Can you trust poker online?

This is not an April fools day joke (not surprising seeing as we are in September!) Many people use things such as poker tracker. I personally don't know how it works but I feel sites if possible shouldn't allow this software to be run. There is software that allows people to see your mucked hands EVEN if they are not playing on your table. I don't think its right that for example a player on $5/$10 nl can have a $1/$2 player track his play, he can see what hands someone plays, if they make continuation bets and get a whole load of other imformation WITHOUT sitting with the player. So a database is made on somebody for free then the person can play them with a huge edge. In live poker you could not get all this information on playing somebody unless you played them. Can you imagine ten years ago even thinking of software to tell you how your opponent plays? People would go on feel, reads etc. Not reads of a software program, I think its time for sites to ban all of this software. Even things like sharkscope I don't feel are beneficial for the game as a whole.

Now onto the most serious forms of abuse via poker software. As previously posted there is some kind of problem with software that shows opponents cards on Absolute Poker and a few high rollers have been fleeced for millions. Now this is the LATEST sting in the tail, the one plus point is Fulltiltpoker has acted unlike Absolute Poker who still deny there is a problem. Recently several players have recieved emails from FTP without ever complaining about a problem. Here are a couple of them:



Dear (PLAYER A)
Upon conclusion of a recent investigation of cash game play, we have determined that opponents of yours used unauthorized automated software while playing.
In this instance, we have seized the account balances of the offending players and redistributed it to players who were victimized. The calculation was based on the number of hands played against the offending players as well as the amount won or lost against them.
With this redistribution, we have determined that your are entitled to a refund of $231.93, which will be placed in your account in the next 4-6 hours.
For various reasons, we are unable to advise you of the names of the players or any other information regarding this case; we thank you for your understanding in this regard.

Here at Full Tilt Poker, we investigate every concern of suspicious activity at our tables. The vigilance of our players is one of the strongest weapons we have in our ongoing battle against illegal play. If you become suspicious of any behavior, chat, or action at our tables, please don't hesitate to contact us at http://by105fd.bay105.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=5ac20453e1cf015afcf814a6817f88077800ea1ffb05e7dc3f5e8391a105980c&mailto=1&to=support@fulltiltpoker.com&msg=520F630C-F1C8-444D-B0D1-76FB5C404815&start=0&len=3077&src=&type=x. We wish you best of luck at the tables, and if there's any other way we can be of assistance, please let us know. Sincerely, Full Tilt Poker


I have taken down the second email and noticed that the first player is currently still playing FTP so I shall try to confirm with him at some point in the next few days that the email is genuine. If he confirms this story which is from a poker forum I shall leave the story here, if he does not confirm I shall take the post down. Either way I think the integrity of online poker is affected by so many different forms of software to assist people to make money whether it be legal/illegal it is still immoral. Many people genuinely love the game and that is shown by the amount of seriously rich people who play poker for small stakes. A game where the best in the world and worst can compete on the same table, and the worst player can come out on top! What a great game we play, please don't support these software providers who are damaging the game.


+++++UPDATE+++++

Already several people emailed me, do not panic it is not the same con as on Absolute Poker. It appears that people were using pokerbots. Such credit given to fulltiltpoker for giving people money when they did not even realise that they had been cheated. For a better insight into this scam here is a link from the outstanding 2+2 forum...


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12165057&an=0&page=2#Post12165057


Also another link from another site....

http://www.totalpuff.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2604