SOURCE: MSNBC.com

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Lawsuit and criminal charges possible

The spokesman said the company also was contemplating filing a lawsuit and criminal charges against the employee.

While peeking at an opponent's hole cards was likely to bring a hail of lead in the Old West, the group of wronged players in this case was initially rebuffed by Absolute Poker when they aired allegations of apparent cheating on the 2+2 poker forum in late September.

In a series of postings that soon spread to other poker forums, the players said that some players using the aliases "Graycat," "Potripper," "Steamroller" among others appeared to have superhuman powers at the poker table.

Several players who had encountered the suspect players in games from mid-August through mid-September said they played with wild abandon, always seemed to know when to raise and fold and were winning at an inconceivably high rate.

Serge Ravitch, a 27-year-old New York lawyer turned poker player who was among the first to level cheating charges, said the company's response to the initial posts was "essentially to stonewall and deny any cheating had ever occurred or that the described events were even possible."

Many players also were initially skeptical, though that sentiment largely melted away when players posted a re-creation of a tournament involving "Potripper" on the Internet.

The re-creation, posted on Youtube, was based on a "hand history" that Absolute Poker sent to one of the complaining players, but which contained far more information than the hand histories usually available to online players.

This one showed all players' hole cards, rather than just those of the requesting player, and included a great deal of private information, including IP addresses and e-mail addresses.

Two independent experts who examined the re-created tournament record came away convinced.

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