Skillpoker Response to Inquiry on Anti-Collusion Measures

[JayCo]

FWIW, response received a day after I sent inquiry (below)

--- Skillpoker Support <support@skillpoker.com> wrote:
Dear Jayco,

Thank you very much for your e-mail,and for voicing
your concerns in a manner that allows us to respond
toyou and the entire online poker community.

SkillPoker.com (TM), like any pokerroom, online or
off, is extremely concerned about the authenticity
andsecurity of its poker room. Without this no player
could feel confidentin playing at a particular site.

I understand your foremost concernis with collusion
between a set of players. This is something thathas
been planned for since the outset of developing our
patent pendingtechnology, and we have several layers
built into our product to preventplayer collusion.

At SkillPoker.com, we take a threepronged approach to
prevent fraud of this nature:

1) Before the game even starts, we’re working
to prevent collusion.
a. Eachplayer is provided a unique identifier.
This identifier is link toa massive amount of
historical data which can be analyzed and linked
toother players. Great lengths are made to prevent
illegitimate accessto our system.
b. Playersare not able to choose which table or
table position they’d like to join.

2) Duringthe game there are measures
implemented to prevent against player collusion. While
I’d prefer not to divulge all of our methods, it
should beobvious to see that the order in which the
cards are dealt, the suits ofthe cards, or even the
number of the cards need not be the same for eachtable
or player in order to maintain the fundamentals of the
SkillPokersystem.

Moreover, this is not like traditionalpoker in that it
takes a significant and set amount of time in order
tocompete in our tournaments in comparison to a
traditional poker table,where collusion can occur when
and how the players choose it to be.
Additionally,while fraud must never be permitted to
occur, the nature of the tournamentfee structure
prevents massive abuse to the players by limiting
their potentiallosses.

Additionally, it may not be economicallypractical to
collude in the first place. This is especially the
casein tournaments which involve a large number of
tables and/or table groups. You must be aware that
these SkillPoker tournaments can be configuredin so
many different manners, that even without some of the
measures eludedto above, collusion is impractical from
a purely monetary point of view.

3) Lastly,during and after the players have
completed the tournament there are significantchecks
and balances in place such that colluding players are
caught andnot allowed to benefit from their misdeeds.
I encourage any playerconcerned about the authenticity
of a tournament to e-mail our investigationsdepartment
at abuse@skillpoker.com,and all matters will be dealt
with in a diligent and efficient manner.

I realize that we’re a new systemof playing poker in
a well established traditional market, but as the
onlinegaming community surely realizes the environment
in which they operateis about to drastically change
with the introduction of several piecesof legislation.
We strive to make our poker system compatible withall
of our players concerns and look forward to hearing
from you.

I’d urge anyone with a concernabout the system to
e-mail us at info@skillpoker.com,and you will be
replied to at the earliest possible convenience.

Yours Truly,


Mark Glusing
President, SkillPoker.com



Subject: Anti-Collusion Measures
Message: To: SkillPoker support
From: Concerned online poker community

I plan on posting this inquiry as well as your reponse
on several popularonline poker forums, including twoplustwo, rec.gambling.poker,and UnitedPokerForum.

As I hope you are aware, one of the mahor threats to
the Online Poker industryis its vulnerability to
cheating and collusion. A large forum of onlinepoker
players, while interested in the unique concept you
site offers,are extremely concerned you have
potentially failed to deal effectivelywith this
problem.

I am confident that Skillpoker.com, like other major
online poker sites,has taken the appropriate steps to
create both a secure site and a cutting-edgeRNG. These
are not the concerns I am highlighting.

The SkillPoker format is ideal for players to gain an
unfair advantageby colluding. If hands are played in
the same sequence and/or atthe same time for multiple
tables, cheating players could effectively knowEXACTLY
what hole cards and/or board cards will appear simply
my conversingover the phone or through Instant
Messaging.

Let me provide a very simple HoldEm example:
Colluding Cheater #1 (CC1) sits at Table A in seat #1
and receives Ace-Ace
Colluding Cheater #2 (CC2) sits at Table B in seat #2
and receives King-King
The flop appears for both table A and B:
Ace-King-3 of three suits
CC1 informs CC2 that seat #1 has 3 Aces

The ramifications of this should be obvious.

For your site to succeed, you will need to convince
the public you canand will prevent this type of
collusion. This is true particularly to themost
frequent (and typically more informed) online pokers,
as they willprovide the bulk of your play and generate
the most potential revenue foryour venture.

The online poker community looks forward to your
reply.

