Absolute Poker is no longer an active poker site, but it was once one of the largest around. It was launched in 2003 and quickly attracted a large number of players.
- #1 – A popular online poker site, Ultimate Bet, discovered suspicious activity within its poker site through a combination of internal discovery and tips from poker players. #2 – Ultimate Bet (herein “UB”) issued a press release announcing that several player accounts were closed as a result of their investigation into the manner. UB called these accounts “superuser” accounts and gave one such account a name – “NioNio.”.
- History of the Superuser. No one would have expected that a major poker site would allow a superuser function to exist, but a series of events in 2007 and 2008 revealed that superusers not only existed, but were being employed on a regular basis by cheats at Absolute Poker and UB.com in a consistent effort to defraud the sites' players.
A subsequent cheating scandal combined with legal complications that arose from the site serving US players would ultimately lead to the demise of the site.
The scandals at Absolute Poker and UltimateBet only erupted after several frustrated players began investigating the cheating on their own. A look at the players' investigation and the response.
The story of how Absolute Poker got started isn’t entirely clear. The general consensus is that it started from a group of students at the University of Montana.
There’s not a huge amount of verified information known about those involved, but we have provided some details on the Absolute Poker founders on this page.
Below is the full history of Absolute Poker:
During the late 1990s, a group of students at the University of Montana were bonding as fraternity brothers in Sigma Alpha Epilson.
Included in this group were Scott Tom, Brent Beckley, Garin Gustafson, Pete Barovich, Shane Blackford, and Oscar Hilt Tatum IV. These were the young men who would go on to be involved in the creation Absolute Poker.
Scott Tom and Garin Gustafson were already keen poker players and it’s believed they were watching the fledgling online gambling industry develop with interest. Seeing what the early sites had to offer, they believed they could do better.
Scott and Phil Tom
Scott Tom is generally considered to have been the driving force behind the launch of Absolute Poker. Along with the others, he moved to the gambling friendly region of Costa Rica, and it was there that their new company was formed.
According to a number of reports his father, Phil Tom, a portfolio manager by trade, provided some of the required financial backing.
Scott, who was managing the company, and his friends are said to have lived a wild life of luxury as Absolute Poker was an initial success.
It’s also believed that his plan was to take the company public and stage an Initial Price Offering.
However, in 2006 the legal landscape for online poker was changing and allegedly these plans were shelved and Scott instead sold the company to Tokwiro Enterprises.
In 2007, Absolute Poker was hit by a cheating scandal. The poker playing community had begun to suspect that all was not right as the poker site and a number of amateur sleuths started to investigate what was going on.
The unofficial investigations that had taken place managed to link this rogue account to Scott Tom. After a subsequent investigation by Absolute Poker it was announced that Tom had not been involved in the cheating, although the poker community remained skeptical.
The site had previously put out a statement that Tom had not been working at the site for over a year, but it was discovered that he been involved in day to day operations during the cheating scandal.
Following a formal investigation by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, it was announced that Absolute Poker as a corporate entity wasn’t directly responsible for the cheating and had not benefited from it.
No individuals were named as being specifically responsible for the cheating, although speculation continued that Scott Tom was behind it. There were also rumors that it was in fact a friend of his, A.J. Green.
During the cheating scandal Phil Tom defended his son in many interviews, claiming that his son was being unfairly accused. He also had to deny rumors that surfaced in 2008, suggesting that he had been indicted, along with his son, for his involvement in the cheating scandal.
His son was actually indicted later, in 2011, on charges including bank fraud and money laundering. These charges were related to the operations of Absolute Poker in serving US players.
Scott Tom, to date, hasn’t answered these charges. He’s believed to currently reside in Anitigua, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation considers him “at large”.
Brent Beckley
Another of the Absolute Poker founders, Brent Beckley, was also indicted at the same time as Scott Tom. In December 2011 he pleaded guilty to criminal charges that included conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud.
Ultimate Bet Poker
He admitted that Absolute Poker had disguised banking transactions to facilitate their operation as a gambling site.
In July 2012 Beckley was given a 14 month prison sentence. It’s believed this relatively light sentence was due to his cooperation with the authorities.
He was released in 2013 after serving around 10 months in prison, and now lives in Toronto, Canada.
In 2013, author Ben Mezrich released his latest book, Straight Flush : The True Story of Six College Friends Who Dealt Their Way to a Billion Dollar Poker Empire and How It All Came Crashing Down.
In this book he tells the tale about Absolute Poker and its founders. The author has received some criticism for not telling the whole story, particularly in relation to the cheating scandal.
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