Kahnawake: Russ Hamilton responsible for UB cheating

OK, class, now those of us who said (quite some time ago) that Bet21/UB had to be rigged, raise your hands.......

 

Question now is

was there also cheating on the blackjack side? and if so, how and what? We know that at least one software provider has advertised that the online casinos could set their payback at whatever level they wanted, and could assure no 'surprises' where they had big losses, and could even distinguish out individual players who won too much and take back some of the money - so - it is entirely possible to cheat at more than just poker.

I have seen a lot of improbable sequences, but outside of the seating problem, nothing which could not have happened by random chance, given how much I play on UB. The problem is, it would not take much alteration of the probablities to throw someone into a losing mode in tbj - and one can not track all possible sequences, etc. - and the cheating would have to be built into the program - and that is what the Kahnawake Gaming Commission is supposed to be monitoring for every month - if the bj was set up to cheat players, could this also be operative during the tbj games, with the computer reducing the win percentage on players who win too much? I say this as I just went 11 straight hands without a win tonight - at one table - Has Kahnawake looked beyond the poker?

There is also the fact that I have consistently won money in both their SnGs and tourneys, in fact, I have been keeping closer track since August of last year, and have finished every month with a profit since then, so it is hard for me to think I am being cheated at tbj - as I really don't think I am so good I can beat a cheating program. - so I have to accept the tbj game as fair until I see something solid that says it is not.

 

Wow

Too much, yet too little to absorb yet. Anyone who played on the site would likely believe they were cheated, eh? All will have to wait for stated recourse, hopefully from the gaming commission and not the perpetraters.

 

Would 1.5 trillion-to-1 (that is trillion with a "T") get your attention?

A to-remain-anonymous BJT.com member figured that out for me. It was the odds of winning exactly two of 50 consecutive BJT hands on that site. And it's the reason I quit playing there.

On another note, some may think I'd be dancing in the streets to see the UBT's founder being dragged through the muck like this. Nothing could be further from the truth. If it wasn't for the old PlayUBT.com site, I'd never have found this game at all. Despite some of the bonehead things they've done since then, I still harbor a small feeling of gratitude.

 

Left Nut

One thing I have found to be consistent with UB is that my edge on UB is lower than my edge in live tournaments. This could easily be a function of the differences between tbj and ebj; I do believe that ebj is an inherently less skillfull game than regular tbj, and one should expect a reduced edge. I do believe that you will experience greater variance in ebj, and, that you will notice more unusual card/result runs. I don't think this necessarily means that the game is crooked.

A real oddity I have found is that I have tracked my edge by buyin level, and have found consistently that I have my highest edge at the highest level of play against the most skilled competition. Over the last two months, I have played the $30 SnGs with a 53% edge, often playing against players such as Hollywood Dave and Joe Pane, etc. - but my edge in the $5 to $20 Sngs is lower, and, my $20 edge is the second highest, then the $10 level, with the $5 SnGs being the worst edge. Does this make sense? The more skilled the competition, the higher the edge? A perfect inverse correlation?

I do not feel I can say that UB is a completely unbiased and honest game, too many oddities, too many highly improbable runs of unusual bad luck, an inverse relationship between the quality of competition and edge, etc. - but, I still consistently make money each month - with an average ROI of about 35% long term. So I am inclined to accept that it is actually a fair game until I see definitive proof otherwise.

 

The real threat is -can the super user choose which player to cheat? Just because you feel no wrong has come to you does not mean the super user doesnt have a stick up his a-ho against another player and cheats him out of spite.

BTW, where is that Club UBT server?

 

I read 60 Minutes will be airing a report of this scandal on October 26th.....

 

Must-See TV!

There's also mention of others to be named later in this mess. That could get mighty interesting.

 

Scandal

didn't Russ Hamilton play in some of the early UB and UBT tournaments - and didn't he win a seat to the Aruba Tourney or something like that? I really can't see a super-user or someone using the admin software to see hole cards - bothering to play in $5 SnGs on the blackjack side - or even in the $500 guaranteed tourneys - or anything that has been offered lately - not when there is so much more money available in the high stakes no limit poker games - and where seeing hole cards would be so much more advantageous than at tbj - but UB was running some $25,000 guaranteed tourneys and giving away some UBT tourney entries and trips - so those could be worth cheating for -

also, of course, if someone is going to cheat - and is playing on the bj side - why wouldn't he use the cheating software/accounts - even if the money is small - might as well since he had them

I will send an email to Kahnawake suggesting they look into those tourneys - maybe something there - I don't think they have thought of bj at all

 

prosecuting

Russ Hamilton may indeed be possible. Many years ago in Berkeley CA, a guy was busted for dope dealing for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer. Guy thought he had the perfect defense, as the 'marijuana' he sold to the officer was actually oregano - so no drugs were actually involved. The police agreed, dropped the dope dealing charge, and immediately rearrested him for fraud. They sucessfully prosecuted him on the fraud charge.

