives Article on Cheating in Online Poker and the Launch of Paradise Poker
Interesting Article...
Link to Part 1: http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...radise-591699/
Link to Part 2: http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...-money-591645/
(Links have photos, both parts copied below)
The new edition of "The History of Online Poker" from PocketFives and 2CardsCollege covers the leader of the industry in early 2000s. These historical events will be backed up by testimonies of contemporaries who discussed such a tumultuous thing as "real money online poker" during this generally calm epoch.
Part 1 and Part 2.
1999–2001: Paradise Poker
Paradise Poker emerged on the market during the absolute monarchy of Planet Poker. As is often the case with absolute monarchies in changing times, Planet Poker's throne was shaking, and it was because of the unstable software. And the young rival used this handicap to the fullest extent.
It is not known whether Paradise Poker's management had been waiting for the occasion or if it was pure coincidence, but when Paradise launched, the games at Planet Poker were unavailable and technical issues were being fixed several days later. Having a week handicap, the new poker room was quick to gather a user base.
At the turn of the century, search engines were conquering a niche in cyberspace; Google was starting its way as well. Nowadays, the largest search engine in the world processes 40 billion requests a month and guards its reputation very attentively, but back in 2000, Paradise managed to make a deal with the evolving company for a targeted advertisement. If you typed "poker" in Google, you would see links only to Paradise Poker.
At the beginning of the century Google would advertise any gambling games, photo credit: advia.com
Planet Poker's team refused to throw in the towel and was the first to introduce high-stakes games: Limit Hold'em cash with blinds of $20/$40. However, copying an offer like that was easy as pie. Soon, Paradise boasted No Limit Hold'em tables, then $40/$80 Limit Hold'em, and the days of the pioneer room were numbered.
That was also when it became evident that the online poker niche was way too big for two sites and new contenders began to emerge after 2000. First it was UltimateBet, followed by PartyPoker and PokerStars.
***
It wasn't long until the fate of a massive part of the market was determined by tournaments. It's tournaments that PartyPoker started its ascension with and it's tournaments that PokerStars made its name with.
PokerSpot, a poker room founded by Dutch Boyd in 2000, was the first to offer tournaments with real money buy-ins. Attracted by the spirit of competition, people flooded the room first to take part in freerolls and then full-scale multi-table tournaments with a buy-in of $15. But the "don't care" attitude and the endless crashes of the software and unavailability of support led to a wave of cashouts, after which the PokerSpot users found out that even if you got a check, you simply couldn't cash it.
Dutch Boyd, photo credit: Neil Stoddart - Global Poker Index
As a result of the crooked business of the company that processed deposits, PokerSpot was shut down amid a scandal and some players never saw their money again.
***
Being the largest cash operator, Paradise Poker had a good grip on the situation in the following years. The poker room let its customers play at two tables at the same time and introduced statistics which showed the average pot size and average number of players on the flop.
Paradise Poker's software had an obvious advantage over its competitors first for its stability, but it had always been arduous to please customers at all times. The year 2000 saw a new 2+2 forum devoted to online poker, where users immediately started discussing the possibility of cheating and other issues with the new game. Paradise got its part of it too.
Below are the most interesting - from our point of view - posts from the "Internet Poker Cheating" thread from January to February 2000.
"Internet Poker Cheating" by George M. Rice, Jr.
Oooo, new forum, let me be the first. ;-)
I'm concerned that as internet poker becomes more popular, the "casinos" will be tempted to cheat. They could do this by having robot players at a table and fix it so that these robots win more than their share of hands. How's one to know if a player really exists?
"Re: Internet Poker Cheating" by mick
I will not play over the web. There will be a time when one person will have 8 computers set up in one room, playing eight of the hands. Just think how easy to see one seat with the nuts, using the other seats to keep raising to string a sucker along.
Teamplay through the eyes of the 2CardsCollege illustrator
Having said that, I have talked with dealers and players that use the system set up in 2+2, (I can't recall the name) and they are reporting consistent wins, and are getting paid off. So I guess it is just a risk if you want to take it.
"Online Poker Tips" by 3 Bet Brett
Since I have recently begun dabbling in online poker, I thought I would give you a few pointers to help you fit in online when you decide to try it.
1. This is the most important point, so naturally I list it first. Never ever ever, no matter what it costs to call, or what your hole cards are, never give up your blind. Those guys that are raising you don't have anything anyway. You just need to catch a flop. Then teach them a lesson.
2. Don't get hung up on starting hand requirements. Really. Any two will do. Especially if they are suited. Don't ever fold suited cards. You're never that far behind in Holdem, so get in there and play.
3. If you manage to catch a pair on the flop, even if it is bottom pair, you must go to the river. Maybe even throw in a raise or two. Those other guys probably just have AK. Don't let them run over you.