Regards,
Jayco

[SomeTimesIWin]

Regarding skill poker is what makes them legal compared to other sites? Accoding to their website its because the "winners of tournaments are chosen by the way in which they play the traditional game of poker and not by chance. "

What does this mean??? it sound like how most poker rooms determines the winner. Or does it mean that when I'm outdrawing somebody else will I still be eliminated beacause it wasnt a sign of skill??? I'm really confused here... [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[joeypoker789]

Well, with that reassuring reply from the skill crew, no doubt the skill servers will be swamped with new players eager to finally have a chance to play and win and lose based on just their skill.

The growth pains skill poker likely has coming down the pipeline will make the partypoker reboot problems and ultimatebet upgrade down time look like kindergarden recess compared to the pain skill will likely have to endure to accommodate all their future growth.

no?

[crockpot]

the only way bad players can possibly be attracted to this server is if they happen to hit it first on a search engine looking for a poker website, and decide not to read all the blatant disclaimers. even then they likely would look for one with a different URL.

if this site doesn't go under soon (assuming no change in US law about overseas poker sites), i will be shocked.

[Terry]

Trust us. The colluders won't be able to cheat you out of any more money than you deposit, and we might not give it to them anyway.

[cmwings]

ref: PKER(new symbol LPLE) SEC-10-K-File 5/19/03

Mark Glusing

Mr. Mark Glusing is the President and acting CFO of the company. Mr. Glusing has a strong background in international business management and finance and previously was a director and the Chief Operating Officer of Immune Network Ltd., a publicly traded biotech company, and is a former director of BC Research Inc., a technology incubator based in Vancouver. Mr. Glusing recently resigned as a director of publicly traded Pan Asia Communications Inc. and currently is a director of 649.com Inc. and is President and a director of the Company's wholly owned Skill Poker.com.

http://www.pinksheets.com/quote/prin...mp;symbol=LPLE

ref: 649.com(ABET) SEC-10SB12G/A-File 9/10/03

MARK GLUSING - DIRECTOR, SECRETARY / TREASURER

Mr. Glusing has a strong background in international business management and finance and until recently was a director and the Chief Operating Officer of Immune Network Ltd., a publicly traded biotech company. Mr. Glusing is currently a director of FITaccess Technologies Inc., AbNovo Pharma Inc. and is a former director of BC Research Inc. Mr. Glusing is currently President of Poker.com Inc. trading on the OTC.B.B.

http://www.pinksheets.com/quote/prin...mp;symbol=ABET



Mr. Mark Glusing is a 32 year-old life-long-ambition PENNY-STOCK-PROMOTER. What he might know of ANY intricacy regarding ANY aspect of the game of poker is highly suspect!

cmwings/mrducks

[C M Burns]

After reading the info on the SP web site I get the impression that there is nothing illegal about online poker in the US. They have this story about an online gambler who was arested. I guess its a scare story but it's about as mimor a penalty as you can get and it actually made me more confident in the legality of online poker. So the story is this guy in north dakota became a pro sports gambler, and reported this on his taxes etcc. It said that this type of "offshore" betting is legal under federal law but in ND it wasn't, when he found out he moved and got a slap on the rist from the state. SO they should have a corner on the ND market but as for the rest of the us maybe not. But actually even the state law was only for wagers above 500$, so it is perfectly legal to make ofshore bets less than 500$.
So online poker is legal under federal law and cirtainly ok in one of the several states where poker is legal (and probably ok in ND too).

ALso I don't really see why sp would be technically considered different and legal. first, poker in some states is already legally considered a game of skill and is legal. And even in the sp set up isn't there just as much room for fluxuation due to chance as in normal play. Say your other "group members" are losse argressive players, on many ocations they are going to beat you even though you will win in the end just like regular poker, although I'm wondering since it is just session wins that determine the winners not net gain, would a good players edge be smaller or not at all. Would you want to change your play since it doesn't matter how much you lose in a session if you do lose? although I guess this is similar to in a regular tournament.

[JayCo]

[ QUOTE ]
Trust us. The colluders won't be able to cheat you out of any more money than you deposit, and we might not give it to them anyway.


[/ QUOTE ]

You read CEO-speak well [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

FWIW, I agree with CM that their claim that this is skill-based and therefore more "legal" than other online poker sites in the US is bunk.

I also wasn't convinced by the reply - I won't be depositing $ any time soon.

I was curious to hear what they had to say. So since they bothered to respond, I thought to be fair I should follow up with what I said I'd do and post thier reply so others could decide for themselves.

J

[TimTimSalabim]

[ QUOTE ]
2) Duringthe game there are measures
implemented to prevent against player collusion. While
I’d prefer not to divulge all of our methods, it
should beobvious to see that the order in which the
cards are dealt, the suits ofthe cards, or even the
number of the cards need not be the same for eachtable
or player in order to maintain the fundamentals of the
SkillPokersystem

[/ QUOTE ]

This is too funny... so, they're removing the luck factor by dealing the same hands at each table, oh, except for one thing... the suits and the ranks and the order don't have to be the same! Yeah, that's clear as mud [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]