Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
PokerStars today awarded $70,000 as the site dealt its 70 billionth hand. Allegations of fraud and foul play, however, soon turned the celebration festivities sour. PokerStars today reached yet another milestone in the site's ten-year history, as the 70 billionth hand was dealt at a $0.25/$0.50 heads-up table.
The hand was dealt while the two players, "koenigskebab" and "DodgeUrOuts" both went all-in holding AJ and K5 with the first winning the hand as an ace was dealt on the flop.
"koenigskebab" took $73,380 for winning the milestone hand, while "DodgeUrOuts" had to settle for a $1,690 consolation prize, and PokerStars soon after announced the winning hand and congratulated the players.
Less than an hour after the hand was dealt, however, rumors of foul play started circulating, and following a video from YouTube user "evhero", it does indeed seem as if the two players used unfair methods in order to gain an advantage in the race for the big hand.
According to the video, the in-game chat box was almost immediately flooded with allegations of fraud and cheating as soon as the hand was over, and this led the YouTube user to look back at the hand history between the players.
According to this, the two players - both from Germany - had folded every hand pre-flop leading up to the 70 billionth hand, meaning that they were able to play more hands per hour than other players, and furthermore, without paying a single cent in rake.
Using this method across the maximum of 24 tables allowed, "evhero" claims, the two players managed to grind out thousands of hands for free, giving them better odds at hitting the lucky hand and cashing in the reward.
PokerStars has since withdrawn the news item of the milestone hand from the PokerStars Blog, but no official statement has yet been made to address the cheating allegations.
See "evhero"'s YouTube video from the hand celebration:
this is no cheating its using your heads hahahaha nice one and well done guys congrats on the winnings..................... i would of done the same, are they cheating other players there beating the system if your moaning over this ,, get over it.......... feel cheated fook the video maoning ccunt
Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
Posted by Macubaas: I don't really consider it cheating, the most i can say that is not moral what the two guys have done, thats for sure...
Still, if pokerstars awarded the price it seems it was alright for them so end of discussion...
That is cheating! Abusing sistem. And I guarantee you that they wont get cent of that money since in terms of that promotion is sayed that if you abuse this promotion in any way you will get 000,000 dollars. Plus, they coluded. They obviously had agreement of folding every hand with a goal to cheat other player who are participating in this promotion!
------------ In other word Poker Stars got themself a nice free promotion...
Looks like they accomplished what they set out to do. Think they got lucky here as well. The question I have is, how can it be only one table of the many playing got the 70B hand. One would think there would be more than one table playing at the same time, unless they lucked out again by hitting the hand within 1000ths (1/1000) of a second...wonder if they are going to chop the prize?
Edited by rbdflyboy (04 November 2011 @ 20:51 GMT)
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
Posted by jovicakralj: That is cheating! Abusing sistem. And I guarantee you that they wont get cent of that money since in terms of that promotion is sayed that if you abuse this promotion in any way you will get 000,000 dollars. Plus, they coluded. They obviously had agreement of folding every hand with a goal to cheat other player who are participating in this promotion!
------------ In other word Poker Stars got themself a nice free promotion...
THIS all bonus offers/promotions have this condition - if u abuse the system you wont get anything. obv its for the site to decide what 'abuse' means
all milesone hands and much others too -are cheated in my eyes , do you really think this 2 players really exist in real life ?
lol
i am sure much prizes in tounreys stars keep with own players (house workers and suprusers)
last week i reached 100 tourneys in a row (and not freerolls 1-20 $ entry) out with better start hand like kk vs 44 1010 vs 33 AK suited vs A 8 and so on and so on KQ vs k8
in showdowns !
100 in row ! and always if it was very important, if you get a few lousy dollars again or final table or prize ranks form 1-5
the last out was wiht kk vs 94 off looool and hte other palyer had nb equl chips like me and this "player" (stars himslef for sure) win tehn the tourney
why should he risk not reach the final table with his 94 off allin ? and he was not a maniac before !
all rigged all total rigged
i confrontated stars with my holdem manager facts, they reply with the usually bla bla bla of random and bad luck lol
i cannot trust longer stars and all other online rooms
in former times kkk of players (more th 20 %) had in the city field city names , which doesnt not really exist in real world , althougn stars make us believe that all players must sent docs like me and you to proof residence
lol
and how tstars "resolve" this problem, when we recognized that they use onw players to kid and cheat us with fantasy names and fantasy city fields and fantasy players ?
now you can only see the country of the "players live lol
yes yes yes stars ...
all rigged , iam sure and i am not tilt or losing, bt always out with better start hand and better odds even on flop and most time turn ? always ?
sometimes you should win a favorite handor flipif ist realyl important point....