"Blind Skipping" by KJS
I have played about 10 hours on Paradise Poker and have noticed that some players have a tendency to sit out when they are in the blinds and re-enter the game with a post after they button is passed them, thus they don't have to play out of the blinds--the worst position post-flop. Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Is it explicitly against the rules of PP? Seems like a player who was slightly dishonest and looking for an angle would do this every round if he was not at risk of losing the right to play there.
"Randomness at paradise poker?" by KJS
I must say that I am not much for conspiracies, nor am I implying there is one is this case but I just saw something in a 5-10 game at Paradise that seemed waaaaaaaaay beyond mathematical expectation. I have played about 20 hours there and it is starting to make me wonder. Seems like those who have written that the boards are more coordinated than one would assume using probability might have something. How about the game I just left.
6 consecutive hands: 4 full houses and one quads!! Including boat over boat twice in a row and boat over nut flush once. The board paired in every instance, two paired once and tripled up once. Almost every case included pretty descent to excellent starting hands. Hmmmmmmm.
"Developing bad habits online" by Juan Carlos
I have been playing at Paradise quite a lot over the last months and have noticed that I am developing some bad real-life habits.
At the computer I am constantly saying things out loud like "Come on heart!! heart heart heart!! F!@#!!!". Rooting for cards, screaming obscenities when they don't hit, etc.
For the first time in a long time, I went to a real game last night and found myself almost doing the same thing.
Remember the "bulldozer"? It all started back in 2000, photo credit: PokerStrategy
"Dying Rich" by Jakell
I have been doing pretty good gambling on the internet lately and have a couple three thousand dollars spread out on different poker and sports books sites. I like to keep the money in the accounts rather than cash out so I don't have to go into my pocket to play.
My question, for you lawyer types is, what happens if I die or otherwise become incapacitated? How do my beneficiaries get this money? (I'm at the age where I have to think of these things.)
"Paradise Poker Teacher Wanted. Will Pay" by Joe
I am looking for someone to let me look over their shoulder while they play Holdem on Paradise Poker. I will consider going anywhere but prefer to stay in Texas. They must prove beforehand that they win on Paradise Poker. Price negotiable...
"ParadisePoker is crooked. Here is the proof" by Vadim
The same few people seem to win much more money than the rest. Are they better players? Could be.
On last Saturday I finally got one of these two players to play heads up against me. Unless he was a psychic, he simply knew my cards. He folded 2 showing kings at exactly the moment I got a J to my pocket Jacks, he raised me with Ts and 4s when I had 9s and 2s, when I had 3 of the same suit showing, he folded if I had a flush, and stayed if I didn't. After that I was absolutely convinced that the game was crooked.
"Our response" by Paradise Poker
We try to stay out of public forums whenever possible, but when our good name is slandered we must come forward and present the facts.
The fact is that the contents of the Vadim posting are untrue. His posting is an attempt to follow through on his threat to slander us if we did not refund his losses after his account was closed. He NEVER wrote us any email stating his "findings", as they never occurred - it is a slanderous fabrication on his behalf.
After we closed his account, he stated to us in his final email:
"And here is the posting that will appear tonight everywhere on Internet. Try to convince anyone that it is not the truth."
"Re: Anyone else making money?" by Old Pro
Playing poker online is so boring and the action is so hard to follow that I find myself wondering how long it can last.
***
In 2004, Tom Dwan made his first deposit to Paradise Poker. The same year, the company was sold to the British gambling operator Sportingbet for $297 million.
In 2006, the Bahama Islands held the Conquest of Paradise Island tournament series organized by the poker room. Brian Malczewski triumphed in the Main Event, earning $500,000.
Brian Malczewski
In 2010, Sportingbet had to pay a fine of $33 million due to an illegal gambling lawsuit in the USA. The following year, Paradise Poker became part of the Ongame Network.
From 2009 to 2012, the operator held the Paradise Poker Tour with stops taking place in different European capitals. Now, Paradise Poker is shut down.
But the actual leader in poker changed back in 2003. PartyPoker moved to the forefront.
In the second part of the article series dedicated to online poker history presented to you by 2CardsCollege and PocketFives, we will tell you about the first industry giant and use the phrase "for the first time in history" several more times. Read Part 1.
1998-1999: Planet Poker
Money first came into online poker in 1997. The company 2AM Games established the market by running a client for Texas Hold'em. 2AM was different from IRC-poker in one very important way: one could win hundreds of real dollars for thousands of play money chips. Any player who accumulated 1 million in chips received $100 and then had to start all over again.
Seventeen-year-old Dutch Boyd became one of the best new game regulars. A few years later, he created its own online poker site even though the result of that venture was a bit worse than a complete failure. In 1997, Boyd climbed the 2AM stairs ten times and earned $1,000 in real money. Over time, 2AM developers realized their mistake and set a ceiling of $100 total.
On January 1, 1998, Planet Poker came out of testing. The pioneer poker site collected the first rake (5% with a $3 cap) and users received the first full experience of playing online poker without restrictions or simulations.