If it is illegal to cheat at poker - then it is still illegal to do so, even if the poker game itself is illegal. Question might be jurisdiction, but, if he played from his home in Nevada, no problem there, Nevada would have jurisdiction on the cheating charge, since it occurred in Nevada.

 

Just for Grins

I'd like to see the analysis which led to the cheating charges, similiar to the absolute bet detail. If it were only on the poker side, well thats, dat.

However, as a number here know, Ultimate Bet Poker existed well before the BJ or elimination bj format started. A lot of time and effort and promotion, live and on line took place to introduce the bj side of things, as well as extensive rule development and Beta testing. Russ supposedly was the innovator for the bj addition, employing known poker players for promotion and employing whomsever's intelictual property the elimination format was. I can't make an inteligent comment on the Bet 21 cross connection.

But, if all accusations are true, then I don't care whether one won a little or a lot playing BJ on the site, or there were mega free rolls and mega overlays, the implications by association for a lot of respected BJ people is huge. And no one is saying anything.

Talk about insider trading and playing the margin in the national economy. Or renew the debate about who's the bigger cheaters, BJ players, or poker players. Or maybe it always has been about the coniving river boat "gambler."

 

There were,

evidently, two methods of seeing hole cards employed; one was a 'super-user' account - which showed all cards face up, the other an administrator access program which let one see the 'hand history' in real time - that meant being able to see all hole cards, as they were recorded in the hand history, as they were dealt - obviously, the second method should also show secret bets, as they were made - and would work for ebj as well as poker - very likely the first would show the down cards at an ebj table, at least.

Either would give an ebj tournament player a significant advantage. And Russ did play in some tournaments, including winning a UBT St. Kitts entry and trip - just the fact that he was playing in tournaments on his own site and for trips to tourneys he was sponsoring was unethical, but was strongly defended by by other prominant players, who were involved with UBT.

I can't imagine, if Russ Hamilton was cheating, he wouldn't use the same cheat modes in ebj as in poker. Why would he not? I have seen nothing from Kahnawake Gaming Commission about their looking into the ebj tournaments, but have emailed them and very politely suggested they do so. I would imagine ebj players who were in tournaments with Russ Hamilton should also get some compensation from UB.

One point should be made; neither of the cheating methods used involved the ability to control or influence the cards dealt, nor would either indicate that the deal/play was unfair in any way, except for a cheating playing being able to see information (down cards and secret bets) that should not have been available. KGC probably monitored the RNG and other aspects of the games, for bias and unfairness in the RNG, the deal, etc. - and probably never bothered to look beyond that for other forms of cheating, if that proved to be honest. If you were getting an honest deal with normal probabilities, then they probably just stopped there.

It looks like no one expected a principal of the casino, who had access to administrator priviledges and super-user accounts, to use that access to cheat the players in games or tourneys as a player themselves. That was incredibly naive, of course.

 

edges

What you are calling your "edge" is actually your return. Unless you're talking about a large number of trials, your edge could be wildly different from those numbers...or even negative (thought I highly doubt the latter).

 

Edge

for the UB SnGs I compute 'edge' as follows, 4.9 for a win, 2.1 for a second, then divide the total by the number of SnGs played. It's arbitrary, of course, but gives a reasonably meaningful number I think, and can easily be converted into ROI. I play fairly heavily - so we are talking about more than 80 $30 SnGs, and even more of the lower entry fee ones. ROI this comes out to a little over 40% return on investment in the $30. On average I have run about a 35% ROI long term, all levels of play and both SnGs and Tournaments combined. But a lot of month to month variance.

What I have looked for at UB, given I play the tournaments, is if I am somehow disadvantaged relative to other players, as in, 'do I win a lower % of hands'; 'am I dealt a higher percentage of stiffs'; 'do I draw a 10 to a hard tweleve more frequently than other players do', etc. - as long as the relative percentages are equal, it's a fair game. I haven't found any reason to believe it is unfair, nor any overall results which would indicate the probabilities are skewed; but there are far too many ways that the game could be biased, to conclusively prove it is a completely honest and fair game.

The proven cheating was on the poker side, but the same method could be used to cheat in the tbj tournaments and SnGs. I don't believe anyone has looked at the bj side, as all the evidence was developed by poker players, looking only at poker games.

 

I had heard the same rumor, but apparently it isn't going to happen.
Just checked the listings for tonight's "60 Minutes" episode and this scandal isn't in there.

 

According to this link, the new rumor is November 9th :

http://www.igamingbusiness.com/article-detail.php?articleID=18919

 

Holy

CR*P!

That is all.

Cheers

Reachy