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Switzerland
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 210
Rivelinho your story is a bit irrelevant there.
As for the 70 billion hand, it was a smart idea from the two winners... However it just doesn't work in the poker world because rules are very strict and any type of collusion is (rightly) punished. I wonder how PS will solve this
Joined: Jan '11
Location: Romania
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 167
they we re playing poker? they folded till they get the lucky hand? there were many tables and more changes that someone else get the 70 b hand ..they could have folded all day and still wouldn t get that lucky hand...it was a matter of pure donk luck in the end
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
I just don´t get the cheating part..
They were playing heads-up, so collusion kinda seems like a funny term to use here.
Imagine nearing the Bubble of a 10-seat sattelite. Never ran the clock, trying to make it in the money with a tiny stack? Seems like the same thing to me. They tried to "time" their open hands to the right moment, and were still playing a "lottery" basically, as anyone could have "hit" that hand.
They just "improved" their odds, and found a way to pay minimum rake while doing so. "clock timing, etc.".kinda seems the same to me.. ?
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Switzerland
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 210
This can indeed be considered a tactic as you said. However they ran the same heads up on 24 tables, which considerably increased their chance and I don't think that can be called a simple tactic, as they opened 24 tables against themselves for the sole purpose of getting that 70billion hand. Of course luck is still involved, they could have not won it.
Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
They was abusing sistem!!! Worked together to have bigger and unfair chance of winning in promotion! I thought everyone will agree on this. If you decide to participate in promotion and give 100$ in rake during promotion and some guys just fold and dont give cent in rake and they win you would felt cheated right?
So, if luck is when preparation meets opportunity...then they hit it. I agree the preparation tactic was a joint effort, one person could not have done this alone. I understand why people are upset because of the rake issue. There is nothing stopping anyone from opening the max number of tables and just folding. They didn't pay rake...they paid blinds and if they each paid X$ amount in blinds and hit 70B then they won the lottery. Maybe, just maybe they weren't the only ones doing that either. They just happened to luck out. Depending on how Stars handles this, there may be a rake requirement in the future. May already be in the fine print of the terms.
Posted by jovicakralj: They was abusing sistem!!! Worked together to have bigger and unfair chance of winning in promotion! I thought everyone will agree on this. If you decide to participate in promotion and give 100$ in rake during promotion and some guys just fold and dont give cent in rake and they win you would felt cheated right?
Bigger chance in winning but not a 100% sure win. If it was a sure win then thats different but you can cheat in a lottery unless your running it
Joined: Oct '09
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 30
yeah i think its s**t.......but 17000 tables running.......do ya think they were the only ppl doin it............who else was at tables when the count got down thinkin...end hand end hand.........
I still don't understand why this prize wasn't paid out in a pool. I can't get my head around only one table playing that hand. There had to be other tables ready for a deal at the same time...only thing I can figure is by 1000ths of a second or less.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Switzerland
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 210
Posted by rbdflyboy: So, if luck is when preparation meets opportunity...then they hit it. I agree the preparation tactic was a joint effort, one person could not have done this alone. I understand why people are upset because of the rake issue. There is nothing stopping anyone from opening the max number of tables and just folding. They didn't pay rake...they paid blinds and if they each paid X$ amount in blinds and hit 70B then they won the lottery. Maybe, just maybe they weren't the only ones doing that either. They just happened to luck out. Depending on how Stars handles this, there may be a rake requirement in the future. May already be in the fine print of the terms.
There is a thing stopping anyone from opening max number of tables and folding : the opponents. If you fold, the other players may not fold. But if you do it with a friend, then it does accelerate the hand rate by A LOT. Multiply this by the number of tables with your friend, you get an insane boost. And no, they didn't pay blinds, as it was heads up against themselves. They get their blind back every 2 hands.
What if other players may have done it too ? It's simple, if any other player won by doing this, then it would only be the same situation. Any player doing this just can't win the prize. I think the rule n°8 : "During the Promotion, strict rules regarding player behaviour will be enforced. PS reserves the right to take action against any player found to be abusing any aspect of the Promotion." is enough for Pokerstars to take a legitimate action
Posted by smokim: Bigger chance in winning but not a 100% sure win. If it was a sure win then thats different but you can cheat in a lottery unless your running it
Well collusion doesn't give a 100% sure win either but it's still stricly prohibited