The Players were welcomed in this lobby
The idea belonged to Randy Blumer, 39-year-old University of Alberta graduate, a Bachelor of Engineering Sciences, and a retired Marine Systems Engineer of the Canadian Navy. And, of course, he was an experienced amateur player. Blumer learned about a young and promising type of poker - Texas Hold'em - in 1991 during his first trip to Vegas.
Minimalist layouts, where there is a place for only a small profile picture next to the cards, tables, and figures, were the contemporary reality and the first rule of successful multi-tabling. During the early days of online poker, Randy Blumer and an ASF Software developer did not immediately decide in which direction to develop the client, but the decision they made influenced the appearance and mechanics of online poker.
"We recognized very early on that people wanted to play quickly, and quickly was good from an operator perspective for generating more revenue" - said Blumer in an interview to PokerPlayer365 Magazine in 2014. - "Although you wanted to give them familiarity, you did not need to go full scale with moving avatars and fatter downloads because that just slowed the growth and opportunity to develop the site."
Randy Blumer, the first entrepreneur of the era of online poker
The Poker Planet client took up about 4 megabytes of memory, but by the standards of the dial-up connection era in 1997, that was some serious size.
Initially on Planet Poker, you could play $3/$6 Limit Hold'em on a single table. The game developed very slowly and was getting interrupted all the time. It took more than a month to gather the pool of players sufficient for continuous action and in February the game did not stop during the whole day for the first time.
Over the next few months, new tables and stakes were added. There appeared a quick-fold button, all-in disconnect protection, and a sort of rakeback. There were even sound effects. The chatting program reacted to «lol» with the laughter from the speakers and to «tyvm» with "Thank you very much" announced famously in Elvis’ voice.
Finally, in addition to the 25% first deposit bonus, players got an opportunity to deposit money using credit cards, and that also meant an easy way to withdraw.
One of the first highly successful regulars on the Planet Poker was Gautam Rao, a training materials specialist and the founder of the Castle Rock Research Corporation. Remarkably, he's a graduate of that same University of Alberta.
Having made a deposit of $600, Rao quickly won $10,000, but he had to wait for the bank transfer cashout for five weeks. In addition, the bank fee for such a pleasure was about $35 to $45. Deposits with credit cards resolved the issue.
Gautam Rao was the top regular when some of the today's online poker stars were not born yet.
In one year of playing, Rao earned $280,000. According to the Alberta Venture, in the mid-2000s, he invested $500,000 into a study of the remote studying effect and according to 2+2 users, at the same time he was crushing limit cash on PartyPoker and Ultimate Bet.
Despite Planet Poker's constant growth, all of the problems could not be resolved. The software was unstable and sometimes the site was out of order for several days. Fortunately for Randy Blumer and his "baby," the competition among the online poker providers did not yet exist. As the competition eventually appeared with the launch of Paradise Poker, Bloomer had other things to worry about...
The talks about the dishonest RNG emerged with the birth of the game for real money. If today you can find an interlocutor confident in global conspiracy theory, in the late 90s people considered online poker to be worse than suspicious, uncharted territory for hackers!
According to the new Randy Blumer plan, the strengthening of the online poker reputation should have been executed by Mike Caro, the respected professional who had made the mathematical calculations even for Doyle Brunson's "Super System." In 1990, Caro wrote Poker Probe, the first analytical poker software for IBM, and in 1997 he vouched for the adequacy of the Planet Poker random number generator while becoming the first professional player on contract in online poker.
Mike Caro, the face of Planet Poker
Blumer gave the post of the security expert to Roy Cooke, and Cooke started studying hand histories in search of suspicious lines.
To put an end to the rumors completely, ASF Software experts shared the algorithm of card shuffling in the open access and five IT security specialists from Reliable Software Technologies found out that instead of the required 4 billion variations, the RNG worked through only 200,000. Then they hacked the system and wrote a program that determined opponents' hole cards, turn, and river knowing only the cards on the flop.
Poker GUI
After the scandals that have been shaking online poker throughout its life, it's hard to believe that in 1999, Brad Arkin, Frank Hill, Scott Marks, Matt Schmid, and Thomas John Walls published an article entitled "How We Learned to Cheat at Online Poker: A Study in Software Security."
Out of those who had managed to take advantage of the RNG errors, the maximum damage was inflicted by a user who had won a total of $50,000. The story was covered by CNN and the New York Times and the players affected by the security holes were compensated.
***
According to Frost and Sullivan, by the end of 1998, the online gambling market showed $834.5 million in profit. Planet Poker recovered from the blow and in the fall of 1999 celebrated 2 million hands and a peak of 1,000 simultaneous visitors. But the time for the more serious players was about to come.
By 2002, the game on Planet Poker had almost died. In 2006, when online poker had become more difficult to play in the United States, the site reverted back to the play money.
The experiment with the installation of the software client ended with the discovery of this 3-Max.
In an attempt to adjust to the new legislation, Randy Blumer launched Skillride, a client for play money and paid subscriptions. However, that did not win him any laurels.
